Spaces are determined not only by their physical qualities, but also by the narratives created during their occupation. These persistent yet ephemeral stories infuse our experience of space with meaning and can be the vehicle through which we consciously express our world view and explore our evolving identity. In architecture, the immaterial is explained as a ‘genius loci’, a spirit tied to a physical space that gives it a specific character and allows for deep connection and identification to occur. Through an exploration of metaphors that have traditionally conveyed the presence of immaterial forces, this thesis reveals how the relationship between psyche and space is embedded in a logic of the imagination; interpreting the experience of space in a language of light and shadow. Additionally this thesis examines how spaces are transformed through the psychological process of mental projection and explores how associations that are deeply rooted in the collective unconscious affect the inner world of the individual. Architecture is therefore seen not as a practice that is psychologically neutral but one that is filled with rich emotional content. To build, constitutes a way to bring order, to set boundaries, to transform the apparent chaos of the world into a comprehendible form. This thesis investigates how the experience of inhabiting can be a catalyst for the imagination to project layers of memory, myth and symbolism onto a location, thereby facilitating the translation of space into place. For Architects the conscious incorporation and evocation of the immaterial is seen as a vital and necessary process that can uniquely contribute to the ensouling of architecture, and the creation of meaningful places.

Spaces are determined not only by their physical qualities, but also by the narratives created during their occupation. These persistent yet ephemeral stories infuse our experience of space with meaning and can be the vehicle through which we consciously express our world view and explore our evolving identity. In architecture, the immaterial is explained as a ‘genius loci’, a spirit tied to a physical space that gives it a specific character and allows for deep connection and identification to occur. Through an exploration of metaphors that have traditionally conveyed the presence of immaterial forces, this thesis reveals how the relationship between psyche and space is embedded in a logic of the imagination; interpreting the experience of space in a language of light and shadow. Additionally this thesis examines how spaces are transformed through the psychological process of mental projection and explores how associations that are deeply rooted in the collective unconscious affect the inner world of the individual. Architecture is therefore seen not as a practice that is psychologically neutral but one that is filled with rich emotional content. To build, constitutes a way to bring order, to set boundaries, to transform the apparent chaos of the world into a comprehendible form. This thesis investigates how the experience of inhabiting can be a catalyst for the imagination to project layers of memory, myth and symbolism onto a location, thereby facilitating the translation of space into place. For Architects the conscious incorporation and evocation of the immaterial is seen as a vital and necessary process that can uniquely contribute to the ensouling of architecture, and the creation of meaningful places.

A house can be considered a place made from the stories that make it. In order to design the house I recalled places I experienced during my childhood. Digging back through the memories of those places I became intrigued why those particular memories remained so vivid in my mind.  I listened to stories told to me by my parents about the houses where they grew up and the spatial experiences they remembered. The fabrication is a house in northern Iran activating the memories of those collective stories. The fabrication does not necessary follow particular conventions customary to the specific region.  In fact most of the qualities incorporated in the project have roots in traditional bazaars and houses across Iran. The project primarily studies the relation between varieties of architectural spaces through photography. Models and analytical drawings were an essential part of the work. / Master of Architecture

Meanings of Literary Childhood Spaces: The Garden in Twentieth-Century Literature focuses on the analysis of selected twentieth-century childhood novels for adults with regard to the relationship between child character and fictional space, and reflects generally accepted cultural concept of paradisal childhood and its images in literature. In theory, the dissertation is inspired by the treatises on spatiality of human existence by phenomenologists, such as Martin Heidegger, Jan Patočka, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and O. F. Bollnow. It also elaborates insights of the Garden archetype in literary history. The critical reading of selected works examines phenomenological issues, such as child specific perception of space, nature as an extension of the human consciousness, sacred space, home, intimacy of space and death of space. Furthermore, it describes features the literary garden acquires by the union with the child in twentieth-century literature (childhood paradisal gardens, character of divine chid, character of child hermaphrodite, dynamism between fictional house and garden, garden as a miniature of the universe and children games as the imitation of Creation).