MArch I

A Combinatorial Architecture

Advised by Andrew Witt and Jennifer Bonner

The characterization of computation in architecture is often that of pure rationality with no tolerance for vagueness. This thesis uses scripted syntax and aleatoric operations to invoke chance and articulate ambiguity within a computational framework. Printmaking and movable type serve as representational precedents in which the repetition of idealized figures and codes engender new wholes that are inflected by the material imperfections of ink on paper. The thesis attempts to generate unique and unpredictable spatial arrangements from a finite set of simple elements. By superimposing a matrix of formal moves onto the programmed spaces of a house-museum-art-residency, architecture is produced through com-binatorial algorithms.

The typical country house museum was once occupied by a family and is handed over to the public as a form of anachronistic architecture. If history is removed from this model, and inhabitation is brought back in, is it possible for a contemporary domestic building and art collection to evoke as much wonder and fascination? By overlaying three distinct programs—house, museum, and studio—this question sets up a programmatic framework for the composition of spatial elements at the scale of the object, human body, and public realm. The assemblages of art objects and their display within domestic settings provide criteria for a scripted combinatorial assemblage of architectural spaces. At the smaller scale, the design seeks to address the display and framing of artwork within domestic space, and at a larger scale it choreographs a sequence of private-made-public rooms.