Making sense of intensities: a first step towards an architecture of intensities

Abstract

Architecture is often approached as an art and science of extension. Architecture may be considered as an art of extension in the sense that it focusses on shaping and constructing material artefacts that, as it were, extend from their inner core to their visible surface, where they appear as tangible physical objects. In this context, architecture as science focusses on the diversity in shape and dimensionality of material artefacts. Architecture may also be considered as an art of extension in the sense that it focusses on the skilled dividing of immaterial space that subsequently extends from wall to wall and floor to floor. In this context, architecture as science focusses on the diversity in shape and dimensionality of immaterial space. In this paper, I want to take a first small step towards an architecture of intensities by grinding an alternative lens to explore architecture. By zooming in on the intensive rather than the extensive, this lens might reveal some of the processes behind and underneath the diversity in shape and dimensionality of material artefacts and immaterial space.status: publishe