Will you have a yam? : a study in agency and representation

Abstract

Systems of architectural representation, and their implied balance of agency, are a potential site of tectonic, spatial, and programmatic reinvention. By altering only the roles of those involved in the design/construction process, and the system of representation employed, one will necessarily reinvent the architecture produced. My semester circulates around two devices - two games. String, as performed in the game of cat's cradle, which can be thought of a as a kind of one-dimensional folding; and paper, which evolved as an attempt to bring the properties of the string's one-dimensional folding into two dimensions. The problem of this thesis is to reimagine these devices as systems of representation - as drawings, or as bridges between drawing and building. Further, to ask: How can a drawing practice which is inspired by these devices, and contains inherent properties derived from these devices, become generative of a building practice?