“Negro music has touched America because it is the melody of the soul joined with the rhythm of the machine. It is in two part time; tears in the heart; movement of the legs, torso arms and head. The music of the era of construction; innovating. It floods the body and heart; it floods the USA and its floods the world. The jazz is more advanced than the architecture. If architecture were at the point reached by jazz, it would be an incredible spectacle.”   – Le Corbusier

As a catalyst, the above quote ignited years of research, eventually leading to the development of my University of Detroit Mercy Graduate Thesis, “Hip Hop Inspired Architecture.”   In short, the thesis established a framework for analyzing the developments of multiple cultural architectural styles and then assimilating these precedents within the proposed creation of a Hip Hop inspired architecture.  By first understanding the evolution of each cultural architecture separately, one perceives how Le Corbusier’s musings on music and architecture suggest an evolution from jazz towards a Hip Hop Culture.  While Le Corbusier should not be credited with laying the foundation of the Hip-Hop culture, his physical and theoretical works indirectly contributed both positively and negatively to the Hip Hop culture.  Within this body of research, I further explored the cultural and professional significance in implementing the Hip-Hop culture into the field of architecture.  Johann von Goethe said, “I call architecture frozen music.”  My thesis sought to freeze the most socially and culturally recognizable music in the world, Hip Hop. (more…)