MICROINFRASTRUCTURES:

Global-Network of Technology that increases sustainable consumption of resources;

with the emergence of trans-disciplinary neoarchitecture, cities and culture will produce

a new symbiotic industry.

BY

JAMES H. WARD, III

© 2011 JAMES H. WARD, III

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Architecture

School of Architecture Pratt Institute

MAY 2011

MICROINFRASTRUCTURES:

Global-Network of Technology that increases sustainable consumption of resources;

with the emergence of trans-disciplinary neoarchitecture, cities and culture will produce

a new symbiotic industry.

BY

JAMES H. WARD, III

Received and approved:

_____________________________________________________ Date_____________

Thesis Advisor

2

3

Acknowledgements

I wish to extend my sincere thanks:

To Jason Vigneri Beane and Vito Acconci, my Studio Coordinators, for extending

my conceptual though of what architecture can be; to Hina Jamelle and Yael

Erel my toughest critics, thank you for pushing me; and to Bill McDonald, my

department Chair, for his wisdom and consideration.

To the Faculty of the Pratt School of Architecture, Graduate and Undergraduate,

thank you for your support.

To my peers, who have taught me the most:

Seraphin Bernard, Leander George, Radek Krysztofiak, Eduardo Gomez, Tony

Martin and Reynolds Diaz.

To David Shorter and Rodney Leon for taking the risk.

To my parents, I extend a heartfelt thanks for the years of support and

encouragement, and for not blinking an eye when I decided to enter Fine Art

and then Architecture school.

And to Zonasha for your patience, kindness and love.

CHAPTERS

Introduction to Near Futures!8‣ Utopian vs Sustainability in Architecture‣ The incapability of the architectural world to suggest and

plan for what the future may hold.‣ How Transportation Infrastructure Destroyed Urban

Communities in New York City.

Climatic Scenario!18‣ 7° Fahrenheit: Global Warming Catastrophe‣ The End of the Costal Metropolis

Implementation of Technology!26‣ The Nervous System - War Dynamics in Computational Logic.‣ The Gestalt‣ Cybernetics in Practical Application

Site + Program!38‣ 38 Water Street, Brooklyn, New York‣ Research + Manufacture = Solution

Process of Making - Mircoinfrastructure Module!40‣ The Dynamic Energy Production Module‣ The Symbiotic Industry Institute

Appendex!44‣ Document 0 - Seven Questions

List of Figures!52

Bibliography!54

6

Introduction to Near Futures

Architecture in the context of the near future scenario focuses on the abilities of

the built world to influence the human condition on this planet and off. The focus

of designers in these scenarios usually is to enrich humanity and to gain a further

sense of utopia, though the use of sustainable concepts, innovative approach,

and a clear social objective.

Utopian vs Sustainability in Architecture

Notions of Utopian Architecture focus on a set of experimental practices and

polemics that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Primarily conceptual

work of a counterculture that sought to bring about the a belief that

architecture can be ethically and politically relevant. Buckminster Fuller’s domes;

psychedelic and intermedia environments;

the video and architectural collective Ant Farm and the politics of ecology; the

early experimental practices of Rem Koolhaas; and, connecting these earlier

practices to the present day, the missed opportunities for political engagement

in the competition sponsored by the Lower Manhattan Development

Corporation for the World Trade Center site. At a time of increasing

receptiveness to thinking politically about architecture and design.1 The social

interactions establish in Utopian ideals are concerned with the engineering of

social relations such that they are under the influence of a governing body

whom incentives/dissentive individual behavior; to establish an artificial human

order. In some ways, social engineering which attempts to place limits on human

behaviors and attitudes is a constraint on free will.

B. F. Skinner, described his view of a utopian socially engineered community in his

1948 novel Walden Two. Two attempts were subsequently made in 1967 and

1973 to create communities along the principles outlined in the book. Skinner

denied that free will existed and that the closest that any individual could come

to true freedom is a situation where the person is not aware of the social

engineering control systems around them.2

8

For Karl Popper, the difference between 'piecemeal social engineering' and

'Utopian social engineering' is "the difference between a reasonable method of

improving the lot of man, and a method which, if really tried, may easily lead to

an intolerable increase in human suffering. It is the difference between a method

which can be applied at any moment, and a method whose advocacy may

easily become a means of continually postponing action until a later date, when

conditions are more favorable. And it is also the difference between the only

method of improving matters which has so far been really successful, at any

time, and in any place, and a method which, wherever it has been tried, has led

only to the use of violence in place of reason, and if not to its own

abandonment, at any rate to that of its original blueprint".3

In the microinfrastructures model of sustainability, the order is produced through

social awareness. The consumers are incentivized through energy cost savings,

and increased efficiency though the expansion of the component system and

more over, with the collaboration of neighbors. The education of sustainable

practices come from the use of the product, which can and will have positive

tangible effects on the user. Thus promoting a sustainable lifestyle.

Through the implementation of social awareness participants are encouraged

toward a more desirable social order through facts and monetary savings which

intern promote healthy behavior. Verses the social engineering approach which

creates a condition by which the society is only preforming the task because

there is no other forceable option which does not promote a healthy society,

who intent is to progress. Instead the society remains in an artificial state of

behavior.

9

The incapability of the architectural world to suggest and plan for what the

future may hold.

Many of the current architectural models are content with working within the

confines of well establish building practices. Suppressing the demand for

alternative technologies that are not only less expensive, but social responsible.

Allowing for the building industry to take an active role in reducing energy

demands, and to apply the usage of recycled materials. Successive waves of

technology have produced a complex mass of pipes and wires to produce a

physical mesh that is now juxtaposed with the emerging wireless city to produce

an increasingly differentiated patchwork of connectivity in comparison with the

more standardized landscapes associated with the ‘Fordist’ metropolis. 2

Alternatively, the construction of luxury developments provides a lineage to

authoritarian spaces of ‘super consumption’ by which individuals of means

construct architectural monuments to glorify their wealth and status for the

vanity. Such is the case of Dubai and others, that are in turn linked to crime, tax

avoidance and oil wealth 4

Conversely the concept of sustainability in architecture has become somewhat

of a perverse conviction, in which designers play the ‘sustainability game’ from

sustainable airports, sustainable shopping centers, sustainable luxury hotels,

sustainable office blocks, sustainable cities in the middle of deserts or

sustainable single private dwellings for the ultrarich, we will, no doubt, see a

gritty ‘new realism’ starting to appear in architectural discourse that responds

to the new economic conditions. “The critical and intellectual ambitions

inspired by Jaques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, and guy Debord have been

replaced with the monetarist ideologies of Milton Friedman and Alan

Greenspan.” 5

Designing traditional architectural models with nontraditional methods.

Providing little to no benefit to the vast majority of the global population.

Sustainability is becoming, a chic luxurious option for the super rich to feel as

though their contributing to the health and well-being of the Earth. The fact is

10

that building even a sustainable city in desert is in fact doing more harm to the

world in merely its construction and servicing, which can far out way any

energy savings it might gain. Partially because such places like Dubai and Abu-

Dabi have built cities for millions but do not maintain a constant population,

and of the constant population most will never enjoy all that was built for only a

few.

How Transportation Infrastructure Destroyed Urban Communities in New York City.

The invention of the combustable engine for the use in automobiles has a direct

relationship to the built landscape of modern America cities. This uniquely

“American” mega infrastructure is possible only because of the biological

formation of American cities, not as central place hierarchies but as a complex

network of large cities and small towns that work together in a symbiotic

relationship trading goods and services from coast to coast. With each region

participating in the national economies of scale; largely in agriculture and meat

cultivation. While still contributing to the global markets with economies of

agglomeration, in specialized regions such as Silicon Valley, California and New

York city’s, Wall Street.

In order for the American National Market to succeed in getting is resources and

information to the port cities for use and export and exploitation the country has

to transform its loosely connected roads and interstate routes in to a complex

system of Interstate Highways, by which the flow of people into the country.

Along with, goods and services out of the country. This undertaking began in

11

1956 by executive order of then US

President Eisenhower. Who had seen a

similar system in Germany, when he

was then five star General Eisenhower.

He saw its example of an efficient

means for private and commercial

transportation as well as its ability to

provide key ground transport routes for

military supplies and troop deployments

in case of an emergency or foreign

invasion. Nearly a decade later the

interstate highway was paired with a

system of local and state highways. This combined network constitutes todays

superhighways that span America from east to west, north and south and

continues to expand today, in both width and length to accommodate the

growing population that live and work in more further distances than ever.

However, with a this golden age of automobile transportation, also came much

hard ship. For the communities that lay in the path of an impending roadway

project. It was a nightmare scenario.

After World War II, many reunited families bought homes in record numbers due

to the availability of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans and the GI Bill

(officially the Serviceman's Readjustment Act). After the war America was

economically vibrant and growing at a steady pace. Many of these home sales

12

FIG. 01

FIG. 02

were in so-called bedroom communities on the newly formed suburbanized

America. This was the second component to the planned network of interstate

highways. With the development of planned communities outside of the large

cities, these suburbanites developed a new series of economical hierarchies.

Now that the large cities are no longer the primary source for both jobs, housing

and education. The suburban communities developed new economies no

longer dependent on a single large city but now are an intermediate source of

education and jobs between multiple cities. However, with all of this focus on

development in the bedroom communities. Large cities such as New York saw a

decline in the upper and middle class population, as they fled to Levittown's,

and other planned suburbs. In Harlem, then a largely African American

community those who could afford to left as well, but mostly to former white

communities in the outer boroughs. At the same time New York City and New

York State were undertaking multiple large infrastructure projects under the

direction of urban planner Robert Moses.

In the 1940s, 1950’ and 1960s New York City under went numerous public works

and infrastructure projects such as the creation of Jones Beach, Shea Stadium,

Lincoln Center, 10 gigantic Pools, 4 Bridges and the 13 massive expressways

across the heart of New York City. Many of these public works projects were

designed to make New York City well equipped for 20th century encompassing

the growing car culture. However, the disparaging consequence of all this

development was that there were already homes and business in the planned

locations for every one of these projects. For those wealthy and influential like J.P.

Morgan, Jr., a legal dispute allowed plans to be changed as it would concern

their land holdings. However, many working class neighborhoods throughout

New York City were demolished to make way. A pattern of barrier to access for

non-white citizens began to emerge. Many of these public projects actively

precluded the use of public transit that would have allowed non car owners to

enjoy the elaborate recreation facilities built by Moses. This was still in a time

when minorities were discriminated against outright by some members of public

office (of which Moses was not). Nonetheless, Moses along with other members

of the New York City planning commission, were vocal opponents against black

13

war veterans moving into Stuyvesant Town, a Manhattan residential

development complex created to house World War II veterans.

The increasing racist sentiment in black communities in New York, sparked a

continuing trend around the country. This phenomenon was called the freeway

revolts. In the 1960s and 1970s many North American cities planned construction

projects that would disrupt or displace entire neighborhoods. Some of these

protest were successful at scaling back or outright canceling these projects in

places such as Portland, Oregon, San Francisco, San Diego, Washington DC,

Baltimore, Phenix, Memphis, Toronto, and Los Angeles. New York City was not on

that list. However, the plans in 1964 to build a Mid-Manhattan Expressway, and

14

FIG. 03

Lower Manhattan Expressway both failed in part because of the efforts of urban

Activist Jane Jacobs. Jacobs book The Death and Life of Great American Cities

was instrumental in turning opinion against Moses’s plans to build a

superhighway through Greenwich Vil lage and what is now SoHo.

Notwithstanding, today the remnants of once thriving neighborhoods remains in

some parts of Harlem. From the West Harlem is straddled by both New York State

Road 9A and Riverside Drive; the George Washington Bridge bisects Harlem West

to East with two (2) levels of Interstate 95. Harlem River Drive and the Metro

North Elevated railway define the Western boundary. All of this was done to

provide for the increasing car culture that contributed to the expansion of

wholesale ghettos, decay, middle-class and urban flight, and blight. Beginning in

the 1960 and reaching a peak in the 1990s, public opinion and the ideals of

many in the city planning profession shifted away from this strand of a car-

oriented city. Today many of the Robert Moses projects are being revisited both

for possible demolition and/or rehabilitation to focus on urban planning using the

virtues of intimate neighborhoods and smallness of scale.

As a consequence to the rapid rescaling of New York City, many slums

characterized by tenement and low density housing, were cleared to make way

for new transportation corridors. Many of these residents were relocated into

massive, and unattractive public housing towers. These towers were built

according to the tower in the park scheme developed by modernist architects

like Mies van de Rohe and Le Corbusier. Often they required almost as many

housing units to be destroyed as to be built. Using this concept of urban

renewal, as since become a controversial debate of Urban renewal as

community development. Initially the objective was to provide a solution for

Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty and in 1968, the housing and Urban

Development Act and the New Communities Act of 1968 guaranteed private

financing for entrepreneurs to plan and develop new communities, and the

Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 established the Community

Development Block Grant program (CDBG) which began in with the best

intentions to focus on redevelopment of existing neighborhoods and properties,

rather than demolition. Jane Jacobs was the champion of this idea, in her book

15

The Death and Life of Great American Cities, she outlines her critique of

modernist planning policies. Planners like Moses, were rejecting the city’s ability

to develop a layered complexity in what is seemingly chaos. In its place were

created monoliths to deductive reasoning that destroyed communities and

innovative economies of agglomeration, by creating isolated and unnatural

urban spaces. Jacobs argued that the vitality of a community comes from layers

of social interactions that occur only when a community has multiple intimate

interactions, of which can only be achieved though “commerce and culture in

the intimate and casual life of cities.” In many instances the low income projects

have become worse centers of delinquency, vandalism and general social

hopelessness that the slums they were supposed to replace. Likewise the

construction of cultural centers that are avoided by everyone but bums and

commercial centers that are unimpressive versions of Walmart and Costco(both

of which are noticeably absent from the New York City commercial landscape).

Promenades that go from no place to nowhere and have no promenaders.

Expressways that have pierced and cut through great cities. Jacobs introduced

the idea that this is “not the rebuilding of cities, [rather that] this is the sacking of

cities.”

It was a failure for planners to use the city as an immense laboratory of trial and

error, failure and success in city building design, that has lead to the severe

urban condition we have today in Harlem, south Bronx and across Brooklyn. In

this real world laboratory city planners should have been learning, forming and

testing new theories. Instead practitioners have long ignored the study of

success and failure in real life, and have been incurious about the reasons for

unexpected success and are lead incorrectly by principles derived from the

behavior and appearance of towns and suburbs that have become the model

of the ‘American Dream,' an imaginary concept; instead of using cities

themselves to glean appropriate design strategies. One such strategy is

embodied in the prevalence of public housing. New York City’s 345

developments account for 417,328 residents, these units perpetuate the Jane

Jacobs concept of “Unslumming and Slumming”, where in which an area is in a

state of perpetual slum. This is caused by the income restrictions that force out

16

families that reach a certain income, which in drastic cases causes a wholesale

turnover of inhabitants, who are never able to establish routes and contribute

and build a community. It seems that it is hardly a community but a jungle. This

happens when the new people flooding in have little in common to begin with,

and those who are long time residents become ruthless and bitter; these

individuals set the tone. Anyone who does not like the ‘jungle’ -- which is nearly

everyone leaves, which is the cause for the overwhelming turnover, while those

who are unable to can only dream of escaping by any means necessary. The

perpetual slum’s progress backward, always maintaing a state of communal

infancy, that does not foster the proper social atmosphere for an under

privileged population to mature.

By in large, many of the strategies of urban renewal have implemented by

Robert Moses and others, have defined New York City for many of the millions of

its inhabitants and visitors. In retrospect, today many planners have the

opportunity to investigate the longterm effects the Moses public works projects

have had on the intimate social connections or lack there of in certain

communities. Recently there has been speculation to demolish the Sheridan

Expressway (I-895). The Sheridan connect the Cross Bronx and the Bruckner

Expressways carrying some 50,000 vehicles a day and offers a route for truckers

to reach the major food distribution center in Hunts Point. However, residents

have long complained that it is a barrier between the neighborhood and the

Bronx River. One proposal is to remove the Sheridan to reestablish a residential

neighborhood and expand parkland to the water front. This groups efforts are

apart of a larger national movement to remove highways that destroyed many

urban areas.

The facts are that, in the current time we have the benefit of being able to learn

from the mistakes of the people who inhabited the earth before us; the choice is

ours to repeat those mistakes or to correct them for generations of urban

dwellers that are to come. In this text I have outlined some of the reasons for the

specific degradation of New York City, and large American Cities. My aim is to

awaken designers, and policy-makers alike to make a change in the urban

17

communities that continue to act as perpetual slums. New Yorkers as a whole

cannot be a healthy society as long as so many of its inhabitants are not positive

and active participants in community building at a local level. Likewise, policy

makers should provide incentive for model community building in public housing;

in place of the ‘jungle’ atmosphere that will continue exist as long as people

don't have a the pride of ownership in the place they live. Communities are the

physical manifestation of healthy society. Listening then acting on the concerns

of unhealthy communities will foster a new urbanity in places like Harlem, South

Bronx and Brooklyn. Healing the scars of a physically divided community will not

be easy and not at all should evolve the demolition of working public projects. A

new holistic approach to planning and architecture is needed to find a solution.

Climatic Scenario

The initial climatic scenario begins in the present day situation with inefficient the

consumption of energy resources that will soon provoke a natural response that

will try to reestablish the homeostatic cycles of the Earth that have been

devastated for the needs of humanity.

+ 7° Fahrenheit: Global Warming Catastrophe

Energy consumption in the United States residential and commercial buildings

consume 38,511.7 1trillion BTU of energy 56% of this energy is lost, through the

second law of thermodynamics: heat engines cannot convert 100% of thermal

energy into useful work, and must dump a fraction of waste heat into the

environment. Though this is an unavoidable loss, the overall energy consumption

can be significantly reduced through smarter energy use on the part of the

consumer.

18

The diagram above illustrate the population conglomerations across the United

States. Largely centered on the East cost of the US correspondingly, these are

centered on major cities which have been established as the primary consumers

of energy through buildings, mechanical systems as well as initial construction.

Population density and energy consumption are closely linked; for this reason the

future of society largely hinges on the actions of those persons in these major

cities.

19

FIG. 04

The above diagram was produced in accordance to the impact of Global

temperature rise of 4｡Celsius (7｡Fahrenheit). The impact displayed through

concentric circles, which predict significant temperature fluctuations in north

eastern cities including Washington DC, New York, Ottawa, Chicago, and

Toronto. The temperature differentials can be as high as 18｡-22｡F above

normative conditions. In addition, crops like soybean could decrease in all

regions of production including North and South America, souther and eastern

Asia. In the western region corn and wheat yields could be reduced by up to

40% at low altitudes due to the increasing temperatures, in correlation with an

elevated level of forest-fire in the American Southwest; Mexico; South America,

east of the Andes.

20

FIG. 05

In the extreme northern regions with the prevalence of permafrost will

experience almost a complete disappearance of the near-surface ice, which

will pose a significant risk of infrastructure foundation failure.

These studies help to explain the gravity of the situation of this impending global

catastrophe. With this many people affected, the ways in which everyday

society functions will be forever altered.

The End of the Costal Metropolis

It is a confirmed fact that global warming present the single greatest threat to

humanity and the environment as we know it. The Earth is heating up. In the last

century the average global temperature has climbed about 1° Fahrenheit

(about 0.6° Celsius). This is a natural occurrence, but with the rise of industry the

levels of greenhouse causing CO2 are nearing 390 parts per million. That is 90

parts more than the previous highest levels over the past 650,000 years of Earth’s

history.

Many experts warn, the biggest danger is that global warming will cause sea

levels to rise dramatically through thermal expansion, which has already raised

the oceans 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters). But that's nothing compared to

what would happen if, for example, Greenland's massive ice sheet were to melt.

21

"The consequences would be catastrophic," said Jonathan Overpeck, director of

the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

"Even with a small sea level rise, we're going to destroy whole nations and their

cultures that have existed for thousands of years."

Overpeck and his colleagues have used computer models to create a series of

maps that show how susceptible coastal cities and island countries are to the

sea rising at different levels. The maps show that a 1-meter (3-foot) rise would

swamp cities all along the U.S. eastern seaboard. A 6-meter (20-foot) sea level

rise would submerge a large part of Florida.

The area with summer snowmelt on Greenland in years 1992 and 2002. Image credit: Professor Konrad Steffen, University of Colorado

22

FIG. 06

23

FIG. 07

Impact of oceans rise by 14m on Florida, USASource: Google Earth <http: / /flood.firetree.net/?ll=27.2839,-80.7275&z=10&m=14&t=1>

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24FIG. 08

Implementation of Technology In my research into cybernetics I became interested in the origins of the modern

computer, and what were the reasons why such a device would or could have

been conceived. Of course the modern computer was not the goal and quite

possibly could not have been for seen by the individuals and institutions that

developed first the basic arithmetic devices, and subsequently more advanced

machines. In fact it did become “necessary to preform the individual processes

with a high degree of accuracy that the enormous repetition of the elementary

process should not bring about a cumulative error so great as to swamp all

accuracy”6 As stated by the Norbert Wiener.

This pursuit of a ‘perfect’ machine was not a trivial quest to unlock a simple

calculator, rather an exploration of known complexity in nature; to rebuild first in

mechanical replication, then in complex circuitry. The modern computer was the

unconscious consequence of humanities attempt to recreate life. Early on a

series of requirements for a computing machine were established. The central

adding and multiplying apparatus was designed as numerical, rather than on

the basis of measurement; requiring a new digital process built on switching

devices and electronic tubes rather than gears, or mechanical relays. As seen in

Gottfried Leibniz, the Reasoning Machine of the 1700s. These mechanical

systems were always seen as clever works of mechanical calculation however,

these devices could only handle linear equations and could not calculate

floating point equations which require the device to handle multiple processes

at the same time. As a median improvement on the analog to digital transition

Dr. Vannevar Bush’s differential analyzer was a mechanical hybrid device

consisting of metal rods and gears capable of sixth-order differential equations.

One of the more striking prerequisites was the inclusion of “some existing

apparatus of the Bell Telephone Laboratories.” Immediately one probably

assumes that this could be foreshadowing for the internet as an essential building

block for modern computing. Notwithstanding, one must take in account the

advancement of the Bell Laboratories that were engineering at the time a fax

machine, the “synchronous-sound” for the motion picture industry7.

26

Ultimately it was Dr. Walter A. Shewhart’s work in statistical process control (SPC)8,

that one could assume was what should be integrated. Just the same, it is quite

a wonder that the Bell Labs are responsible for many of the key componentry for

the computer often. The stipulation that “no human intervention form the time

the data is entered until the final results” is one of the most straight forward of the

requirements, in hindsight this is taken for granted when using the modern

computer. Most everyday task from data retrieval to complex 3D modeling

require endless calculations for not only the task completion but the Graphics

User Interface (GUI) to then reprocess for the user to comprehend the intended

result. This simple requirement also has enabled access to anyone with eye hand

coordination. We all just trust that the computer has “all the logical decisions -

built in”. Last is the necessity for an “apparatus for the storage of data” which

should have the capacity record and erase quickly. Essentially a hard drive,

magnetic tape or punch card. All of these are memory devices that record data

at exponentially different capacities. All of these represent ideas which have

been incorporated into the modern ultra-rapid computing machine.They are

also all ideas which are accompanying the study of the nervous system, which

was used as the basis of engineering the computer. The first example of which

was the Atanasoff-Berry computer, which consisted of approximately 270

vacuum tubes, 210 of which were devoted to the arithmetic calculations, 30

tubes controlled the card reader as a punch card for memory, and the

remaining tubes maintained the electrical current through condensers. All of this

in 1940.

The Nervous System - War Dynamics in Computational Logic.

Conflict has long been the mother of invention, humans can wage warfare

aided by the tools of destruction we devise and manufacture. Our use of these

tools is what some define as the basic difference between humans and animals.

However, others would argue that the design and of specific tools of mass

devastation places may people in a subcategory of humanity that is in league

with Hitler, Stalin, and Mau. Today entire nations are positioned as the “axis of

27

evil, for their partaking in nuclear exploration. The pursuit of knowledge is not just

for its own sake, but for the advancement of oneself.

“The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess

caused man to fall.” -Sr. Francis Bacon

With that said, war is often fought against a perceived evil and there are

circumstances in which reality and perception are aligned. Such is the condition

of World War II. Invention flourished because of the nature of the fight; a

contemporary war required modern thinking with modern tools of war.

At the beginning of WWII, the German prestige in aviation and the defensive

position of England turned the attention of many scientist to the improvement of

anti-aircraft artillery. The speed of the airplane had rendered obsolete all

classical methods of the direction of fire, and that it was necessary to build into

the control apparatus all the computations necessary.9 This single necessity

caused an entire industry that is a cyclical loop from war time dilemma to a

research solution, and eventually to consumer utilization. The original task was

simple; devise a method of predictive fire to shoot down enemy aircraft, with

better accuracy. At first seems to be the simple method to extrapolate the

present course of the plane along a straight line. However, by the time the first

shell has burst, the pilot will probably zigzag, stunt or in some other way take

evasive action.

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Scenario aGunner approximates the target position and fires at will.

The pilot must make intelligent use of his chances to anticipate the opportunity

to modify his expected position before the arrival of a shell. On the other hand,

the pilot does not have a completely free chance to maneuver at his will, if he is

traveling at an exceedingly high speed, and any too sudden deviation form his

course will produce an acceleration that will render him unconscious and may

disintegrate the plane.

The complex thought that went into the development of what was formally

called the tachymetric (tachymeter - a surveying instrument for measuring

distance, height, elevation, etc.) anti-aircraft control system. Of which all

modern computer controlled artillery weapons are based upon. In basic

operation the control apparatus has two inputs: Target Acceleration and Target

Position. These parameters are then translated in to a planar control surface;

who’s three dimensional bounding box is the construct safe operational plane of

the target in the X,Y, and Z axises. Acceleration is converted in to a change in

velocity with is then feedback into the input parameters to initiate the new

regimen of flow that when established, takes little time to develop. To complete

29

FIG. 09

the process changes in acceleration must be converted, first into change of

velocity and then into change of position, before the system is finally effective.

All of this made an investigation of the problem of the curvilinear prediction of

flight worth while, whether the results should prove favorable or unfavorable for

the actual use of a control apparatus involving such curvilinear prediction. To

predict the future of a curve is to carry out a certain operation on its past. The

only effort still needed was the formulation of the actually control device.

At the time it was Dr. Vannevar Bush’s differential analyzer which “existed as a

ready-made model of the desired fire control apparatus”. Very quickly this new

technology made its way into the British Royal Navy as the Gyro Rate Unit (GRU)

in 1940. Which fed bearing and elevation date to GRU box computer which also

received ranging data to then directly calculate a targets speed and direction.

This tachometric data was then fed directly into the High Angle Fire Control

System (HACS)10 fire control computer, which was activated by a human input

device, a trigger. This system though updated is largely still in use today, and it set

30

scenario bUsing a tachymetric anti-aircraft fire control system, The computer calculates the required elevat ion and bearing of the AA guns to hit the target based upon its predicted movement.

FIG. 10

a very important precedent in the active role computers play in our modern day

to day activities. Much of which increasingly involves interaction with devices

that either aid in our decision making or entirely usurp human input in favor of the

most positive calculated outcome. For example, most automobiles translate

human input through computer relay to regulate acceleration or compensate

for oversteering, compared to the former mechanical systems that directly

expressed human input. With that said, some automobiles can entirely override

human input.

The 2010 Mercedes E class has 70-sensor points11 which monitor and respond to:

Tire-pressure, proximity to adjacent vehicles, blind spot detection, lane departure

(to wake you up), interior occupancy (for sensitive airbag deployment), stability

control (which will apply the brakes and modulate throttle as needed to help

you maintain control), and in the event of an uncontrollable accident the

31

FIG. 11

vehicle will engage the brake, while simultaneously rolling up the windows,

unlocking the doors, and turning off the engine.12

It seems that the “mechanico-electrical systems designed to usurp human

function” once were made to destroy life, now are readapted to preserve life.

Modernity of thought has transcended humanity from the need to devise only

complex weapons systems, but to provide active solutions for chronic problems,

such as automobile accidents. However, with the study of these feedback

systems one will discover that civil uses were the original intent. As with the most

original example of a feedback system the ship steering ‘governor’, on of the

earliest and best developed feedback mechanisms. Much like in government a

ships governor acts in proxy of a larger ruling body. In the case of boat steering,

the human input is translated through mechanical relays which signal the rudder

to turn the opposite direction to maneuver the ship. In tandem, the rudder is

responding to the current acting against it which is translated back into the

human input device.

It is important to note that for the execution of a complicated pattern of

computation the process always begins with human input before it can assist in a

more desirable performance. For example in some fire control apparatus, the

control system is coupled with the human gun pointer to assist in a more

desirable performance. In conjunction with human input a calculus of reasoning

must be in place for the verifiable validity of the feedback process in forecasting

the future. Just as the calculus of arithmetic lends itself to a mechanization

progressing though the abacus and the desktop computing machine of present

day. So does the calculus ratiocinator of Leibniz, the Reasoning Machine.

Calculus is the study of change13, in the same way geometry is the study of

shape and algebra is the study of operations and their application to solving

equations. Calculus’ widespread applications in science, economic and

engineering can solve many problems for which algebra on its own is not

enough.

32

This is the primary reasoning behind modern computing and cybernetic

feedback loops. Leibniz’s contributions to this field of study was to provide a

clear set of rules for manipulating infinitesimal quantities, allowing for possibility of

computation in the second and higher derivatives. (Derivative, in calculus, is a

measurement of how a function changes when the values of its inputs change.)

In addition Leibniz was responsible for the product rule and chain rule in their

differential and integral forms. Unlike Newton, Leibniz paid close attention to

formalism and continuity in calculus; often spending days formulating

appropriate symbols for his concepts. It is therefore not in the least surprising that

the same intellectual impulse which has led to the development of

mathematical logic has at the same time led to the ideal or actual

mechanization of processes of thought.14 Leibniz was also interested in the

construction of computing machines and produced a metal gear and rod

assembly for the the calculation of second and higher order derivatives. Much

like how we use our calculators of today, Leibniz realized he needed a device to

aid in complex calculation.

In modern computing a spin off of calculus is used as the mathematical logic for

binary code, the language of computers. Which was also derived from the study

of biological neuronal nets. The all or none character of the discharge of the

neurons is precisely analogous to the single choice made in determining a digit

on the binary scale, which more than one of us had already contemplated as

the most satisfactory basis of computing-machine design.15 The heart muscle

represented an irritable tissue as useful for the investigation of conduction

mechanisms as nerve tissue, and furthermore, that the anastomoses and

decussations of the heart muscle fibers presented a simpler phenomenon than

the problem of the nervous synapse. The relation between, tonic, clonic, and

phasic contractions in epilepsy and the tonic spasm, beat, and fibrillation of the

heart. The Statistical technique used in the study of the heart-muscle nets has

been extended to the treatment of neuronal nets, by Walter Pitts.16

33

The Gestalt

He who studies the nervous system cannot forget the mind, and he who studies

the mind cannot forget the nervous system. In this study of the mind and body

the notion of the gestalt emerges. Gestalt is the organized whole that is

perceived as more than the sum of its parts. The biological system is perceived as

just that. Individual organs are nothing with out the body, as the body is not

whole without its organs. Conversely the mind and the study of it “psychology -

has proved to be really nothing more than the physiology of the organs of

special sense.” This is mostly because the study of the mind without its experience

through the body is missing a whole picture. Cybernetics is introducing into

psychology concerns to the physiology and anatomy of the highly specialized

cortical areas connecting with these organs of special sense.

The word 'cybernetics' was introduced by Norbert Wiener (1894–1964), the

distinguished mathematician. It was the title of his book, Cybernetics, Control

and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, published in 1948, and is

the basis of my research into how feedback systems were first developed then

how they have brought about the contemporary condition that is the world we

live in. The word is formed from the Greek kubernetes, meaning 'steersman'. It is a

theory of feedback systems, i.e. self-regulating systems, which is applicable to

machines as with the British Royal Navy GRU as well as to living systems, as with

the nervous system.

“What is mechanism by which we recognize a square as a square, irrespective of its

position, its size and its orientation?”17 - Norbert Wiener

Cybernetics in Practical Application

In the spring of 1947, Dr. McCulloch and Mr. Walter Pitts did a piece of work of

considerable cybernetic importance. Dr. McCulloch had been given the

problem of designing an apparatus to enable the blind to read a printed page

my ear. The production of variable tones effected by type through the agency

of a photocell is an old story, and can be effected by any number of methods.

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The difficulty was to make the patter of the sound substantially the same when

the pattern of the letters is given, whatever the size.

Cybernetics has recently begun to influence emerging architectural trends, with

the introduction of complex homeostatic systems and sophisticated computer

software to match. Rule based design integrates catalytic thinking, which lends

itself to a cybernetic feedback loop system. Examples of this in the built

environment are as simple as sustainable Heating Ventilation and Cooling

(HVAC) design, where the outdoor air supply is monitored for its temperature,

and is then heated or cooled to the desired temperature. However, when the

outdoor air is the ideal temperature, the system can switch to optimize airflow

though a responsive skin, opening windows and adjusting for positive airflow to

not only provide for comfortable temperatures, but to reduce, interior wind

disturbance and ambient noise. These systems are not just possible but are

active in modern architecture today.

A case study of the Arup Campus in Solihull UK (ca.2001), integrates the leading

technological ideals of that firm and was built as a “laboratory inside [the]

organization in which [they] hope to develop new ideas.”18 Arups Associates’

multidisciplinary design approach addressed green issues in the building,

including natural ventilation of deep-plan offices, low-energy design to avoid the

uses of CFC’s and HCFC’s while reducing CO2 emissions. Several well-integrated

strategies were used to attain the designers’ intent and goals. Especially notable

are the roof pods and perforated floor plates that integrate the daylighting and

natural ventilation schemes. The roof-mounted light scoop/chimneys, designed

to enhance stack effect, are coupled with motorized trickle vents for each

facade zone. The Building Management Systems (BMS) controls the trickle vents

and the modulating vents located in the light scoop chimneys to provide natural

ventilation. In addition occupants have control of the operable windows in the

office spaces.

It is important to note that the integration of knowledge in sustainable building

practices and dynamic building system should no longer be regarded as an

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exception in architecture, but the two go hand in hand for the advancement of

the practice. The process of design can also be influenced by a cybernetics of

thought in which the definite analogue of the problem of perception of form,

defined by the Gestalt, which allows us to recognize a square as a square,

irrespective of its position, its size and its orientation.19

Toyo Ito’s Sendai Mediatheque, was derived from a part to whole relationship in

form and function. The building is composed of three simple elements that serve

as a place to unify the primitive human body connected to nature with the body

that is part of the fluid electric world. In the Mediatheque tubes act as both

structure and a vector for daylighting, utilities, networks and systems that allow

for technological communication and vertical mobility, including elevators and

stairs. Each vertical shaft varies in diameter independent of the facade, allowing

for a free form plan which varies from floor to floor. With this relatively simple

assembly of ‘plate’, ‘tube’, and ‘skin’, Ito was able to infuse an understated

complexity in using structural columns as organs in a body leaving the rest of the

open space to flow through the body as a fluid electric space.

Both of these structures can be categorized as homeostatic architecture, which

is described as a system of structure and service integrated to form a feedback

loop providing function through the structural and/or the enclosure apparatus.

The difference between homeostatic and cybernetic has to do with the

progression of past knowledge to predict a future condition. The nature of our

current building technologies prohibit the constant change required for a true

cybernetic response to external pressures on a static structure. Notwithstanding,

the knowledge gained through the implementation of both the Arup Campus

and the Mediatheque, have made possible further exploration in feedback

systems in architecture.

Ultimately the question that should be asked is not weather or not Architecture

should attempt to assume the characteristics of life. But rather, How can

Architecture cyberneticlly interface into a living system? That is to say,

cybernetic architecture should behave such that its host environment should

36

benefit from it, and play an active role in energy production, waste

management, and air purification. Then technology will have enabled humanity

to stop destroying and begin fortifying the Earth.

37

Site + ProgramThe location of the institute was key in determining the how the DEPM would

initially manifest its self in terms of articulating the differentiated uses from

greywater management, to energy harvesting and production. The taxonomy of

module types are highly dependent on site orientation and other microclimate

conditions such as windrose, and mean tide level. These inputs dramatically alter

the the primary module and precipitate an appropriate design response.

Sunpath, Windrose, 50 year flood plane + DEPM Response

38 Water Street, Brooklyn, New York

Historically The 38 Water site was a tobacco factory and a customs check point

for goods coming into the Fulton Ferry area. Interestingly enough, today the site is

apart of a special zoning district devised for the ‘Fulton Ferry’ or ‘Dumbo’ area as

per the zoning ordinance established in 1999. The MX-2 classification is a mixed

use paring of M1 + R3 through R10; allowing for maximum flexibility between the

historical manufacturing district to higher density residential, which coincides with

the current landuse of the neighborhood.

38

FIG. 12

It was important to find a site with a physical location that would be ideal for

manufacturing. Early one of the many goals was to allow the facility to both

design and build the mircoinfrastructure modules while also having the ability to

quickly and easily receive raw materials, and ship out the fished product directly

to the consumer. The 38 Water street site proved to ideally located on the East

River with existing buildings that were once used for medium to small scale

manufacturing.

Research + Manufacture = Solution

The key to the success of the facility is the ability to provide a constructive place

for design research, which can intelligently develop with input from the trans-

disciplinary collaboration, then rapidly developing prototypes eventually leading

to a final product which is produced along an integrated production line.

The ability to quickly realize an architectural product from concept to production

will exponentially increase the effectiveness and a creativity seen in many other

fields of design. This mode of production is directly borrowed from the

automotive industry; where design and production are closely linked and

collaborate at multiple levels, to make adjustments and to actively educate one

another about the tolerances of control and the availability to experiment with

new technologies not only in models, but in built form.

39

Process of Making - Mircoinfrastructure ModuleMircoinfrastructure is the neologism formed from the need to design deployable

systems which form a larger networked system. In this context the system or

systems are intended to make a scaler shift in the componentry and articulation

of larger organized structures, and or facilities, need for the operation of a

society or enterprise.

The Dynamic Energy Production Module

The DEPM is designed as a combination solar energy collector and rain water

catchment apparatus; with the intent of constructing a larger networked

sustainable and expandable energy grid. This product constitutes the first in a

series of proposed ‘microinfrastructures’ that are the means for supporting the

proposed symbiotic industry institute. The DEPM as a line of products will lay a

foundation by which its users can maximize personal energy consumption by

offsetting energy use with localized energy production. In addition to rainwater

storage through an integrated catchment system tuned along a facade surface

in conjunction with solar patterns, prevailing winds, and rainfall percentages.

40

FIG. 13

The Symbiotic Industry Institute

In this hypothetical organization, the intention is to provide a single point of

collaboration for architects, engineers, geologist industrial designers, and social

scientist.

Trans-disciplinary collaboration is key in the practices of the institute. Architects

contribute through the knowledge of design as it pertains to the built

environment and can provide insight into current building practices as a

foundation for innovation and correction in the key areas that negatively affect

the environment. As stated in the opening of this thesis, buildings predominantly

contribute to the energy consumption in America and other industrialized

nations. Engineers, provide a basis for the structural and economical viability of

new and existing building technologies. These expertise can be used to exploit

structural innovation ; with close collaboration with architects, engineers can

better advise others to think about the principals of engineering early in the

design process. Geologist, can contribute through their extensive knowledge of

the Earth and its natural processes in a given site, so that architecture can be

more responsive to the geological history and physical as well as providing for

‘active landscapes’ that engage the environmental structure of a given site.

Industrial Designers, provide insight to rapid production modes that are often

used in the manufacture of automobiles , in addition to providing a technical skill

set that produces highly functional objects at the human scale. Finally, Social

Scientist; contribute with the foresight to create conditions that humanity

responds positively to. Their role is to advise against creating psychologically

uncomfortable space, and product lines, thus effecting the profitability of the

larger institution.

In which this trans-disciplinary group can devise solutions for epidemics and can

hopefully avert pandemic situations through research, design and fabrication of

highly articulated, and easily deployable solutions. Through the development of

sustainable solutions, the institutes core objective is to provide a basis for a new

industry; of Mircoinfrastructure. This industry is defined as any system that is

41

introduced to the consumer as an individual product, which can be networked

with like systems belonging to other individuals. As the network expands the

system increases its benefit to the individual consumer. Thus the product

incentivizes the user to collaborate with neighbors to expand the network for the

greater good of the individuals microhabitat, which can eventually become a

macro-system with many layers of intelligence. The beauty of the system is in its

ability to grow exponentially with Moore’s law20

Once an academic outlier, trans-disciplinary design went mainstream this fall.

Parsons The New School for Design, in New York City, launched the first American

degree program of the type, and curators Michael Rooks and Jonathan D.

Solomon surveyed trans-disciplinary design for the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice

Biennale.

The substance of trans-disciplinary design is still up for grabs. Does it weave

various masteries, remarkably tightly, into a design solution? Or does it “transgress

d i sc ip l inary boundar ies , w i th new

knowledge not contained within any one

of those disciplines,” as Parsons dean Joel

Towers puts it? The approach is largely

agreed upon. Summed up by Biennale

title Workshopping, trans-disciplinary

design is highly inclusive and participatory,

embracing f ie lds as d i sparate as

economics and public policy.

Mason White and Lola Sheppard hadn’t

settled on a definition of trans-disciplinary

design in London in 2003 when they

cofounded Lateral Office, which is now

based in Toronto. White recalls, “I think it

was partly a realization that architecture

has an opportunity to perform in a more

integrated way — and a criticism of the

42

Trans-disciplinary practice in this scheme can be achieved through an integrated knowledge base striving to define a neoarchitecture that can address a particular purpose. This purpose is to establish an architecture that rethinking the traditional notion of inhabitation, and utilizes technology to redesignate landuse and building typology for a more effect future.

FIG. 14

fascination with signature practices.” More recently, the pair has focused on the

economic and ecological causes and consequences of architectural

intervention, although they prefer broad research to partnerships. Lateral’s short-

listed project in last year’s cityLAB WPA 2.0 competition, for example, proposed

transforming the Salton Sea in southwest California — terminating its use as an

agricultural reservoir; redeveloping its coastline into industrial, recreational, and

ecological zones; and floating various pools within the water body to harvest the

sea, regulate its salinity, or attract tourism. “What two issues could be said to

dramatically affect building more than capital and operational costs, and,

increasingly, its role in an urban ecology?” White asks.

Towers — who, predating trans-disciplinary design’s emergence even in

academia, established SR+T Architects with Karla Rothstein in 1992 as a loose

network of collaborators (“We thought that a diversity of opinions would help get

at the most compelling and enduring idea”) — concurs that this burgeoning

approach is well suited to the notion of urban ecology. “In the broadest sense,

ecology is trans-disciplinary activity,” he says. “It is heterogeneous, spatially

complex, and involves social and natural systems and their relationships within

some given boundary.”

Yet such breadth of vision can be applied to small-scale work, too. SR+T

designed the three-family condominium DeanCarlton “in between” financing,

building regulations, construction technology, and other topics. Towers says that

that allowed super-insulating the building and outfitting it with a green roof,

which otherwise would not have been possible with a speculative developer’s

budget. “Design thinkers are particularly well positioned to address the most

complex problems facing society. The sooner we recognize that and shun a

nostalgic view of architectural practice, we’ll be able to regain relevance.” 21

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AppendexDocument 0 - Seven Questions

1. What do you think is the most interesting aspect of (any) contemporary design discourse?

Currently in the design world there is a lot of discussion about how to incorporate sustainability in the practice of architecture, industrial design, and graphic design (print work). Its interesting that the design world has championed the cause of sustainability. Most likely because it is designers that most greatly influence the physical world. It is the ‘stuff ’ that we make that contributes to both the positive and negative factors that will shape a future Earth. Positive in that we can produce products that will actively solve future problems such as global warming. Conversely, the products we design can adversely impact the amount of arable land, due to the expansion of landfills. Sustainability of design will be a large factor of how future generations will live.

2. What are conventions of architecture that you think are becoming irrelevant in relation to changes in contemporary culture? (For the purposes of this exercise let’s admit that there are growing irrelevancies.)

Modernist construction practices are becoming increasingly irrelevant; primarily because of the inefficiencies in both bidding and construction (in terms of interpreting construction documents from drawings to build). The route issue is that of liability, which places the three parties (Owner, Architect, Contractor) in a never ending quandary of displacing blame to avoid financial losses. If the issue of liability were removed or irrevocably settled, the practice of architecture (specially in North America) could progress and be able to produce structures that match the caliber of society of such economic strength, and technological prowess. European countries and even in South America Architecture is advancing with better building practices and construction technologies.

3. What could architecture do to address your response to question number 2?

Using the example of many progressive architecture practices, the American construction industry should embrace integrated building technologies that will provide more efficient bidding, and project management practices. Saving both time and money on both complex and simple projects. One argument against the use of BIM (building information modeling) is that most projects are not complicated enough to require precise management. I contend that, what better an opportunity to train construction managers BIM than to do it with a structure they are well familiar with. This would enable the construction industry to handle the projects of the future that will invariably be increasingly complex and will require more accuracy of build.

4. What would be two venues (clothing, city, desakota, global network, etc.) in which to play out your responses to questions 1-3? Please explain why for each venue.

ClothingThe fashion industry operates at a similar production level as architecture, such that both industries work within accepted boundaries of human accessibility. Much like architecture, materiality and build determine cost and function. Today’s fashion industry uses some form of CAD (computer aided design) some of these technologies are more crude than others. Fashion has yet to embrace 3D in their systems of constructs, many of the embellishments in fashion are still done by hand, largely at

44

the discretion of the craftsperson. Often in large production houses there are multiple iterations of “samples”(a model garment), which are usually built from “patterns”(technical drawings at full scale, of garment pieces) that a third party produced form the designers “TecPack”(gestural drawings with technical specifications). This three (3) step process usually is a global chain of emails, letters, and packages. Of which can be done multiple times until the final sample emerges. From an architects prospective, this is inefficient and could be greatly improved with a specifically built FIM (Fashion Informational Modeling). Architecture is making its presence felt in cutting-edge fashion. The pliable metals, membrane structures, lightweight glasses and plastics used in building construction are creeping onto the catwalk. As they do so, their affect recent textile developments has produced fabrics that enable clothing to act as individual climate-controlled environments that can exchange information with embedded sensors, resulting in wearable dwellings that act as both shelter and clothing. At the same time, architects are borrowing the techniques of pleating, stapling, cutting and draping from traditional tailoring to design buildings that are flexible, interactive, inflatable and even portable.

CityA city would greatly appreciate the implementation of sustainability in construction. An ideal situation would be to start from scratch, however this is not usually the case. Instead, it should be a mandate not a suggestion that all new urban construction should be sustainable. Sustainable in that a new structure should largely contribute to its own energy production, while reducing carbon emissions, and should encourage responsible water consumption and retention. In addition there should be overwhelming incentives for current buildings to retrofit with so-called “green” technologies, that will reduce consumption of natural resources reducing the overall urban, carbon footprint. Such retrofitting could be linked up with new construction projects in proximity to older buildings, and they can work together in the procurement of materials such as insulated windows, efficient appliances, and solar panels. The unison effort would enable whole communities to purchase at wholesale with the contractors, while also supplying additional work for contractors; who will be empowered to hire more workers to preform the additional retrofitting.

Global NetworkToday technology enables teams of people to work on construction projects around the world without ever visiting the site. Such work requires that those involved use technology to communicate clearly and precisely. My personal belief is that as we become more globally minded the more we all will be able to empower human kind towards a more perfect unity. With that said, there will be much adversity to get there. Also, we as designers must not ignore the culture and sociology of a place as we decide to affect it without work. Architecture has long been the physical embodiment of culture, and as more places become urbanely centered its important to deculturalize ones site. With that said its a designers responsibility to learn the building practices of a place in order to better informed on how to proceed in sustainable design. For instance in the Caribbean, the primary focus of shelter building is to allow for cooling through natural ventilation, due to the high temperatures. Passive solar heating strategies would not be applicable in this instance, and could even be an unfortunate outcome if not actively avoided. Conversely, photovoltaics can be use at some capacity everywhere on Earth. This technology has now matured such that it can provide enough power for most common electrical needs. The problem is cost for the most part, despite recent introduction into common hardware stores such as The Home Depot. Solar technology should be mandated in all projects; this would eventually drive the cost of production down, making it even more accessible for retrofit projects. In this manner would provide a global network of independent power generators which would intern reduce the need for mass power generation plants to burn fossil fuels world wide.

45

5. In light of the complexities of contemporary culture, what problematic scenario of the current would do you think architecture should engage more urgently?

Water Management, Energy Production will undoubtedly be the concerns of the future. Freshwater supplies are declining everywhere around the world, with lakes drying up and water tables falling, causing wells to dry up. One day water might be a more valuable resource than oil. Currently there is the technology to better manage fresh water supply through the implementation of active greywater re-usage to flush toilets and irrigate plants. Water is our most precious resource and in contemporary culture that fact is largely ignored.

Energy Production is the other pressing issue of this time. As the transition begins away from fossil fuels, architecture will have to take major steps not only in smarter energy usage but effective energy production at the local (building) scale.

6. In light of rapid advances in and effect of technology (already in place as well as forecasted) in many other fields, what do you think architecture will be capable of in, say thirty years?

Architecture can advance at the pace of the technology that drives it. As Moore’s law states the number of transistors that can be places inexpensively on an integrated circuit will double approximately every two years. Meaning that a thirty (30) year advancement would be 1:1800. [((102)(6months))30years] With this rate of change the possibilities could be endless. But only if the efforts of humanity can avert the global environmental issues that are soon to come. In an ideal situation, the technological efforts of other fields such as industrial design (with transportation), chemical engineering (with new materials), and advanced computers; humanity could be more utopian than ever. It could be an age in which a new freedom of design could allow for buildings thats purpose is expanded to include smart energy grids, that are dependent on individual energy creation. Structures that are not meant to exclude because of the cost of innovation but include for the greater good. Architecture could advance such that buildings do not require destructive forces to erect but can act in symbiosis with the surroundings and ‘grow‘ from them.

7. What are three ways in which contemporary (digital) design techniques could support the production of design work that relates to your responses to questions 1-6?

Digital design techniques today are changing the way architecture is perceived from a system of basic shelter, to an integrated series of emergent properties that can be responsible for a number of methodologies to symbiotically exist. Meaning that this new architecture should first actively participate in social energy creation. As well as addressing the need for shelter as well as using the innovative integrated technology to assist in the fabrication of complex but purposeful space. In doing these two things the pure design aesthetic should evoke a strong response by those who experience it as one should be made aware of a purpose of this place, and it should be evident that its purpose is good.

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MAJOR SUPERTREND > ENERGY CONSUMPTIONMINOR SUPERTREND > GEO NETWORK

NEAR FUTURE SCENARIO > SYMBIOTIC INDUSTRY

SENERIO FORMULATION >SCALE>INPUTS>SCOPE>TERMS

HOW TO CHANGE THE PRACTICE OF ARCHITECTURE?>NGO - design structures for statless people>Make responce to desaster senerio.

>When in time?

>Before = Prevention

>During = Reaction

>After = Rebuild

REVOLUTIONARY ARCHITECTURE MODEL>Develop Company

>Catalogue

>Services

>Cost

Cross disciplinary practice in this scheme can

be achieved through an integrated knowledgebase striving to define a neoarchitecture thatcan address a particular purpose. This purposeis to establish an architecture that rethinking thetraditional notion of inhabitation, and utilizestechnology to redesignate landuse and buildingtypology for a m

ore effect future.

JAMES H. WARD,IIIM.S. Arch Thesis Research

11|17|2010

47

FIG. 15

48

FIG. 16

49

FIG. 17

50

FIG. 18

51

FIG. 19

List of FiguresFig. 1a. “Peter Farmer.” Photograph. personal.psu.edu. The Coexistence Problem, 1 February 2009. Web. 10 Sept. 2010.

Fig. 01. “Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.” Illustration. wikipedia.com. 3 September 2010. Web.

Fig. 02. “Map of Current Interstates.”,”Map of 1959 Interstates.” Map. National Atlas.gov. 13 July 2006. Web.

Fig. 03. “Freeway Construction in Los Angeles.” Photograph. dot.ca.gov. Web.

Fig. 04. “US Population Density.” Map. Google Earth - CIESIN/Nature. 2010. Web.

Fig. 05. “The Impact of Global Temperature Rise of 7° F.” Map. Google Earth - Met Office. n.d. Web.

Fig. 06. “Snowmelt on Greenland in years 1992 and 2002.” Map. cires.colorado.edu Professor Konrad Steffen, University of Colorado. 19 May 2005. Web

Fig. 07. “Impact of oceans rise by 14m on Florida, USA” Photograph. Google Earth flood.firetree.net/. 2007. Web

Fig. 08. “Decade of Disaster” Diagram. World Disasters Report. 2010. PDF file.

Fig. 09. “Gunner approximates the target position and fires at will.” Diagram. James Ward. 2010.

Fig. 10. “Using a tachymetric anti-aircraft fire control system” Diagram. James Ward. 2010.

Fig. 11. “Composition of the Team and Air Defense of the Ship ” Diagram. B.R. 224/45. n.d.

Fig. 12. “Sunpath, Windrose, 50 year flood plane + DEPM Response” Diagram. James Ward. 2011.

Fig. 13. “DEPM Panel Surface Articulation” Diagram. James Ward. 2011.

Fig. 14. “Trans-Disciplinary Practice” Diagram. James Ward. 2010.

Fig. 15. “Near-Future Scenario” Diagram. James Ward. 2010.

Fig. 16 -19. “Final Presentation Boards” Presentation. James Ward. 2011.

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54

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20 Moore's law describes a long-term trend in the history of computing hardware. The number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. This trend has continued for more than half a century and is expected to continue until 2015 or 2020 or later.[Kanellos, Michael (19 April 2005). "New Life for Moore's Law". cnet. Retrieved 2009-03-19.]

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