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Vibrant architecture: How 'vibrant matter' may raise the status of the material world in architectural design practice and be recognised as a codesigner of our living spaces.

Armstrong, RA; (2014) Vibrant architecture: How 'vibrant matter' may raise the status of the material world in architectural design practice and be recognised as a codesigner of our living spaces. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis proposes a radical material design philosophy that embodies the 21st century agendas implicit in our ecological crisis. It identifies a new technological platform to underpin forms of making that do not damage the potency of our world but enhance it. By asserting the lively nature of matter and the technological character of the natural world, described as Millennial Nature, the material realm is given a voice through process philosophy and the language of chemistry to forge lively, complex bodies, which are recognized as new forms of architecture. Spatial programs that shape fertile metabolic networks and post natural fabrics produce such ‘vibrant architectures’. Key to my research is the establishment of a new technological platform in the operationalization of ‘assemblages’, which are active groupings of lively bodies that are applied in a series of prototypes and projects. These are developed experimentally using lively chemistries in the laboratory, field and speculatively through project work such as, ‘Vibrant Venice’, which proposes to grow an artificial limestone reef underneath the foundations of the city. My research suggests that the theory and practice of vibrant architecture enables architects to codesign in partnership with human and non-human collectives and to produce buildings that enhance biotic environments through the construction of post natural landscapes. While the concepts and technologies are at their earliest stages of development, the realization of vibrant architecture could completely change our ideas about sustainability, which is no longer recognized as a better form of industrialization, but is transformed into an ecological platform for human development that augments the liveliness of our planet, rather than diminishes it.

Type: Thesis (Doctoral)
Title: Vibrant architecture: How 'vibrant matter' may raise the status of the material world in architectural design practice and be recognised as a codesigner of our living spaces.
Language: English
Additional information: Permission for ethesis has not been received.
Keywords: Vibrant architecture, Butschli System, dynamic droplets, 21st century materialism, ecological living technology, assemblage
UCL classification: UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > The Bartlett School of Architecture
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1418245
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