Architectural context in the age of big data

Abstract

Order is an essential condition for anything the human mind is to comprehend. The conception of order is highly bound to human perception, and the human body will always persist as the principal organ of perception. Nevertheless, human beings continuously created a variety of intellectual constructs aimed at rendering elusive bodily experiences more precise. The notion of measurement, being one of these constructs, is fundamental for the discipline of architecture. Measurement as a means of acquiring knowledge about the surrounding world formulates the foundation upon which the understanding of architectural context is constructed. With the arrival of the digital paradigm and the emergence of new perceptual tools the conception of what constitutes as architectural context is changing. The digitalization and the development of digital tools in architectural design might offer a possibility to effectually utilize this new understanding of architectural context. Thus, this thesis examines how the notion of architectural context has changed throughout the second half of the twentieth century and suggest that there is a need to employ the knowledge accumulated in the field of data science in architectural thinking