OF MEANDERING - B.Arch Thesis
The meander cannot be forced - like nature, the intended path (linear or serpentine) cannot be assumed.
The creation of a library and archive located in the crosshairs of the Jerominos Monastary and the Planetário Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon, Portugal, this thesis seeks to explore the linkages between the scientific and the sacred, and the creation of a mediatory path through space that allows one to “meander” both physically and thoughtfully.
While the sacred is most often associated with religious iconography and Western Christianity, this thesis seeks to explore the sacred in more secular and human terms, that perhaps the “sacred” resides in the human lens, through actions of silence, contemplation, and reverence (and not only of the religious kind). The sacred can be found through a progression, a preparation, a ritualization that elevates the profane to a higher place, and the “meander” is a means of allowing this progressing to occur. Rather than creating a path that supposedly “meanders”, it is instead favorable to create grounding elements of the meander. Grounding elements and the meandering path are brought together in order to encourage the inhabitants towards focused study and research. As thoughts wander and search, feet are allowed to similarly journey through the space - physical actions mimic the mental. For Le Corbusier, “the meander represents a fall from the grace of the straight line,” and the establishment of an off-axis path allows for a journey before the final destination. The meander is ultimately a fateful series of interventions that changes the intended path.
