Losing Control

Monash Art, Design & Architecture | Undergraduate 2014

Architects are trained to control. We work methodically and systematically to research and analyse a known site and function provided by a client. We call upon our own experiences and past successes in order to find a suitable response. We control the design process until we arrive at a rational solution that fulfills our expectations of the ideal form.

However this approach can only ever lead to a limited number of possible solutions. A vast number of possibilities are instantly ignored as they are not within our own individual frame of reference and experience. This unit poses the question: what happens when we lose control? Can we ignore our own preconceptions of what we think the formal language of architecture is? Can we lose control of the design process, follow irrational or arbitrary lines of inquiry and arrive at a solution that is entirely unforeseen? Can a balance be struck between the functional and the abstract that leads you into unknown territory without descending entirely into chaos? To help us lose control we will look at digital and analogue form finding techniques to generate abstract starting points for our journey into the unknown.