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ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Non-Place (Making): The Big Box De-form-ed

Becker, Micaela
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2641-5645
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1623167599704667

Abstract Details

2021, MARCH, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture.
An exurb is a district beyond the suburbs and well beyond the city center that can be characterized as a transitional zone from the urban fringe to the rural pastoral, fitting somewhere in between. The American exurbs originally emerged as growth centers that were the outcome of decades of suburban sprawl and the shift towards the aesthetic of the pastoral as people and corporations moved to the urban fringes. Exurbia displays settlement patterns and landscapes that at first glance seem very much a part of the city, but in actuality exist entirely car dependent and devoid of any central business district, making them distinct from their urban predecessors. Exurbia generally consists of architecture that is placeless, lacking any significant markers that make it specific to its site, location, or landscape. This placeless architecture that could exist anywhere in the U.S. is reflective of the global age of consumerism, seen in cookie cutter housing developments, big box retail stores, strip malls, warehouses, condo-block developments and more. Few building typologies have had as much of an impact on the American exurban landscape and American mind than the big box store. The big box typology first emerged in the early 1970s, and when it did advocates of postmodernism saw the confluence of signage set against the facade as an opportunity to challenge its signifying potential. Through deformation, this thesis seeks to push back against the monotony of form, materiality and organization of the big box store as a provocation of exurbia. The project seeks to challenge the existing form of the big box and present it as a productive element through its deformation and interaction with its surrounding topography to present a novel reading of its possible architectural expression of a non-place.
Joss Kiely, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Vincent Sansalone, M.Arch. (Committee Member)
110 p.
Architecture
Exurbia; Non-place; Suburban Sprawl; Urban; Big Box; Deformation

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Becker, M. (2021). Non-Place (Making): The Big Box De-form-ed [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1623167599704667

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Becker, Micaela. Non-Place (Making): The Big Box De-form-ed. 2021. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1623167599704667.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Becker, Micaela. "Non-Place (Making): The Big Box De-form-ed." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1623167599704667

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1623167599704667
181
© 2021, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.