Architecture-Instrument: The Architecture-Machine Origins and Frameworks of Machinic Line of Thinking in Architecture

Abstract

The paper will aim to introduce the format of the 'architecture-instrument' as a specific spatial model for the converged architectural artistic and scientific design research and practice. This will be performed in relation to its machinic origins or counterparts - since this form constitutes itself through different concepts of the machine variously present, applied and interpreted throughout the history within and adjacent to the architectural discipline or field of interest depending on the historical period, different machinic modalities and their attributes will be the central concern of the study. 'Architecture-machines' will be analysed in line with several criteria alongside the additional aim of tracing its genealogy and categories. Therefore, the long present 'machine paradigm in architecture' will be challenged toward its contemporary reassessment within which possible lines of development and major features of the 'architecture-instrument' could be inferred against the chosen references and theoretical notions. The experimental prototype [exo] that claimed the status of the 'architecture-instrument' in its most advanced form - integrating sentience, algorithmic control and automation, kinetic properties, adaptability, intelligent responsiveness and interaction concerning the tracked objects, systems and environmental parameters – while also attempting to redefine and question its epistemological, methodological and technical implications, will be used as a case study that has tested some of the proposed claims, providing thereby necessary empirical evidence for the arguments. The analysed examples and sources will establish a clear outline and framework of the machinic line of thinking in architecture, enabling one thus to discern and better understand the 'architecture-machine/instrument’s' semantic scopes, applied forms, constitutive properties and importance along with the disciplinary and scientific-artistic integration they imply in the current moment as a continuation of their much longer traditions.