Within the Fold: A Cultural Center for Fitchburg, MA

Abstract

This thesis takes a position that rather than wiping the proverbial slate clean, or waxing preservation, the role of architecture is to serve not only as a catalyst, but act as a palimpsest for re-contextualizing industrial space and re-connecting it to the public element. This project tests a method of study for one site in particular, but examines the larger circumstances and factors which helped shape the terrain vague. This method could then be applied to cities and sites with similar issues of unused industrial space. This proposal for a cultural center seeks to reconnect people and communities by studying an abandoned site through three scales of fabric, object and surface to develop a narrative for intervention.