The Individuality of The Commonality

Abstract

In a globalized world, we gained many benefits and diversified our lives through commerce and information exchange. Yet, many cities in East Asia such as Shenzhen and Tokyo or West Asia such as Doha are facing challenges. Living habits and construction methods are threatened by standardized ways of building. The skyscraper replaced the houses in traditional neighborhoods. Homogenization and annihilation of the conventional is paramount. This problem guided me to the question that drove my research during my three semesters at Cornell : What is the individuality of the commonality? During the coursework, I gained a deeper understanding of the problem of globalization and broadened my definition of individuality. I explored the meaning of individuality as a shared value in a place or for a group of people. How is one place distinguished from others? This thesis exemplifies three different forms of individuality, as they manifested in an art scape studio, a class about timber tectonic class, and a seminar about building agency