Aarati Kanekar; Elizabeth Riorden; Dana Gregory Griffith
關鍵詞
Situationism; Emptiness; Shoshin; Detournement; Ma
摘要
This thesis critiques and analyzes the persisting issues of the modern life as they impact architecture based on The Society of The Spectacle by Guy Debord. The Society of The Spectacle made such a profound impact on the French Society in the 1960s that it aided in the creation of the well-established avant-garde social movement dubbed by the term Situationism. The Situationists strongly believed in the fact that by constructing different situations within the existing city fabric, the common people, also known as the spectators, who were systematically and meticulously manipulated by the occularcentric and image-driven lifestyle, would be able to eventually contemplate that true happiness, contentment and the ultimate truth actually weren’t a state of having, but a state of being. Seeing the similarities between Situationism and Mahayana Buddhism in their ultimate quest to cease human suffering, this thesis then argues that the architectural significance of the idea of Emptiness in Mahayana Buddhism holds the answer to the `Grand Spectacle’ proposed by Guy Debord and the Situationists. Through an in-depth study and analysis of the Situationist’s Derive and Detournement as the means of production, the thesis aims to create an architectural state of Emptiness at the Geylang Neighborhood of Singapore, commonly known as the Red Light district. This project can be categorized into two stages based on the scale of intervention into the existing urban texture. At the human scale, it constitutes a series of unexpected architectural insertions, which serves as an invitation for the spectators to explore their taken-for-granted city life under different perspectives. The act of experiencing unforeseen changes within the periodic routine has been thoroughly embodied and cherished in both Buddhism and Situationism as a mean to achieve moments of enlightenment. These insertions are considered as the destinations. At the urban scale, the project would propose a number of conceptual `Derive’ and `Detournement’ pathways as a method of connection between the human scale insertions. These urban interventions will serve their purpose as the journey, which encourages the spectators to deviate from the ordinary and emerge into the unexpected.
