| dc.description.abstract | The architectural theorist and practitioner Bernard Tschumi asserts that enquiring and
working at the limits of a discipline expands our knowledge and experience. Within this
thesis I examine the limits of architecture as they relate to the non-material and the nonvisible
elements of space. As Mark Wigley observes in his essay on atmosphere, architects,
at different times, have sought to understand, capture and control the otherwise ungraspable
aspects of space.
The elusive nature of such ephemeral architectural aspects and elements makes them hard to
manage and map. Their examination provides a challenging exercise within architectural
research. Atmosphere is such an elusive element; as Zizek would call it, it is that which
remains always as a backdrop to daily life. It seems to vanish when subjected to conscious
scrutiny. Non-visual sensations such as sounds, smell, textures, temperature, clearly
constitute invisible elements that are notoriously difficult to represent. As a further example,
event, the way in which a space is or could be deployed or inhabited over time, provides
another unpredictable and ambiguous design consideration.
Spaces relate to performance. The performance of a place constitutes its nature, character,
function and meaning. However, the complexity, changeability, and potentiality of spatial
performance render it as something abstract and non-representable. As Steven Connor, and
Jonathan Hill, amongst other theorists, observe, new media, electromagnetic fields, and
digital gadgets, also constitute invisible elements of space. They create invisible fields,
territories, links and boundaries, affecting everyday spaces and relationships. So a typology
of the elusive and ephemeral characteristics of space would include: non-conventional
materials, elements changing over time, electromagnetic fields, electronic equipment, nonvisually
representable sensations, situations, processes and events.
Attending closely to these themes reveals some key questions. Why do these themes appear
(or re-appear) now, at this particular moment in history? How are they related to
contemporary thought, practice, and to current shifts in society, culture and technological
development?
New technology, new means of representation, and emerging design media change both the
way in which we inhabit space, and also the way in which we understand and represent it.
Digital media allow us to record and represent time and duration. Hence, events and
situations occurring over time can be documented and studied. Subsequently, new media can
also function as a new tool to think about space, and for designing accordingly. As Marshall
McLuhan claimed in the 1960s, the emergence of new digital media has caused a ‘shift in the
sensorium’ and has readdressed the significance and role of experiencing and sensing other
than through the visual sense.
In this thesis I discuss in turn a series of limits and the qualities of the spaces that they
reveal. Each chapter title is based on a binary and a theme that indicates its transgression: (a)
the visual versus the non-visible – the sensuous (chapter 2), (b) the discourse about the
formal versus the material – the performative (chapter 3), (c) the physical versus the digital –
the hybrid (chapter 4).
In order to examine these themes and explore the design potential they entail, I review
relevant literature in parallel with the conduct of a series of design experiments. The
experimental processes deployed are of three kinds: (1) mapping and documentation of
sensory situations, (2) design experiments that challenge the issues discussed and (3) real-scale interventions that test some of the design ideas at a 1:1 scale and in an actual place. The
latter includes a major installation at the 2009 Venice Biennale on the theme of Athens by
Sound initiated and designed by a team involving the author. | en |
