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Rural Encounters: Recording the Aesthetic and Experiential Similarities Between Agricultural Structures in Contribution to a New ‘Agricultural Design Family’

Part 2 Dissertation 2020
George Knipe
Northumbria University Newcastle | UK
Agricultural structures receive little attention in architectural academia. They belong to what Bernad Rudofsky might have referred to as a type of ‘non- pedigreed architecture’. Yet to many, agricultural structures remain a constant source of design inspiration, exemplifying qualities and characteristics that are otherwise absent or overshadowed in the architecture compendium. This inquiry posits that insufficient methods of knowledge conceptualisation and categorisation are partially to blame for this diluted discourse, and if homogenised ocular-centric design fads are to be avoided, these laissez-faire attitudes must be confronted.

To this end, this inquiry deploys Ludwig Wittgenstein’s notion of ‘family resemblances’ to examine how, in the case of agricultural structures, a different approach might be adopted. Structured around three walks along the border between Wiltshire and Hampshire, and aided by the works of Gordon Cullen, the Bechers, and proponents of the picturesque, this thesis dissects a number of epistemological contentions and research doctrines to arrive at a revised framework of understanding. A framework of understanding which offers perhaps a more resilient, malleable, and useful foundation for contemporary design practice and discourse.

George Knipe

Tutor(s)
Kyung Wook Seo
2020
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