| dc.description.abstract | The concept of home has often been recognized as a foundational concept in popular
science-fiction (SF) as the point of departure or place of return in the space odyssey, timetravel mission, or heroic quest. Most SF narratives evidently centre on notions of
homelessness, homecomings, threats to home or journeys from it. However, independent of
the film’s narrative, home is also considered within SF as the place of the audience member,
spatially and temporally, the distinction of which is critical for establishing the alien
encounter with the putative future world. As a critical genre, SF continues to offer insights
into the contemporary milieu that have significant implications for all areas of cultural
research and, more specifically, architecture. While architectural literature and practice has
confirmed a sustained interest in SF, representations of home are often overlooked in favour
of the various innovations and special effects on-screen. It is the intention of the research to
elevate the discussion of home in SF from its often abstract engagement by architectural
texts, and more specifically question how notions of home are expressed in SF film through
the various narratives and designed environments. Thus, the research posits the notion of
home as providing the essential link between SF and architecture by establishing a
theoretical framework and detailed analyses of four films adapted from the prolific American
SF author, Philip K. Dick: Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982), Paul Verhoeven’s Total
Recall (1990), Stephen Spielberg’s Minority Report (2002), and Richard Linklater’s A
Scanner Darkly (2006). The research examines science, method, and truth, in relation to the
foundations of the SF genre and its various representations of home. Furthermore, by
comparing and contrasting modern and postmodern approaches to design, similarities are
drawn between the cultural mechanisms of SF imagery and architecture. The research draws
from SF theorists such as Darko Suvin, Scott Bukatman, and Vivian Sobchack, as well as
authors focussed on notions of home such as Witold Rybczynski, Mary Douglas, Juhanni
Pallasmaa, and David Morley. Topics related to contemporary identity construction, gender
roles, domestic environments, global mobility and connectivity, spectacle, surveillance,
tourism, and technology, are scattered throughout the chapters offering a broad survey of the
notion of home as represented in contemporary SF with the intent of generating further
architectural discussion. | en |
