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This thesis is intended to disrupt society's social cruise control. The goal is to make people stop and think, even if only for a brief moment, about the social conventions that guide and control their daily lives. People become disconnected from one another and their environments through repetition, apathy, and a general obliviousness toward shared moments. Making people more attuned to these moments - essentially creating an opportunity to take a brief pause - as a step toward reconnection. Social conventions are unique in that they can exist without the consent of the involved parties; the existence of the convention is enough to demand conformity. While it is possible to find graphic design projects that offer some degree of interactivity to draw people into a relationship with a space, projects that encourage social relationships through acknowledgment between people are rare. This thesis will explore ways in which design acts as a catalyst for disruption, while also encouraging interaction and dialogue. / by Adriana Joyce de Alejo. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Space perceived and experienced through movement presents an interesting array of imagery which blends together to form a comprehensive whole. My thesis explores this dimension of spatial complexity through the public ritual of pilgrimage. This profound and deeply significant human activity connects the individual places to form an integrated sacred network. The practice of pilgrimage has developed over centuries across the globe and continues to grow and influence a huge cross section of society to come together and move en-masse towards religious centres and personal enlightenment. Public spaces demand a simultaneous co-existence of people, activities and their setting. The phenomenon of pilgrimage is central to the public realm. Its study involves an intricate layering of beliefs, customs, traditions and religion which collectively govern the people-space relationship. The transformation of a space to a place, from static to dynamic, from passive to active occurs during this activity, maintaining the traditional usage while simultaneously evolving as a product of interaction between people, rituals and spaces. In this thesis, I examine the experiential shaping of space which occurs through pilgrims' activities and their impacts on the given urban and architectural conditions. The research is based on my study of the Alandi-Pandharpur Pilgrimage in India. It is an outcome of my participation in the ritual as, both, an architect and a pilgrim. I focus on the existing public spaces and their spontaneous response to the unplanned activity of the Pilgrimage. The spatial experience transcends the criteria of aesthetics and functionality of a public space to a deeper exploration of human characteristics and convictions. From this perspective, the thesis considers the broader role of designed public spaces, the extent of inclusion of community rituals and their significance in the shaping of built environment.

Through a theoretical and practical examination of how space is socially constructed and perceived, this study hypothesizes that the monolithically negative portrayal in the media and academic literature of the Indian residential school experience does not adequately reflect the full range of the experiences of all children at such institutions. A typology of spaces is constructed which establishes that concepts of gender, race and age impact the ways that institutions and institutional spaces are organized and perceived. This typology is applied to the Coqualeetza Residential School and the Coqualeetza Indian Tuberculosis Hospital in Sardis, BC for the period 1935 - 1950. Interviews were conducted with former Coqualeetza residents. Their comments, along with extant accounts of residential school experiences were examined within the context of this typology. The results reveal that, at Coqualeezta and at other residential schools, social constructions and personal perceptions of spaces affect and reflect peoples' experiences in profound ways. Examining such perceptions has revealed that residents' experiences and memories are heterogeneous, diverse and very personal.

Space perceived and experienced through movement presents an interesting array of imagery which blends together to form a comprehensive whole. My thesis explores this dimension of spatial complexity through the public ritual of pilgrimage. This profound and deeply significant human activity connects the individual places to form an integrated sacred network. The practice of pilgrimage has developed over centuries across the globe and continues to grow and influence a huge cross section of society to come together and move en-masse towards religious centres and personal enlightenment. Public spaces demand a simultaneous co-existence of people, activities and their setting. The phenomenon of pilgrimage is central to the public realm. Its study involves an intricate layering of beliefs, customs, traditions and religion which collectively govern the people-space relationship. The transformation of a space to a place, from static to dynamic, from passive to active occurs during this activity, maintaining the traditional usage while simultaneously evolving as a product of interaction between people, rituals and spaces. In this thesis, I examine the experiential shaping of space which occurs through pilgrims' activities and their impacts on the given urban and architectural conditions. The research is based on my study of the Alandi-Pandharpur Pilgrimage in India. It is an outcome of my participation in the ritual as, both, an architect and a pilgrim. I focus on the existing public spaces and their spontaneous response to the unplanned activity of the Pilgrimage. The spatial experience transcends the criteria of aesthetics and functionality of a public space to a deeper exploration of human characteristics and convictions. From this perspective, the thesis considers the broader role of designed public spaces, the extent of inclusion of community rituals and their significance in the shaping of built environment.

Through a theoretical and practical examination of how space is socially constructed and perceived, this study hypothesizes that the monolithically negative portrayal in the media and academic literature of the Indian residential school experience does not adequately reflect the full range of the experiences of all children at such institutions. A typology of spaces is constructed which establishes that concepts of gender, race and age impact the ways that institutions and institutional spaces are organized and perceived. This typology is applied to the Coqualeetza Residential School and the Coqualeetza Indian Tuberculosis Hospital in Sardis, BC for the period 1935 - 1950. Interviews were conducted with former Coqualeetza residents. Their comments, along with extant accounts of residential school experiences were examined within the context of this typology. The results reveal that, at Coqualeezta and at other residential schools, social constructions and personal perceptions of spaces affect and reflect peoples' experiences in profound ways. Examining such perceptions has revealed that residents' experiences and memories are heterogeneous, diverse and very personal. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate