Built in 1818, Regent Street, named after its patron Prince Regent, later King George IV, has been one of the most famous thoroughfares in Europe. Much of its original design had been lost, including the spectacular section known as the Quadrant, which was characterized by arcades that created a theatrical setting. What remains visible today is the fabric replacing the Quadrant colonnade functioning as a shelter, a feature that was lost after it was removed in 1848. Although the notion of absence is a quality often attributed to physical beings depicted in the films or plays, it has not been discussed within the context of a loss of an architectural entity or element. This article probes the following question: Can architecture be dramaturgical? The shelters of the Quadrant were blamed for creating dimness, as if the shelter was a person. Several studies have examined Regent Street from the perspective of urban planning. This article aims to view architecture as a half-subject rather than a fixed or a static object and narrate the architectural story of the Quadrant between 1818 and 1849. Accordingly, I argue that the shelter of the Quadrant can be considered a theatrical object or quasi-object, a term borrowed from Michel Serres and Bruno Latour to describe the half-subjectiveness of unlived beings. To do so, using an ontological approach, I will decipher the architectural history of the Quadrant as the shelter in the nineteenth century to unearth its roles and explore its transformation. Using the Regency and Victorian visuals and texts, I will examine how the Quadrant has generated new meanings and functions as a lived creature. This paper aims to explain that architecture is not a static or durable production but rather it is transformative and potential to be a half-subject as it was born, lived, and died.

Quasi-subject, Regent Street and Quadrant, architecture and city, architectural cristism, potential of space.