1966 Life Magazine

“A machine is only as good as it’s user”

A phrase that concludes the first paragraph of this piece of literature. This text states in a very simple methodology, how the layers of learning for a “smart machine” can develop. It is through learning patterns and problem solving, a selective hierarchy of process makes a machine intelligent.

The Evolutionary Machine:

Simply, machines that can learn to learn. A dialogue between the architect and the machine, in which the machine does the “tedious tasks” or “heavy lifting” that seem unimportant or hindering to the architect. Therefore, giving the architect the space to create and do what he loves. Consequently, this raises the following issue: If a machine can collect it’s own information or urban data, can it hence deduce the outcome of said environmental aspects that correlate with the architect’s design and therefore implement accordingly?

The Learning Machine:

By setting the design criteria, a machine can deduce a number of legitimate conclusions based from a finite set of scenarios. However, this needs to develop in a reasonable amount of time. In this case, the author concludes a set of 5 aspects that should form the corner stone of the architecture machine.

1.  A Heuristic Mechanism: Is having the basic  set of “rules of thumb” which limits the time to search for solutions and in turn memorise certain contexts of problems.
2. A Rote Apparatus: It is the “storage of obstacles” where the machine associates problems with responses which nowadays we recognise as “Errors” .
3. A Conditioning Mechanism: When these formulated responses become habits, this acts as a “reflex action”, a predefined response with minimal effort.
4. A Reward Selector: Where the machine starts defining the architects favourite actions. This case is only applicable if the architect feeds his positive and or negative feed back is a “good and bad” actions.
5. Unlearning: Every machine needs a “delete” button. Simply because undesirable actions need to be forgotten in order to build on the architect’s defined correct design.

For every machine, there should be a designer or user, it’s local memory and computing power. Accordingly, all other architecture machines should be interconnected to a parent machine that is the highest point in the hierarchy of information. This creates a web of information and communication and feeds computing power to all the architecture machines.

The Seeing Machine:

” The Interface”- The communicating language between the machine and the user. Be it visual, audible, brain waves. This language needs to be understandable by both the user and the machine. Visual communication has proven to be most efficient. This concept, at the time of publishing this text, seemed absurd to most, yet nowadays it is almost natural to have a proper communicating relationship with intelligent machines.

Interest:

What makes this text interesting is that it is so ahead of it’s time. The author leaped into the future in such a precise manner that makes it completely understandable and applicable at this point in time. This kind of revolutionary thinking and advanced foresight concerning architecture and machines is a sought after skill that needs to dissected and researched. If this method of thought becomes a method of teaching for architects, it will revolutionize design as we know it today into a more sustainable future.

https://d2t1xqejof9utc.cloudfront.net/screenshots/pics/56f5570eb29b9e01f936b1c4c69a5f43/small.gif

The Never Never land house, a party house conveniently located at an elevation in the lush vegetation of Ibiza. This construction represents certain desires and fettishes that only translate into reality through synthetic drugs and romantic prespetives. The catalyst for the design process is unclear and premature, trying to apply positional and metaphorical relations but failing in terms of completion when it comes to sound reasonings or patterns of nature. The architect claims that the structure is interactive with the surrounding nature, that the design conserves yet interacts. However, this conversation is yet to be audible.

Switching gears into more technical literature, the “Form & Function Follow Climate” text by Philippe Rahm, explains briefly yet explicitly the relations between climate and architecture throughout time and scientific progress. He believes that meeting the needs of today should not compromise the needs of the future. By reducing the consumpiton of non renewable energy through studying the basics of space, levels and relevant variations of temperatures, man can in fact use nature to his advantage without exploiting its resources. Giving examples of how humans through time have adapted and harvested different kinds of energies from different resources without the aid of technology. As the Afghans leveled their houses and moved through spaces according to time of day or climate. To constructing mashrabeyas in Islamic regions to ventelate and circulate air. Then to the French who used “vaults” or stables as living areas to benefit from their animals heat emission.

This line of research in the broad sense is interesting as it studies the simplest ways architecture and energy harvesting correlate in different angles. To take advantage of old methods renewed through research and technology and consequently shape the future in terms of energy consumption and architecture. “Form vs Function”, and in turn, vs “Nature and Energies ” might be the simple equation superficially, yet the succesful connection between all elements would be the in depth research.