Matter Matters Part 2 Dissertation 2011 Georgios Makridis Oxford Brookes University Oxford | UK "Matter Matters" is a thesis based on the social and spatial implications that derive from the change of the form of information from physical to digital. As soon as the latter has begun to proliferate contemporary lifestyle virtual relationships have become equivalents to the physical ones. Thus, the existence of physical spaces as the grounds for incorporating events is being challenged. Consequently, architecture is presented with the challenge to define ways to protect the places that it has been previously providing, while simultaneously enabling them to mutually co-exist with virtual spaces. An exploration of physical libraries becomes the vehicle to approach the theme.Findings from the studies of libraries in London are combined with associated critical theory. Hand-written journal notes are overlaid with photographs that were taken during or downloaded soon after the library visits. The montages were made on a tablet computer to record the experience of each library during or soon after the visits. Architectural positions by Mitchell and Pallasmaa, as well as philosophic and theoretical contributions by Nietzsche and Calvino are discussed. The outcome will promote social networks as the motive force for the thriving of physical spaces and the presence of people as the means for sustainable architectural events."MindScape" explores the architecture of the system through which humans perceive and become aware of experiences. "Addition" follows the events in the life of Valerie, a girl in her mid-twenties looking for the unknown person who wrote a note on a poem she finds. The two projects are a continuation of one another and they form a design/fictional component to contemplate the academic prose in "Matter Matters". Georgios Makridis Tutor(s)Dr Igea Troiani