Abstract 01

Systemic Integration:

Architecture in its current state is isolated because it does not recognize itself as an adaptive system within a larger constantly evolving network. Subtractive, analytical processes serve to isolate the subject from the very factors which define them, while systemic processes derive order from cooperative interaction with dynamic systems.

Systemic integration is a way of understanding and evolving the connections between systems which have previously been understood as singular elements. This thesis specifically explores the relationship between water and architecture to develop a connection with the ocean as an environment to be understood and experienced.

The existing structures of oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico provide a framework to which an architectural system can be applied to initiate this investigation. The oil platform as it exists currently is exclusively industrial and does not relate to the oceanic context but draws only from the oil reserves beneath the sea floor. To the oil company; when the reserves are dry, so ends the life of the platform. Thinking about this structural system as a part of a network allows performative and experiential systems to be designed for and integrated into the existing network.

This thesis explores how architecture can be designed through a process of compositing informational systems, which then informs the design network, which becomes the architecture. The architecture within this context is never complete but is continuously responsive to the dynamic network of which it is a system.

240 words.

Quarter Jury

I was immediately thrown off by the juror's question about my position on systems thinking. I think my case studies from last semester would have been helpful in stating my position and creating architectural strategies which relate to the systemic architectural process. I think this unclear stance on systems and the difference between systemic v. systematic negated the architectural ideas about experience, program, displacement and construction which i thought the jury was going to be about. Instead of taking in the juror's comments I was trying to defend ideas that I wasn't expecting to defend. If you have any comments and ideas that were mentioned I'd appreciate if you could re-state those for me.

I think the jurors understood the idea that it was a growing and biological concept and the DNA reference as it applied to other oil platforms and programs. One juror even questioned the twin duplication of architecture on separate but identical platforms.

Some Points:

Clarify and Define Systems thinking; Systemic v. Systematic:

Systematic: Done or acting according to a fixed plan or system.
Systemic: Of or relating to a system, especially as opposed to a particular part

Use Case Studies to illustrate Systemic Devices + Explore and Diagram design process to serve as framework for Systemic Architectural Design Process

Clarify Quotes for possible interpretation.

Extend the architectural DNA to other rigs and programs to exemplify the systemic nature and process of the architecture.

Added.

I've added some quotes on the side bar as well as i wanted to share these drawings I was refered to that i would like to use as reference for my own process and presentation. These drawings aren't singular but contain layered and composed elements or systesms of information from many different mediums and types of studies in conjunction with reference material to support the process of each study. The process systems are composed into a network of information. http://www.1-ab.com/kulper.htm