Dissertation

Space of Translation / Elements of Narrative: A Cemetery in Discourse with Dante

Kang, Chenchen

2020

Overview

As Aarati Kanekar states in Architecture's Pretexts: Spaces of Translation, a book addressing the issues of construction, translation and transformation of meaning across media, “there is always an element of metamorphosis when meaning is translated between one symbolic form and another so that the body of the work undoubtedly becomes modified when perceived from different vantage points.”1 Literature and space can be not only two mediums complementing each other in forming a complete narrative, but also distinctive “reincarnations of the original” under new interpretations. With its root in the Latin verb “narrare,” a narrative is an organized sequence of real or fictional events recounted by the narrator. Spatial narrative, creating interpretations with the formal language of interior design, is a common tactic of the practice. By investigating the components of a textual narrative, one can translate the language of text into spatial language, and reveal new aspects or information that were unseen in the other medium. Spatial narrative takes the practice of interior design beyond satisfying the practical needs of its occupants, to engage and impact one’s psychological and physical behavior within the space. The experience of the space might not be collective but would create a connected series of moments that can be remembered and shared. The significance of the phenomenological space therefore exits within its poetic meaning in addition to its functionality. The study examines the relationship and translating process between textual and spatial narratives. Context, time, place, happenings, and character in a text can be opportunities for translation into instances interpreted through formal design elements, such as light, material, geometry, and programmatic requirements; these instances will become part of the totality of the architectural experience to create sequence and understanding. The resulted space could form a new vocabulary of reading spatial narratives, while also challenging the singular trajectory of a text. The project approaches this thesis question programmatically with a cemetery, where a narrative exists within the ritual of commemorating death (but no specific story has been provided). Dante’s Divine Comedy has been selected as the text to augment the narrative in which the discourse of life and death takes the form of an epic poem. While Dante’s poem has a heavy presence of Christianity, serving as a teaching of morality and piety, the space aims to serve beyond the framework of faiths and religions. Giuseppe Terragani’s Danteum, a conceptual project of poetic allegory taking the Comedy as its architectural program, provides an exemplar to test against. The selected site Glenwood Power Plant is an abandoned building near water and nature, its forgotten history and topographic location provide a crucial device in the project’s physicality and symbolic meaning. The design aims to create a journey for its occupants (alive and deceased), a space that resides between the boundaries of life and death, self and others, body and spirit, time and existence.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Architecture / Art education / Art Products / Building Design / Case Studies / Comedy / Critical Theory / Geometric Concepts / Geometry / Interior Design / Metadata / Phenomenology / Teaching Methods / Translation
• ISBN: 9798780629863