Spatial Agency: Softening the Edges of the Architectural Apparatus

Abstract

Our whole lives play out in the built environment, yet its production is left in the hands of just a few. Recognition of inherent issues in architectural culture is not something necessarily new, and neither are efforts of its criticism, redefinition, and transformation. This thesis aims at extending these efforts further by expanding our notion of the architectural professional practice to spatial agency; a much more collaborative approach in which agents act with, and behalf, of others.

A study on spatial agency's theoretical underpinnings, followed by a case study analysis, will give rise to a proposed expanded fictional architectural practice, The Agency of Space, and the architecture its HQ. Due to the process-focused and ever-changing nature of spatial agency, the project will be presented primarily in the form of a graphic novel, allowing focus on a narrative, while the architecture serves as the place where it all occurs.