Estrangement in Modernity
Alienation Patterns and Architecture Culture
(Supervisors: Marina Lathouri, David Cunningham)
The thesis is about the appropriation of the concept of estrangement as a device of dialectical criticism within the architecture culture; about the introduction of the term, which was associated with a modernist vocabulary, into the architectural discipline and its reformulation into a device for social involvement and political critique. Remote, strange spaces and forms challenged modern reality, through their abstract and peculiar presence and estrangement became an agency of negation. The research analyzes architectural instances to identify the way the concept was particularly appropriated by both the 1920s and the 1960s radical architecture.
It ultimately attempts to open up new critical perspectives within the architectural discipline itself, through which to discuss the essential reciprocation between the alienation of the modern state, its expression in contemporary urban patters, and ultimately its influence in the architectural practice.
Biography:
Alexandra Vougia graduated in 2007 from the Faculty of Architecture of the Aristotle University, Thessaloniki-Greece, with honours. She holds a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design (MS AAD) from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation-GSAPP, Columbia University (2008).
She worked as in architect in New York (Morris Sato Studio) and Athens (A. Tombazis and Associates), before commencing her PhD dissertation at the AA School of Architecture in 2011.
