Architecture of 'cruelty' : exploring a mise-en-scène

Operating through the medium of its image, the production of architecture increasingly

emphasizes visual seduction at the expense of a subjective experience. While

architecture has the capacity to evoke specific responses, we continue to regard the

built environment as spectators of an image, disconnected from a physical engagement

with space. Our perceptions should take precedence over appearances.

Theatre privileges its living presence by experimenting with spatial relationships that

create physical and psychological separations and connections between a

performance and an audience. Drawing upon the works of Antonin Artaud, this thesis

explores temporal forms of architectural meaning through the investigation of the

dramatic space of a ‘Theater of Cruelty’. Similar to a theatrical mise-en-scene,

architecture is conceived to frame, articulate and restructure an individual’s experience

in space.