Urban. Nomad. Parasite.

The focus of this thesis is on nomadic work culture and the use of parasite architecture in urban environments. Dining, shopping, entertainment, and hospitality are all functions that take place in a designated space over a relatively brief period of time. The manner in which we work is vastly becoming the same way. In recent years there has been a huge growth in what has been described as a nomadic work culture. Nomadic work culture includes workers who share certain characteristics, such as the fact that they travel for the duration of most of their workday, they are not strongly associated to any one office space, and they are constantly carrying, managing, and reconfiguring their resources such as laptops, power cords, & handheld devices. Parasite architecture will be employed in the creation of these structures because it speaks to the nature of these nomadic workers in that their method of choosing a location to work is based on the presence of basic elements, such as free Wi-Fi, electrical outlets, seating, public restrooms, food and beverage sales, and most importantly the presence of other nomadic workers. In this way, nomadic workers are a form of parasite because when these elements are present they will host upon the location until their work is complete, at which point they will leave to return at a later date or find a new location that offers the same conveniences for them to host upon. This thesis seeks to explore how parasite architecture can be used to create a new prototype for the nomadic work culture.

Author

• Heekin, Annemarie

Language

• en

Date created

• 2013

Type of Work

• Master's Thesis

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Interior Design

Degree

• M.A.

Advisor

• Schlesinger, Christy
• Healey, Jonathan

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/1n79h441z