Transcending the Urban Venue: a study on arena architecture

Abstract

The intention of this thesis is to investigate spatial relationships between architecture and spectacle. Generally speaking, spectacle refers to an event that is memorable for the appearance it creates. Guy Debord’s theory of spectacle suggests that social actions begin to take the form of objects. Spectacle does not strictly mean a collection of images, but a social relationship between people and events. The spectacle exists simultaneously as all of society or part of society, and as an instrument of unification. As a part of society, it is specifically what concentrates all gazing and all consciousness. Due to the fact that this area is separate, it is the common ground of the deceived gaze and of false consciousness, and the unification it achieves is nothing but an official language of generalized separation. The spectacle becomes the very thing that relates the human body and the movement through space. This thesis represents a search for an architecture in which the building, rather than being a monumental form positioned in the public realm is instead a method of creating a sense of community within the social fabric. It will question how to create a zone with-in the urban fabric in which activity occurs during the event. This thesis will focus on how to integrate the urban context and sustain growth between architecture and spectacle.