Thesis Abstract

Every time you change the DNA that defines a city and makes it unique, you change the living breathing creature itself. Cities are spaces that have been built up of layers that allow tradition, dynamic relationships, and personal identities to thrive within them. Urban planning, modernism, and utopian dreams from the late 19th century City Beautiful Movement to 20th century post-war planning to now have been affecting changes on cities with little or no regard to the existing characteristics that makes a city vibrant and distinctive. These large-scale urban schemes need to be abandoned in exchange for small scale, site-specific urban interventions that reflect the historical and existing urban fabric of a city while accounting for change, time, and flexibility. New urban initiatives must allow people to create an associated connection with a project while bringing new characteristics into the community. Recombinant design is a technique that identifies characteristics from opposing or disassociated aspects existing in a specific site and combines them to introduce a completely new idea into the space. Introducing hybrid interventions in the form of recombination will allow for the creation of a better urban space that respects the constant evolution of a city as an organism.