M.Arch. Thesis Honors Projects 2013
Convergent Domains by Hans Papke
To engage the national chain grocery store is to engage with the diffuse zones of non-city-space which blanket most of the North American continent. The spatial condition in which these grocery stores thrive is part of a spatial domain which Foucault has argued exists outside of the domain of Architecture. This territory, which began to emerge with the building of the railroads is defined by Speed, Territory and Communication. I have titled this the Logistical Domain.
In The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture, Aureli uses Nolli’s map of Rome to make a distinction between two other spatial domains; the space of the City and the space of the architecture. This thesis attempts to superimpose these three spatial domains.
Upon investigating the specific siting logic of national chain grocery stores, it became clear that chain grocery stores belong very much to the logistic spatial domain. They tend to site themselves along interstates, in the zone 10-30 minutes away from the center of a nearby city. In addition to grocery stores, there are a number of other types of programs which thrive in this zone for example, office parks, movie theatres, shopping malls, marshalling yards, and airports.
However, there is perhaps nothing that exemplifies the spatial logics of Logistic Space better than the landfill. The landfill is the other side of the grocery store coin. The similarities are so great in fact, that in 2002, the largest landfill redevelopment program in the history of the state of Michigan resulted in the construction of 160,000 sq ft Meijer Supercenter on top of the former Ford Motor Company Allen Park Landfill.
This thesis investigates other ways that non-active landfill sites can be redeveloped. What would this re-territorialization look like? How can architecture legitimize itself in the Logistic Spatial Domain? What is an appropriate way to build on top of a mountain of garbage? How would a new settlement change the parameters of a chain grocery store? Finally, can Architecture begin to introduce a new kind of interiority into the extremely externalized world of Logistic Space?
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During their final year – known as the thesis year – architecture graduate students research a topic that culminates in a design project. The projects are exhibited just prior to graduation and reviewed by a panel of outside and faculty experts. One project from each studio is identified for Honors; these projects are on view over the summer in the College Gallery.
2013 Thesis Honors Projects by:
Megha Chandrasekhar, Pooja Dalal, Brittany Nicole Gacsy, Emily Kutil, Christopher Mascari, Dan McTavish, Hans Papke, Ariel Poliner, Nick Safley, Anna Schafferkoetter, and Brandon Vieth
Photo by Alex Jacque, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning
M.Arch. Thesis Honors Projects 2013
Convergent Domains by Hans Papke
To engage the national chain grocery store is to engage with the diffuse zones of non-city-space which blanket most of the North American continent. The spatial condition in which these grocery stores thrive is part of a spatial domain which Foucault has argued exists outside of the domain of Architecture. This territory, which began to emerge with the building of the railroads is defined by Speed, Territory and Communication. I have titled this the Logistical Domain.
In The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture, Aureli uses Nolli’s map of Rome to make a distinction between two other spatial domains; the space of the City and the space of the architecture. This thesis attempts to superimpose these three spatial domains.
Upon investigating the specific siting logic of national chain grocery stores, it became clear that chain grocery stores belong very much to the logistic spatial domain. They tend to site themselves along interstates, in the zone 10-30 minutes away from the center of a nearby city. In addition to grocery stores, there are a number of other types of programs which thrive in this zone for example, office parks, movie theatres, shopping malls, marshalling yards, and airports.
However, there is perhaps nothing that exemplifies the spatial logics of Logistic Space better than the landfill. The landfill is the other side of the grocery store coin. The similarities are so great in fact, that in 2002, the largest landfill redevelopment program in the history of the state of Michigan resulted in the construction of 160,000 sq ft Meijer Supercenter on top of the former Ford Motor Company Allen Park Landfill.
This thesis investigates other ways that non-active landfill sites can be redeveloped. What would this re-territorialization look like? How can architecture legitimize itself in the Logistic Spatial Domain? What is an appropriate way to build on top of a mountain of garbage? How would a new settlement change the parameters of a chain grocery store? Finally, can Architecture begin to introduce a new kind of interiority into the extremely externalized world of Logistic Space?
- - -
During their final year – known as the thesis year – architecture graduate students research a topic that culminates in a design project. The projects are exhibited just prior to graduation and reviewed by a panel of outside and faculty experts. One project from each studio is identified for Honors; these projects are on view over the summer in the College Gallery.
2013 Thesis Honors Projects by:
Megha Chandrasekhar, Pooja Dalal, Brittany Nicole Gacsy, Emily Kutil, Christopher Mascari, Dan McTavish, Hans Papke, Ariel Poliner, Nick Safley, Anna Schafferkoetter, and Brandon Vieth
Photo by Alex Jacque, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning