Enactive Architecture: Considering the Role of Architectural Movement in Building Cognition.

Hugo Mulder

Research output: Book / Anthology / Report / Ph.D. thesisPh.D. thesis

Abstract

The built environment is increasingly reliant on information technology in all the stages of its life cycle. This infusion with information technology has led to notions of smart, intelligent and cognitive buildings that adapt to their users' needs and enhance sustainable building performance.

This thesis proposes a new theoretical position on artificial intelligence in buildings, based on theories of enactive cognition that have roots in 20th century phenomenology and in the development of embodied robotics. Based on the researcher's past experience as a design engineer of some of the world's most complex movable building structures, the concrete lens of kinetic architecture is chosen to investigate this position.

Through a combination of case study analysis and research by design, a framework is presented that interprets movement in buildings as a critical aspect of cognition. The contribution challenges current ideas of how IT infrastructures, services, and building functionality in intelligent buildings can be understood and presents a complementary view that promotes a form of intelligence that is specific for buildings. The implication is that artificial intelligence becomes concretised as a tangible aspect that can be added to the palette of engineers and architects involved in integrative design of buildings.

Det byggede miljø forlader sig i stigende grad på informationsteknologi inden for samtlige stadier af dets livscyklus. Den gennemtrængende rolle informationsteknologi er begyndt at spille i arkitektur har ført til begreber såsom smarte, intelligente og kognitive bygninger, der tilpasser sig deres brugeres behov og forbedrer bæredygtig drift.

Denne afhandling foreslår en ny teoretiske position i forhold til kunstig intelligens i bygninger baseret på teorier om enactive cognition, der har rødder i det 20. århundredes fænomenologi og udviklingen af embodied intelligence indenfor robotteknologi. Med udgangspunkt i min baggrund som designingeniør på nogle af verdens mest komplekse bevægelige bygninger, er kinetisk arkitektur valgt som den konkrete linse hvorigennem denne position undersøges.

Gennem en kombination af analytiske case-studier og designforskning (research by design) præsenteres et metodeapparat, der fortolker bevægelse i bygninger som et kritisk aspekt af kognition. Forskningsbidraget udfordrer samtidige idéer om hvordan IT-infrastrukturer, servicer og bygningsfunktionalitet i intelligente bygninger kan forstås og præsenterer et komplementært synspunkt, der plæderer for en type intelligens, der er specifik for bygninger. Implikationerne heraf er, at kunstig intelligens konkretiseres som et håndgribeligt aspekt, der kan føjes til ingeniører og arkitekters repertoire i integrative bygningsdesign.
Original languageEnglish
PublisherIT-Universitetet i København
Number of pages282
ISBN (Print)978-87-7949-021-5
Publication statusPublished - 2018
SeriesITU-DS
Number154
ISSN1602-3536

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