[design] architectural definitions


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A R C H I T E C T U R A L D E F I N I T I O N s
http://www.electronetwork.org/works/ae/a_and_e/def/


Because there are many definitions of ARCHITECTURE, our choice of definition will inevitably shape our ability to demonstrate how ELECTRICITY is ARCHITECTURE, as Francis D.K. Ching states:

"The act of creating architecture... is a problem-solving or design process... The first phase of any design process is the recognition of a problematic condition and the decision to find a solution to it. Design is, above all, a willful act, a purposeful endeavor. The designer must first document the existing conditions of a problem, define its context, and collect relevant data to be assimilated. This is the critical phase of the design process, since the nature of a solution is inexorably related to how a problem is perceived, defined, and articulated... Designers inevitably prefigure solutions to problems they are confronted with... The depth and range of their design vocabulary will affect both their perception of a problem and the shape of its solution." (1.0)

Thus, in order to establish the many ways that ELECTRICITY is ARCHITECTURE we will need to explore various traditional definitions of ARCHITECTURE, both general and specific. We can then compare the new ELECTRICAL ORDER with the old ARCHITECTURAL ORDER of TRADITION by equating the ELECTRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE with ARCHITECTURE. For instance, an exemplar general definition of ARCHITECTURE is given by Francis D.K. Ching:

"The ARCHITECTURE of SPACE, STRUCTURE, & ENCLOSURE, experienced through MOVEMENT in SPACE-TIME, achieved by means of TECHNOLOGY, accommodating a PROGRAM, compatible with its CONTEXT."(1.5)

Substituting the "ELECTRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE" in place of the word "ARCHITECTURE" can help us rationalize the ARCHITECTURAL value of the ELECTRICAL ORDER. For example:

"The ELECTRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE of SPACE, STRUCTURE, & ENCLOSURE, experienced through MOVEMENT in SPACE-TIME, achieved by means of TECHNOLOGY, accommodating a PROGRAM, compatible with its CONTEXT."

One reading of this ARCHITECTURAL text is that the ELECTRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE defines a structure which sustains an enclosed CYBERSPACE, enabling travel through SPACE-TIME via ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGIES such as networked COMPUTERs, which run task-specific programs that have evolved within the ELECTRICAL EPOCH and WORLD. Specific ARCHITECTURAL definitions can also be investigated to focus the explanatory meaning of the research, theory, and practice of ARCHITECTURE in relation to ELECTRICITY.

Following are five definitions of ARCHITECTURE that will be explored in greater detail: as building, as structure, as space, as form, and as culture.




E L E C T R I C I T Y = B U I L D I N G

ARCHITECTURE is often referred to as the design and construction of habitable buildings. This definition is sometimes further broken down into specific building types that are ARCHITECTURE, such as a house, a theater, a bank, and those that are not, such as an oil pipeline or bridge because they are uninhabitable. (2.0n)

With the advent of the ELECTRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE specifically ELECTRICAL building types have emerged, most all of which are connected to each other by THE GRID. These new buildings include POWERPLANTs, TV STATIONs, RADIO STATIONs, supercomputer centers, TELEPHONE exchanges, in addition to factories, tanning salons, video rental stores, and electrolysis shops.

In turn, older TRADITIONAL building types have been transformed by these new typologies which have, as of yet, gone undocumented in ARCHITECTURAL research and theory. For example, although the TRADITIONAL house has remained typologically unchanged for the last few centuries, it has been completely transformed by its interconnection to the ELECTRICAL POWER SYSTEM and ELECTRONIC MEDIA SYSTEMs, and all of the other buildings associated with them.

electrical building This is to say that all building types, whether new or old, are now completely dependent upon ELECTRICITY in order to function. This dependence is most dramatically realized during a POWER outage when houses, neighborhoods, and cities are cast into darkness as they were centuries ago before ELECTRIFICATION. These buildings and their inhabitants seemingly cease to exist in the present moment without ELECTRICITY.

In this sense the role of ELECTRICITY in relation to building types is critical. But even more, our buildings are also designed and constructed using ELECTRICITY. For instance, buildings are often designed on COMPUTERs with computer aided design (CAD) software and constructed with electrically manufactured materials and with ELECTRICAL tools such as ELECTRICAL cranes, saws, nail guns, drills, and wrenches. ELECTRICITY, then, plays a vital and critical role in the design and construction of habitable buildings.




E L E C T R I C I T Y = S T R U C T U R E

ARCHITECTURE is often used rhetorically as a synonym for the word structure, and an ARCHITECT as an organizer of this structure. (2.5n) Literally, ELECTRICITY can be considered this structural glue binding the ATOMs of the material world together in molecules, which in turn become the materials by which we build structures.

electron bonding For example, wood, masonry, and metal are structural materials which hold together buildings. These materials are themselves held together by ELECTRONs sharing orbits between ATOMs, which in turn resist the push and pull of forces. It is the elasticity and stiffness of this ELECTRICAL relationship between molecules that is itself the key element in determining the performance of structural materials. (2.6n) Scientist James Trefil vividly describes this inter-atomic ELECTRICAL property in metal:

"... atoms in metal are held together by bonds that are both strong and flexible. You can imagine how a metal is constructed by thinking of a pile of marbles immersed in sticky molasses. The marbles are the metal atoms, the molasses a sea of loose electrons that holds them together. The stiffness and stickiness of the molasses vary from one metal to another, depending on the particular way things are put together. The point about this so-called metallic bond, however, is that there is a resiliency built into it. Push on one part of the metal and the atoms shift around a little to resist the force, but the bonds themselves do not break." (2.7)

In addition, it is interesting to note that with electric arc welded metals, the welded connections are structurally "stronger than the [metal] members they join in resisting both shear and moment forces." (2.8) The welding process consists of placing an electrode between two structural members of steel, in which "...a continuous electric arc is established that generates sufficient heat to melt both a localized area of the steel members and the tip of the electrode. The molten steel from the electrode merges with that of the members to form a single puddle. The electrode is drawn slowly along the seam being welded, leaving behind a continuous bead of metal that cools and solidifies to form a strong connection between members." (2.9) Focusing on this important role of ELECTRICITY in designing ARCHITECTURAL structures is not to forget the role of ELECTRICAL manufacturing in creating new structural materials and in standardizing dimensional lumber, metals, and masonry.

More and more the ELECTRICAL INFRA-STRUCTURE itself has become a common structural element "beneath" our buildings in ELECTRICAL CIVILIZATION. Acting as ELECTRICAL EXTENSIONs of the building plan, POWERLINEs, TELEPHONE LINEs, and COMPUTER NETWORKs are establishing a new structure of INFORMATION and ENERGY for the linking buildings with their plans around the globe. For example, a COMPUTER intranet may be used to organize an ARCHITECTURE firm around its programmatic functions, while a COMPUTER extranet may be used to link its computer aided design (CAD) system to a factory in another state for the computer aided manufacturing (CAM) of structural building materials. In all, ELECTRICITY has enabled ARCHITECTs to battle ENTROPY and further the structural design of the NATURAL, ARTIFICIAL, and VIRTUAL ELECTRICAL ORDER. (3.0n)




E L E C T R I C I T Y = S P A C E

ARCHITECTURE is also concerned with the manipulation of SPACE. Traditionally this has meant using ARCHITECTURAL elements- such as walls, columns, floors, ceilings, doors, and windows- to shape an occupant's experience of SPACE, as Francis D.K. Chings states:

"Space constantly encompasses our being. Through the volume of space, we move, see forms and objects, hear sounds, feel breezes, smell the fragrances of a flower garden in bloom. It is a material substance like wood or stone. Yet it is entirely formless. Its visual form, quality of light, dimensions and scale, depend totally on its boundaries as defined by elements of form. As space begins to be captured, enclosed, molded, and organized by the elements of form, architecture comes into being." (3.5)

With the new ELECTRICAL ORDER this spatial relationship has been paradigmatically transformed. For example, the ELECTRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE defines a relational SPACE between its DISTRIBUTION POLEs just as between columns of the TRADITIONAL ORDER. Yet these POLEs carry POWERLINEs and TELEPHONE LINEs which usher in a new spatial order, an internalized ELECTRONIC SPACE or CYBERSPACE, in which SIGNALs transverse the globe through THE GRID at nearly the speed of LIGHT, or 186,000 miles/second. As Michael Benedikt states, to begin to "see" this new spatial order, we first need to acknowledge and understand the older SPACE of TRADITION:

"Even as we strive for higher dimensionalities or supernormal capabilities for the denizens of cyberspace, ordinary space and time must form the basis, the norm, any departures from which we must justify." (3.7)

telephone call

This means that when we use the TELEPHONE SYSTEM and share a conversation between two people in a common CYBERSPACE via a phone call, that we should remember that we are simultaneously spanning the traditional SPACE between these POLEs and TELEPHONE LINEs in the global network.

Likewise, a three dimensional newscast transmitted from within a TELEVISION BROADCASTING STATION can only be rationalized by taking into account the relationship between sending and receiving ANTENNAE, the SPACE between them being filled with miles of geometrical radiation travelling at LIGHT speed, until it reaches a TELEVISION RECEIVER, whereupon the ARCHITECTURAL image reappears on a two dimensional screen.

So even though the newscast seems to exist "inside" the TELEVISION RECEIVER, it's carrier wave and SIGNAL also permeates the typical SPACE, along with INFORMATION from all locally broadcast RADIO and TELEVISION SIGNALs, filling seemingly empty SPACE with this "virtual" CYBERSPACE, while remaining invisible and silent to those without the proper equipment to interpret it. As Paul Shepheard states:

"The space that surrounds us is radioactive as a phenomenon of its natural state, and perhaps we have some sixth sense that perceives it. Contemporary life surrounds us in addition with an interpretable radiation, with domestic and commercial signals as well as military ones. Our receiving machines, our radios and televisions, extend our senses into an invisible, intangible arena. The thrust of research has sought out this invisible space and trapped the ether in silicon chips. We are out of the realms of human perception here, but we are still within the land- we shall have to be strapped into machines to live the life promised." (3.8)

Thus, in order for us to "see" this CYBERSPACE created by our ELECTRONIC MEDIA SYSTEMs, it becomes necessay to "see" the spatial ASSEMBLAGEs which make up these systems. For example, to comprehend the CYBERSPACE of a COMPUTER NETWORK such as the Internet, one needs to understand the spatial relationship between the POWERPLANTs, MODEMs, SERVERs, DISTRIBUTION POLEs, and PHONELINEs which constitute it. In all, ELECTRICITY has both transformed and extended the traditional ARCHITECTURAL manipulation of SPACE within the new CYBERSPACE of the ELECTRICAL ORDER.




E L E C T R I C I T Y = F O R M

ARCHITECTURE can also be defined as an investigation of form. This investigation of form takes place through the manipulation of ARCHITECTURAL elements and materials, experimenting with the limits and boundaries of building within nature. Thus, walls, windows, columns, and doors, and wood, concrete, and metal all have specific properties which can be explored and exploited in the design of a building.

A traditional example of this ARCHITECTURAL practice is found within the masonry cathedrals of Europe, which are proven experiments in masonry technology for challenging the laws of gravity with flying buttress arches, groin vaults, stained glass windows, and triumphant rose windows. Some cathedrals are so successful at defying gravity they have appeared to float, their formal power is so concentrated. (3.9) Another example of ARCHITECTURAL form are those vernacular buildings that have evolved which maximize natural light and ventilation through strategically placed windows, doors, and stairs, and walls which retain heat and cooling, including those which are centered around a fire pit or hearth with the subsequent chimney. Some empirical evidence of this traditional relationship between ENERGY and ARCHITECTURAL form is given by G.Z. Brown in the following aphorisms:

Rooms: Orientation - Rooms orientated to the prevailing breeze increase the effectiveness of cross-ventilation. [cooling]

Rooms: Shape and Enclosure - Rooms that are open to collect the sun can store heat within the space. [heating]

Rooms: Zoned Organizations - Rooms can be zoned within the building so that activities that need higher lighting levels are near the windows and activities that don't need as much light are in darker areas. [daylighting]

Walls, Roofs, and Floors: Color - Massive thermal storage surfaces should be dark in color to absorb radiation, and nonmassive surfaces should be light in color to reflect radiation. [heating]

Windows: Size - Increasing the window size will increase interior illumination levels. [daylighting] (4.0)

With the process of ELECTRIFICATION this ARCHITECTURAL investigation of form had been completely transformed. ARCHITECTURAL knowledge which was developed over the centuries seemingly became moot as the ENERGY of a building no longer centered around POWER of fire and the sun, but instead focussed on ELECTRICITY. New forms, in turn, emerged which challenged the TRADITIONAL ORDER of building.

One example of this change is noticed in the vernacular buildings found in the desert. Buildings suddenly no longer had to be made to the same exacting requirements based upon natural limitations of water, ventilation, and cooling. Instead, with ELECTRICAL air conditioning, the ELECTRICAL LIGHT, and electrically pumped water and irrigation, the desert could be conquered by ELECTRICAL CIVILIZATION. Thus, buildings of any form or style, vegetation, and even swimming pools could be built in massive quantities in a place normally considered uninhabitable, such as is in Las Vegas, Nevada, "the entertainment capital of the world." The prime example of this evolutionary ELECTRICAL motivation of form is found within the "self-contained sealed environment known as Biosphere 2" experiment, wherein the habitats and LIFEFORMs of EARTH are internally mirrored in an electrically controlled environment. (4.2n)

Likewise, another demonstration the role of ELECTRICITY in creating new ARCHITECTURAL form is best symbolized by the typical metal skyscraper. Although the first skyscrapers were made with brick and had mechanical elevators and their daylighting and ventilation were taken care of by open windows, it was not until the steel skyscraper that the form became what we know it to be today.

skyscraper First, with electrically welded steel the structural steel skyscraper could rise to typically unimaginable heights of 1000 feet or more, whereas a building made with masonry bearing walls would collapse under its own weight at a height far below that.

Second, the ELECTRICAL elevator provided building occupants with fast and safe transportation from the ground floor to offices high above the ground which would be uneconomical by climbing several thousands of stairs by foot.

Third, the windows in the skyscraper were designed to be permanently shut because of the rise of ELECTRICAL heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) systems which need to totally control the building environment.

Fourth, the TELEPHONE and subsequently the COMPUTER NETWORK allowed new ways to communicate at work, dividing the labor of interacting with business clients without the need to meet in the same room or even the same building. This has allowed the large collection of vertical office spaces in skyscrapers, which can be considered to be giant filing cabinets of people.

Lastly, the height of skyscrapers have created optimum places for RADIO and TELEVISION STATIONs to broadcast their programming via ANTENNAs on top of buildings. This enables electronic SIGNALs to travel greater distances and thus the building has a dual role as an integral part of the ELECTRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE.

Suffice it to say, ELECTRICITY has dramatically changed the formal appearance of our BUILT ENVIRONMENT by challenging nature and the TRADITIONAL ORDER of building.




E L E C T R I C I T Y = C U L T U R E

ARCHITECTURE can also be understood as a representation of culture in built form. This is to say that culture can be read as an ARCHITECTURAL language, communicated in the form of buildings. For example, the architecture of the early Italian Renaissance, as Allan Braham states, "clearly mirrors the emergence of humanism and the rediscovery of antiquity in the fifteenth century..." as the buildings are "celebrated for their technical virtuosity, and for the story they tell of human pride and aspiration in the service of [wo|man] and God." (4.4)

Further, Braham states that during the revolutionary "Age of the Enlightenment" architecture provided "the most immediate and most profound expression of [the] new outlook" of applying scientific reason and rationality to building, such that:

"In reflecting the intellectual preoccupations of the age architecture may even be felt to have clarified the main issues of the day by providing simple visual equivalents, assimilable by the populace at large, to ideas that would otherwise have been freshly available only to an articulate minority." (4.5)

Thus, as the classical language of Greek and Roman architecture were extended and abstracted over centuries of time when utilizing the Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite ORDERs in buildings, a story of Western civilization was being told within the changing ARCHITECTURAL form.

This writing of culture within built form can today be realized in the early designs of the United States government buildings, where the dominant style "is classical because its builders wanted to say something about the historical roots of America's government." (4.7) For instance, the U.S. Capital Building links "America's civic religion and its political order... to the system that the Founding Fathers derived- or thought they had derived- from the republican traditions of Greece and Rome" by using the classical orders and a typological dome, like that of the Pantheon for the gods in Rome. (4.8) But as this Enlightenment progressed these classical details of ARCHITECTURAL form became further abstracted, so much so that the Industrial Revolution and Modernism detached their forms from this classical language altogether. Indeed, with ELECTRIFICATION a new cultural language of form emerged, which is most readily represented by the ARTIFACTs of the ELECTRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE.

Thus, if we want to understand culture circa 2000 C.E. we need a way to physically comprehend concepts such as CYBERSPACE, and VIRTUAL REALITY in built form which the classical ARCHITECTURAL ORDERs simply will not allow. To do this, we need to begin to "see" the ASSEMBLAGEs made up of the ELECTRICAL POWER SYSTEM, ELECTRONIC MEDIA SYSTEMs, and ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGIES as a language abstractly extended from the classical ORDERs of Greece and Rome. (4.9n) Thus, if culture can be considered a common economic, social, and political establishment represented by ARCHITECTURE, then, ELECTRICAL CULTURE can be realized within the built form of the ELECTRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE.

Economically, how does one physically "see" the cultural abstraction of "electronic-commerce" if not within the ARTIFACTs of POLEs and TELEPHONE LINEs which transmit Internet purchases, wire-transfers, credit card, ATM transactions for banks at nearly the speed of LIGHT? electric guitar Socially, how does one comprehend a cultural event like a rock concert, if not tracing the ELECTRONIC microphone and amplification, and ELECTRICAL guitars, bass, drums, synthesizers, and special effects back to their source at ELECTRICAL GENERATORs? Likewise, politically, how does one rationalize a Presidential speech at the White house broadcast to millions of TELEVISION RECEIVERs if not by acknowledging the highly concentrated and centralized power of TELEVISION STATIONs and POWERPLANTs in transmitting the cultural SIGNAL to the viewer?

In all these cases it is the ELECTRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE which helps us to rationally understand our present ELECTRICAL CULTURE in built form. And it is the ELECTRICAL EXTENSION of antiquity within these ELECTRICAL ARTIFACTs of POLEs, TOWERs, POWERLINEs, and POWERPLANTs which physically represent our new ELECTRICAL ENLIGHTENMENT.

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