01-31-08

Thesis Abstract 01-31-08

Much comtemporary theoretical work in architecture has focused on
self-organizing princilpes (variously known as negative entropy, bottom-up
design, and intensive material properties) and their application to architec-
tural design strategy. A self-organizing system is one who’s overall quali-
tites are dependent on the aggregate effect of each of its parts and the way
they interact with eachother. Often, the differenece in scale between the
system’s operation at the part-level and the whole-level is so great that
one’s effect on the other is not immediately apparent.

Self-organized design strategy has been used by many architects as a
generative tool. The strategy involves specifying simple rules regarding the
relationships between parts in a system, and allowing others to vary in a
seemingly random fashion. This technique is useful to designers because it
ensures that certian qualities of the design remain under control while oth-
ers can be unplanned. The unplanned variations are responsible for a “gen-
erative” effect, creating patterns and forms outside of the usual vocabulary
of the designer. Another benefit of self-organizing systems is that they allow
designers to produce a gradient response to complex combinations of site
and program without having to individually manipulate each small piece of
the design.
Much contemporary theoretical work in architecture has also engaged
the design of environments throught their experiential effect. In his book Ar-
chitecture of the Well Tempered Environment, Reyner Banham postulated that
the experiences of illumination, entertainment, and thermal comfort are
what lies at the root of architecture insted of the usually assumed shelter
and privacy. He used the example of a primitive tribe gathered around the
campfire. Banham asserted that the space of thermal comfort around the
fire, as well as the protection it gave from wild animals, was the first “archi-
tecture”. He went on to design a series of “environment bubbles” consisting
of mechanical “hearths” which would provide all the needed heat and light
as well as multimedia entertainment.

Michelle Addington, in her essay The Phenomena of the Non Visual sug-
gests that architects have a hard time designing experiences beyond the
ususal 2D picture plane. She says this is because representaion tools his-
torically available to architects have been limited to visual descriptions, or
scale models. Architects often discuss intended experience in the early
stages of design through diagrams and conceptual models. Later in the
process, focus is turned to the design of tangible objects and surfaces.
Though the original design intent is often kept, it is difficult to manitain fo-
cus on the intangible result. What if the design process was reversed, and
instead began with the design of a system for manupulating the intangible
qualities within built form?
This thesis proposes to combine the technique of self-organized design
strategy with the idea of creating experiential effect by parametrically as-
signing physical qualities to building components based on their location
within zones of experience, and their adjacencies with other components. It
should be possible to produce a gradient response, using this method, that
will capitalize on the overlapping nature of adjacent zones, acting in a gen-
erative way to produce nut just a building, but a system that is responsive
to context and program in a gradient and phenotypic manner.