Horizon-Scaping: Redressing Architectural Landscapes of the Digital Era

The disappearance of the horizon in the nineties is the departing point and time scope of this thesis. Circumscribed in the pivotal moment in architecture’s recent past, this thesis aims to historize some of the architectural production of this decade while offering an alternative perspective on how the architecture in the nineties understood and represented the limits of space. By using the horizon as a lens to read this complex and algid time in architecture’s history, it is possible to unveil additional perspectives in how to read the architectural production of this period. To cut across the often fragmentary debates in architectural theory and practice of the time, the thesis focuses on three exemplary buildings conceived in the midst of the digital turn, representing three distinct positions that are sharply revealed by their relation to, and conception of, the horizon: The Thermal Baths of Vals (1992-1996) by Peter Zumthor, The Yokohama Port Terminal (1995-2002) by Foreign Office Architects, and The Blur Building (1998-2002) by Diller and Scofidio.