Predicting Archeology: Static Architecture in Time

Abstract

<p>The explosion of computer propelled technology has affected architectural creation in every way. Achitecture as space is now considered corporeal from the moment the computer screen is powered. Time as a design driver’s resonance is being diluted in favour of material performance and manipulating capacity, yet the natural world is being absorbed as an aesthetic driver in much of contemporary architecture. This technological change is asking users to change their perception on what architecture means to them if it is not physically located in-situ. Architecture as a discipline is shifting to one that sits atop site, rather than growing from. This thesis asks whether natural elements are being misinterpreted when tranlated into digital space. It questions the aesthetics of parametric architecture when the notions of movement and speed are applied, and asks if there is a possibility to create architcture that embodies archeological integrity from the moment of conception. The tension between Time and Movement are explored, not as being mutually exclusive, but as hand in hand. It examines ideas postulated by Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron and David Leatherbarrow, and hypothesises that manipulation of material, not material form, is the most important lens in which to discuss movement. The conclusions drawn first acknowledge the merits of architectural reproduction as necessary when postulating a position purely existing in printed media, thus requiring a level of interpretation into its repesentation. It identifies a site in need of an architecture to test the ideas, and produces a design solution concluding that architecture’s direction when applying digital creation should acknowledge a building’s place over time, rather than place in time.</p>