low fidelity

Abstract

A contemporary exhaustion with technological fidelity (Gow 2011) has identified an environment where control and precision are reduced to illusive promises in the game of materialization. The recent ascent of the homogenous copy, arguably brought on by the onslaught of digital tools, has collapsed the gap between the object and its representation, obliterating the productive tension and creative friction from architectural design methodologies. This work proposes to reopen the gap and locate new sites for architectural design by engaging in the translational discrepancies that occur through mediums of architectural representation, not as instances of dilemma but as opportunities to subdue tautology and augment the seductive latency of representation (Perez-Gomez and Pelletier 1997). In an attempt to negotiate the digital and physical, this work situates itself within the feedback loop between the translations of architectural ideas, representational strategies, material propensities, and back again. The discrepant becomes a dynamic catalyst through the engagement of participatory tools (Carpo IKKM 2011), interactions with matter, and processes of materialization.