Dy by Dx: The thinking beyond convention
DC I/O 2020 keynote by JEREMY MELVIN
Abstract
Design computation is an essentially integrative process, indeed an integration of two others: design and computation. One of the most evocative definitions of design in this light comes from the American post-modern architect Charles Moore’s essay ‘Eleven Agonies and one Euphoria’ (Moore 2001, pp162-166). The agonies include the paradox of relevance, the irrelevance of architecture (given that only 5-10% of buildings are designed by architects), low fees, the profession’s exclusivity and lack of power, as well as other familiar if shrewdly chosen moans.
But his description of the euphoria lifts the essay above the commonplace: ‘…that combination of research and understanding and intuition and improvisation which tries out solutions to problems in too many unknowns to be susceptible of solutions by the disciplines based on logic or words… if we can loose the agonies attending our professional hang-ups about revolution, relevance, ineffectiveness, hierarchy, advocacy or arrogance, divine right, racism, inefficiency, failure to reproduce, isolation and certification, we will have left in our province one of the key tools for the solution of the world: design’ (Moore 2001, p166).
Keywords
DC I/O 2020, Architecture, Design Cultures, Cognition.
Reference
DOI: https://doi.org/10.47330/DCIO.2020.JFAW5149
Visual Presentation: https://youtu.be/zF0gkq98gw4
