Systems building in architecture

Abstract

This work is an inquiry into the interventions of the systems design in the whole building process. At the beginning, three approaches which represent different points of view of interventions in production and use are exposed and compared to each other, and one of them serves as the theoretical background of this thesis. It is accepted that interventions in both production and use aspects of the whole building process might be capable of producing valuable solutions, as this notion is determined in the first chapter. Interventions in the production aspect are looked upon as influencing the relations among physical elements and as depending on the process of production which is followed. Here the interest (i.e., producer, designer, client or user) , which determines the process of building production, is of importance. The process of production certainly affects the performance of the building product after the building is occupied, and all factors influencing the building performance constitute the use aspect of the whole building process. Changes in the building process produce changes in the use aspect. Systems, which change the building process according to the needs of both the production and use, are considered as intervening in both the production and the use aspect of the whole building process. Finally, traditional, self-evolving methods and principles of building production are looked upon as constituting systems, which are not designed by anybody and serve the needs of both production and use, but substantially differ from the designed building systems. Such differences will be exposed in the last part of my thesis.