Architecture and the Capriccio: Searching for Spatial Narrativity in Southern Italy

This thesis draws upon narrativity, the grand tour, imagination, and the domestic ruin to explore the potential of spatial narrativity in architecture. This is achieved by using the phenomenon of ‘one-euro homes’ which have emerged over recent decades in Italy. Such homes serve as vehicles for the exploration of narrativisation of space. The thesis uses the painting style of the architectural capriccio to design an architectural narration which navigates the intersection of the author’s mental grand tour to Italy, and the actuality of place.

A series of interventions are imagined through the lens of seven characters: the child, the traveller, the elder, the prisoner, the farmer, the student, and time. Each design will draw upon various literary works and accounts of the grand tour. They will apply historical and cultural precedents to inform a theoretical design which seeks to tell a spatial narrative. As part of this, fabric is examined for its temporal and phenomenological qualities. These designs will contribute to a ‘capriccio’ which tells an imaginative account of place, serving to reinvigorate the existing site.