| This thesis focuses on the theme of theatricality in urban apartment dwelling. With its emphasis on relational issues in design, this thesis distinguishes between theatricality and the spectacle. As dual domain of collective belonging and intimate engagement, the theater strongly alludes to the apartment building. Part 1 of this thesis, which includes historical theater examples and refers to the theories of Yi-Fu Tuan, examines the western theatre as metaphor of social organization. The study of examples of modernist apartment buildings by Moisei Ginzburg, Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, aid in demonstrating that theatrical potential can be housed in "nonspectacular" architectural forms. The design of an apartment complex on an Ottawa site, guided by interviews with six Ottawa apartment dwellers, is conceived as an assembly cast of buildings narrating a play of life. The tenant interviews are tested as a method for accessing intimate knowledge in residential design. |
