The Monument and The Mask

The Monument and The Mask

PROCESS TAGS

Representation Research-driven User-focused

CONTENT TAGS

Circular Economy in Architecture Craft and Materiality History and Heritage Regeneration and adaptability Social Values of Architecture

LOCATION

Vienna, Austria

Project Description

Rescripting the Viennese Ending

This thesis explores notions of collective memory, monumentality and preservation within Vienna, using methods of collage, reinterpretation,
addition and subtraction.

The theme is central to Viennese art and architecture; it explores the idea of the masked city, where ornamentation and gilding is used to conceal the city's darker, more authentic pasts.

The project intervenes with the existing building at 3 scales, or acts; elemental peeling back (of the existing columns), carving out (the stairwing theatre museum), and demolishing to replace (the backstage). It does this using Semper’s notions of dressing, metallurgy, stereotomy and framework.

The proposal retells the story of the Burgtheater, while keeping its existing meaning and value of a social and cultural monument intact.

Deeksha Audukoori

(she/her)

MArch

I am a graduating 5th year WSA student. I also completed my undergraduate degree at WSA and worked as a Part I Architectural Assistant at Haworth Tompkins in London during MArch1. For my dissertation, I studied the permanent/ impermanence of refugee camps as sustainable settlements and for my thesis project, I explored notions of monumentality and preservation within an existing theatre in Vienna.