3. EVOLVING SYSTEM

Limitation in the independent system leads to the change of direction to focus on how to make vanishing not as an ending but as a starting. To chase an evolving system which could generate new things.

Open system:

An Independent system does not connect to surroundings positively but is more passively impacted by environment and time. It runs as a closed system which still not able to initiatively make reactions to change. In comparison, the open system leaves a gate for interaction positively to surroundings and keeps updating itself according to the re ections36. We can regard the open system as the foundation to enable evolution.

e current architecture study has the direction of trying to embed open systems into it. e BIM working platform, discrete assemble system, and cellular automata system all try to make the working mode or space more exible and adaptable.

36. Y. Gu, “A POST-INDUSTRIAL PARADIGM FOR SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE VIA AN OPEN SYSTEM MODEL,” Design & Nature and Ecodynamics. Vol. 7, No. 1 (2012): 50. doi: 10.2495/DNE-V7-N1-49-67.

Fig.22. Mingjia Shi, Archipelago collage, (2021).

I have been studying di erent design methodologies for the last two years to make architecture exible and adaptable.

To make architecture able to evolve to match the updating value means the architecture system should always leave incompleted capacity. In other words, construction and deconstruction should always run as a cycle.

Strategy - assembly

e construction and deconstruct in the open system have a new de nition as a process of assembly. When the assembly is invited into the design, it is o en expressed by discrete architecture languages. When an architecture wall is composed of several small exible objects, it expresses architecture in a Mosaic manner, like a LEGO toy.

However, as the building’s life cycle is still following the object-replacing logic, compared to the highly complicated system and unnecessary exibility, the dynamic pro t it expressed is very une cient.

Fig.23. Mingjia Shi, Studio C, Archipelago white model render, (2021).

Level of exibility and adaptability

Not everything in architecture should be dynamic. ere is a need to de ne the level of assembly.

People complain that architecture never serves ordinary people; design only exists for rich groups. However, from the past design practice and the metabolism’s ending, it seems that when architecture is open for people to modify, people always keep space as they are.

e Nebbia project was a discussion of this topic. At that time, the design argued that why metabolism, which holds such a revolutionary idea, ended up getting settled down is due to the space was not fully exible. erefore, in the project, all the elements, including the water pipe for the toilets, are set as assembled assets. Wall’s translucent level is not even de ned. In the end, it still cannot espace the question about do people need this level of movement.

Fig.24. Mingjia Shi, Studio D, Nebbia project collage study, (2021).

Compared to successful precedences, the di erence is that the exibility is limited into simple or non-operable. is re ects the former discussion of classical architecture's use of general space to make the function exible instead of form exible.

Price's Fun palace and Nakagin Capsule Tower Apartments did not work because they still followed the wrong one-time life cycle. e space is designed to exist only for certain functions. However, the disassembly process is too complicated.

In contrast, the projects using general space to allow multi-functions to happen in one space do work well. Jussieu – Two Libraries and Kanagawa Institute of Technology Workshop are also exible, not in form but in the program. ey run the same logic as the classical church or public space design.

e evolution of architecture should be based on a life-cycle logic with general space. One space for one purpose only compared to one for multiple purposes is very low e ciency. is leads to the thesis study focusing on how to design general open spaces.

36. “Fun Palaces,” Wikipedia, 20 March 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fun_Palaces#:~:text=2%20Manifesto-,His tory,celebrate%20arts%2C%20science%20and%20culture. 37. “Jussieu – Two Libraries,” OMA, n.d., https://www.oma.com/projects/jussieu-two-libraries. 38. “Nakagin Capsule Tower,” Wikipedia, 19 October 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakagin_Capsule_Tower. 39. Karen Cilento, “Kanagawa Institute of Technology Workshop / Junya Ishigami,” Archidaily, 30 June 2010, https://www.archdaily.com/66661/66661. Fig.25. Cedric Price, Fun Palace. (1961)36 .

Fig.27. Nakagin Capsule Tower Apartments, (1972)38 . Fig.26. OMA, Jussieu – Two Libraries, (1992)37 .

Fig.28. Junya Ishigami, Kanagawa Institute of Technology Workshop, (2008)39 .

Matter and space relationship

As the program system is solved by general space, the space will still have to face the one-time vanishing if it still uses the one-time used life cycle. What if we separate matter and space?

From the matter’s perspective, space is just a temporary settle down of di erent matter compositions. e space lead by function or program gives the matter a liminal de nition. Architecture, then, is just a temporary settling down of matter.

Following this logic, the limen concept was introduced into the design. “ e limen is de ned as the transitional threshold between two xed states in cultural rites of passage or between two dissimilar spaces in architecture.”40 Originated from a psychological term, the limen describes a blurry status with the unknown de nition of what exactly it is, but it has the tendency or method to become something. erefore, in order to make space always be activated for change, it just needs to keep being in the limen status.

If there is a need for space with a certain quality, the generation of space is led by pausing the limen ow and generating an accumulation of matter.

40. Zimmerman, Patrick Troy, “Liminal Space in Architecture: reshold and Transition. “ Master’s esis, University of Tennessee, 2008. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/453.

Matte ow through the space

Referring back to nature, the matter’s ow through the ecosystem is the motivation to drive vanishing from an end into a start. All the time, architecture works by trying to hold the matter and stop matter’s ow permanently when the world runs as a big matter ow cycle. Why not, instead of holding and keeping matters, just setting limitations in the matter ow? Matter ows in, space emerges, matter ows out, and space vanishes.

Conclusion of ELABORATION 2

To achieve an evolving system, there should always leave some space for change. erefore, to make the space always activated, how to make matters ow through architecture leads to the next step of discussion.