Citation
(2007), "Towards a virtual architecture: pushing cybernetics from government to anarchy", Kybernetes, Vol. 36 No. 9/10. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2007.06736iad.004
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2007, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Towards a virtual architecture: pushing cybernetics from government to anarchy
Ana Paula Baltazar
Keywords Design process, Virtual, User autonomy, Interface, Anarchy, Process-oriented design
Purpose–This paper aims to discuss the possibility of joining cybernetics and architecture as a continuous and open process, bridging design, construction and use, in that which is called cyberarchitecture.
Design/methodology/approach–It develops the hypothesis that cyberarchitecture can benefit from taking the virtual into account in the design process, so that the architect is no longer the author of a finished architectural product, but of a set of instruments with which users can design, build and use their own environments simultaneously.
Findings–A set of design principles is systematised and examined in three practical realms of design: urban, building, and relational, showing cyberarchitecture's embryonic feasibility.
Practical implications–Cyberarchitecture implies that architects are no longer authors of finished products and users, becoming designers of their own spaces.
Originality/value–Cyberarchitecture avoids the usual cybernetics approach based on control-system, indicating a less predictive and, ultimately, anarchic path for architects and users. It focuses on architecture's intrinsic value as an event, indicating the possibility of a process-based system, which only exists (or is organised) in present-time, when users and instruments (or structures) interact.