The Cyborg as Contemporary Architectural Design Strategy

Abstract

The conceptualisation of contemporary architectural design is conditioned by its immersion in the digital environment. Starting in the second decade of this century, the operational investigation that guided the first digital age has given way to a theoretical development to establish the basis of what Greg Lynn coined calculus-based architectural design. Suppose the operational option annulled, to a certain extent, the decision-making capacity of the architectural designer. In that case, the theoretical one risks limiting the possibilities computers offer us in its excessive zeal to connect the present and the past. This article is positioned in a middle ground, still barely explored, in which the possibility of a close relationship between human and artificial intelligence is analysed, based on the study and compatibility of both capacities, without pre-established limits. Theory and praxis are combined to define this cyborg intelligence. Thus, texts that develop the possibilities of both bits of intelligence applied to the architectural project are studied comparatively. Simultaneously, some cases in which cybernetic approaches have achieved satisfactory results in various fields are analysed. In conclusion, possible lines of action are presented for the execution of project strategies as architectural cyborgs.