Constraining chance: Chance as a creative catalyst in architectural design

Abstract

The OuLiPo or ‘Workshop for Potential Literature’ were an avant garde coalition of authors, mathematicians and poets who sought ‘complete control’ of the writing process via the use of writing constraints allowing them to stretch convention, create new forms of literature and veil the author from preconception. Many of their works utilised the generative potential of chance through the use of aleatory yet systematic structures and exercises.This thesis proposes the utilisation of this form of ‘controlled chance’ as a way to invigorate the design process, catalyse creativity and break the habits of the designer. By looking closely at the OuLiPo author, Georges Perec, and his 1978 novel “Life a User’s Manual” this thesis transposes some of his constraints from literature into the discipline of architecture and employs them in the design of an apartment building in downtown Auckland.