Jack Garvin

The thesis argues for a slow, circular architecture—a progressive spatial practice that places the forensic documentation and psychological engagement with a building and its objects as agents for creation. Driven by ecology, economy, and emotion, this argument positions the material cultures of place as a critical, ethical site for future works, advocating for care and continuity in the inhabited environment. The research methodology takes an archaeological and ethnographic approach, moving through the study of things to the study with things.  Drawing from Sarah Pink’s Doing Sensory Ethnography, Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory and Jules David Prown’s Mind in Matter I document – and interact with – the whole through its parts in a manner that abandons the binary divide between subjective experience and objective data. The result is a meticulous sensory depiction of the net loft in transition, to test how the theoretical attitudes I have developed through my studies may manifest in practice. The project is realised as a multi-modal triptych of film, drawing and publication but is to be continued (beyond submission) through a self build experiment that will involve the physical deconstruction of the structure, where every element and object will be forensically catalogued before being recomposed.

Video & Sound: The video (and associated soundtrack) engages the viewer, documents the essential sensory context and layers lived experience over the place as found.

Hand Drawing (1:10): A comprehensive record of the existing as network is presented as a top-down 1:10 X-Ray Isometric drawing. Future uses are projected above in bottom-up projection with the inflection point at eye level in order to achieve a dynamic spatial representation.

The Journal: Elected for its analytical rigour and accessibility, this format translates the project into a democratic, instructional publication for the layman/woman. Adapted in format from a Repair Manual to a Restorying Journal this publication is to be continually referred to in future remaking works.

How can a multimedia application of Actor-Network Theory dissolve the binarity between structural elements and sentimental artifacts to portray the building as a living, democratic network of agents?

To what extent could an embodied methodology animate the architectural survey and reveal personal/collective lived experience?

Reflecting on the agency of the architect in an era of environmental and economic constraint, this project disassembles its own research process for exhibition to evaluate its effectiveness as a tool for future practice. It concludes that the act of taking things apart—both metaphorically and physically—is a necessary reflective practice for a more mindful, imaginative, and ethical form of production. By suggesting that the most mindful way to build the future is to first develop a bodily, granular understanding of what already exists, the project treats the structure as a dynamic collection rather than a static monument. Ultimately, this empowers the architect to imagine a recomposition grounded in both the past and present, employing a deep listening and forensic reading of place to effectively construct a future that harnesses empathy and self-discovery.