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ETD Abstract Container

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Illuminating the Sublime Ruin

Kuffner, Joshua A
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1367941361

Abstract Details

2013, MARCH, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture.
The feeling of smallness is a disconcerting experience. When one faces the vastness of nature or contemplates the endless progression of time, their sheer incomprehensibility intimidates. But there is also pleasure from such encounters, liberation from conceding to one;s limitations. Since antiquity, a term has been used to signify the origin of these paradoxical experiences: the sublime. In a site in Cincinnati, a place that embodies the vastness and privations characteristic of the sublime, an architectural investigation was carried forth. The site, once part of a productive industrial corridor, has decayed into ruins following the retreat of industry and the subsequent closure of rail lines. Ruination, in its physical manifestation of temporality, constitutes a sublime concept. Everything turns to dust. In the post-industrial city, abandoned sites such as this are prevalent, but societally ambiguous. They are marginalized for their lack of defined purpose, islands of void in the urban fabric. The fate of industrial ruins is typically demolition, particularly if the original buildings' purpose was to accommodate specific processes. As a result, the latent potential of these places to convey the sublime is experienced by few, by urban explorers, by squatters. In order to reincorporate society, these places must be foregrounded. How does one engage the sublimity inherent to a specific post-industrial ruin, while reintegrating the place with contemporary society? Through analysis, the sublime elements of the site will be identified and dictate the intervention. The context will inform the program and define its place within society. The site is relatively isolated from the city and yet this detachment provides a setting for contemplation. By implementing various concepts, including site specificity, the terrain vague, and the picturesque, the inherent sublimity of the site will be amplified, and the previously overlooked will be illuminated.
Michael McInturf, M.Arch (Committee Chair)
Aarati Kanekar, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
72 p.
Architecture
sublime; ruin; post industrial; landscape; terrain vague; picturesque;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kuffner, J. A. (2013). Illuminating the Sublime Ruin [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1367941361

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kuffner, Joshua. Illuminating the Sublime Ruin. 2013. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1367941361.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kuffner, Joshua. "Illuminating the Sublime Ruin." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1367941361

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1367941361
339
© 2013, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Illuminating the Sublime Ruin by Joshua A Kuffner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.