MACHINE HERITAGE

GRADUATE THESIS SUMMER 2021 MAIN ADVISOR: MICHAEL CASEY REHM ERIK GHENIOU, MARRIKKA TROTTER, WILLIAM VIRGIL

Machine Heritage is a thesis looking into the re-generation of undervalued buildings with the development of new hybrids within. It explores architecture’s role in urban memories during the process.

This project takes on the case of the People’s Park Complex in Singapore - a mixed-use commercial and residential development completed in 1973. Once an architectural symbol of a young nation’s progress, the building fell out of the public’s favour next to either distinctively ornate and “historic” shophouses, or newer gleaming skyscrapers nearby.

Oftentimes, history and buildings alike present themselves as deceptively monolithic beings, when in fact they are extremely complex and dimensional entities. Using machine learning, algorithmic processes are used extensively to interpret the building’s historical and architectural make-up. With the hybridization of human and machine intelligences, the authority to determine and create heritage is extended beyond humanistic instincts.

Final Site Isometric >>>