Abstracts Category : Other

Towards Communication in CAAD: Spectral Characterisation and Modelling with Conjugate Symbolic Domains

by Nikola Marini

This work deals with computational models in architecture, with the ambition of accomplishing three objectives:1. To position the established computational models in architecture within the broader context of mathematical and computational modelling.2. To challenge computational models in architecture by the contemporary modelling approaches, in which computation is regarded from the perspective of communication between different domains of a problem. 3. To show how within the paradigm of communication, it is possible to computationally address architectural questions, that cannot be adequately addressed within the current computational paradigm.The first part of the work begins in the 19th century, delves into the body of thinking from which the computation emerged and traces two general attitudes towards mathematical modelling that will each eventually lead to different interpretations of computation. The first one, described as logicist tradition, saw the potential of formal, mechanised reasoning in the possibility of constructing the absolute foundation of mathematics, its means of explanation and proof. The second one, the algebraist tradition, regarded formalisation within a larger scope of model-theoretic procedures, characterised by creatively applying abstraction towards a certain goal. The second attitude proved to be a fertile ground for the redefinition of both mathematics and science, thus paved a way for the contemporary physics and information technology. On the basis of the two traditions, a discrepancy was identified between the computational models in architecture, following the first tradition, and those commonly used in information technology, following the second.The Internet revolution, initiated by the development of search engines and social media, is recognised as the indicator of the changing role of computers, from computing machinery towards the generic infrastructure for communication. In this respect, three contemporary models of communication, proponents of the algebraic tradition, are presented in detail in the second part of the work. As a result, the self-organizing model is introduced, as the concrete implementation of the ideas appropriated from communication models.In the last part of the work, the self-organizing model is applied to the problem of similarity between spaces, on the basis of their architectural representation. By means of applying partition and generalisation procedures of the self-organizing model, from a large number of floor plan images, a finite collection of elementary geometric expressions was extracted, and a symbol attached to each instance. This collection of symbols is regarded as the alphabet, by means of which, any plan created by the same conventions, can be described as the writing of that alphabet. Finally, each floor plan is represented as a chain of probabilities, on the basis of its alphabet forming an individual expression of a written language, and its values used to compute similarities between plans.Advisors/Committee Members: Hovestadt, Ludger, Bhlmann, Vera, Zafiris, Elias.