Architecture is a Harmful Discipline

Luis Alejandro Rojas-Perez, Design Stream

Laura Miller, Advisor

Architecture is a manifestation of one's views, ideologies and beliefs on how the world should operate. These often translate to built projects that try to shape the world into what they think it should be — with varying levels of success. These practices have made the discipline driven by a belief in the built, the material, and the real. The outputs of the discipline are often measured by the extent of their propagation across the earth's surface. This thesis aims to present a curatorial strategy for a collection of works on paper as contemplation and celebration of the harmless practices of the 20th century, methods that shouldn't only be part of the discipline in times of economic recession. The design of a fictional landscape of interconnected rooms is used as a study of curatorial strategies for display — a fantasy that reignites appreciation for these pieces — a task often fulfilled by contemporary museums and exhibitions that are, to this day, energy, resource and waste intensive. The journey of this thesis has culminated in the formation of individualized spaces, one which was organized by a network method based on their conceptual ideas.