De-coding the possibilities of spatial asssemblages: a design methodology of topologizing architectural morphology

Abstract

While the continuous flow of events seems to be a given, we still cannot either perceive or design space which is organized and has the capacity to reorganize itself in order to cope with major changes. In this framework, the research aims to establish a codefor space, as a semantic system that monitors its sociospatial metabolism while at the same time being directly connected to its material reality. In this framework, the research attempts to establish a design methodologyaiming at a generative system for architecture and the city. The material agency of this productive process is described as a bifold process which constantly informs itself, including a "convergent phase of selection"and a "divergent phase of design" (Spuybroek 2008: 189). The first one focuses on the code's organization, introducing Christopher Alexander's 253 Design Patterns (Alexander et al. 1977) as its elementary units in order to postulate on its topological structure as a network of relations between interacting, active parts. In the next phase, while theorizing the code's structure, Design Patterns are substituted by their A-signifying signs counterparts, mechanisms able to stabilize or destabilize the assemblage and thus allow for its contingency to remain immanent.