Thesis Abstract :
The Rhode Island School of Design has become a closed and fragmented community; departments have lost sight of the bigger picture: to bring together artists and designers in order to create a better world. I propose creating a space of common interest that will encourage collaboration between the splintered departments in order to bring them back together.
RISD is made up of nineteen individual departments. Each has its own goals: increase in physical size, attract and graduate more students, and raise monetary budgets. These aspirations result in relentless political lobbying for every extra classroom, student and penny. Such lobbying produces a disjointed campus with competition for any available resource. This hunger for resources always resonates in to a grab for land.
For a spatial issue there must be a spatial solution. RISD is in need of reunification. This can be achieved by creating a new space of collaboration. The space will be a nucleus where all departments can come and work together to produce a collaborative work. The ideal venue would be a Performance Center because performance brings together the skills of all departments. Co-operation between departments would lead to unity between students of different disciplines, which would result in a more productive educational environment.
