The terms "public" and "private" are useful in describing the extremes ot human experience. Unfortunately, actual human experience is more complex than a simple dichotomy can convey. Are we public or private when making a telephone call from a phone booth. Neither? Both?
A more apt model is that of a matrix of public and private experiences and spaces. At home watching television, we may be in a private space, but the experience has public overtones in that it is simultaneously shared by others. In a religious ceremony, on the other hand, we have private experiences, even when surrounded by others in a public space.
Private experiences in public spaces are awkward for most of us. When the experience is mediated, however, it can take on positive qualities. Standing on line in a cafeteria (alone in a crowd) should be uncomfortable, but that feeling is mitigated by movement along a sequence of thresholds, gradations of space, and events. Despite initial discomfort, we become more comfortable in a communal experience.
This project applies these ideas to a program at the scale of a community, in this case, a retirement community. For most people, the move into a retirement community is dreaded as representing a loss of freedom and individuality. This thesis's strategies of mediation attempt to mitigate the anxieties of a new environment, while still offering a varied and vital place for living.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:RICE/oai:scholarship.rice.edu:1911/17153 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Baron, Jonathan Michael |
| Contributors | Pope, Albert |
| Source Sets | Rice University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Text |
| Format | 27 p., application/pdf |
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