Date of Submission
Spring 5-12-2026
Degree Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Architecture
Department
Architecture
Committee Chair/First Advisor
Jade Yang
Abstract
Kattam Choreography reimagines a historic building in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI as a vibrant cultural hub that celebrates dance, memory, and commerce. Rooted in the embodied traditions of the qudrille folk dance, this project explores adaptive reuse as a performtive act—where architecture becomes a living archive of movement and heritage.
The design treats the building’s layered history not as a static artifact, but as a choreographic score. Quadrille’s spatial logic—its symmetry, rhythm, and communal gestures—informs circulation, program, and atmosphere. The building unfolds as a triptych: a dance pavilion, multi-purpose educational spaces, and a gift shop. Each element responds to the choreography of the quadrille, inviting public participation, sensory engagement, and economic exchange. Openings frame glimpses of harbor, hills, and dancers, blurring boundaries between interior and exterior, stage and street. And the facade of the addition compiles it all on one wall.
This thesis also engages broader questions of Caribbean urbanism and postcolonial identity. By centering dance as spatial practice, the project resists static preservation and proposes an architecture of activation—one that honors the ephemeral and the communal. Adaptive reuse becomes generative, offering a model for how historically rich structures can be reinhabited with vitality and relevance. Ultimately, Kattam Choreography invites architects to think of reuse as choreography: a negotiation between stone and step, past and future, memory and movement. It is a celebration of cultural resilience and spatial imagination.
Included in
Architectural History and Criticism Commons, Cultural History Commons, Historic Preservation and Conservation Commons, Music Performance Commons