Architecture of Animation and Aesthetics
A Shifting Paradigm of Health, Beauty, and Decay in the Body and the Building
Concept, Independent, Laboratory
American Institute of Architects (AIA) 1st Prize Medal
Arthur Spayd Brooke Gold Medal - excellence in design
Status: On Going
The architecture of animation and aesthetics presents a shifting paradigm that encompasses notions of health, beauty, and decay within both the human body and architectural structures. This exploration is part of the PennDesign Independent Thesis, under the guidance of Advisor Simon Kim, and is currently ongoing. The examination of the human body's significance in architecture has been a longstanding topic since the time of Vitruvius. However, its definition has evolved over time and now appears nearly imperceptible within contemporary discussions of beauty and architecture, hinting at its potential dissolution. The traditional discourse on beauty and ugliness concerning the human body and its application in architecture has become unclear, as the previously established metrics for ideal bodies and architecture, from Vitruvius to Alberti to Le Corbusier, no longer align with the shifted paradigm of the human body in the modern world. This thesis delves into these issues by focusing specifically on redefining the human body and its aesthetics in the present day, along with how this redefinition impacts the field of architecture. By speculating on this shifted paradigm and challenging the current state of the artificial and transactional body, a radically new approach to thinking about and creating architecture can emerge. This effort seeks to offer alternatives and replace interactive approaches with transactive ones, and analytic methodologies with synthetic ones.