Corporate Ecologies

Abstract

Glass facades stretching to the sky are the modern icon of architecture. Beloved by corporations, developers and architects for over 50 years, the modernist office tower has become an institution; the very symbol of a modern, successful metropolis. For years these modernist towers seemed above reproach and beyond condemnation, but with the financial crisis the greed and self-interest that fuelled their superiority gave way. As corporate capital and the corporate icon were challenged, so was the way in which we work. Wide spread acceptance of the digital and changes in production from a Fordist society to post-Fordist and now to a post-Fordist network differentiated society has liberated the worker from the cubical allowing one to work across the city and even the world Current corporate architectural typologies are no longer sufficient given the changing modes of product and the current socio-economic condition of the network differentiated post-Fordist society. Thus the premise of the research is interrogating how corporate architectural types engage with the on-going cycle of innovation within society. Focussing on what architecture, corporations and institutions can learn form a networked worldview. Drawing from nature, sociology and philosophy this thesis introduces the concept of closed system that learns, self-supports and evolves to produce new elements. This thesis seeks to identify how architecture could capture similar benefits through the understanding of networked institutions; their role function and system. Articulating architectures ability to reflect on the changing relationships of both contextual and societal movements and how these serve the future is vital. Drawing on architectures historical development this research is negotiation of the current context for architectural design. This approach challenges the frameworks currently applied to design while proposing an alternative that allows for the reconstruction of rational design that currently lies outside of the authored process, context and style. This thesis seeks to address corporate architectures relationship to a vast taxonomy of contextual concerns instead of the stylistic concerns that currently dominate much of architectural discourse. A consequence of challenging the process of contextual negotiation is the identification or adaptation of media that affords contextual connectivity. So this thesis employs multiagent systems, triadic logic and biological organisational systems to afford architectural protocols that allow a synergy between top-down typological processes and bottom-up parametric processes.