Date of Submission

Fall 5-1-2020

Degree Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Architecture

Department

Architecture

Committee Chair/First Advisor

Christopher Welty

Secondary Advisor

Arief Setiawan

Abstract

This thesis explores the “disciplinary mechanisms” that define individuals in space. The formation of tactics into a strategy galvanizes an individual into what Michel Foucault describes as a “docile body” (Foucault 1978,135). These tactics find traction in the classification, coding, and organizations of bodies in space and time, through repetition, observations, and documentation. The dynamic between these tactics forms the strategies to create docile bodies.

In the end, discipline mechanisms are used everyday subversively and or subliminally. However, good or bad, we are byproducts of our environment and under a system of control that coerces us to act and behave in certain manners that define who we are, the main question asks has the system of authority failed its people?

By understanding the constructs within space that define who we are, it is suggested that there are a clear line devoiding citizens under authority. Specifically, there are tactics in the interactions between our police officers and communities, that I argue are creating a clear line dividing us from them. The very space that is supposed to serve and protect, has become a symbol of a force of power… when actually it has the opportunity to heal. To be a symbol of our community, an agent of change, breaking down barriers, and uniting communities. My thesis asks a simple question, are the constructs of the built environment that facilitate order and peace, actually dividing us. Can better spaces create better societies?

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