Abstract:
This thesis is about architecture and speculative
fiction (science fiction), especially concerning themes
of transhumanism. My project is an architectural
visualization of Diaspora, a science fiction novel by
Greg Egan which extensively portrays a transhumanist
future.
For architects, science fiction is fascinating because it
is a genre whose purpose is to extrapolate beyond what
is currently feasible, including what is now achievable
in the built environment. This thesis suggests that
architects should look to science fiction and should
harness the power of architectural storytelling and
representation for inspiring new visions of the future.
Architects could use traditional media to do this, but
in many cases, as this project proposes, non-traditional
media might be more suitable.
This thesis speculates on how architecture reacts
towards environmental and social changes in the
future—exploring architecture that can redefine
the human condition by analyzing speculative
posthumanism in architecturalization and storytelling.
Through experimentation and speculation, the thesis
examines transhumanism as a way human evolves to
envisage a form of transhumanist architecture.
Many science fiction narratives project a future in
which humans have evolved beyond our current form
and have transcended humanity’s mental or bodily
limits, thus reconfiguring the very definition of being
human. This theme has been labeled “transhumanism”
and features strongly in Greg Egan’s Diaspora. In the
imagined scenarios of Diaspora and many other science
fiction narratives, architecture serves a function of
manifesting ideas about transhumanism. To examine
architecture in a posthuman context is to investigate
the human condition itself and redefine the boundaries
of architecture.
