Audience of strangers : exploring theatrical public space in the design of a rail station

Author

• Shelby Augustine

Files

Date of Award

2015

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

https://hdl.handle.net/10365/24935

Publisher

North Dakota State University

Rights

NDSU Policy 190.6.2

URI

https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf

Abstract

Through fiction, drama, and decorum this thesis explores architecture’s ability to create a more meaningful relationship to the public realm; facilitating interactions between strangers through the design of a rail station in Seattle, Washington. Richard Sennett critiques the changing dimension of the public realm, which has shifted from theatrical involvement in the 17th Century to an anonymous existence with strangers in our modern context. This criticism is supported by urban studies activist Jane Jacobs who argues that the lack of diversity and increase in efficient universal design is a hindrance to the life of the American city. My thesis questions the possibility of re-awakening a dramatic participation that engages the public amid the globalizing and technological trends of current culture. Rather than peruse architecture that allows for individuals to fall behind the curtain, I am examining architecture’s ability to trigger memory and imagination through the experience of particular theatrical spaces. Inspired by W.G. Sebald’s book Austerlitz, which describes the inspiring nature of travel, I intend to explore dramatic tension between strangers in their brief moments of transitional encounters.

Recommended Citation

Augustine, Shelby, "Audience of strangers : exploring theatrical public space in the design of a rail station" (2015). Architecture Theses. 370.
https://digitalcommons.ndsu.edu/architecture-theses/370