Membranes and Matrices: Architecture as an Interface

• Main Author: Mudawar, Nayef
• Format: Others
• Published: ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst 2015
• Subjects: Architecture; Digitizalization; Membranes; Responsive; Matrix; Interface; Innovation
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/221; https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1242&context=masters_theses_2

What are the implications of digitalization on the role of architecture and our understanding of space? The digital experience is one that is highly customizable, responsive, and interactive. Physical buildings strive to become more connected to their environments and their users, by incorporating these same qualities. Traditional building methods and design principles produce static structures with a defined function and program, an approach which is in conflict with virtual space where functions which once were separated now easily flow and merge into one another. Buildings have the potential to become even more situated within their local by incorporating ideas of interactivity and responsiveness as they become uniquely shaped by their users and local climates. Digitalization therefore has ironically brought the design industries closer to the fields of biology and chemistry as information is seen to be at the core of everything. My proposal is for a public innovation space situated in the new innovation district in downtown Springfield, and will explore issues of privacy, openness, materiality, transparency, and the integration of technology with architecture such that the space itself becomes an interface for exchange.