Architectonics for evolving pastoralists: nomadic architecture and modern global culture

Abstract

This paper seeks to establish a theoretical ground for the investigation of nomadic architectonics as an instructive instance of the taxonomic breadth of architectural space production. This research ties together theoretical threads from the work of Gottfried Semper on the textile wall to that of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari on the ontology of the nomos, the smooth space inhabited by non-state actors. When nomads become sedentary, the evolution of their political economy creates a corresponding ontological shift in their understanding of space. Climate change and contact with modern global culture has accelerated this transformation, a cultural crisis articulated through an architectural vocabulary. It is precisely the nomos I seek to explore, challenging the romantic image of the nomad in Deleuze and Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus while benefitting from the philosophical notion of the nomos as a unique experience of space. This is a primary example of how philosophical critique can serve to engage a broader spectrum of built work than that for which architectural discourse normally allows.