[ATL]ANTA |

SPACE AND CULTURAL MEANING IN A TRANSFORMING CITY

2016 | design studio
Georgia Tech | School of Architecture | Atlanta, Georgia

Welcome to [ATL]anta.
Host of the 1996 Olympics, Super Bowl XXVIII, XXXIV
and Super Bowl LIII.
The birthplace of Martin Luther King, Jr.
and home to John Lewis, Andrew Young and Ralph David Abernathy, to name a few.
The place where strip clubs have national reputations
and Kroger’s get nicknames like Disco, Murder and Baby Kroger.
The sports teams are Hawks, Falcons, the Dream and Atlanta United. This is Braves Country.
Home to Coca-Cola, Home Depot, UPS and Delta Airlines.
The place where you can travel anywhere in the world
from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Atlanta is experiencing a period of rapid development. Spurred by the Atlanta Beltline, an improving economy and a renewed interest in the city center, it is a degree of change paralleling the pre-Olympics development of the early 90s. The pace and magnitude of new replacing old presents several interesting questions: What does all this development mean for the culture of Atlanta? What is Atlanta culture? How does what we build impact this culture? Conversations of “old” and “new” Atlanta have graced the pages of many local publications. If there really is a cultural shift happening, what is the cultural narrative that defines Atlanta, both old and new?

This studio seeks to explore these notions of cultural meaning. It asks three main questions:
– How can we understand a culture through its artifacts and places?
– How can this cultural understanding inform architectural propositions?
– How can architecture contribute to the cultural narrative of a place?