Leandra BurnettMAAD History Theory ExperimentsArch Thesis SeminarCourse Credits: 6Advisor: James GrahamThesis Seminar: Research & Development on the Topic of the Exhibition HallCourse Objectives:Read key texts on sites and topics identified as key context to the architectural typologies of the Exhibition Hall.Deliverables:Annotated bibliography, weekly written responses, and project development log ongoing. Final essay sketching out proposed form and plan for thesis project execution in Summer 2021.Schedule:Meetings with advisor via Zoom biweekly on Wednesdays at 2pm.
 The Exhibition Hall is a distilled typology related to the intersection of culture and industry/economy. It is consistent in its temporality, logic of spatial distributions, and methods of navigation/access. What’s remarkable is perhaps how unremarkable it is, and within this banality there is an ability to house both the top tier industrial forces of society (tech, science, entertainment) and cultural margins (subcultures, fandoms, conspiracy theorists) with the same logic. In examining similarity in form despite difference in content, I hope to make a contribution to the larger question of how architecture is read as a manifestation of social forces, particularly when the purpose of architecture is to be as minimally present or conflictual as possible. A second consideration is the hall itself as a paradoxical urban structure related to placemaking while addressing a specifically migratory and global form of culture-making. The siting of conferences in cities offers a second scale of questions of typology to creativity/authenticity: the industry of conferences being tied to tourism and experiences intended to be unique to a location, but applied in the same way to every city. Finally, there is the question of the temporary microcosmic cultures formed within the exhibition hall and their separation from society at large. A historic perspective on the use of the fair/convention/conference to shape society by the State may be useful in contrast to its contemporary use by formalized subcultures. With the mass proliferation of this event typology’s use, are the aspects of self-determination that can be seen as subversive or even liberatory? Like the radical architecture of the late 1960’s, early ‘70’s, is there possibility in the event as a testing ground for new modes of relation, despite the fact that the spatial form of relation is so strictly proscribed?Online course sections will be delivered with both asynchronous and synchronous components as outlined in the course syllabus. Required online synchronous meeting times are listed as the meeting pattern for this course section.

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