Return to the Stately: Reconsidering the State House in the Contemporary Context

Abstract

The state house of the historic context achieved stateliness in its role as a cultural artefact, a home, a site of locality and a community through architectural innovation and design. In a social and political shift from the historic, in the contemporary context the state house no longer fulfils these functions, leaving the role of the state house and the fate of the state house inhabitant in question.

This thesis reconsiders aspects of the design process of the state house to address the shift from the historic context to the contemporary in a return to the stately. This is achieved through identifying aspects of the design process of the historic context that contributed to the stately nature of the state house and reconsidering these aspects through design research to address the contemporary context. The role of the state house as a cultural artefact and architecture’s role as a social and political medium is reconsidered through sustainable design to address the wider societal views and ideologies of the state house. The role of the state house as a home is reconsidered through flexible and adaptive planning and design, and the spatial design to address the temporary and objective state of the state house. The role of site, site analysis and identification is reconsidered through sociological analysis of the relationship between social structures and physical space to address the deprivation of the benefits of locality to capital. The role of the state house in the construction of community is reconsidered engaging the inhabitant in the design process of common space to address the limitations and lack of amenities in the contemporary context. The reconsidered design process is then explored in the context of a design brief with reflection to further develop, resolve, refine and evaluate the success of the process.

The architecturally reconsidered design process addresses the social and political shift of the contemporary context in a return to the fulfilling of the stately roles of the state house as a cultural artefact, a home, a site of locality and a community.