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Degree

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, Design, Art, Architecture, & Planning: Architecture (Master of), 2004.

Abstract

In an attempt to develop a technologically and socially relevant design for the San Diego Central Library, this thesis asks the question, “How can the architecture of a library reflect and respond to man’s present-day relationship with information?” Through historical analysis using Victor Hugo’s text Ceci Tuera Cela as a point of departure, an examination of how the architecture of the cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris and the beaux-arts library Bibliothèque Ste. Geneviève reflect man’s relationship with information in Paris during their respective periods of construction (circa. 1215 and 1845) will be used to inform an analysis of our present-day relationship with information and its translation into architectural form.

In contrast to the historical precedents, our present-day relationship with information is characterized by our use of rapidly developing digital information technologies like the computer and the Internet. As these technologies continue to make our relationship with information more interactive and interconnected, these same technological innovations are calling into question the continuing relevance of the public library and contributing to a phenomenon called “information anxiety.” This thesis posits that the design of the San Diego Central Library should reflect the interconnection of information and the patron’s interaction with it in an inspiring and helpful way, while combating the post-modern conditions of disorientation and information anxiety through clear, centralized organization. The infrastructure of the building will afford maximum possible flexibility to account for the mutable nature of technology, in an acknowledgment that “rapid and far-reaching” change is the dominant paradigm for the future.

Subject Headings

Architecture

Keywords

Libraries; San Diego; American Public Libraries; Bibliothèque Ste. Geneviève; Victor Hugo; Notre-Dame de Paris; Neil Levine; Henri Labrouste; Architecture and Information; Information Anxiety; Fredric Jameson; Postmodernism; Ceci Turea Cela

Advisor

Nnamdi Elleh

Pages

93p.

Document number: ucin1083765297
Permalink: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1083765297

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