Bridge : information as material for design

Abstract

This thesis investigates architectural design as a sensory device that mediates the relationship between the body and the environment. I used a bridge as a site since the body is fully exposed to an open environment, vet often one is barely aware of the environment due to the linear and repetitive nature of the bridge form. My attempt is to amplify and variegate the experiences of the bridge by using environmental information itself as a material for design. In order to capture the nature of environmental information I employed computation and developed generative processes as tools for design. The possibility of this mode of design can be contested by means of digital computation through algorithmic processes which allow one to operate on relationships and attributes and implicitly evolve a final design product without preconditioning the outcome by formal biases. Thus, rather than allowing the logic of a predetermined form to dictate architectural choices, such as material and structure, the form emerges out of a computationally calibrated distribution of properties in space.