The Architectural Thesis Proposition

At the beginning of the 20th century, many people believed in a dream; that of living in a leisure society. It was the materialist promise of the Industrial Revolution that increased and automated production would lead to more free time, and consequently leave more space for leisure in our daily life. Increase in production and consumption were supposed to translate into wealth, prosperity and affluence for all. Now that we've reached an advanced stage of this novel, a quick survey of the social landscape reveals that the promise was not fulfilled.

The human purpose has become grossly distorted in the industrialization process. If the purpose of life is to discover and experience its meaning, and to create a context in which an understanding of such meaning can naturally unfold, then what occurred, is a substitution of the search for meaning by an endless search for means of acquiring ever more material goods. Questions of who we are, what we value, and how we want to live as a society are pressing ones and this pressure will increase with growing affluence, more work, and more consumerism.

Consciously or unconsciously, man chooses and directs his leisure to re-establish psychological and physical balance, deteriorated by the tensions resulting from the compulsory activities of daily existence, from work, and from confusion and fatigue born of the over-crowded urban environment. In this sense, leisure becomes a biological restorative based on the harmony between two rhythms, those of life and of leisure. The problem of leisure cannot be isolated from the concept of the environment in which men lives. Leisure manifests itself permanently, it overlaps into other activities and in certain conditions dominates them. Urban-daily-leisure must form an integral part of the habitat and become, more and more, a determining element of its structure.
Aristotle, the main thinker on pre-modern and contemplative leisure, defines leisure as the disposal of our private time -- but a time in which we can most be ourselves, without unwanted impositions or moral scruples. More precisely, 'Leisure' is the time freed from strictly utilitarian or dutiful activities, time that can be passed as one chooses, time that can be used to develop and refine those qualities that are one's unique orientation to the whole -- these qualities being an expression of the individuated Self.

It becomes more and more obvious that for lasting and effective 'stress relief' and 'tension control', we need to reclaim leisure from a world that would consume it in work or in trivial and unsatisfying amusements. Today, this approach means reclaiming leisure from those who have long sought its commodification and so contributed to the slump in its recreational potential.
The thesis proposes to examine and review the evident and hidden relationships which exist between leisure and the different activities of daily life. Above all, its aim is to clarify its real significance, content, its multifarious aspects, and the predominant and increasing role which it is called upon to play in our society. The preponderance of leisure is changing the built environment in every circumstances, aspect and scale. Daily leisure, week-end leisure, holiday leisure are all active elements in the evolution of present-day architecture and, in some cases, become the controlling factors. The overall intentions are summarized in the following question:

-What conditions have to be provided for the creation of a place dedicated to leisure which corresponds to today's contemporary recreational needs; and how could the nature of that place, through the architectural setting it provides, help the individual discover the importance of leisure activity as an integral part of life?