MEGHAN ROYSTER PORTFOLIO 2014
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MEGHAN ROYSTER
TABLE OF CONTENTS PROJECTS OF FORMAL INVESTIGATION 06
GESTURES //
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THE MISFIT COLLECTION //
Perceived and implied boundaries Forms of association and antagonism
PROJECTS OF SITE SPECIFIC DESIGN 20 26 36
HEALTH AS A PROGRAM // Shifting the suburban school
A MUSEUM OF DOUBLE IDENTITIES // Imposters, misfits, and secret landscapes
TERRA SLICE //
Design for a Norwegian cruise ship terminal
PROJECTS OF SPATIAL SPECULATION 44
LINE AS LANGUAGE //
Drawing analysis of the Clements Library
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TIME TRAVELS //
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SEAMS FOR FRACTURED PLACES //
Thresholds between historical spaces Recognition and engagement of crisis
The following collection of work has been selected from my undergraduate education at the University of Michigan. My projects range from formal investigations, site specific design, to spatial speculations in a constant pursuit of a deeper understanding of architecture’s capabilities, influences, and of architecture itself. 3
MEGHAN ROYSTER
PROJECTS OF FORMAL INVESTIGATION These architectural projects focus on the application of form and site that go beyond buildings, structure, and a physical context.
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GESTURES PERCEIVED AND IMPLIED BOUNDARIES // GESTURES investigates how form might elicit reactions, suggest meaning, and come into being through methods of carving and stacking and a medium of layering material. In order to understand and gain command over the complex relationships embedded within the field of architecture, the project juxtaposes spaces formed by solid shapes and those left ambiguous by voids in an attempt to manipulate the eye’s perception of the total compilation. The use of the gesture becomes the formal generator of identities in this spatial study, creating both real and implied boundaries while simultaneously completing and filling the void spaces. In the hope of cultivating an attitude of practice, rather than one of instant success, the original forms were cast as their inverse to critique the spaces left unconsidered. It became apparent that these arbitrary or void spaces dominate the collective form. Melissa Harris_ Fall 2012 Arch 312_ Design Studio 1
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This Page: Beginning with a painting by Georgio Morandi, the studio analyzed how viewers tend to interpret images using familiar colors, shapes, and shadows. Early sketches investigate how simple gestures are able to generate meaning. Opposite: Through methods of carving and stacking and a medium of layering material, the section cuts demonstrate the use of these gestures.
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Opposite: Pencil drawn sections document different levels of depth, with the darkest shades depicting the areas with no material and the lightest shades corresponding with the closest sections. This Page: As with Morandi’s work, the final model allows the viewer to make individual conclusions about formal identities. The model was then duplicated in foam to create a cast of the model’s negative space.
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This Page: The foam model sits inside a wooden box and is ready to be cast with rockite. Opposite: Inside the cast, revealing the juxtaposition of negative and positive space.
“The work goes on It is a form of thinking that frees up thought. It is time-consuming, but time-slowing, isolating but selffulfilling.� - Holland Cotter on Giorgio Morandi
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THE MISFIT COLLECTION FORMS OF ASSOCIATION AND ANTAGONISM // Our internal ambitions can be further understood when we step outside of contextual constraints and focus on the determinants we respond to while creating, such as material, spatial consideration, and aesthetic intuition. THE MISFIT COLLECTION exposes these ambitions through each figure’s appealing or attractive nature. Whether an object is found compelling because it has balance, light or shadow, strong difference, is intriguing, engaging, stimulates curiosity or questions, or resonates optically, these preferences go beyond performance or function. As the individual identity of each figure develops, it is also possible to recognize the figures that conflict with others based on their spatial relationships, ordering systems, or aesthetic tendencies - the misfits. In a similar fashion, it is also possible to recognize similar relationships between the ambiguous forms, thus creating misfit families. Just as cultural conditions determine whether parts go together or not, our design intuitions decide whether these figures go together or not. This method of design suggests that architecture can be a predetermined problem with a given solution and that designers have a preexisting agenda that begin before long before any external factors. Clark Thenhaus_ Fall 2013 Arch 432_ Design Studio III
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This Page: The original members of the misfit collection were designed without consideration to each other, rather with attention to how each figure’s wire structure translates surprisingly to its painted nylon surface. Opposite: After the initial stage of design, three new misfits were created to compliment an original, chosen from the group of grey misfits. This family of form works together through their relationships of leaning, embracing, and collaboration.
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PROJECTS OF SITE SPECIFIC DESIGN These projects consider and respond to their surrounding contexts and spatial relationships within an architectural setting.
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HEALTH AS A PROGRAM SHIFTING THE SUBURBAN SCHOOL // This Ann Arbor middle school achieves more than education with its program and form, seeking to also culture a program of health as a critical aspect to a child’s development. Set adjacent to the city’s rail line, the school acts as a physical threshold between the local neighborhood and the dense downtown, but also as a threshold for a crucial period of a child’s life. Focusing on motion, both physically and mentally, and engagement, with the school itself and the surrounding environment, the formal drivers of the school begin with shifting, layering, and branching. As a critic of the unthoughtful design behind many educational facilities, HEALTH AS A PROGRAM acknowledges architecture’s influence over and serious responsibility for a child’s education with a thoughtful design encouraging healthy, intelligent students while also offering them the freedom they need to become their own individuals. Joy Knoblauch _ Winter 2012 Arch 322_ Design Studio II Ann Arbor, Michigan
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Opposite: As the students teeter between their familiar domestic lives and the future ahead, the architecture works to heighten this tension. The path of the railroad intrudes on the building formally, cutting large diagonals and also giving the students open views to this unfamiliar and potentially dangerous outside world. This Page: To balance the unfamiliarity of the railroad, the organizing system of blocks offers a sense of stability in this phase of life. The idea of a module itself is concept a child understands. 23
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Opposite: The branching path of the school’s circulation reflects Ann Arbor’s own transportation pathways while also encouraging exploration and engagement inside the building. Similarly, the layered modules reflect the familiarity of the neighborhood houses around and encourage movement and exercise. This Page: Study models reflect the formal evolution from modules that shift and layer to the final middle school with a formal program of movement, engagement, familiarity, and the unknown.
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A MUSEUM OF DOUBLE IDENTITIES IMPOSTERS, MISFITS, AND SECRET LANDSCAPES // It is by understanding the internal drivers of an architect’s palette that we can leverage architectural sensibilities against broader cultural contexts. This project responds to a design agenda, preceding external factors, which focuses on organizational strategies that aid the synthesis between these constraints and ambitions. Located in a prime location, at Wolf Point on the North Branch of the Chicago river, this site sets up the building to become both an iconic and sculptural object for the city. A collaborated drawing project within the studio also acts a site to the building by providing organizational and formal logics. Implications from the drawing drive the form of the MUSEUM OF DOUBLE IDENTITIES to pursue the idea that an object can become both a misfit and an imposter to itself, through hierarchy, formal activators, and implications of space. This process of design suggests that possible solutions are directly related to how the problem is perceived, defined, and qualified. Instructor Clark Thenhaus_ Fall 2013 Arch 432_ Design Studio III Wolf Point, Chicago
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Opposite: Working with both Zoe Parsigian and Jeff Burgess, three sets of rules were defined to follow while generating this drawing. What is especially interesting, beyond the moments that the three rules meet one another in confusion, is when a single rule crosses and imposes on itself, becoming a misfit to its own identity. This Page: Both the drawing and the Chicago location act as sites for this project, each providing a formal and organizational language.
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Organizational Strategies: Linear, program as the core, and void as the core. Spatial Relationships: Spaces linked by a common space and interlocking spaces. Formal Ambitions: Carving, piercing, and extruding. Relationship with Ground: Embedded and lifted, the ground treats the building as a piece of sculpture or a previous object.
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Above: The wall section represents the structure and color gradient of the windows. First Render: Once guests enter the building, they will find themselves near the larger gallery, with limited views to the exterior but a large amount of exhibit noise throughout the space. Second Render: As visitors make their way through the museum, they transition to a space with a view of the Chicago cityscape but with very limited noise. Both physical and programmatic changes reflect the building’s organizational and formal ambitions.
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FIRST FLOOR PLAN
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SECOND FLOOR PLAN 1. OFFICE AND ADMINISTRATION 2. GALLERY SPACE ONE 3. GALLERY SPACE TWO
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FIFTH FLOOR PLAN
1. OFFICE AND ADMINISTRATION 2. GALLERY SPACE ONE 5. CAFETERIA 6. TOWER
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SIXTH FLOOR PLAN
1. OFFICE AND ADMINISTRATION 2. GALLERY SPACE ONE 5. CAFETERIA 6. TOWER
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FOURTH FLOOR PLAN 1. OFFICE AND ADMINISTRATION 2. GALLERY SPACE ONE 5. CAFETERIA 6. TOWER
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SEVENTH FLOOR PLAN 1. OFFICE AND ADMINISTRATION 2. GALLERY SPACE ONE 6. TOWER 7. RELIQUARY 8. GIFT SHOP
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EIGHTH FLOOR PLAN 9. OBSERVATION TOWER
On Museums: Museums are places to remember, freeze, relive, learn, and experience. They are permanent structures that are inevitably impacted by history and time, despite efforts to leave them behind or to enclose them and they become something entirely different. They are given, or forced, a new identity, by history itself. What does this say about museum typologies? How does architecture react and how can it respond and embrace these situations and consequences before it knows what they will even be? 35
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TERRA SLICE DESIGN FOR A NORWEGIAN CRUISE SHIP TERMINAL // This cruise ship terminal redefines the relationship between architecture and landscape within Geirangerfjord, Norway by eliminating the dialectical hierarchy and establishing an entirely new landscape dependent on its presence. Norway is celebrated for its breathtaking serene nature, deep fjords, and tall mountains. However, despite the lack of serviceable and supporting infrastructure, this destination experiences an astonishing number of enormous cruise ships and ship passengers that arrive to the village each summer season. The most common approach to building in this context is to accept architecture’s submissive role in the surrounding environment and the result is a continuation of the status quo in which the central hierarchy between architecture and nature is absolute. Rather than build on the existing landscape, our project subtracts from the surrounding environment, leaving behind a void charged with an urban program that simultaneously provides the necessary services and contrasts the natural solitude of the landscape. 120 Hours International Design Competition_ February 2013 Beregen, Norway In collaboration with Jeff Burgess and John Arnold Top 10 out of 249 projects_ Honorable Mention Complimented as “the boldest” entry
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This Page: Much like a Geode’s inner beauty, the beautiful copper facade of this cruise ship terminal is only revealed upon splitting and entering the void created in the mountainside. Opposite: Diagrams demonstrate the process of removing the end portion of the mountain and creating a new structure to mimic the existing landscape. The underwater turbines are able to produce and store large quantities of energy with the strong currents caused by a ship’s passage through the terminal.
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This Page: The cruise ships play a crucial role in the relationship between architecture and nature by bridging the void, creating an artificial continuation of the natural mountainside. Opposite: From within the structure, the imposing view of the ships creates a dense urban environment into which visitors are unexpectedly plunged. They are confronted with the issues facing large cities throughout the world, such as energy consumption and pollution, both of which greatly affect Geirangerfjord’s natural environment.
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LODGING HEALTH FACILITIES + SPA DINING + NIGHTLIFE RETAIL + TOURISM INFORMATION 41
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PROJECTS OF SPATIAL SPECULATIONS These projects theorize on architecture’s role in a spatial setting beyond specific context or program.
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LINE AS LANGUAGE DRAWING ANALYSIS OF CLEMENTS LIBRARY// This visual narrative focuses on describing the Clements Library at The University of Michigan through the practice of architectural drawing methods such as plan, section, and axon. In this study, relationships between the eye, hand, and mind control the information intake and export through visual means. Formal details such as material and surface qualities guide the visual direction, speed, and movement of the spatial composition. By developing a linear approach to graphic formulation, one is able to participate in conversations of fact and possibility within the architectural community and beyond. However, there is no one way to make a drawing. Direct perception combined with thoughtful conceptualization can reveal unlimited approaches to a single problem. Observational drawing supplements our experiences to inform what we know is a fact and what we believe is possible. Paul Tierman_ Fall 2010 Arch 201_ Freehand Drawing The Clements Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan
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This Page: Within the library, one point and two point perspectives hone in on the position of a reading room within the interior and on the exterior. Opposite: An axon of the specified reading room shows the bookshelves as the supporting element of this unit.
“We will consider drawing as a language where the line is the basic unit.� - Paul Tierman
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TIME TRAVELS THRESHOLDS BETWEEN HISTORICAL SPACES // After a two-month tour through five different European countries, the documentation and measurements taken from three specific sites were used to produce a critical investigation about time and space. Specifically, this project analyzes the time of passage through historical thresholds to produce a final drawing that represents these spaces in time as a single line, slowing down from top to bottom. The Bazar in Istanbul, La Tourette in France, and the Theater of Dionysus in Athens represent three different speeds of thresholds. It will always be an architectural enigma, how to design the moments that one program becomes another, how quickly the spaces change, and what kind of threshold will define it. In some instances, moving between these spaces is very clear and in others the environment changes without notice. The intentions behind the thresholds usually command how clear the changes are and even the function of the two spaces. In each of these sites, the threshold fulfills a necessary purpose, intentionally designed or not. Dawn Gilpin and Joss Kiely_ Spring 2012 Arch 409_ IARP Study Abroad Turkey, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, and France
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This Page: The map pinpoints the many destinations throughout this architecture tour. The tour followed numerous historical destinations with a focus on the abundant work of architect Le Corbusier. Joiners: The joiners document the programs from each of the spaces a thresholds connects and what changes between the two.
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Opposite: The final drawing combines the three sites and attaches them to a single line representing speed of time. In Istanbul, it takes only a moment to cross from the chaotic environment into the calm. At La Tourette, one might stop and take a breath of preparation in the entrance way of the Oratory, before moving forward into the small chapel. Finally, the Theater of Dionysus takes much longer to cross, as one must climb each step and up the rest of the mountain before reaching the program of the Acropolis. Field Notes: Notes and measurements from each site were used to create a translated spatial drawings for the final work. 53
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SEAMS FOR FRACTURED PLACES RECOGNITION AND ENGAGEMENT OF CRISIS // Without undermining the amount of political confusion, destruction, violent protests, and deaths that have taken place over the last year, it is undeniable that the current crisis in Ukraine actually began long ago. The country of Ukraine gradually blends into Russia geographically, architecturally, linguistically, politically, and the border between the two countries did not even exist until 1991. Thus, Ukraine has perpetually suffered from a confused identity, with half of the country hoping to have a future in the European Union and the other pulling back on historical ties to Russia’s Soviet Union. Through deep investigation and analysis of Ukraine’s complicated fragmentation, SEAMS FOR FRACTURED PLACES pursues architectural solutions for finding a whole through imagined seams. Relying on the allegory to represent each level of work, the project suggests that seams occur through the restoration or creation of relationships between different archetypes and that their disconnect causes the fragments to separate. Architecture is the work that imagines a solution but accepts that it cannot be the only determinate. Although this work moves toward a whole, it accepts that the solution, or amnesty, could never come without the people and their livelihood and that architecture can only begin to propose how these fragments might come together. Dawn Gilpin_ Winter 2014 Arch 442_ Design Studio IV Ukraine
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This Page: The diptych portrays the crisis as two sides, or two evils: the media/ western civilization’s perspective and the Russian Ukrainian perspective. Opposite: The maps propose that this is much more than a two sided story, with data collected by Max Fisher from the Washington Post.
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MASS PROTESTS
PREDOMINANTLY RUSSIAN- SPEAKING
GOVERNMENT CENTER SEIZED BY PROTESTERS
PREDOMINANTLY UKRAINIAN-SPEAKING
WON BY PRES. YANUKOVYCH (PRO RUSSIA) IN 2010
MASS PROTESTS GOVERNMENT CENTER SEIZED BY PROTESTERS
YANUKOVYCH LED BY 20%+ WON BY PRO-EUROPE PARTY PRO-EUROPE PARTY LED BY 20%+ 57
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Opposite: In Lebbeus Woods’ work he discusses Zaha Hadid’s paintings as her entire political investment. Early, fragmented drawings portray a democracy and late drawings with big gestures become entirely autocratic. ”Only when established forms are broken up are they susceptible to change.” This Page: The models pursue abstract but translatable ways that the data collected might merge together to create an imagined whole through seams. Below: A study of seams and the physical relationships that create them.
“Who are you in conversation with?” - Dawn Gilpin
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1”=100 m
1”=100 m
1”=100 m
KYIV
LVIV
KHARKIV
Kyiv is the capital and largest city in Ukraine and has remained so throughout the many different reigns and revolutions. The city is located in the north central part of the country and is divided into 10 different districts, which have their own locally elected government’s. After Ukraine’s dependence in 1991, Kyviv experienced a migration influx of ethnic Ukrainians from many other regions of the country. It also emerged as the most pro-Western and pro-democracy region of Ukraine where an integration with the European Union is heavily promoted. In 2004 through 2005 the city played host to the largest public demonstrations in support of the Orange Revolution.
Lviv is a growing city in Western Ukraine and is regarded as one of the main cultural centers of Ukraine. The historical heart of the city survived the Soviet and Nazi occupation during World War II and has been on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage list since 1998. Lviv is one of the largest cities in Ukraine and has many different industries and institutions of higher education. The city of Lviv supported Viktor Yushchenko during the 2004 Ukrainian Presidential election and played a significant role in the Orange Revolution. It remains the origin of much of the nation’s political class.
Kharkiv is the second Ukraine and is located of the country. It was centre of the Russian the first city of Ukraine the Soviet power in 1 50% of the nationality was Ukrainian and 43 It became the capital Soviet Socialist Repub moved later to Kiev. A aware, political move established there alon of an Independent U
50°27’00.7”N 30°31’25.7”E
49°50’31.0”N 24°01’53.0”E
50°00’20.6”N 36
THE SITUATIONS_ FRAGMENTS MEGHAN ROYSTER
6°13’45.0”E
largest city of d in the north-east founded as a major Empire and was e to acknowledge 1917. As of 1989, y structure of Kharkiv 3.63% was Russian. l of the Ukrainian blic until it was A powerful, nationally ement was also ng with the concept Ukraine.
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IVANOFRANKIVSK
DZHANKOY
45°42’31”N 34°23’36”E
48°55’22.5”N 24°42’48.1”E Ivano-Frankivsk is a historic city in the western region of Ukraine. All streets that had reflected the Soviet or Russian past have been either returned to their original names or given new names with less controversy. Around 100 streets were renamed. The city and oblast administrations and the regional council are all located in one building on Hrushevsky Street, with a big open space in front and a memorial to the Unification of Western Ukraine with the rest of Ukraine.
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The city of Dzhankoy is located in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, recognized by most countries as part of Ukraine but in the past year has been annexed by Russia as the Republic of Crimea. The city is rich with industrial factories, making it incredibly desirable for both Russia and Ukraine’s economies. In general, the Crimean Penisula is rich with gas fields, a major political controversy between the two countries.
THE OIL PUMP
THE MASK
AN ECONOMIC IDEAL
A PRESERVATIVE IDEAL
Oil represents the biggest obstacle Ukraine has while trying to remain independent from Russia while relying so heavily on its economy and oil, although most of the pipelines that pump gas and oil run from Russia and Belarus run through Ukraine and on to Western European markets. Oil produces currency and economy in Ukraine. It values money, production, prosperity, survival as an independent country, and any attempts to fix the national debt. The oil pump archetypes have the potential to become spaces of amnesty in this crisis by rearranging the current relationships between the country’s richest locations and by maximizing these resources.
In order for the people of Ukraine to preserve their country’s identity, it is important to mask their individual identity. Individuals that speak out against the government often go missing, are brutally injured, or are found dead. Masks produce safety as they protect the protesters both physically and perceptibly. The masks value violence (and protection from) and identity, both individually and nationally. Masks might offer amnesty by uniting the Ukrainians as one body rather than into many divided individuals. The mask also traces back to Ukraine’s more poetic history and might create relationships between the country’s deep history and modern need for a unanimous identity.
THE CULTU EDIFICE
A CULTURAL HE
Cultural edifices repre ties that the people o either hold on to or d wish to erase all histor have attempted to rem cultural edifices and o near cultural edifices w independence for the edifices produce a rec and are a commemo events and past leade past, symbols of herit other countries and p monuments have hug become spaces of am physical sense as they these fragments and centers or main publi
THE PARTICIPANTS _ ARCHETYPES MEGHAN ROYSTER
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THE PROTEST POSTER
THE INVISIBLE BARRIER
ERITAGE IDEAL
A DEMOCRATIC IDEAL
A POLITICAL IDEAL
esent the historical of Ukraine fight to destroy. Those who rical ties to Russia move all Soviet often hold protests with significance of e Ukrainians. Cultural collection of history oration to significant ers. They value the tage, and ties to people. Allegorical ge potential to mnesty in a very real, y already exist in can be found in city ic squares.
The poster sign represents the people’s freedom (or lack there of) to voice opinions and to produce a clear message to any media that reports on that particular protest. In Ukraine, these protest posters value the freedom to express opinions and to have a say about the government. The poster sign, the megaphone, and the stage represent the different archetypes of this democratic ideal, and all pertain to the different media that the people of Ukraine use to project their voice in this crisis. Each of these archetypes might become moments of amnesty for the people of the Ukraine if they feel that their voice successfully is heard from the governmental leadership.
The invisible barrier represents the many conceptual separations that leave the country of Ukraine divided. Although invisible, the barriers have an incredibly strong presence and leave the people divided by their beliefs, languages, architecture, ancestry, and political preferences. Barriers produce separation and they value difference, many parts, and fragmentation. The first barrier exists between the protesters and the riot police, at the juxtaposition of the softness and hardness of each side. Another barrier exists between the Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox churches. Lastly, there is the barrier between the two languages that dominate this country. All of these barriers have the potential to become places of amnesty if the barriers become moments of connection between fragments rather than separation.
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This Page: The fragments are the situations, the sites across the geographical landscape, made up of many different archetypes. Five cities were studied as fragments and three are portrayed in the construct. Dzhankoy is shown above. Opposite: Each site is illustrated with a height correlating to its political position on Ukraine’s identity. The archetypes represent their significance, political preference, and as precious, important participants in this crisis.
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Now in Ukraine, discontent is still at large with most of the military guarding the country’s borders against Russian invasion and frustration growing for yet another Kiev central government’s inability to generate positive change. This project is one without end, similar to my education and role within architecture. As I emerge with a greater understanding of the profound, complicated levels that lead to these situations, I also question how architecture can move forward productively by both celebrating and admitting the past. I work to understand how architecture, then, might take a stance on a divided politics or offer solutions for a corrupt system or an oppressed people.
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This Page: The drawing begins to imagine how the fragments across Ukraine might come together to find amnesty through the archetypes. Further exploration through drawing might demonstrate existing patterns of policies or qualities within these archetypes. However, intervention occurs only when the relationships between, not just the archetypes, are defined and represented. Once the archetypes connect, the fragments will follow.
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MEGHAN ROYSTER M.ARCH APPLICANT 6097 LOUNSBURY ROAD WILLIAMSTON, MI 48895 MEGHAN ROYSTER