FUNCTIONAL MONUMENTALITY: AN ARCHITECTURAL STUDY "COMMUNICATIONS, COMPUTER AND DATA TECHNOLOGIES

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Author

Presented To

Department of Environmental Design

ABSTRACT
The starting point of this thesis is not the monument, rather the monumentality is the end product of the synthesis of an idea, an on-rushing phenomenon and an impulse to express human aspirations on a worthy scale - a functional monumental is that attempts to graft our technological knowledge on all branches of the human tree. The architectural foray lends itself to the idea that, to quote Philip Johnson, the only real urge is immortality-not sex, Monuments last much longer than words. Civilizations are remembered by buildings. There is nothing more important than architecture. 1/ This investigation is architectural, its womb is a technological incubator, its eggs are communications, computers, Data, - , its character a scientific graceland and its shell the monumental. The thesis found its motivation in man's vertical mobility; out into space-launching the Sputnik 1 Satellite in 1957 to expand our horizon, landing man on the moon to explore other forces, spacecrafts loafing out into space beyond the solar system to contact the extraterrestrials, powerful radio telescopes pointing skywards in search of signals from extraterrestrial intelligence-all in a bid to enrich our life on earth and probably glimpse our own future. These and other basic human rations are served bybasic human needs - the need for adequate information are communication are the prerequisite for increasing the productive capacity of the organism in the environment. In a fast developing society like Nigeria this need becomes paramount in it; ort to feed, house and transform itself, to provide a sense of belonging, and identify for its members. The information revolution that futurists long predicted has arrived, bringing with it the promise of dramatic changes in the way people live and work. An international Computer network coula bring important agricultural and medical information to even the most remote villages 2/. Thus was born the idea to architecturally translate our development goals into a physcial monument that best serves our basic needs and aspirations. In a larger sense, exotic technology is coming home to all people, for it is the heritage of all mankind. On this premise is the theme of this thesis; Sharing tomorrow's technologies for the benefit of all manking. Its aim is to achieve a functional and dynamic monumentality, not a relic of the past nor an edifice for the decaying present, but a symbol to the radiant future A monument in both spirit and function expressing and serving basic needs and aspirations of contemporary man in the anticipation of their future consequences. Eliel Saarinen 3/ considered spiritual function inseparable from practical function and described civilized existence itself as a search for form.