project: Approximate Disjunction
location: New York City
involvement: full, student thesis excerpts
date: 2004 May

“Approximate Disjunction” is the development of a social-anthropological solution to fashioning space resulting in a structure creating a symbiotic connection between built environment+user, and individuals.
Architecture is often conceived of as a container of functions catering to individuals. Innately, design occludes integral user experience by creating a unique encompassment ignoring the inevitable tellurian element. Reaction to perceived design shortcomings in the physical model of the built precipitated a biological model aspiring to bridge space and user. However, the biological model has become anachronous with the sustained innovations in technology. The subsequent advancement in the evolution of design methodology will be the manifestation of the information model.
Using the information model, the built environment creates alternating or pulsating spaces forming an amorphous and mutable structure controlled by/suggesting user experience. Inevitably space becomes a reflection of activity, and activity a reflection of space. Space cannot be predominately defined by a side, top and bottom; instead priority need be administered to the individuals constituting space. In essence, the individuals are the spatial definers. Individuals become the architecture and architecture becomes a facilitator of interaction. Users are created equally, consummating layers of exposure through interaction otherwise unachievable. Finally, design is released from teleological time constraints, favoring heterogeneous emergence and dissipation.

a symbiotic architecture for a post-industrial society.

Art and architecture also liberated itself from history, tradition, and culture in order to remain on the cutting edge of the industrial society. The architecture of the twentieth century was based on the view of development within the framework of industrialization. The architecture favored clarity and simplicity as a method for achieving abstraction. It reflected the same goals of industrialization: the increasing of production by simplification of the process; the clarity and effortlessness aimed for in modernization homogenized architecture just as it had culture. Modern architecture deliberately aspired to expel all historical expressions, decoration, topos, and regionalism because it was assumed the abstraction was the perfect expression of the spirit of an industrial society. Eliminating a building’s individuality permitted a perfect expression of the machine, but worked in contrast to the plurality of life. Architecture therefore became an expression of one dominating industrial principle, instead of diverse, whether contrasting or similar, cultures.

The machine is thought to make reduction and analysis possible forming a dualistic point of view. Industrial society perceives the world as sets of opposing opposites: the part and the whole, science and art, good and evil, life and death, humanity and nature, or intellect and feeling, etc. One of the basic tenets of democracy is majority rule: yes or no. Perhaps one of the most advanced examples of dualistic technology is the computer. The computer computes, at many giga-hertz, repeated choices between 1 and 0. In the dualistic world of industrialization, ambiguous existence, vague zone, and multivalent zones are rejected. Alternately, choices must be made between wrong and right. In the end, the “wrong” half is forgotten. Consequently, contradictory elements, the symbiosis of opposing existence, and mixed states have been treated as chaotic or irrational.

The plurality of life stands in unmitigated contrast to the ideals of the industrial society: homogeneity and universality. Individual life cannot be acculturated; every life is starkly disparate. Combinations of individual cells and the genetic information transmitted by spiral configurations of DNA ensure each individual life is unique. The industrial society, with its infinite possibilities, actually stunts the growth of humanity by eradicating everything discovered pre-machine. A post-industrial society must recognize the possibility of the human species not existing at the peak of an evolutionary climb. Economic prosperity and technological culture may assist in advancing the species, but only in combination of history, tradition, and culture. The product may be the means of natural selection for an advanced sophisticated species.

The architecture of the post-industrial society is of a novel intercultural variety. Elements of different cultures exist symbiotically and simultaneously forming a hybrid architecture. Architecture exists in symbiosis with the environment and the individual through the synergy of tradition, culture, history, and advancing technologies. If the architecture of the machine expressed function, the architecture of the post-machine expresses meaning. The plurality of life is caused by the plurality of genes, cultures and traditions. Differences among individuals, or groups of individuals are the proof of life’s existence. The differences create the meaning the post-industrial society architecture expresses.

The post-industrial society rejects the notion of duality and acclimatizes a philosophy of symbiotic relationships. The relationships are dissimilar from harmony, compromise, amalgamation, or eclecticism. The architecture recognizes the reverence for the sacred zones between different cultures, opposing factors, different elements, or extremes of dualistic opposition. The architecture then decides how to materialize accordingly. The sacred zones are largely unknown regions. If the sacred zones are violated, or manifested poorly, consequences could be cultural infusions or breakdowns. Efforts must be made to achieve extended dialogue, mutual exchange, and to discover other positive contributing factors. If the sacred zones are inviolable, cultures and individuals will suffer. A deutero-learning relationship will not exist because of a deficiency of cross-communication.

Intermediary space is also necessary for the survival of a symbiotic relationship. Intermediary space allows opposing elements of dualism or pluralism to abide by common rules. The space facilitates interaction on neutral grounds for understanding. Intermediary space is not necessarily static; it is extremely tentative and dynamic. Intermediary space allows architecture to work as a catalyst to vibrant symbiotic relationships incorporating opposition with appreciation. As the mutual penetration and understanding of two opposing elements proceed, the bounds of the intermediary spaces are in flux. The process of shifting intermediate space reveals the plurality of humanity. It is manifested ambivalently, multivalently, and vaguely similar to humanity. The ensuing architecture of tolerance lacks in definite boundaries while the interpenetration of interior and exterior form and space reflects the proclivities of individuality and collectiveness. Intermediary space is the moment of silence between acting and acting.

The architecture of the post-industrial society retains dynamism through the individual or collective. The architecture is a manifestation of the interaction occurring between individuals, or between environment and individuals. Furthermore, the architecture is the catalyst for interaction. Individuals sense the fluctuations of the environment caused by the collective interaction with space. Connections between spaces are direct and indirect. Indirect connections are formulated through intuitive material devices eliciting senses. An indirect connection can be material or patterned similarities between disparate spaces, translucent or transparent materials connecting space, foreshadowing spatial experience, and historical or cultural connotations. The constant in all connections are individuals.

The post-industrial society focuses on humanity. Individuals progress by learning from individuals, collectives, traditions, ecologies, technologies, etc. Humanity will continue to evolve by endeavoring to learn from all of itself and not be restricted by parts of itself. The architecture of the post-industrial society recognizes the importance of plurality. The architecture must be capable of evolving with humanity. Societal relationships between individuals, environments, and cultures should be able to mature equivocally and as architecture is part of the delicate societal fabric, it must also be able to adapt. The machine and life represent two entirely different ideals. The machine is capable of assisting life in ways life is incapable. However, the machine is not analogous to life. Life should not be contained by the machines limitations. The machine, thus, cannot characterize architecture.