Date of Submission
Fall 10-17-2026
Degree Type
Dissertation/Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Architecture
Department
Architecture
Committee Chair/First Advisor
Arief Setiawan
Abstract
Political unrest in Venezuela has continuously redefined the relationship between power and space. Protest reveals that collective action is inherently spatial. As movement consolidates into collective action, it reorganizes territory and redefines how space is used and occupied. What appears as an event can be understood as a constructed condition shaped by direction, pressure, and intensity. In this sense, protest operates as a temporary architecture formed through motion and presence.
This thesis investigates the spatial intelligence embedded in protest and explores how it can be translated into architectural form. Protests reorganize space through compression and release. They unfold through phases that shift the structure of movement. At points of tension, flow fractures; under alignment, it concentrates into a singular directional force. These dynamics suggest that protest carries an internal logic that can be analyzed, abstracted, and reconstructed through architectural design.
The research draws on deconstruction, constructivism, critical and tactical architecture, and semiotic theory to frame this process of translation. Deconstruction positions instability and multiplicity as productive conditions within form. Constructivism understands design as an active construction shaped by social conditions. Critical and tactical thought situate architecture within systems of negotiation and spatial agency. Geoffrey Broadbent’s theory of signs clarifies how architecture communicates through layered systems of meaning. Together, these perspectives allow protest to be understood as a system of relations that can inform architectural language.
By analyzing recurring patterns of movement and occupation, this project develops a method for translating collective action into architectural principles. The aim is to reinterpret the forces present within the protest through architectural language. Protest becomes the generator of form, and architecture becomes the means through which collective action is translated into space.
Comments
ARCC Medal recipient