The act of writing and reading fiction is a search for its center, its hidden meaning. In writing, the author constructs every element, rendering trees, buildings, and people with the knowledge that the final landscape is more than the sum of its parts. The reader engages with these details, mundane or extraordinary, in pursuit of the fiction’s center, its hidden meaning. The tension between the described and the center is what makes reading fiction compelling. The thesis describes a fictional underground city through narrative. Like all fictions, the thesis is based on both the fantastic and the author’s own experiences. The reader is not told everything about the city. Much of it remains (both figuratively and literally) in the dark. It is in the gaps, the narrative leaps that the reader is intended to fill with his or her own experiences and imaginings. In this way, the thesis seeks to evoke both the fantastic and the personal. For each reader a different reaction - for each reader a different center. The underground city is harsh urban condition; intended to provoke. Its dystopian framework is inspired by the works of architects Antonio Sant’Elia, Utskin + Broensky, and Superstudio, among others. Through drawings and narrative, these architects challenged the architectural zeitgeist of their time. Their work continues to provide a basis for reflection by providing an alternative reality, a new frame of reference. Through the fantastic, the unbuilt, it is possible to come to a better understanding of our own architectural experiences. / 0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu