PhD Thesis Abstract
Codifying and Fabricating an Invisible Architecture

History has seen several attempts at codifying a perfect form of architecture in a set of rules. Vitruvius’ De Architectura established a triptych of key architectural principles Firmitas, Utilitas, Venustas (strength, functionality and beauty) and building typologies, which then provided the theoretical and practical underpinning for all Western architecture over the subsequent 1500 years. The Renaissance saw Leon Battista Alberti’s De re Aedificatoria , and Andre Palladio’s I Quattro Libri Dell’Architettura further define a “perfect architecture” through rules relating to design, construction methods and appearance. In the modernist 20th century, Le Corbusier’s Le Modulor looked to reconcile the imperial and metric systems of measurement based on anthropomorphised ideas of beauty.
An interesting commonality emerges from reading these codifications. All aim to reinforce the primary link between the architectural drawing (the ideal) and methods of construction to then realise a perfect architecture. However, by privileging the architectural drawing, these codifications arguably fail to engage with other key components of the building process and any realised architecture, including the inevitability of error, the requirement of tolerance, and the aesthetic value of imperfection.
My research aims to seeks a location for these undervalued, un-codified, and invisible components in contemporary architectural production. In particular, I aim to identify current notions of beauty and perfection in digital methods of design and fabrication and define the extent and value of error and imperfection within these methodologies. Predominantly using the invisible space of tolerance, my research aims to propose a new way to view the connection between the drawn and the made.
The thesis will be produced through two parallel strands of enquiry: the written and the built. My written work will encompass a taxonomy of tools, a history of imperfection in architecture and, ultimately, a codification of an invisible architecture. My built work will begin by manipulating an existing prototype structure through addition, subtraction, substitution and disruption. I will seek to locate the invisible components of architecture at the nexus of the physical, virtual and phenomenal dimensions.
The PhD is based at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, London
Supervisors;
Professor Bob Sheil & Dr Jan Kattein
Kindly funded by Sheffield Hallam University
