Dark Space, Psychic Space: Architecture, Techno and Counterculture

Migliorino, Adriano Angelo

Dark Space, Psychic Space: Architecture, Techno and Counterculture

Migliorino, Adriano Angelo

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Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2025

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Migliorino, Adriano Angelo
dc.date.accessioned	2026-08-04T02:41:53Z
dc.date.available	2026-08-04T02:41:53Z
dc.date.issued	2025
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/195910
dc.description	University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.description.abstract	This research examines the unique relationship between architecture and the countercultural movement of Techno after the fall of the Berlin Wall. With the collapse of the Wall, the visible and invisible partitions of the city came down. The subsequent administrative void affected the State’s ability to govern, control and direct its urban and architectural environment. Consequentially, there was a temporary autonomous zone of the city centre, enabling a new cultural paradigm. Electronic music was one of the actors to step into the gap, firstly inhabiting it, then shaping the city as a unique spatio-temporal culture grew. Electronic music, its historical lineage, and the various socio-political contexts of underground countercultural movements form the basis of this research, with the objective of uncovering the spatial and architectural dimensions of this specific type of heterotopia in Berlin during Die Wende (the turning point). The nightclubs Tresor and Berghain have been chosen as the key case studies for analysis within the thesis because they have developed historically into what are arguably the two greatest institutions of Techno in Berlin. The former, marks the point of inception of the underground Techno nightclub in Berlin, while the latter represents the most contemporary manifestation and progressive iteration of the underground Techno nightclub. The thesis therefore utilises a comparative case-study methodology of the two main nightclubs and buildings in question, Tresor and Berghain, as a way of revealing the unique relationship between architecture, counterculture and Techno. Beyond the formal and factual components of architecture the case studies are analysed through the lens of the dissertation’s theoretical framework, comprised of the aesthetic categories of the uncanny (the Unheimliche) and the sublime. The findings of the dissertation chart a new course for architecture with respect to the way it confers meaning. It does this through an alternative and obscure lineage within architectural discourse known as dark space and psychic space.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.format	Thesis (PhD)
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US.UTF-8
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.rights	© 2025 Adriano Angelo Migliorino
dc.rights	au.edu.uts.lib/nph
dc.title	Dark Space, Psychic Space: Architecture, Techno and Counterculture	en_US.UTF-8
dc.type	Thesis
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*

Abstract:

This research examines the unique relationship between architecture and the countercultural movement of Techno after the fall of the Berlin Wall. With the collapse of the Wall, the visible and invisible partitions of the city came down. The subsequent administrative void affected the State’s ability to govern, control and direct its urban and architectural environment. Consequentially, there was a temporary autonomous zone of the city centre, enabling a new cultural paradigm. Electronic music was one of the actors to step into the gap, firstly inhabiting it, then shaping the city as a unique spatio-temporal culture grew. Electronic music, its historical lineage, and the various socio-political contexts of underground countercultural movements form the basis of this research, with the objective of uncovering the spatial and architectural dimensions of this specific type of heterotopia in Berlin during Die Wende (the turning point). The nightclubs Tresor and Berghain have been chosen as the key case studies for analysis within the thesis because they have developed historically into what are arguably the two greatest institutions of Techno in Berlin. The former, marks the point of inception of the underground Techno nightclub in Berlin, while the latter represents the most contemporary manifestation and progressive iteration of the underground Techno nightclub. The thesis therefore utilises a comparative case-study methodology of the two main nightclubs and buildings in question, Tresor and Berghain, as a way of revealing the unique relationship between architecture, counterculture and Techno. Beyond the formal and factual components of architecture the case studies are analysed through the lens of the dissertation’s theoretical framework, comprised of the aesthetic categories of the uncanny (the Unheimliche) and the sublime. The findings of the dissertation chart a new course for architecture with respect to the way it confers meaning. It does this through an alternative and obscure lineage within architectural discourse known as dark space and psychic space.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/195910