Towards a virtual architecture: pushing cybernetics from government to anarchy

Abstract

Purpose-This paper discusses the possibility of joining cybernetics and architecture as a continuous and open process, bridging design, construction and use, in that which is called cyberarchitecture. Design-It develops the hypothesis that cyberarchitecture can benefit from taking the virtual into account in the design process, so that the architect is no longer the author of a finished architectural product, but of a set of instruments with which users can design, build and use their own environments simultaneously. Findings-A set of design principles is systematised and examined in three practical realms of design: urban, building and relational, showing cyberarchitecture's embryonic feasibility. Practical implications-Cyberarchitecture implies architects no longer being authors of finished products and users becoming designers of their own spaces. Value-Cyberarchitecture avoids the usual cybernetics' approach based on controlsystem, indicating a less predictive and, ultimately, anarchic path for architects and users. It focuses on architecture's intrinsic value as an event, indicating the possibility of a process-based system, which only exists (or is organised) in presenttime, when users and instruments (or structures) interact.

Architects role in change influenced by technology and increasing urban data (BIM, GIS and CODES) from global and local perspective

“…Cyber-architecture is another concept widely discussed in the world of 3D modeling. The development of cy ber-architecture suggest the architects to abandon the design of the finished products and start developing virtual interfaces for the customer to keep on designing their own objects, spaces and events (Baltazar, 2007). Broader, the increased use of platform systems has the potential of changing the current strictly hierarchical design process into a network of design, manufacturing, marketing and organizations management, where the responsibility for design is distributed across multiple professions, organizations and geographic locations (Kalay, 2006) The system was developed in an engineering environment where design problems, although having a simple graphical content, were described in mathematical terminology.…”