What are ways we as designers can incentive the development of affordable spaces that develop authentically placed communities on an individual and community scale? The power and popularity of fictional worlds offers in incredible and under-tapped ability to understand, resist, or suggest alternative paths for architectural practice.
Literary Fantasy has created worlds so desirable that they have permeated into a multi-billion dollar industry, making the consumption of fictional worlds a central behavior today. This thesis looks at Fantasy rather than say, Science Fiction, because 1: reject the ubiquity of modernist aesthetics 2: distinction between worlds due to fantasy world building 3: the regionalism inherent in using folk cultures as inspiration. These characteristics result in a regionally distinct architecture.
Using a framework to tap into this massively popular genre, we can provide a model for architects to promote a more placed and conscientious architecture to developers and owners.
