Placeless

Abstract

To be in place is to known where you belong in the world. However, before you are in place, you must first find it. Traditionally, the idea of place is a fixed concept. Usually, it is the place in which we are born and thus come from. When we think of home, it is the first place that comes to mind and is the place in which we long to return to when we are away. However, in today’s world, we are always on the move, frequently switching homes for others in far distant cities. Therefore, one’s idea of home becomes blurred. To the contemporary dweller, a home is merely a space in which we occupy before taking off again. To always be on the move, makes it very difficult to establish a relationship with place. To know a place is to identify with it and fill it with meaning and can only be achieved through dwelling within it for a fixed amount of time. Without a connection to place, we become alienated to the environments that we reside in, which in turn, affect our perception of who we know best, ourselves. With that in mind, this architecture thesis seeks to investigate the effects of alienation, the role of place, the spread of non-places and how one can truly find home within the world amongst all of this.