Thesis

One of the most important aspect of thesis is the the statement. It will become part of a catalog that will used by guest and reviewers during thesis week. I had submitted an statement of interest during first week of thesis prep. It is something that will be revised and revisited often. Hopefully at the end of 8 months it will be a decent thesis statement. Thankfully, I am aware of my own area of interest.

Interactivity

I am generally interested in the advancement of interactive technologies and its implemenation/relationship to architecture. Perhaps this interest will lead to an investigation of the consequences of interactivity between the individual and social collective and the built enviroment. Another possible trajectory might be the mediation between the virtual and physical environments through interactive mediums

1) Where do we go from here? What types of question should I ask? I suppose I should start off by asking, “What is interactive architecture?” I found a good start to that question on an interactive blog - Interactive Architecture is an emerging practice within architecture that aims to merge digital technologies & virtual spaces with tangible and physical spatial experience. I need to do some substantive research - websites, books, buildings, spaces, etc….Something to get the juices following… In the meantime, excerpts from Amazon.com book descriptions and back covers.

4dspace: Interactive Architecture

In the next few years, emerging practices in interactive architecture are set to transform the built environment. ‘Smart’ design was once regarded as the preserve of museum exhibits or Jumbotrom advertising screens, but ‘multi-mediated’ interactive design has started entering into every domain of public and private life as a spatial medium, interactive architecture is revolutionizing and reinventing our work, leisure and domestic spaces.

Fast-changing social contexts are dominated by the blurring of boundaries between work and play, information retrieval and use. Pliable and responsive digital environments raise the haptic and intuitive threshold of public and private space by harnessing physical and mental responses. Will interactive architecture embrace a wider scope of functions and experiences – from sensing mechanisms, to the info-lounge, to the ambient home environment and the holistic hospital – through customizable design possibilities?

2) Another aspect of interactive architecture concerns the notion of materiality. What roles will smart and intelligent materials play in defining the notions and concept of interactive architecture?

Smart Materials and Technologies in Architecture

Today, architects and designers are beginning to look toward developments in new “smart” or “intelligent” materials and technologies for solutions to long-standing problems in building design. However, these new materials have so far been applied in a diverse but largely idiosyncratic nature, because relatively few architects have access to information about the types or properties of these new materials or technologies

3) Perhaps as a consequence or a reflection, interactive architecture is about an embedded intelligence. In what ways do different level of interaction imply or impart intelligence with regard to architecture?

Collective Intelligence in Design

Exploring how today’s most compelling design is emerging from new forms of collaborative practice and modes of collective intelligence, this title of AD engages two predominant phenomena: designs relationship with new information and telecommunication technologies, and new economies of globalisation. With the shift from the second machine age to the age of information, the network has replaced the assembly line as a pre-eminent model of organization. With this shift has come the assembly line as a pre-eminent model of organization. With this shift has come the introduction of numerous alternative modes of social, economic and political organization in the form of peer-to-peer networks and open-source communities. this has radically altered conventional models of collective invention, as well as challenging received notions of individual authorship and agency, questioning the way in which traditional disciplines organize themselves. This reorganization is apparent with in architectural practice, as well as within its participation in a greater cultural context of increasing interdisciplinary. For the design disciplines, this includes the emergence of new forms of collective intelligence in a number of different fields including architecture, software and interaction design, gaming, motion typography and product design.

4) There is also perhaps a more obvious matter. Interactive architecture implies reaction. Architecture in it’s classicly defined terms is static. How would emerging systems of interactivity alter architecture.

Reflexive Architecture

This volume announces the onset of a new era in architecture. It represents a redefinition of the architectural possibilities that were first opened up by Neil Spiller in his successful cyberspace titles of the late 90s. By looking beyond the present perception of buildings as static architectural objects, Spiller and his contributors concentrate on the potential of buildings to employ dexterous, cutting-edge technologies to create architecture that is reflexive. That is architecture which is highly responsive and intelligent, able to translate and connect to its contextual and environmental surroundings at a new level, while also operating in three or more spaces simultaneously. It is effectively an architecture that is wholly visionary rather than being grounded by the limitations of the present.