Date of Award
Spring 6-1-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Architecture (MArch)
Department
Architecture
First Advisor
Tamara Metz
Second Advisor
Jonathan Knowles
Abstract
Dollhouses, while rooted in architectural representation, have historically been excluded from architectural discourse, relegated to the devalued realm of the frivolous and feminine. With a complex history, connected to craft, education, and play dollhouses have commonly been perceived as mere reflections of existing social hierarchies. However, this perception tends to overlook the creative agency wielded by people, particularly girls, as they engage with dollhouses, reinterpreting their functions and challenging norms. Crafted traditionally at a scale of 1:12, these miniature homes intricately capture different aspects of our domestic environment. Within the walls of a dollhouse, architectural elements often assume a secondary role, with primary importance placed on the objects they hold. This depiction contrasts conventional architectural representations, which frequently idealize spaces, disregarding their lived-in realities. Instead, within a dollhouse, our most intimate spaces are shown with the objects, memories, and messes that define them, fully on display. Thus, the dollhouse is set up to be an important tool to learn from for how we conceive, design, and inhabit spaces. This thesis aims to reframe our understanding of what architecture is through the lens of the dollhouse, highlighting the fact that space-making is defined by the interplay between everyday objects and human interaction. Through explorations centered around household objects, I meticulously curated scenes depicting domestic environments. These vignettes, created with the objects I made at 1:12 scale, were positioned to emulate how we engage with objects within a dollhouse framework. Following systematic documentation of the objects' movements, envisioning a miniature representation of myself traversing the space, I transitioned towards delineating the positions, motions, and intangible auras of those objects through drawing. These auras denote the latent spatial requirements essential for the interaction and use of these objects. These mappings resulted in amorphous forms emblematic of the dynamic nature of our inhabited spaces.
Recommended Citation
Miesel, Kristina, "The Dollhouse" (2024). Masters Theses. 1219.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1219
Creative Commons License
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