Architecture’s Life Expectancy: Exploring the boundaries of permanence for built forms Part 1 Dissertation 2025 Lotte Copland Arts University Bournemouth | UK This dissertation aims to examine the definition of permanence within Architecture and investigate whether this permanence can truly be attained for a built form. The boundaries of permanency have been consistently redefined, through the movements of Conservation and Metabolism in the 20th century, traditional Japanese rituals of rebirth and even through the powerful storytelling of ancient Roman historians. This is a side of Architecture often unconsidered; through our language, we frequently anthropomorphise and instil a sense of life unto built forms, yet continually disregard the death that comes with this prescribed ‘life’. In order to bring light to a topic unexplored, this essay intends to inspect the questions: ‘Can permanence truly be attained for a built form?’ and ‘Through what means can the boundary of life and death be manipulated in Architecture?’.This is done through case study analysis and by drawing upon theories from Stephen M. Cairns and Jane Jacobs, the social commentary of Karl Marx and the philosophical principles of Object- Oriented Ontology. Tutor(s) Willem De Bruijn Chiara Toscani