Thesis Type: Postgraduate
Institution Of The Thesis: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Faculty of Architecture, Department of Architecture, Turkey
Approval Date: 2015
Student: EGEMEN BERKER KIZILCAN
Supervisor: ZEYNEP MENNAN
Abstract:Expressions in architecture, as modes of conveying information, have the power to shape perception and thinking, as well as architectural production. Architectural conception is today induced by custom information models with the advent of technologies and methodologies associated with the computational paradigm and therefore are capable of inhabiting complex orders that arise from a multiplicity of concerns. Architecture is no longer constituted by the fixity of a single instance of form, instead possibility spaces which represent the mutability of form and which extend the solution set are being privileged for exploring the qualitative aspects or testing outcomes of design approaches. Architecture’s relation with aspects of information, complexity, multiplicity and changeability in design conceptualization requires expressions that are efficient in providing for such aspects, besides establishing the dialogue between conceptualization and information. The thesis provides a discussion of the multi-faceted issues regarding the expression of design intention and thinking in the context of computational design, exploring dualities between visual and relational reasoning as well as between conceptual and perceptual structures of expression. The study presents challenges in terms of the computational architectural design paradigm regarding the management of complexity and form mutability, and to this end, develops two concepts/approaches/qualities, form-blindness and softform, that are exhibited in current architectural expressions and thinking. Form-blindness denotes a controlled level of specificity about form and the postponement of its fixation in a certain implementation, while ensuring complexity management and multiplicity. Softform, on the other hand, infers encapsulations of mutable forms that can incarnate multiple instances, to enable exploration and multiplicity in design.