4.5 - Critical Reflection

from A Thousand Plateaus - Master of Architecture Thesis

4.0 - Introduction

4.5 PRELIMINARY DESIGN CRITICAL REFLECTION

RO1 was addressed through rhizomatic frameworks, exploring the 4 key characteristics of a rhizome and their attributes. Because all Preliminary Design outcomes were structured by rhizomatic attributes, each outcome was particularly reflective of Research Objective 1, the Philosophical Approach. Section 4.2's use of 'deterritorialised experiments' offered a wide range of potential experimental outcomes, and a complex Preliminary Design Outcome. However, its outcomes, derived from experimental discovery, were too 'deterritorialised' to reflect RO3. 'Deterritorialised experimentation' had more success in section 4.4, because the 'deterritorialisation' was based on 3 established Preliminary Design Outcomes, giving the design process a more focused direction. Therefore, this thesis proposes to build upon sections 4 .4's exploration of 'detteritorialised experiments', to address RO1 moving forward.

RO2, the Ecological Approach, was the least successful objective explored in Chapter 4. In section 4.1, 4,2 and 4.4, the manipulation of waste flows was primarily explored through an anthropogenic lens of the artisan. The sorcerer’s artefact played a secondary role. Comparably, 4.3 had a reasonably strong investigation, achieved by exploring both the artefact and the systems ability waste manipulated into formations.

Chapter 4 looked at the artefacts as components of a larger system, exploring Research Objective 3, the Systematic Approach. The thesis proposed that a viable method to develop the artefact as ‘components of a much wider system’ is to develop it as a node. This was evidenced in section 4.1 and 4.3. The systems in these sections looked at the artefacts as nodes, with varying methods of connecting ‘intensities’. When a system does not have separate nodes and connecting intensities, such as in section 4.2 the system is difficult to adapt to multiple scales. If the system is only composed of one component (e.g. the artefact), it will be subject to all the limitations of the individual component.

One of the weakest areas of investigation was related to the exploration of Barry Wark’s theory of Temporal Ambiguity. Primarily explored through the collection of lichen and grime on the non-human artifacts, only section 4.4 engaged temporal ambiguity through the relics, by examining ruination. The relics ability to examine temporal ambiguity may strengthen the artefacts ecocentric qualities.

Another viable design method for representing RO2 through ecocentric qualities, was the homogenisation. Explored in all 4 sections, section 4.1 most successfully conveyed homogenisation through the non-human artefact growing around and merging materials with the relics.