Abstract:
Digital social technologies have dehumanized the ways that people connect in contemporary society. The rise in their adoption has led to increasingly antisocial behaviour from their users. Many of the important social occasions once shared in person have migrated to these digital formats, compressed in time and displaced in cyber-space. This thesis posits that to regain meaning these connective occasions must be extended in time and re-established place in the built environment. Architecture, as a bridge between the social and physical worlds, is well positioned to meet this need. Methods of forming socially connective architecture are tested through designs for a small subject community. Critical social connections in the community are established through configurative design methods. The digital formats of social connection are extended in time and articulated in ritual form as occasions to be shared by the community in the built environment. Form, symbol and light are then used to define architectural spaces that can replant these occasions back in the built environment. This thesis proposes a seeds approach to the production of community architecture. Starting small within the community network, celebrating important occasions through architectural space, then offering them forward as seeds to generate architecture for a wider community.
