6.0 - CONCLUSIONS AND CRITICAL REFLECTIONS
This design-led research investigation explored three different approaches for the integration of Philosophical, Ecological, and Systematic approaches to generate hypothetical, future-looking architectural artefacts that represent a shift in thinking away from anthropocentrism. One of the most interesting areas of investigation for the author was the exploration of architectural solutions at a planetary scale. The Anthropocene is a significant global problem, perhaps the greatest environmental problem that exists for Terran life, as it extends to every aspect of the biosphere. In reflection, the Systematic Approach appeared to be the most useful approach for tackling ‘hyper-object’ scaled problems. By imagining speculative architectural interventions as a series of nodes and connecting intensities, large-scale problems became more manageable for the speculative architect. Generating nodes (artefacts) that could grow and fluidly adapt to ever-evolving contexts meant the system could transform and scale in response. Connections between nodes could be created by multiple components, where a principal requirement was the ability to transfer information between nodes. Design-research explorations revealed that designing the nodes of systems was one productive solution for enabling speculative architecture to engage planetary-scale environmental issues. By focusing on designing nodes, speculative architects can focus on humanscaled architectures, so that their architectural
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outcomes are acceptable to the audience, and dialogues invoked by the architecture are more readily comprehended. An important discovery made by the author was the unique opportunities for future-looking design explorations that were made available by exploring the scope of designing with philosophy. There were both strengths and weaknesses to the approach. During experimentation relating to Research Objective 1, The Philosophical Approach, the author discovered it is difficult to represent the full extent of a philosophy through architecture. This thesis investigated Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophical concept of the rhizome by segmenting it into its 4 key characteristic sections, and then experimenting with the key attributes of those 4 sections. As a complex philosophical system with a broad range of characteristics, the scope of a rhizome is broad in application. By exploring the philosophical concept in separate sections, the rhizome became more appropriate to the restricted scope of this design-led research investigation. Upon reflection, this investigation suggests that a similar methodology might successfully be utilised for examining other philosophical concepts in related speculative, planetary-scale, design-led research investigations. Experimental concepting, through iterative and staged design, revealed how discrete elements of a philosophical concept can be most successfully translated into an architectural context. Not every attribute and characteristic of the philosophical concept
