ƒ01
︎
MA-Thesis
, UdK Berlin
︎SoSe 2021
0 Preface
Complexity has become a key concept in the sciences. It contradicts the linear and schematic way of approaching the world around us through static and universal knowledge, but rather promotes the fluid and networked entanglement of phenomena. The approach of complexity is based on the insight that each analyzed situation is multidimensionally and transdisciplinarily informed by a multitude of agencies, contradicting the one-dimensionality of conventional knowledge conceptions. But to remain in a position to understand and actively shape our more and more complex realities, spaces are required that can equally (re)produce these convoluted relations. The way how we deal with knowledge today, our educational and learning spaces but also our working environments in general, dramatically lack these qualities. Also, because they insufficiently incorporate the tools we have at our disposal, namely our contemporary digital technologies, which are the instruments that opened the door for us to detect and analyze complexity on a broad scale in the first place. To think complexly means to think with the help of technology, or put differently: technologically mediated. My project is the attempt to therefore actualize one of our most central spaces of knowledge-interaction: a library. How can we as designers and architects create shared spaces that enable complex modes of knowledge retrieval, exchange, or generation and that frame collaborative cross-border work settings?
When I started my master’s studies at the University of the Arts Berlin in fall 2018, I got into a project group that intended to research possible synergies of digital technologies implemented in spaces of education and learning. Of course, we were aware that this task could hardly be answered by us architects alone, and so we initiated an open format of events and seminars for interdisciplinary encounter and the exchange of knowledge within UdK (Digital Salon). Out of this discourse the question arose how architecture can contribute to more complex modes of learning and working together. In the early stages of the project, I purposely let my attention and interest wander and dug into different fields of research that seemed related. This “undisciplined” way of connecting contents was the basis for the development of the transdisciplinary approach outlined in the following thesis. Correspondingly, in the project different textual lines from different disciplines (inter alia: architecture, philosophy, cultural studies, computer science) converge to form this heterogeneously informed argument. However, the project is neither a conventional architectural project nor a scientific paper. I like to see it as an “architectural essay” that blends conventional forms of presentation into a web-optimized experience.
Contents
1 Research: A media revolution
1.1 Tree-knowledge
1.2 Thinking paper-based
1.3 Hyperlinked reality
2 Interface: computing complexity
2.1 A hybrid data pool
2.2 Networking knowledge
2.3 Mock-up
2.4 Curriculum
3 Architecture: A platform for knowledge
3.1 Virtual and real-world platforms
3.2 Architectural interventions
3.3 Learning-clusters
3.4 Augmentation through apps
4 Conclusion
