An Architecture of Suspension: The Fabrication of Limbo in the Romanian New Wave Part 1 Dissertation 2026 Emanuel Iordache Oxford Brookes University Oxford | UK "This dissertation investigates how architectural space functions as a mechanism of temporal control in post-socialist Romania, utilising Cristi Puiu’s films The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and Sieranevada as primary diagnostic lenses. It argues that these built environments are active chronopolitical apparatuses that engineer time to colonise memory, paralyse agency, and impose ontological control over post-socialist subjects.Central to this research is “hypostatic suspension”, synthesised from Levinasian phenomenology and Mbembean necropolitics, describing a state of temporal paralysis where subjects remain acutely aware of their inescapable entrapment. This condition is quantified through the “Stasis Function,” modelling the cumulative burden of psychopolitical exhaustion, spatial friction, and sovereign indifference.Two converging spatial typologies emerge: “In-Time” suspension operates through linear, hierarchical layouts (Lazarescu’s hospital) enforcing sequential delay and identity erosion; “Of-Time” suspension utilises circular syntax (Sieranevada’s apartment) to trap inhabitants in ideological loops. Additionally, rituals like the pomana and reflective nostalgia act as temporal containers intensifying this suspension, producing subjects like Lary who possess awareness without agency.Addressing psychoanalytic objections regarding masochistic complicity, the study demonstrates that architecture effectively exploits psychological vulnerability. Ultimately, this framework repositions architecture as a chronopolitical tool, warning urban designers against perpetuating inherited spatial limbo in post-authoritarian contexts. Tutor(s) Phil Baker Mike Halliwell