The Synopsis: Dune and Dystopia

In preparation for my dissertation next year, it is essential that a synopsis is written to help explore the topic and try to scope the research within a specific direction. For my synopsis, I have decided to explore architecture as a human identity and how its continuous change as time progressed has led to a loss of that identity leaving architecture dystopian, foreign to us as humans, aliens for that matter. To read it fully click here.

What inspired this topic is several events that happened throughout the year. I have always questioned architects' way of designing but rather that didn't come into perspective until I took the History of Architecture module and helped bring several ideas of architecture as a character or identity into perspective. The idea was something simple that then continued on until the task was to choose the topic that could become the dissertation next year.

I chose dystopia as the starting point like I had done in my Year 0 project which led to the project of exploring extreme architecture. But with dystopia, I decided to focus on the way architecture presented itself as an identity; movements and buildings that people identify themselves with.

My mom asked me what I was thinking about in terms of my working when I shared with her about my conflicting ideas as to whether dystopian architecture can ever be made human again. After a whole explanation about what dystopian architecture is, she then disagreed and told me there is no way in which dystopian architecture could ever be human or anything non-alien to humans.

So I took it as a challenge to explore architecture in a dystopian future where it can be made human and the concept of the past can be brought into the future with aspects of vernacular architecture.

And from those ideas I remembered that I watched a movie a while back called Dune, which had very interesting architectural concepts and ideas that I liked. After research, I found out that Dune's achieved successfully what I wanted architecture of the future to be; architecture that has character and identifies with the people living in these places.

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With the synopsis fully written, and a book made to help bring character as to what the dissertation will be like, the images below try to convey the idea of what is expected of the dissertation. Of course, the dissertation isn't going to be as artistic as this book is making it out to be. It will be in a professional format, unfortunately. The synopsis is a playful way of exploring the title that will be the topic of the dissertation next year.

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The book is designed for a reason. It is in book format for a reason. Every piece that is assembled and decorated in this book is done for a reason.

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Honestly the book is inspired by a piece that I saw on Pinterest; it's a sculptural book called the Aether made in 2013 by an unknown artist. It is a beautiful and outstanding piece. You can notice some similarities between this sculptural piece and my own book. Please note that, my approach isn't the same as the piece I referred to. I can't speak for the artist as I do not know their approach to designing this amazing book. So all rights go to them. Visit their work here.

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Update, this synopsis achieved the highest grade of all my modules coming at a 85%.