Anna Crookston

MArch Architecture

One: The Body, Architecture and the Environment

Perception alters action, and action alters reality. Anna’s work explores architecture as a means of reconnecting the body to the environment. Rather than acting as a barrier from the natural world, architecture becomes a frame through which the body can perceive its relationship to place.

Raised in Eden, Utah, near the Wasatch Mountains and Pineview Reservoir, Anna developed an awareness of environmental stewardship through the neglect and rezoning of a local wildlife corridor. She views environmental crises not as isolated political problems, but as symptoms of a culture that sees itself as separate from nature.

Her thesis project reimagines a local trailhead left in disrepair for eleven years. Visitors first encounter a wall they may climb but not cross, offering perspective without possession. A transparent raised pathway then suspends the body above the grassland, revealing and protecting the life below. Finally, steps descend into a trench connected to the reservoir, allowing the body to physically measure the changing water level.
The project proposes architecture not as instruction, but as an invitation, asking the body to move, perceive, and reconnect with the environment it belongs to.

a house form with drawings of the environment as its covering.

Self Portrait
Perspective 1
Colored pencil, task board, and mixed media

Depictions of the self drawn within the architectural form of a house while the exterior facade represents the landscapes of the artists home and elements of the surrounding nature.

view of night landscape on the architectural form of a house.

Self Portrait
Perspective 2
Colored pencil, task board, and mixed media

Depictions of the self drawn within the architectural form of a house while the exterior facade represents the landscapes of the artists home and elements of the surrounding nature.

Interior view of house form with depictions of the human form drawing on the interior walls

Self Portrait
Detail 1
Colored pencil, task board, and mixed media

Depictions of the self drawn within the architectural form of a house while the exterior facade represents the landscapes of the artists home and elements of the surrounding nature.

View of the facade of a house form depicting the day time sky with a window in red transparent material.

Self Portrait
Detail 2
Colored pencil, task board, and mixed media

Depictions of the self drawn within the architectural form of a house while the exterior facade represents the landscapes of the artists home and elements of the surrounding nature.

Flattened walls of a house form layered out to display depictions of the human form and landscape on relating sides.

Self Portrait
Layout 1
Colored pencil, task board, and mixed media

Depictions of the self drawn within the architectural form of a house while the exterior facade represents the landscapes of the artists home and elements of the surrounding nature.