Permanence and change in architecture

This thesis argues that the term permanence across its many definitions is particularily relevant to architecture at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It proposes that an understanding of permanence is necessary in dealing with the contemporary environmental, cultural and psychological. The materialation of an architecture of permanence is explored through two primer projects, the first set on a disused harbour on the Shannon Estuary in the west of Ireland, the second in the new city quarter of Hamburg, Hafen City. Several texts are explored to gain an understanding of permanence within the architectural discourse. The final project, which looks at the lost demesnes of Ireland, considers permanence within the evolution of the landscape and how building within a existing system of control evolved over time can create permanence through a sense of continuity.