Architecture has always been associated with the qualities of permanence and timelessness. The thesis investigates the notions of temporality and permanence in relation to the built environment. It recognizes that in the ever changing dynamic flux of the built environment, there is an architectural paradigm which is as important as the imagined timeless structures that constitute the architectural discourse.First, the notions of permanence are discussed. It is pointed out that what is considered to be permanent in architecture is, in fact, the `image' of the building, and not the actual structure as it constantly changing, deteriorating, and undergoing metamorphosis with time. The second part deals with the constructs of time and space through history; resultant architectural theories and its effects on the built environment.An attempt to understand the history of temporary architectures is made in the third part. Further analysis draws on the understanding of the difference in the western and the eastern perspective on temporary architecture. In the fourth part it is argued that there are alternative ways of looking at temporary architectures that need to be addressed. One of the ways of looking at them is how they affect the urban and the public realm.The fifth part of the thesis, discusses the various meanings of urban space and the formation of the public realm. The contrasting examples of the transforming urban space in Ahmadabad, India and San Francisco, USA give an insight of the ways temporary architectures can assist in the ever changing urban environment.The sixth part proposes a diagram of taxonomical organization through which temporary architecture(s) can be better understood; namely as `temporary structures',' temporary spaces', `temporary uses/users' and the resulting `temporary urbanisms.'The concluding chapter finally discusses the importance of recognizing this void in our understanding of temporary architecture; as also realizing their importance in creation of a successful urban realm. / Department of Architecture

The purpose of this creative exercise is to explore the unity of opposites through the plurality of the in-between-ness in architecture. The exploration holds the promise of revealing a larger and more complex reality that speaks to contemporary times and the making of contemporary architecture. To investigate this proposition a program has been created to bring multiple readings of singular objects including "dynamic pluralism between life and death".1As a consequence, this creative project will allow me to speculate on how physical space can be deliberately experienced simultaneously. As a result, the building will service my proposition in light of liminal-driven architecture and how this proposal will contribute, to some extent, to enrich our world, our society through architecture by making the practice more challenging and motivating.The term threshold evokes images of entering and leaving, passages, crossings and change. It marks the point at which choices and decisions must be made in order to move on, and it would be unusual to think of it as a place to stay, a place of permanent existence. There are, however, situations in the lives of people in which transitions from an old situation to a new one, one social position to another, are hampered or cannot be completed successfully. In this case, Architecture has the potential to make people engage with the space, having the ability to speak to a person and stir their emotions. In the case of absence, the atmosphere of the space plays an important role in suggesting this attitude of meditation. Adjectives such as somber, solemn, reverent, joyful, etc. come to mind. In creating a space described by these terms, light and darkness might become the key. Natural, artificial, and hidden source lighting all can be utilized in various ways in defining the atmosphere of the space as somber, joyful, etc. Another key component in giving a space a certain feel is materiality. Concrete, wood, sheetrock, glass, etc. all change the mood of a space dramatically. The approach and progression to and through the building can also serve and important role in establishing the atmosphere as well as preparing the individual for reflection and/or celebration. The space in which one approaches, enters, and reflects in can make a significant difference in their spiritual experience. This begins to relate to the ideas of "transition, thresholds, boundaries" relevant to interstitial spaces, spaces of the in-between.1 Kisho Kurokawa & Associates <http://www.kisho.co.io/003 BooksAndThesis.htm> (12.17.06) / Department of Architecture

The purpose of architectural theory is to provide a paradigm, or episteme, from which one can address contemporary design issues within the broader cultural context. It comprises any written system of architecture and may be either partial or comprehensive, but it must encompass a framework of cognitive categories that inevitably provide criteria for judgment. If not explicitly stated, it nevertheless implies an epistemology, a substructure for architectural knowledge. Previous studies of tectonics have tended to treat it as an autonomous architectural discourse, focusing on an individual writer and theory, or on a thematic concern such as the relationship between ontology and representation. This study approaches tectonics differently, relating it to the broader shifts within the discourses of architecture and philosophy, thereby sanctioning a more synergistic, as opposed to autonomous, examination. In exploring the epistemological parameters of tectonics theories in the West it isolates three major periods in its development: Classical Tectonics- derived from ancient philosophy, Rational Tectonics- emerging from the epistemology of science and Poetic Tectonics- developed out of concerns raised by the German Counter- Enlightenment and the Romantic Movement. At each stage in its development tectonics has served to provide key principles that collectively constitute its ground. The study reveals that Poetic Tectonics was a reaction against the duality of mind and abstract rationalism- so central to Cartesian thought and the epistemology of science- and its impact on architectural thought. In response Poetic Tectonics while accepting the key principles of Rational Tectonics sought to redirect it along the philosophical lines of the 2 German Enlightenment and Romanticism while also re-presencing the ethical substructure of Classical Tectonics. This study recognizes that through the course of time, the epistemology upon which cultures are formed have and will continue to change and as they do new tectonic theories will need to be negotiated; rendering tectonics in a continual state of 'becoming'. If there is to be a conclusion it lies in the fact that in its historical persistence and continuity tectonics represents a tradition within Western architecture on par with the likes of the Vitruvian, Organic and Functionalist.

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This is a study of the work of John Hejduk---his poetry, architecture and philosophical reflection. The aim of the study is to open up a discourse on some of Hejduk's projects, in which he speculated about philosophical themes such as identity, time and geometry, questioning the possibilities and limits of architecture. A discussion of these projects is particularly relevant for our contemporary world, regarding our questions of the limits of language and geometry, ideas and evidences for architecture in a society of generalized communication.

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This thesis proposes the exploration of three architectural sources that are narrative in nature: the Renaissance Entry of a Monarch as a public event in the city, the Surrealist novel as a critical medium, and the Teatro del Mondo project by Aldo Rossi for the Venice Biennale of 1979-80, in order to address the making of architecture in the contemporary city. The royal entry and the modern novel are forms that provide for possible interpretation of the city and reflect the difference between the modern and the pre-modern eras. Aldo Rossi's Teatro del Mondo as a work of architecture that was both ephemeral and a place of narrative, was a project that addressed the difficult problems of the architecture of the city. Architecture no longer participates in the realization of ritualistic narrative, as when the festival gave permanence to urban institutions by revealing the order of the Cosmos. However, there remains the necessity for architecture to engage imagination and the narratives implicit in the world.