Files
Date of Award
5-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Architecture
College
Arts and Sciences
Department
Architecture
Faculty Advisor
Stephen Wischer
Studio Coordinator
Stephen Wischer
Faculty Chair
Susan Kliman
Publisher
North Dakota State University
Rights
NDSU policy 190.6.2
URI
https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf
Abstract
This thesis investigates how language – as a natural, poetic force – can serve as a generative tool in architectural design. It argues that architecture must reclaim its mythopoetic roots, and that through the reintegration of narrative and literary language, built space can once again become a vessel for memory, cultural identity, and transformation.
As both a method and muse, Frank Herbert’s Dune becomes the central literary source for my resulting architectural design. This subjective translation takes form in The Living Library of Dune, a project located in Tacoma, Washington.
The final design of this thesis does not simply present a building, but an argument: that architecture must speak poetically once again. That to dwell is to dwell in language. Only by remembering our role as the storytelling being can we shape a future that endures, not through material permanence alone, but through meaning, and through the stories that unfold within it.
Recommended Citation
Wilson, Josey W., "The Living Library of Dune" (2025). Architecture Theses. 50.
https://digitalcommons.ndsu.edu/architecture-theses/50