Volatility // Culpability: Disruptive Friction and Organizational Formatting

[If a] system is dynamic there has to be the ability to exchange information all the time. At all scales data is fed through and transformed…what begins as a small set of instructions is multiplied into a complex web. (Balmond, 7)

Systemic responses to dynamic situations vary wildly. A working knowledge of which echelon within a regime is tasked with engaging mercurial realities fosters an understanding of how that organization might manifest these responses to volatility on the ground — take for example a column line undocumented in the as-built drawings provided a design team at the outset of a project. Manuel De Landa would term this discrepancy “friction,” anything which “interferes with the implementation of a tactical or strategic plan…’noisy data.’” (De Landa, 60) This friction could be impetus to shift the overlaid grid of new construction to a more harmonious abstract rhythm incorporating the surprise columns if discovered early and responded to by an architect. The same discovery by a trade partner after design documents are finalized and the project is under construction would create a localized, intensive and materially-dependent response; the difference between a strategic response and a logistical one, then, can be seen as a reification of hierarchically-driven separation of scope.

Each bullseye is an organizational typology; each colored ring a player or set of players within the same social arena. (A=Architect, S=Structural Engineer, M=Mechanical Engineer, GC=General Contractor, F=Facade Specialist, etc.)

Thesis Abstract

As you run your fingers over the surface of a rusted-out column, multivalent realities manifest themselves: first, the blobby amoeboid bloom of oxidization on the metal, speaking of an uneven sealing coat applied to the column, with rust forming first where paint was thin or the iron content of the steel below most assertive of its chemical realities. Next, the friable grittiness of the rough-finished surface, result of the flight of electrons from iron to oxygen, degrading iron to oxides and/or hydroxides which powder, flake and fail. You look up and notice rust around the bolts which, via inturned angles, connect the column web to the beam flange above; you reverse construct the joint, wonder at the organizational dynamics which created this detail — perhaps a welded joint would have necessitated an additional union contract, or the designer knew best the mode of light gauge steel framing and merely didn’t consider welding.

The world of materials is one rife with complex interactions and repeating rituals which give rise to the phenomena humans interact with on a daily basis. Volatility at all levels of engagement must be diffused or absorbed in flexible solution on the level of the mechanical connection. The formative complexities of the architectural field can often be typified by the material interactions an architecture engages; to explore the expression of these material machinations in the formal, representational, and organizational morphologies of the designed object is my thesis intent.