Graduate Thesis

Mercurial Architecture

Thesis Question:

How can the open-source ecology of internet culture influence architecture to navigate between permanence and ephemerality?

Abstract:

Meaning, process and agency are an everyday part of the architecture profession, yet our cultural contribution to the world is more often characterized by empty signature buildings and globalized products. The formal nature of architecture renders the profession vulnerable to devolve into a marginalized vocation. How can we seek to re-inject meaning, process and agency back into architecture? What model can serve as precedent for this idea? Since the birth of the internet, there has been a tech-based subculture that embodies meaning, process and agency in contrast to the prominence of automated product driven systems that seem to engulf our everyday lives. We are on a precipice where conventional industrial era, top-down systems are beginning to be challenged by emergent bottom-up, crowd accelerated movements. This potential revolution might be a paradigm shift toward a more open future where the greater good is embodied in self-interest. The collaborative nature of this open-source culture is similar to the process of architecture, yet many architectural constructs are still viewed as mere objects derived from genius sketches of an individual designer. This thesis seeks to investigate the symbiotic potential of open-source culture and architecture. The goal is to create a more honest, collaborative and user-based archetype that will inject greater meaning, process and agency into architecture while serving as a platform to grow open-source culture. The intent is to generate an open system where the use of the architecture stimulates the evolution of its formal and theoretical meaning while empowering more users in an unending, crowd accelerated cycle.

Design Process