http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbnAmTJejJs&feature=player_embedded

Philadelphia is littered with ruins that recall a previous time and a previous period. While many would argue these are eyesores, there is a poetic reference to their era; one of industry, as an entirely different city. Starting with the investigation of the modern ruin, this thesis explores the fragment as relative to surrealism. This relationship is one that is not prolifically documented. Although overlooked, surrealism as a contemporary style of art in the twentieth century had a profound influence on architecture, and vice versa. One architectural essay written by Dalibor Vessely proposes the hermeneutics of Surrealism and the fragment as being intimately related. This thesis analyzes three different derelict Philadelphia sites with adapted techniques derived from those created and practiced by the original surrealists, investigating and documenting the site and its experience. The accumulation of information and data collected is reinterpreted as a procedural means to create architectural space. Although not surrealist architecture, the design is completely dependent upon the process of development. The end product is designed from a process, while simultaneously exhibiting and demonstrating this same process.