Space and Architecture in David Greig's The Architect

Abstract

David Greig, one of the British Theatre representatives, makes political and social issues background in his plays. He mainly focuses on globalism, immigration, borders, corruption, and people's encounter in different spaces. The Architect, performed in 1996 at Traverse Theater in Edinburgh, shows Leo Black's decline within the context of spatial and relational issues. Once a prestigious architect hired by the state to construct a significant project years ago, Leo Black faces a petition campaign to demolish his first big project, Eden Court. The Eden Court tenants are not happy to live there any longer because the area where Eden Court was built turned into a socially corrupt place. This study aims to depict the spatial inequalities, the dispersion of families with different social backgrounds to the city, the quality, the design of the space, the importance of architecture, and the formation of relations in public and private places. Greig, processing the plot like a sociologist, touches upon the delicate results of the neoliberal economic model in and around the city in a literary work. He vividly portrays neoliberalism's requirements, such as the division of labor, the utilization of public and private places, the politics of mass housing in the city, and increasing social inequalities. Leo Black tries to prevent his family and his career from destruction despite his terrific loneliness.

Keywords

• space
• architecture
• neoliberal
• inequality

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