Architecture and event

Abstract

The central premise of this report is that the theatrical metaphor, which likens architecture to theatre, has become increasingly manifest in architectural discourse. The city has come to be conceptualised as one large performance space mediated by cars, computers and neon images. This report outlines historical precedents for links between the discourses of theatre and architecture before focusing on contemporary (post-1970) interdisciplinary relationships. Specifically apprehension of architecture as set, stage, performance or narrative is examined. The work of environmental psychologists, Postmodernists, Poststructuralists and performance artists is explored in order to gauge the extent of the use of the metaphor, the reasons for its popularity and the ways in which it has broadened the limits of the cultural system we term ARCHITECTURE.