Designing in the Context of Time: Why Annetta Pedretti’s cybernetic-architectural practice at 25 Princelet Street matters

<p>The ability of architecture to mediate cultural identities, and prescribe spatial practices, empowers it as it provides an avenue through which it can persuade, legitimate, or dominate physical space; not only in terms of how it is conceived of, but also how the social interactions that occur within space are ordered. In other words architecture allows ideology, knowledge and therefore power to mediate space, both physically and culturally. This realisation must result in a heightened questioning and critique of how historic and contemporary architecture functions as a socio-spatial object, and challenge the treatment of architecture as a field autonomous from social and political influence. This is particularly important in countries such as New Zealand, that find their roots in a colonial past, where space, land, and building are at the forefront of cultural appropriation and domination. This thesis investigates the possibilities of producing post-colonial residential forms of architecture through challenging the inherently colonial practices and mechanisms of representation of modern architectural discourse. Situating the investigation within the context of the New Zealand State House, the thesis first seeks to investigate how the State House, and the mechanisms used to represent it, mediated colonial and imperial narratives of space, culture, and society. It also investigates the presence of Bhabha’s performative and Lefebvre’s lived space within the State House developments of Eastern Porirua in contemporary society, to gauge the ways in which inhabitants themselves have challenged the colonial narratives meditated by the state house, and to establish a list of criteria that is used to guide the development of the designs later in the thesis. Second, it seeks to investigate the possibilities for creating a new, what will be termed post-colonial, architectural position through challenging the colonial narratives mediated by the State House and the mechanisms used to represent it with previously suppressed social and cultural narratives. The work follows post-structural and post-colonial theories developed by Foucault, Bourdieu, Lefebvre, Bhabha, and Said, and extends their literature based concepts into design experimentation. The thesis presents two residential outcomes, both sited within the State House dominated suburbs of Eastern Porirua. Each outcome is generated through its own design experiment. The first design experiment and outcome challenges colonial mechanisms of architectural representation with the architecture of the wharenui, and, whilst located in the general area of the State House suburbs of Eastern Porirua, is not specifically sited due to the process of the experiment causing the design to be site-less. The second design experiment and outcome challenges the colonial position of the New Zealand State House through reading a State House site within Eastern Porirua through Shirres’ interpretation of the Māori spatial concepts of tapu and noa. The outcomes, despite being produced within established methods of architectural design, make three important positional shifts towards a post-colonial architecture. The first of these is that it produced a critique through alternate cultural architectural and spatial narratives, despite these narratives becoming reframed by the colonial narratives they challenge. The second is that they enacted historical and traditional narratives as forms of critique to architectural practice, removing the disjunction between architectural practice and historical critique. The third is that it incorporated evidence of the spatial practices and perceptions of lived space and the performative into the design, minimising the disjunction between the abstract nature of architectural practice and the fluid activity of everyday life.</p>

<p>The ability of architecture to mediate cultural identities, and prescribe spatial practices, empowers it as it provides an avenue through which it can persuade, legitimate, or dominate physical space; not only in terms of how it is conceived of, but also how the social interactions that occur within space are ordered. In other words architecture allows ideology, knowledge and therefore power to mediate space, both physically and culturally. This realisation must result in a heightened questioning and critique of how historic and contemporary architecture functions as a socio-spatial object, and challenge the treatment of architecture as a field autonomous from social and political influence. This is particularly important in countries such as New Zealand, that find their roots in a colonial past, where space, land, and building are at the forefront of cultural appropriation and domination. This thesis investigates the possibilities of producing post-colonial residential forms of architecture through challenging the inherently colonial practices and mechanisms of representation of modern architectural discourse. Situating the investigation within the context of the New Zealand State House, the thesis first seeks to investigate how the State House, and the mechanisms used to represent it, mediated colonial and imperial narratives of space, culture, and society. It also investigates the presence of Bhabha’s performative and Lefebvre’s lived space within the State House developments of Eastern Porirua in contemporary society, to gauge the ways in which inhabitants themselves have challenged the colonial narratives meditated by the state house, and to establish a list of criteria that is used to guide the development of the designs later in the thesis. Second, it seeks to investigate the possibilities for creating a new, what will be termed post-colonial, architectural position through challenging the colonial narratives mediated by the State House and the mechanisms used to represent it with previously suppressed social and cultural narratives. The work follows post-structural and post-colonial theories developed by Foucault, Bourdieu, Lefebvre, Bhabha, and Said, and extends their literature based concepts into design experimentation. The thesis presents two residential outcomes, both sited within the State House dominated suburbs of Eastern Porirua. Each outcome is generated through its own design experiment. The first design experiment and outcome challenges colonial mechanisms of architectural representation with the architecture of the wharenui, and, whilst located in the general area of the State House suburbs of Eastern Porirua, is not specifically sited due to the process of the experiment causing the design to be site-less. The second design experiment and outcome challenges the colonial position of the New Zealand State House through reading a State House site within Eastern Porirua through Shirres’ interpretation of the Māori spatial concepts of tapu and noa. The outcomes, despite being produced within established methods of architectural design, make three important positional shifts towards a post-colonial architecture. The first of these is that it produced a critique through alternate cultural architectural and spatial narratives, despite these narratives becoming reframed by the colonial narratives they challenge. The second is that they enacted historical and traditional narratives as forms of critique to architectural practice, removing the disjunction between architectural practice and historical critique. The third is that it incorporated evidence of the spatial practices and perceptions of lived space and the performative into the design, minimising the disjunction between the abstract nature of architectural practice and the fluid activity of everyday life.</p>

To solve the problem of fluctuations in clock timing (also known as "clock skew" problems), we propose an approach for the implementation of post-fabrication clock-timing adjustment utilizing genetic algorithms (GAs). This approach is realized by the combination of dedicated adjustable circuitry and adjustment software, with the values for multiple programmable delay circuits inserted into the clock lines being determined by the adjustment software after fabrication. The proposed approach has three advantages: 1) enhancement in clock frequencies leading to improved operational yields; 2) lower power supply voltages, while maintaining operational yield; and 3) reductions in design times. Two different LSIs have been developed: the first is a programmable delay circuit, developed as an element of the clock-timing adjustment, while the second is a medium-scale circuit, developed to evaluate these advantages in a real chip. Experiments with these two LSIs, as well as a design experiment, have demonstrated these advantages with an enhancement in clock frequency of 25% (max), a reduction in the power-supply voltage of 33%, and a 21% shorter design time.

To solve the problem of fluctuations in clock timing (also known as "clock skew" problems), we propose an approach for the implementation of post-fabrication clock-timing adjustment utilizing genetic algorithms (GAs). This approach is realized by the combination of dedicated adjustable circuitry and adjustment software, with the values for multiple programmable delay circuits inserted into the clock lines being determined by the adjustment software after fabrication. The proposed approach has three advantages: 1) enhancement in clock frequencies leading to improved operational yields; 2) lower power supply voltages, while maintaining operational yield; and 3) reductions in design times. Two different LSIs have been developed: the first is a programmable delay circuit, developed as an element of the clock-timing adjustment, while the second is a medium-scale circuit, developed to evaluate these advantages in a real chip. Experiments with these two LSIs, as well as a design experiment, have demonstrated these advantages with an enhancement in clock frequency of 25% (max), a reduction in the power-supply voltage of 33%, and a 21% shorter design time.

Transformative or Tokenistic?

Xia Futou's public bathhouse—A sustainable urbanization experiment in a Chinese village

Digital platforms are rapidly and surreptitiously transforming the built environment. This paper begins by revealing the ways that platform capitalism is amplifying the financialisation of housing and economic asymmetries in global cities. However, it argues that with creativity, the same tools could be reformulated around the commons to develop an effective ‘counter-power' against these practices and to work towards a future city that is fairer and more sustainable. Through a series of creative works by contemporary architects including Dogma, Open Systems Lab, and Alexander & Sheridan Architecture, this paper seeks to demonstrate Vasilis Kostakis and Michel Bauwens' assertion that ‘the commons' is not an abstract concept, but a logical extension of practices and technologies that have become the everyday conditions of society from working to living. It exposes the potential for platform technologies to redistribute land and housing infrastructure, transform architectural, construction labour, and development practices, and redefine a role for the architect within the post-digital city. Ultimately, I argue that the politics of the platform is a matter of design. Through an expanded approach to architectural practice — which confronts the digital forces at play in the contemporary city — there is potential for architects to re-politicise the term ‘disruption’ towards housing equity and systemic change.

This essay explores the transformative role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the field of architecture, focusing on the impact on design innovation, production processes, as well as the ethical implications arising from inherent biases within these technologies. As AI becomes increasingly integrated into architectural practices, it offers the potential to revolutionize the discipline by enhancing efficiency, creativity, and sustainability. This investigation delves into the history and evolution of AI in architecture, tracing their journey from early computational design experiments to their current applications in generative design and robotic construction, which exemplify the shift towards more innovative and sustainable architectural practices. Furthermore, the essay highlights the involvement of the INNEN research team in integrating AI into academic and research activities within and besides the curriculum. It delves into the ways in which AI technologies are reshaping the boundaries of architectural design and construction, emphasizing on practical applications of AI in architectural design in education and professional work. This analysis uncovers the profound possibilities of AI in formulating groundbreaking design approaches and construction methods, underscoring research's role in propelling architectural thinking and practice forward through the use of technology.

An organizational view of design communication in design collaboration

Within the context of a visual-dominated world and regarding the conventional way of approaching spatial design, spatial designers predominate sight to generate and express ideas and concepts. This research aims to challenge the role of ‘visuals’ in spatial design processes and shift the focus to ‘senses’ and ‘sensation design’. The study [1] reverses the prioritisation of ‘visualisation’ in spatial design processes, and [2] focuses on an alternative spatial design experience that stresses the awareness of all senses except sight. Hence, [3] to question how sensations can be spatialised as ‘conceptual representations’ in the minds, and [4] how these ‘conceptual representations’ can be expressed into new forms of representation. Employing the findings from a design experiment that invited master architecture students to participate in a blind journey and to draw ‘mind maps’ that spatialise their sensory experience, the paper proposes a new perspective to understand and design spaces as [a] a space-time relation and [b] as a series of sensory-stimulating moments that establishes new assemblages of sensory experiences. This paper concludes how participants spatialised sensations and visualised their perception of spaces in three main approaches, arguing about the use of sensory cues other than ocular-centric ones in architectural practice. Suggestions are given on utilising and visualising sensory cues in the spatial design process, which emphasises the awareness and detailing of sensory experiences. Moreover, future research opportunities are discussed, including the potential for the visually impaired to actively engage in the spatial design processes.KeywordsSense and sensation designVisualisationSpatial experience and space-time relationAffect theoryArchitecture

Hybrid CAD/E platform supporting exploratory architectural design

<p>This thesis tests the reuse of design knowledge as a method to support learning and use of algorithmic design in architecture. The use of algorithmic design systems and programming environments offer architects immense opportunities, providing a powerful means to create geometries and allowing dynamic design exploration, but it can also impose substantial challenges. Architects often struggle with adopting algorithmic design methods (translating a design idea into an algorithm of actions), as well as with the implementation of programming languages, the latter often proving frustrating and creating barriers for both novice and advanced software users. The proposition explored in this thesis is that the reuse of design knowledge can improve architects’ ability to use algorithmic design systems, and reduce the barriers for using programming. This study explores and compares two approaches as a means of accessing and reusing existing design solutions. The first approach is the reuse of abstract algorithmic ‘Design Patterns’. The second is the reuse of algorithmic solutions from specific design cases (Case-Based Design). The research was set up as an experimental comparative study between three test groups: one group using Design Patterns, a second group using Case-Based Design, and the control group. A total of 126 designers participated in the study providing sufficient numbers within each group to permit rigorous studies of the statistical significance of the observed differences. Results of this study illustrate that the systematic inclusion of the Design Patterns approach to the learning strategy of programming in architecture and design, proves to be highly beneficial. The use of abstract solutions improves designers’ ability to overcome programming barriers, and helps architects to adopt algorithmic design methods. The use of Design Patterns also encourages design exploration and experimentation. The use of the Case-Based Design approach seems to be more effective after designers and architects, who are novices in programming, gain more experience with the tool. It encourages more focused reasoning, oriented to the realisation of a particular (originally intended) design outcome. The contribution of this research is to provide empirical evidence that the reuse of abstract and case-based algorithmic solutions can be very beneficial. Results of this study illustrate that both reuse methods can be strategically integrated into design education and architectural practice, supporting learning and use of algorithmic design systems in architecture. The study also identifies potential weaknesses of each approach, proposing areas which could be addressed by future studies.</p>

<p>This thesis tests the reuse of design knowledge as a method to support learning and use of algorithmic design in architecture. The use of algorithmic design systems and programming environments offer architects immense opportunities, providing a powerful means to create geometries and allowing dynamic design exploration, but it can also impose substantial challenges. Architects often struggle with adopting algorithmic design methods (translating a design idea into an algorithm of actions), as well as with the implementation of programming languages, the latter often proving frustrating and creating barriers for both novice and advanced software users. The proposition explored in this thesis is that the reuse of design knowledge can improve architects’ ability to use algorithmic design systems, and reduce the barriers for using programming. This study explores and compares two approaches as a means of accessing and reusing existing design solutions. The first approach is the reuse of abstract algorithmic ‘Design Patterns’. The second is the reuse of algorithmic solutions from specific design cases (Case-Based Design). The research was set up as an experimental comparative study between three test groups: one group using Design Patterns, a second group using Case-Based Design, and the control group. A total of 126 designers participated in the study providing sufficient numbers within each group to permit rigorous studies of the statistical significance of the observed differences. Results of this study illustrate that the systematic inclusion of the Design Patterns approach to the learning strategy of programming in architecture and design, proves to be highly beneficial. The use of abstract solutions improves designers’ ability to overcome programming barriers, and helps architects to adopt algorithmic design methods. The use of Design Patterns also encourages design exploration and experimentation. The use of the Case-Based Design approach seems to be more effective after designers and architects, who are novices in programming, gain more experience with the tool. It encourages more focused reasoning, oriented to the realisation of a particular (originally intended) design outcome. The contribution of this research is to provide empirical evidence that the reuse of abstract and case-based algorithmic solutions can be very beneficial. Results of this study illustrate that both reuse methods can be strategically integrated into design education and architectural practice, supporting learning and use of algorithmic design systems in architecture. The study also identifies potential weaknesses of each approach, proposing areas which could be addressed by future studies.</p>

<p><b>The architect-self is inevitably expressed in the design process and architectural outcome; often, in more nuanced ways than is admitted. Whether it is a world-renowned architect (Pallasmaa, 2005, p. 73; Souto De Moura, 2019, p. 243-244; Zumthor, 1998, p. 9-10) or a student of architecture, designers intuitively draw on personal spatial experience and knowledge in their design decisions (Van Schaik, 2008). To further explore the architect-self in the design process and architectural outcome, this research focuses directly on autoethnography as a design research method. Through a series of personal design speculations into therapeutic space, architecture’s reliance on the architect’s self is revealed and intensified, posing questions about the connection between designer and space.</b></p> <p>Autoethnography is “research, writing, story, and method that connects the autobiographical and personal to the cultural, social, and political” (Ellis, 2012, p. 49). It is a research method that uses the researcher’s personal experience to describe and analyse social and cultural beliefs, practices, and experiences, and interrogates the intersections between the researcher-self and society through reflective practice. It carefully balances academic rigour, emotion and creativity, and strives for social justice (Denzin, 2014, p. 25). Also, the aspect that relates explicitly to architectural research is that autoethnography assumes a mutual relationship between the audience of stories/inhabitants of space and the researcher/designer that creates it, compelling a complex response.</p> <p>The research sets a refined scope within the topic of ‘therapeutic architecture’ to investigate autoethnographic methodology in architecture research. The general aim of ‘therapeutic architecture’ is a promotion of one’s ‘health and wellbeing’, which is an extremely personal and private matter, yet socially determined. In this context, autoethnography provides a unique approach to the topic. This research addresses the underexplored personal and social aspects of architecture, using therapeutic space as a vehicle and autoethnography as a method.</p> <p>The research methodology was adapted to include both autoethnography and “research by design” (Roggema, 2016, p. 3) methods. First, the author’s therapeutic and anti-therapeutic spatial experiences were collected as data. Reading Hermann Schmitz’s New Phenomenology, his central concept of the felt body, the ‘vital drive’, was applied to determine therapeutic (‘corporeal expansion’) and anti-therapeutic (‘corporeal contraction’) (Schmitz et al., 2011, p. 245-246) nature of experience. Expanding on the traditional autoethnographic method, in addition to written vignettes, data was collected in various modes including physical models, audio and video recordings, photo collages, found items, and more.</p> <p>Following this, data analysis revealed themes and elements that composed therapeutic spatial affects as perceived by the author, bound into design experiments. Analyses were conducted through narrative and contextual investigations, locating the personal spatial experience in the broader local, social, cultural, and political frameworks. It was an important step where autobiography became autoethnography; it explained and critiqued the conceptual frameworks of the author’s experience. The generated insights became the basis of a series of therapeutic spatial design interventions. This methodology resulted in the design process and architectural outcomes being taken beyond their inherent autobiographical nature and towards a close understanding of design’s situated context.</p> <p>The thesis is a proof-of-concept of employing a qualitative research method – autoethnography – within the discipline of architecture, where the method was previously unattempted. Using the objective of understanding therapeutic architecture and its affects to demonstrate the new, innovative methodology, it argues the need to reconsider the relationship between architectural design practice and therapeutic affects. Autoethnography in architecture compels the architect/ researcher/author to acknowledge and investigate the architect-self earnestly, and subsequently, the architectural design process could become a lens to understand and critique its social and cultural context and produce design outcomes accordingly.</p>

<p><b>The architect-self is inevitably expressed in the design process and architectural outcome; often, in more nuanced ways than is admitted. Whether it is a world-renowned architect (Pallasmaa, 2005, p. 73; Souto De Moura, 2019, p. 243-244; Zumthor, 1998, p. 9-10) or a student of architecture, designers intuitively draw on personal spatial experience and knowledge in their design decisions (Van Schaik, 2008). To further explore the architect-self in the design process and architectural outcome, this research focuses directly on autoethnography as a design research method. Through a series of personal design speculations into therapeutic space, architecture’s reliance on the architect’s self is revealed and intensified, posing questions about the connection between designer and space.</b></p> <p>Autoethnography is “research, writing, story, and method that connects the autobiographical and personal to the cultural, social, and political” (Ellis, 2012, p. 49). It is a research method that uses the researcher’s personal experience to describe and analyse social and cultural beliefs, practices, and experiences, and interrogates the intersections between the researcher-self and society through reflective practice. It carefully balances academic rigour, emotion and creativity, and strives for social justice (Denzin, 2014, p. 25). Also, the aspect that relates explicitly to architectural research is that autoethnography assumes a mutual relationship between the audience of stories/inhabitants of space and the researcher/designer that creates it, compelling a complex response.</p> <p>The research sets a refined scope within the topic of ‘therapeutic architecture’ to investigate autoethnographic methodology in architecture research. The general aim of ‘therapeutic architecture’ is a promotion of one’s ‘health and wellbeing’, which is an extremely personal and private matter, yet socially determined. In this context, autoethnography provides a unique approach to the topic. This research addresses the underexplored personal and social aspects of architecture, using therapeutic space as a vehicle and autoethnography as a method.</p> <p>The research methodology was adapted to include both autoethnography and “research by design” (Roggema, 2016, p. 3) methods. First, the author’s therapeutic and anti-therapeutic spatial experiences were collected as data. Reading Hermann Schmitz’s New Phenomenology, his central concept of the felt body, the ‘vital drive’, was applied to determine therapeutic (‘corporeal expansion’) and anti-therapeutic (‘corporeal contraction’) (Schmitz et al., 2011, p. 245-246) nature of experience. Expanding on the traditional autoethnographic method, in addition to written vignettes, data was collected in various modes including physical models, audio and video recordings, photo collages, found items, and more.</p> <p>Following this, data analysis revealed themes and elements that composed therapeutic spatial affects as perceived by the author, bound into design experiments. Analyses were conducted through narrative and contextual investigations, locating the personal spatial experience in the broader local, social, cultural, and political frameworks. It was an important step where autobiography became autoethnography; it explained and critiqued the conceptual frameworks of the author’s experience. The generated insights became the basis of a series of therapeutic spatial design interventions. This methodology resulted in the design process and architectural outcomes being taken beyond their inherent autobiographical nature and towards a close understanding of design’s situated context.</p> <p>The thesis is a proof-of-concept of employing a qualitative research method – autoethnography – within the discipline of architecture, where the method was previously unattempted. Using the objective of understanding therapeutic architecture and its affects to demonstrate the new, innovative methodology, it argues the need to reconsider the relationship between architectural design practice and therapeutic affects. Autoethnography in architecture compels the architect/ researcher/author to acknowledge and investigate the architect-self earnestly, and subsequently, the architectural design process could become a lens to understand and critique its social and cultural context and produce design outcomes accordingly.</p>