Dynamic Proprioception

DYNAMIC PROPRIOCEPTION
by
Trevor Dykstra
A thesis in partial fulfillment of the require-

ments for the degree
of
Masters in Architecture
Montana State University

Bozeman, MT
5_6.2005
3
_APPROVAL
Of a thesis submitted by...
Trevor Dykstra
This thesis has been read by each member of

the thesis commitee and has been found to be sat-
isfactory regarding content, English usage, format,
citations, bibliographic style, and consistency, and is
ready for submission to the College of Arts and Archi-
tecture.
________________________________________________
Micheal Everts, Commitee Chair/ Date
________________________________________________
Bill Rea, Second Advisor/Date
________________________________________________
Lori Ryker, Comittee Member/Date
________________________________________________
Clark Llewellyn, Director/Date
4
Statement of Permission of Use
In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for a Master’s Degree
at Montana State University, I agree that the
School of Architecture shall make it available
to borrowers.
If I have indicated my intention to copyright

this thesis by including a copyright notice
page, copying is allowable only for scholarly
purposes, consistent with “fair use” as pre-
scribed in the U.S. Copyright Law. Requests
for permission for extended quotation from or
reproduction of this thesis in whole or in parts
may be granted only by the copyright holder.
____________________________________
Trevor Dykstra / 5.06_2005
5
a special thanks to those who have influenced my ideas.
6
7
_Chapter.List
1. Standing on the Brink – Intro and statement - page 09
2. _construction.documentation - page 13
4. Thesis Statement - page 19
5. Hacking the Architectural Mainframe - page 22
6. _site.Introduction - page 33
7. _Interaction Technologies - page 48
8. _Object Experimentation - page 56
9. _program.Introduction - page 61
10. Robotics Research - page 75
11. _program.diagramming - page 83
12. paranoia and the techno-apocalypse - page 89
13. swarm intelligence - page 99
14. _conclusion - page 106
15. Bibliography - page 109
8
What follows is a series of investigations and derivations.
Some which lead me to the thesis statement, and some of which the thesis
inspired. Above is a diagram that shows the branching structure and
interactions of the following essays, investigations, and precedents
9
10
“The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet.”
William Gibson
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12
The architectural world has begun to dip its’ toes into the
digital pool, testing the waters, preparing to dive in. How we uti-
lize new technologies becomes an ever increasing and critical sub-
ject. The fundamental intent of new wave blobitecture is no differ-
ent then the architecture of the 20th or even the 5th century. These
architectures are still non-interacting objects in the landscape even
if that landscape is virtual and the dynamic architectures that have
emerged recently reside only in a virtual space. The technology
exists to create an architecture that interacts on a very direct level
with humanity, however we have yet to implement this into the built
realm. Moving away from using technology for the golly gee effect
and towards a more critical improvement upon the world we inhabit
can do this. The computer image no longer impresses at face value,
generations (mine included) have grown up with the computer and
it doesn’t excite just because it exists. I propose that architecture
lead the charge in creating a meaningful techno-experience and
not just an orgy of computational glory. In this new digital environ-
ment we must strive to harness new technologies as extensions of
our creative expression, if we as Architects, designers, etc. fail to do
so, we reduce our formerly creative professions to a flock of skilled
technicians which will lead to homogenous design on a global scale
and destroying all cultural distinctions, emotions etc. In a world
of extreme information overload and technical prowess the things
that make us human become ever important. Our humanity can
be improved and reinforced if we utilize new ideas and technolo-
gies in a manner that supports the idea of progressive experiencial
experimentation. An interactive dynamic architecture can teach us
things about our environments and ourselves in ways never before
possible.
While the rest of the world slams forward driving progress, archi-
tecture assigns values to these innovations based on their relative
use. That is to say that most things “technical” that architects utilize
were designed with some other discipline in mind. AutoCAD the
most ubiquitous program among firms was designed for engineers,
rapid prototyping and computer controlled milling was designed
13
for manufactuers, virtual reality and the internet was originally for
the military, every major technological innovation in architecture
was built for a different purpose and pioneer architects hacked that
concept and transformed it into something they could use. Then the
architectural community at large, seeing these new technologies and
incorrectly guessing that the technology would make their designs
better just by sheer virtue of utilizing it, jumped on board. Designs
in schools and firms the world around have become increasingly
ubiquitous, if we continue to design using the standard filters and
routines of the design software we use we risk creating a generation
of architecture that does nothing more than demonstrate how nice
a photoshop lens flare looks. This is continuing to happen because
most designers have approached these technologies in the same
traditional ways which has only yielded architectures that function
within those traditional values not within the landscape of the tech-
nology they utilize, architecture needs a new way of thinking about
its creation, instead of that of the realm of statics and that of the
world of dynamic unpredictability. Neil Spiller put it much better
than I could when he said:
“Many architects still hide behind the computer, happily dressing up
virtual images of their buildings in digital lipstick in the hope of se-
ducing clients. Such practitioners are merely seeing the computer as
a glorified air-brush. Weaker students are also prone to this critical
error and do not recognize the potential of the technology at their
fingertips. Even so, the technology still needs to evolve before the
full importance of computers in the pursuance of architecture is fully
understood by the profession. Advances in software interoperability
and computer aided manufacture will leave only the most prehistoric
architect untouched and like their prehistoric colleagues, liable to
extinction.”
How will architecture address the changing world of inter-
active technologies, will we continue to remain stolid monoliths in a
hyper kinetic world of techno-humanity, or will architecture rise up
as it did in the past and drive innovation, design and philosophy? I
14
propose an architecture of interactivity that mediates the envi-
ronment and those things within the environment that are outside
the range of human perception in a very dynamic way.
“Anyone wanting to produce architecture should discard the pre-

concieved boundaries of the discipline and learn from architec-
ture wherever it is found, whatever it is made of, whoever it is
made by.”1
Trevor Dykstra
11.08_04 + 4.21_2005
1. Hill, Jonathan. Actions of Architecture.

Architects and Creative Uses. pg. 136
15
Presentation DVD
_construction.documentation
16
DVD Chapter List
CHAPTER LIST AND DVD TO BE HANDED OUT AT PRESENTATION
17
18
coding of image tags
ex. 22._45
The 1st number is the page on which the image is found and the 2nd is
where a similiar image can be found.
DVD Tags
ex. DVD._Chapter #
This links you to a specific chapter on the DVD
The goal of these tags is to provide a more interactive ex-

perience from the book, allowing the user to get what they
want out of it. There is a very large amount of information
here and instead of overwhelming the audience with all of
it at once I’ve provided a more restrained contact with that
information. The DVD, hopefully should contain almost ev-
erything I’ve created this year and the relative tags within
the book should help the audience to explore it.
19
THESIS STATEMENT-
WHAT - We’ve always been surrounded by ecologies (systems

and relationships of information) but up until recent advances
in technology our greater understanding of the influences
these ecologies have had on society and one another has
been truncated. Now with computational advances, those
ecologies and the connections between those ecologies are
more apparent.
WHY - In understanding the ecologies around us, we are

able to design for the system of the world, not just the state.
Design is influenced and illustrates these systems and in turn
allows us to change and control these systems.
HOW - We can easily “look” at these ecologies on graphs

and charts, (at first staticly, and now in real time.) but simply
looking at these ecologies does not give us any truly meaning-
ful understanding. I looked to my generations tool of view-
ing data and computationally processed information, the
videogame, when playing a video game users step into an
environment and occupy it totally within there minds. This state
of transposing the “limbs” of the body, outside of the human
form is called proprioception. Using our natural ability of
proprioception we can occupy these ecologies that have been
displayed using computational technologies.
Unfortunately, with videogames there is a disjoint from reality,
we stop our natural activity to view images on a screen there
for it is not enough just to inact proprioception. Architecture
can take these ideas of the game world and place them into
our natural environments, putting the human body in a constant
state of proprioception. In this way we(humanity) are always
living in the flow, we see and control ecologies we previously
only viewed as changing numbers in a column or changing
lines on a graph. Now humanity is poised to draw new con-
nections between ecologies, children may experience the shift-
ing economics of the globe and understand the consequences
of actions.
20
21
22
23
HACKING the ARCHITECTURAL Mainframe.
Main Entry: 1hack

Pronunciation: 'hak
Function: verb
4 a : to write computer programs for enjoyment b : to gain access to

a computer illegally
A slang term for a computer enthusiast, i.e., a person who

enjoys learning programming languages and computer
systems and can often be considered an expert on the
subject(s). Among professional programmers, depend-
ing on how it used, the term can be either complimentary
or derogatory, although it is developing an increasingly
derogatory connotation. The pejorative sense of hacker
is becoming more prominent largely because the popu-
lar press has co-opted the term to refer to individuals
who gain unauthorized access to computer systems for
the purpose of stealing and corrupting data. Hackers,
themselves, maintain that the proper term for such indi-
viduals is cracker.1
“Playfully doing something difficult, whether useful or not, that is

hacking.”
Richard Stallman
Is an architect a hacker? A hacker

quickly and expertly analyzes an existing sys-
tem with the goal of either understanding it
or to create a new use for that existing sys-
tem. An architect has to quickly and expertly
analyze their clients and their programs for
the purpose of creating a new space within
an existing framework be it property line, ur-
ban context etc. Hackers are able to see the
“space” of a system in a completely different
way than was intended perhaps even in a way
that system should be seen, they’re able to
1 http:/www.webopedia.com burrow within the system to discover the hidden
hacking the architectural mainframe 24

pathways and systems that reside within that
space. The architectural mainframe can also
be called SITE+ in that it describes something
beyond the geographic location. SITE+ can
include political sites, data sites, radiation
zones, emotional landscapes, or any other
perceivable or unperceivable element. In or-
der to discover and analyze SITE+, the archi-
tect must learn from the actions of the hacker
as every site will be different and present a
completely different set of relationships. This
is in contrast to a simply geographic site which
may occur more than once in nature, but with
SITE+ each site presents an individual chal-
lenge and unique identity.
Research into the field of reflexive archi-

tecture has been ongoing for several years,
but the products of this research have mostly
been in the virtual realm. There’s nothing
wrong with architectural investigations into
the virtual, but when will these ideas be ex-
tended into the school down the street or to
the home next door? The argument has been
that things such as occupancy and accessi-
bility aren’t conducive to a full investigation
of the reflexive. But if the Code is defined
instead by the constraints of the life-safety
risks of a particular SITE+ then it becomes a
design tool and generator rather than a bar-
rier to progressive experimentation.
Reflexivity
1 a : directed or turned back on itself b :
marked by or capable of reflection : REFLECTIVE
2 : of, relating to, characterized by, or being a relation
that exists between an entity and itself <the relation "is

equal to" is reflexive but the relation "is the father of" is not>
3 : of, relating to, or constituting an action (as in "he per-
jured himself") directed back on the agent or the gram-
matical subject2
“Many of the operations, vectors and machine-

augmented processes of the city are seldom
seen as ecologies. Such agglomerations of
matter and events contribute to the palimpsest
of the city. These palimpsests, which are human
culture’s largest artifacts, are the prima mate-
ria of architectures of reflexivity.”3
31.109 SITE+ brings the palimpsests of Neil Spiller’s

essay to the surface of perception be looking
within itself.
The word palimpsest refers to a parchment that

has been reused, usually the original text was
erased or washed out and then the parchment
was reused, this usually happened in monaster-
ies where new parchment was scarce and ex-
pensive to prepare. There is a subtle underlying
strata to this parchment, the upper and visible
area contains a religious document, but below
that exists a part of a book written by Archime-
des that’s was thought to be missing for the last
several centuries. For years this document was
viewed in a certain way, perhaps never utilizing
its full potential; now due to a deconstruction
and careful invasion of that document a whole
new realm is opened. The underlying elements
now take on the same or more value than the
overlay; perhaps, the things that go on beyond
2. Merriam Webster Online. http://www. perception are those that must become the most
m-w.com
important to an architecture which illustrates
3. Spiller, Neil ed. Reflexive Architecture.
Architectural Design, May 2002 page 21 these palimpsests to the individual. Futurist Bruce

Sterling, recently stated in an interview that “If
the invisible were made visable it would have
a profoundly transformative effect on human
behavior and our attitudes towards the world
around us.”4 These things can tell us more about
ourselves and our environments.
Architectural Interactivity
We live in a world of prosthesis’s, objects which

we interact with in a manner such that they
become an extension of our being. This ex-
tension beyond the form is called propriocep-
tion which is defined as the reception of stimuli
produced within the organism. In Hypersurface
Architecture, Lars Spuybroek makes the case
for an architecture that taps into this concept,
DVD._ “With practice and training, the movements of
the prosthesis can become second nature, and
regardless of whether it is of flesh, wood or
– a little more complex – of metal, as in the
case of a car. That is the secret of the anima-
tion principle: the body’s inner phantom has an
irrepressible tendency to expand, to integrate
every sufficiently responsive prosthesis into its
motor system, its repertoire of movements, and
make it run smoothly. That is why the car is not
an instrument or a piece of equipment that you
simply sit in, but something you merge with.”5
The car has become a major interactive and en-
hancing element of our lives allowing the body
to extend itself beyond the boundaries of its
4. Sterling, Bruce. 2003. Futurist and Social
Critic. [Interview: CIUT Radio] Dec. 2nd form.
5. Toy, Maggie ed. Hypersurface Architecture.
Architectural Design, May 1998 page 49
We are already becoming coded for

thinking outside of our simple perceptions; vid-
eo games of recent history have taught us that
we can think within a virtual realm through an
DVD._ avatar. In the game Mario Brothers, a gamer
no longer sees a moving image on a television
screen, that gamer “sees” through the charac-
ters eyes functioning within the characters world
and time. Gamers learn to time their jumps
35.34 and actions to the simulated gravity of the
game space. Another game, Half-Life, one of
DVD._ the most popular computer games ever made,
places the gamer in the first-person perspec-
tive of star Gordon Freeman. As Dr. Freeman
the gamer must navigate a world inhabited by
alien monsters and mutated human beings us-
ing a variety of weapons not constrained by
traditional physics and science. A successful
gamer uses the command structure of the game
to explore and react to the elements on screen.
In this way, the avatar, Gordon Freeman, is a
prosthetic of the gamer. In golf one key to a
good swing is thinking of the club as an exten-
sion of the arm, a good golfer doesn’t just use
an instrument he becomes part of that instru-
ment. As Ty Webb says in Caddyshack, “Just
be the ball, be the ball, be the ball.” Perhaps
the most interesting thing about preprioception
is the simple fact that it’s something only humans
and not machines can do, a computer program
can reason no farther than its inputs.
Architecture can also move beyond a
simple form for occupation and on to an exten-
sion of the human consciousness. The way in
which we code the interaction with this architec-
tural appendage becomes another part of the
architect’s role. There is no standard for this
interface, no QWERTY keyboard, no mouse or

trackball. Much like any interface device there
will be a learning curve, but architects as the
designers of this system can play a role in allevi-
ating this curve. If the interface device becomes
ergonomic beyond the traditional theories of the
form and into the realm of ergonomic to human
perception and brain-structure, the interface be-
comes intuitive instead of learned. This interface
then in turn acts upon the architecture and allows
the architecture to act upon the user. This inter-
face can extend beyond the human pilot and
to the influence of the surrounding environment
and in turn allow the architecture to become the
interface between the human and the environ-
ment. This allows for entirely new experiences,
like experiencing the life of a water molecule
for instance. Nox Architecture and Oosterhuis.nl
collaborated on the Fresh Water and Salt Wa-
ter pavilions for the FreshH2O eXPO. The final
creation was two joined buildings both with a
focus on interactivity within the architecture.
The designer describes the experience

like this:
The continuous surface of the interior is covered
with different sensing devices. Imagine walking
or running up the central slope towards a wire-
frame projection on the floor. In the course of
this you activate a series of light sensors and
step right into the projection, where you are cov-
ered in a grid of light. The waves begin activat-
ing more sensors and creating more waves…The
vertigo of the motor system is inextricably linked
to sensory hallucination. At the same time, the
pulse of light is going through the sp(L)ine – a
line of numerous blue lamps – is speeded up

by the crowd sensor, ripples suddenly shoot out
from you feet: circular decaying waves in the
wire-frame projection. Somebody else jumps on
to the second sensor, a few metres away from you.
Ripples then shoot out from their feet too, interfer-
ing with your ripples halfway. As you both begin
to jump up and down you are pushing away the
sound and activating the light running along the
sp(L)ine: suddenly a high level of blue light splits in
two and slowly fades away. Further on, a sphere
is projected in wireframe on a steep slope be-
tween handles that are gently operated by four
people. Their action causes the sphere to deform
in as many directions, while at the same time ‘pulls
the sound’ from the Well. With their hardest pull-
ing action, the light on the sp(L)ine is frozen in the
last position.6
The nOX pavilion includes static and dynamic ar-

chitectural pieces, the static are built and the dy-
namic are projections, although this is a quick way
of creating a dynamic element that does indeed
interface with existing technology, it doesn’t allow
for any topographical change. The detail of a
projection, while it does change the space of the
object, is rather hollow, if it were possible to make
the floor surface ripple the third dimensional spa-
tial change could have a much greater impact on
the perceptions of interaction.
Precedent_SITE+:
36 The Fall. Lebbeus Woods
“While the space of the fall isn’t for everyone, it
is part of an emerging reality few will be able
to avoid or escape. It is an experimental domain
6. Toy, Maggie ed. Hypersurface Architecture.
where limits of all kinds are tested for those will-
Architectural Design, May 1998 page 49
ing to take risks and embrace changes. It may
be a foretaste of what is to come for a society

that cares more for progress than security and
values liberty above certainty. It may also be a
glimpse into what architecture might become if
it invests its creative capital less in the struggle
against gravity and more in seeing what might
happen when we let go.”
-Lebbeus Woods7
With the installation piece, The Fall, Leb-

beus Woods set his architecture within the land-
scapes/trajectories of the trauma surrounding a
fallen building, the political aftermath of such
an event and within the physics of the moment
of the fall. The Fall was presented in the Cartier
Foundation Building and although it is build to
physically fit within this realm the architecture
also critically addresses the other parts of the
site that it resides within. This is a great ex-
ample of utilizing a site that is much more than a
geographic location and takes architecture into
other realms of societal effect.
The SITE+ can and will be occupied by human-

ity, but only when we have a architecture which
allows us to truly interact/percieve the palimp-
sests that make up that landscape.
7. Virilio, Paul. Unknown Quantity.
Thames and Hudson. New York, New
York. 2002. page 156

The Archimedes Palimpsest
25.109

Pablo Picasso
“The Bullfighter”
Light Drawing

Operating Room
Priyapat, Ukraine
Zones of Exclusion

Half-Life 2
Valve Entertainment
PC
27.35

Super Mario Brothers
Nintendo Entertainment System
27.34

Model of “The Fall”
Lebbeus Woods
Installation 2002
29

_SITE.Introduction
38
39
REACTOR 4 MAIN CONTROL ROOM
History:
On April 25th -26th, 1986 the World’s

worst industrial accident occurred at the
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in
DVD._ the southeast of what was then the USSR
(now Ukraine) about 80 miles north of
Kiev. The nuclear power plant had 4 reac-
tors and while testing reactor number 4,
the main reactor, numerous safety proce-
dures were disregarded. At 1:23AM, the
stability of the reactor shifted out of con-
trol as dispersed fuel came in contact with
water in the reactor, causing 2 separate
explosions and a fireball which blew off
the reactor’s heavy steel and concrete lid.
_SITE.introduction 40
The resultant fire fueled by the graphite from SIDE BAR
the nuclear core, burned for days while fire- THE NAMES OF CHERNOBYL AND
PRIPIAT CAN BE TRANSLATED SEV-
fighters battled the blaze, the interior of the ERAL WAYS ALL OF WHICH MAY BE
USED IN THE FOLLOWING PAGES.
reactor, as described by videographers that
were sent over the blaze to assess the situation PRIPJAT
PRYPJAT
for the government, was like a small volcano the PRIPIAT
graphite burned so hot PRIPYAT
CHERNOBYL
The Chernobyl accident killed more than 30 CHORNOBYL
TSCHERNOBYL
people immediately, and as a result of the high
radiation levels in the surrounding 20-mile ra-
dius, 135,00 people had to be evacuated.1
Since that time, it has been estimated that

400,000 people have died from radiation
DVD._ poisoning from the accident. The events at the
Chernobyl plant quickly had a global impact as
winds carried radiation away from the U.S.S.R
and over Europe and beyond. See continental
map The town of Pripyat became a ghost
DVD._ town in less than 48 hours, the buildings remain
as a monument to the old soviet ways, slowly
decaying. Building number 4 was entombed
51. in a lead and concrete “sarcoughagus” to
prevent the highly radioactive material within
from spreading radiation outward, this casing
was hastily built and as a result is beginning to
decay very rapidly. The United Nations has
undertaken steps recently to build a new shelter
over Reactor 4 which should hopefully stand up
for a longer amount of time. Reactors 2 and
3 remained in use until 1999 when they were
decommissioned and powered down for the last
1. http://www.chernobyl.co.uk time.
2. http://library.thinkquest.org/3426/
data/disaster/timeline.html
Timeline of events
April 25
Day 1
1:00 am The reactor was running at full power with normal operation.
Steam power was directed to both turbines of the power generators. Slowly the
operators began to reduce power for the test. The purpose of the test was to
observe the dynamics of the RMBK reactor with limited power flow.
1:05 pm Twelve hours after power reduction was initiated the reactor
reached 50% power. Now only one turbine was needed to take in the decreased
amount of steam caused by the power decrease and turbine #2 was switched
off.
2:00 pm Under the normal procedures of the test the reactor would
have been reduced to 30% power, but the Soviet electricity authorities refused to
allow this because of an apparent need for electricity elsewhere, so the reactor
remained at 50% power for another 9 hours.
April 26
Day 2
12:28 am The Chernobyl staff received permission to resume the reac-
tor power reduction. One of the operators made a mistake. Instead of keeping
power at 30%, he forgot to reset a controller which caused the power to plum-
met to 1% because of water which was now filling the core, and xenon (a neutron
absorber) which was building up in the reactor. This amount of power was too low
for the test. The water added to the reactor is heated by the neuclear reaction
and turned into steam to turn the turbines of the generator.
1:00-1:20 am The operator forced the reactor up to 7% power by removing

all but 6 of the control rods. This was a violation of porcedure and the reactor
was never built to operate at such low power. The RBMK reactor is unstable when
its core is filled with water. The operator tried to take over the flow of the water
which was returning from the turbine manually which is very difficult because
small temperature changes can cause large power fluctuations. The operator was
not succesful in getting the flow of water corrected and the reactor was getting
increasingly unstable. The operator disabled emergency shutdown procedures
because a shutdown would abort the test.
1:22 am By 01:22, when the operators thought they had the most stable
conditions, they decided to start the test. The operator blocked automatic shut-
down on low water level and the loss of both turbines because of a fear that a
shutdown would abort the test and they would have to repeat tests.
1:23 am
(The test begins) The remaining turbine was shut down
1:23:40 am Power in the reactor began to gradually rise because of the
reduction in water flow caused by the turbine shutdown which lead to an increase
in boiling. The operator initiated manual shut down which lead to a quick power
increase due to the control rod design.
1:23:44 am Disaster Point- The reactor reached 120 times its full power.
All the radioactive fuel disintegrated, and pressure from all of the excess steam
which was supposed to go to the turbines broke every one of the pressure tubes
and blew off the entire top shield of the reactor.
1:30 am. Fire fighting crews respond and attempt to extinguish the fire that was
in danger of spreading to the roof of building 3.
2:10 am the first 29 causalties arrive at the pripiat hospital
5:00am All fires but the graphite fire in the core extinguished
11:00am Emergency teams fly to kiev from moscow
9:00pm after unsucessfully trying to cool the fire by using existing reactor pumps
the emergency teams decide two things: to contain the accident at the source by
covering the shaft with heat-absorbent and filtering materials; or to allow the
combustion process in the reactor to come to an end on their own accord. They
chose to go with the first strategy and attempt to quell the fire in the reactor with
heat-absorbent materials. As the initial plume missed pripiat evacuations still had
not taken place and at this time the committee decided to evacuate the city in a
different direction than intialing planned.
April 27
Day 3
1:13am Unit number 1 shut down
2:13am Unit number 2 shut down, staff finds radioactive contamination in all 3
other reactor buildings,caused by ventilation system which transported debris.
2:00pm evacutation of pripiat officially announced,.
4:45pm 45,000 people evacuated by this point, mass exodus took approx. 2
hours and 45 minutes.3
3. Mould, Richard. Chernobyl: The Real Story. Pergamon Press,

New York, New York. Pg.s 18-19
After the evacuation, Soviet officials kept all
mention of the Chernobyl incident out of the
press until May 7th. Images, video, maps and
other information was subsequently buried
from outside interests.3 As a result of this
existing site information about Chernobyl isn’t
easily attainable even in today’s post-Soviet
world. Areas of the city are still too contami-
nated to enter, buildings that faced the reactor
with open windows trapped radiation within
the walls and now are hotspots of radioactive
material. The soil around the zone contains, in
many cases, extremely high amounts of radio-
activity. The Pripyat river occasionally floods
the plains around the Chernobyl lake and
flushes radioactive silt down the river into to
Kiev reservoir which supplies drinking water to
45 the city of Kiev. As a result extensive construc-
tion efforts have been undertaken along the
banks of the river and lake to prevent radio-
active silt from being washed into the drinking
supply.
The site isn’t a complete loss though, as the

46 buildings and man-made elements begin to
decay, nature has begun to retake the site. In
fact the eco-system has become suprisingly vi-
brant, in 2000’s Environmental Toxicology and
Chemistry reported:
During recent visits to Chernobyl, we experienced
numerous sightings of moose (Alces alces), roe deer
(Capreol capreolus), Russian wild boar (Sus scrofa),
foxes (Vulpes vulpes), river otter (Lutra canadensis), and
rabbits (Lepus europaeus) within the 10-km exclusion
zone. We observed none of those taxa except for a
single rabbit outside the 30-km zone, although the time
and extent of search in each region is comparable. The
top carnivores, wolves and eagles, as well as the endan-
gered black stork are more abundant in the 30-km zone
than outside the area. Trapping of small rodents in the
most radioactive area within the 10-km zone has yielded
greater success rates than in uncontaminated areas [7].
Diversity of flowers and other plants in the highly radio-
active regions is impressive and equals that observed in
protected habitats outside the zone 4
DVD._ With this nature preserve-like setting, the need
for a controlled human environment in which
to observe this area becomes more important.
While the buildings may eventually disappear
the mark of man will not disappear for sev-
eral centuries. The subtely shifting landscapes
4. Environmental Toxicology and
lends itself to an architecture that can take this
Chemistry, Vol.19, No.5, pp.1231-1232,
2000
changing information and allow humanity to oc-
cupy/interact with it.
Chernobyl, Ukraine
Satellite Image
image courtesy of NASA
2_1.39.42
Overhead View of Pripiat,
Ukraine, looking east towards
Chernobyl NPP
2_2.40.43
Ukraine Road Map
2_3.39.44
PRIPYAT
Building survey of Pripiat and surrounding area.
Ukraine Geological Ministry
1:25,000 excerpt
2_4.36.45
site
Radiation Map
2_5.35.46
Sarcoughagus
40.73
_SITE.introduction
52
Interaction w/Technologies
Almost every man-made object in the world

today contains some sort of interactive proper-
ties, these interactions create a space around
our lives. Around these technologies entirely
new social dynamics and worlds have sprung
up, entire languages have been crafted out of
the precepts of these technologies. Recently on
an episode of Jeporody! someone bid 1337 dollars, which
to the average individual might seem like a completely
random number but to those in the know the contestant
had written a word in Leet (or elite) speak. The language
emerged from online computer gaming due to the place-
ment of the hands. In a typical PC game one hand resides
on the letters of the average keyboard the other on either
the mouse or more common in the past, on the number pad.
One way to communicate without having to break gam-
ing posture, was to use as little of the letters as possible
and use number substitutes, hence 1337 would be L-E-E-
T short for elite. This type of language set isn’t
constricted to the gaming community though,
Palm invented an entirely new language for its’
palm pilot handheld computer called graffiti,
this language is a kind of written shorthand that
takes the basic motions of writing a letter and
makes that the letter itself. Due to new types of
technology new types of interactions are being
created, with these new interactions different
cultural behavior emerges, and if architecture
is designed around cultural examples, then new
types of architecture emerge due to technologi-
cal innovation. Flash mobs have sprung up sur-
rounding the ability to quickly send a message
to a very large group and the ability to relay
that message to others (i.e. IM, text-messaging,
email, cell-phones etc.). These mobs comprise
a new style of spatial interaction, one not only
driven by very specific time and place but also
interaction technologies 53
by the actions of others and they are created
and defined by the amorphous network of tech-
nology that distributed them.
The Institute of Illegal Architects

“The illegal architect questions and subverts the
established codes and conventions of architec-
tural practice, and acknowledges that architec-
ture is made by use and design.”1 Jonathan Hill
postulates that in order for architecture to be-
come more critical, architects must recognize that
users will come up with other creative uses for the
spaces we create. Dubbing those who came up
with these ideas, illegal architects because those
inventors had no legal right to the title architect.
The assertion was that some of the major ideas to
influence architecture come from outside the field
of architecture. The uses of space by those other
than the designer create a dialog, this dialog
takes place between the user, the designer and
the space, architecture can then be designed with
this dialog in mind.
BIOFEEDBACK
58 Wild Divine is a new type of computer game in
which the actions within the game are controlled
by the thoughts of the user. Wearing three finger
sensors that track your body’s heart rate variabil-
ity and skin conductance, you move through en-
chanting and mystical landscapes using the power
of your thoughts, feelings, breath and awareness.
Wise mentors guide you throughout the realm,

empowering you with yoga, breathing and medi-
tation skills needed to complete over 40 biofeed-
1. Hill, Jonathan. Actions of Architecture.
back ‘energy’ events.
Architecture and Creative Uses. pg. 135
Build stairways with your breath, open doors
with meditation, juggle balls with your laugh-
ter, and so much more. The Journey makes
biofeedback, a popular method of alternative
healthcare, easily accessible and empowers you
to take mind-body wellness, literally, into your
own hands.2 The program utilizes what has been
refered to as biofeedback, a network of sen-
sors which feed into a computer program that
translates the heartrate, skin conductance etc.
into elements the game can understand. This
illustrates a precedent for control outside of the
standard conditions.
The unpredictability of interaction.
“When design aims only at enabling a desired

stability--social, economic, psychological--the
goals are determined in advance. A space is
deemed ‘functional,’ if it can be used in the way
the designer prescribed and, presumably, the
client or anticipated users intended. But when,
as is often the case today, the goal is to enable
unpredictability, to give people a high degree
of freedom in how and why they need or use
designed space, it is no longer possible to think
of function, or purpose, or meaning as we have
before. Mere ‘flexibility,’ in the old sense of
adapting a form designed for one purpose to
2. http://www.wilddivine.com
another purpose or the same form to a variety
3. Virilio, Paul. Unknown Quantity. pg.
159
of purposes, misses the point. What we need
are entirely new ways of thinking and working.
The fall instructs us as to what these need to
be.”3
An interactual space derives from a prescribed
59 system of the SITE+. In the case of this thesis,
the system comes from the topologies of radia-
tion, landscape, politics and kinetics.
Precedent_Interaction:
Oosterhuis.NL
MUSCLE + MUSCLE reConfigured
“For the exhibition Non-Standard Architecture ONL realizes a working
prototype of the Trans-ports project, called the MUSCLE · Program-
mable buildings can reconfigure themselves mentally and physically,
probably without considering to completely displace themselves like
the Walking City as poposed by Archigram in 1964 · Programmable
buildings change shape by contracting and relaxing industrial muscles ·
The MUSCLE is a pressurized soft volume wrapped in a mesh of tensile
Festo muscles, which can change their own length · Orchestrated motions
of the individual muscles change the length, the height, the width and
thus the overall shape of the MUSCLE prototype by varying the pressure
pumped into the 94 swarming muscles · The balanced pressure-tension
combination bends and tapers in all directions ·
Out of control
The public connects to the MUSCLE by sensors, and by input through

sliders on the computer screen · The sensors are attached to the refer-
ence points of the construction · Coming closer to the sensors triggers a
reaction of the MUSCLE as a whole · The public will discover within some
minutes how the MUSCLE reacts on their actions, and soon the public
starts to find a goal in the play · Another way to communicate with the
MUSCLE is to operate the sliders on the computer screen · Bringing the
slider to the right probably means that the selected area moves to right
· But meanwhile ONL has programmed the MUSCLE to have a will of
its own · The MUSCLE may not want to go there, and may try to crawl
back · Then a true interaction starts, and the outcome of the transaction
process may be unpredictable · The MUSCLE is the prototype for an
environment that is slightly out of control · A prototype for a building
which is pro-active rather than responsive and obedient to the user ·
Communication first starts when there are two pro-active parties involved
· The utimate goal is to develop an individual character for the MUSCLE
during its 3 month performance at the Centre Pompidou ·”4
The interaction takes on a more meaningful, or

at least more thought out interaction in the case
of the MUSCLE projects, instead of an architec-
ture that is completely autonomous or an archi-
tecture that is completely relient on humanity,
Oosterhuis creates something that flirts with that
4. http://www.oosterhuis.nl/quickstart/in-
dex.php?id=11 boundary. In this case the elements of MUSCLE’s
“intelligence” or “will” have been specifically
programmed but the architect still does not
have complete control of the final shape as it
is determined by an amalgamation of random
dynamic inputs.
Promotional Image for The Journey to Wild Divine
http://www.wilddivine.com
3_1.50.54
“cuishicle”
Archigram 1966
3_2.51.55
_object.experimentation
60
_ObJECT eXPERIMENTATION
Utilizing the contruction of architectural

objects to investigate design principles.
_ROCKING.h0rse v.1
This rocking horse became an investiga-

tion into creating an experiencial pros-
thesis. The _horse is set within the site of
a simple lighting system and functions as
a prosthetic operator/occupier of that
system. The system was build to recog-
nize the human scale and experience of
being placed with the network. The light-
ing becomes almost a background system
while the sites of human emotions such as
fear are cultivated to a greater degree.
By situating the architecture within the
system in such a manner that areas that
trigger emotion must be used in order to
fully control/view that system. The weight
is off centered so it becomes easier to
shift in one direction and more difficult
in the other, in this case rocking forward
(relative to the direction the user is facing)
is increasingly easy while rocking back-
ward becomes more and more scary as
the speed and height of rotation increase.
The light bulbs are controlled by a simple
gravity type sensor, a pvc tube filled with
ball-bearings that travel along the path
as the _horse rocks. The motion sensors
also recieve enough outside light to be
trigger by motion outside of the tube in
certain instances this creates a non-ratio-
nal type of output, that is to say, instead
of the lights lighting up in a row, the turn
on and off in a much more random way.
The wiring and conduit inside the object is
left exposed to show the logic of the sys-
tem, this allows users to understand and
create new goals for the object.
_object.experimentation 61
On December 9th, this object will be put on
public display, this is when architecture of
the object becomes apparent. In the con-
stant interaction with the interface, a spatial
reasoning appears.
Successes and Failures:
Successes:
The project successfully hooks those

who come within its territory, setting the
object in a hallway its style and kinetic
dynamic drew people close to it, trying
to examine what it was exactly and
what it does.
Failures:
I don’t think the project investigated the

idea of a prosthetic interaction with an
existing system. As the project was de-
signed without a specific system in mind.
I feel the next version could be much
more successful with a more critical
investigation of the site/system in which
the object resides.
Lessons Learned:
The kinetic and mechanical complexity

of the object seemed to draw people
into the object, that and the appear-
ance of something that resembles a
seat. With simple wiring techniques it
becomes fairly easy to create systems
which may have complex interactions
but are actual of a somewhat minimal
design.
64
_PROGRAM.introduction
65
Pripyat Expeditionary Unit_1
-intent: Create a facility that will allow researchers to inves-

tigate the effects of post-nuclear catastrophe and experiment
with the realities of dwelling in an extreme habitat of unknown
quantity. The facility, (referred to as the Terminal) occupies the
landscape of Pripyat in a way that goes beyond human per-
ception, the unperceivable qualities of the site such as radiation
make up a very critical and important landscape that must be
build with respect to, or risk human life. This project will serve
as a stepping stone to research and development into the habi-
tation of the zone which up to this point has been assumed to
be off-limits, for the rest of the forseeable future. The facility
will function as a node for the swarm of _POD’s that explore
the area. _POD’s are lab structures in the same vein as the
space shuttle or the international space station, these structures
have been designed to the specifications of each group that
is conducting research within the zone, some may be autono-
mous and some may be manned. The terminal allows research-
ers to process the raw data being mined in the exterior areas
by the _POD network. At the same time the project illustrates
the ability for architecture to function as prosthesis to human
perception, allowing mankind to occupy the realm of the man-
made/natural blur. This also should serve as a prototype for
occupation of other extreme environments.
-Specific Site Notes: The site I’ve chosen lies on the axis of
the two main transit connections to the site, the river and the
railroad. They intersect just northeast of the Chernobyl NPP
and at this intersection the building will situate itself.
sq. footage: appx 13500 sq.ft
Programmatic Requirements:
- NO Hard Lab spaces (chemical, technical) are required as

they will appear in the roving _POD labs.
_program .intro 66
- “Lab” Areas consist of a proprioceptive interaction with
the data acquired by the _PODs
- Temporary Living Space for up to 6 residents/crew
- Kitchen
- 1 Toilet Facility
- 1 Shower Facility
- Operations (Building/Train/Dock) Center
- Towers with connections to a shifting variety of information
- Wall Structure with connections to internal social dynamics
- Floor Structure with connections to external social dynam-
ics or other information set.
- Ceiling Structure that translates the “health” of the build-
ing elements into architectural form.
- Moveable Dock, shifts with changing river heights.
CODE and SITE+

I could design this building to the specifications of the code but that
would yield a building that is completely unsafe for the site conditions.
Therefore a new code for buildings has to be written, as each SITE+ is
entirely different each building requires a unique code in order to pre-
serve the safety of the occupants. The major dangers of this SITE come
from radiation and severely degrading buildings, while dead loads, ac-
cessibility standards, etc. are still extremely important they do not drive
the design.
MATERIALS
Radiation – Radiation is the most important “material” on this site, ev-

ery part of the zone has been immersed in a radioactive environment
for a large period of time (over 18 years) and will continue to be for
at least 25,000 years.
A Quick Primer – Radiation is caused by unstable isotope of molecules

(more neutrons than protons) when these molecules throw off particles
(bonded neutrons and protons) to become stable it is described as de-
cay. The rate at which these atoms decay is very unpredictable in small
quantities but in large quantities it becomes extremely predictable. In
a situation where a large amount of decaying molecules is present, the
time it takes for half of those molecules to decay to the point of being
stable is referred to as the half-life.
_program .intro 67
There are three different types of decay which in turn
produce 4 different types of rays.
Types of decay
– Alpha decay
- Beta Decay
- Spontaneous Fission
Types of Radioactive Rays Produced

- Alpha Ray
- Beta Ray
- Gamma Ray
- Neutron Ray1
Each type of ray has a different wavelength which translates

into the depth it can penetrate into a material and the density
of material required to stop it.2
Measurement – Curies or Cu– amount of radioactivity that one

gram of Radium release.
DVD._
Radioactive elements –
Main radioactive elements released
Caesium-137 half-life 30 years – gamma emitters
Iodine-131 half-life 8 days – gamma emitter
Uranium-235 – half-life 713,000,000 years – alpha emitter
Strontium-90 – half-life 29 years -beta emitter3
Other elements released in smaller quantities

Plutonium – Half-life 24000 years – alpha and very low-level
gamma emitter
Interesting side note – as radiation is absorbed by a material

it heats up.4
High-Density Polyethylene
Information- specific properties of the material can be found

on the DVD
1. http://science.howstuffworks.
com/nuclear.htm Pros – Stands up to alpha and beta particles particularly well.
2. http://www.clavius.org/envradintro.
html Can be precision molded or milled. Recyclable. Cheap.5
3. http://www.chernobyl.info/index. Cons - 1KG of HDPE is relative to creation of 1 3/4 kg of Oil
php?userhash=725970&navID=220
&lID=2 Raw material and energy.
4 . http://www.tpub.com/content/doe/
h1017v2/css/h1017v2_79.htm
5 . http://www.designinsite.dk
_program .intro 68
Steel –
By using a wall made of two pieces of steel sand
wiching a section of water, a very effec-
tive shield can be made against
gamma and neutron radiation (The
bigboys)
Pros - protects against radiation, good strength to weight
ratio
Cons - absorbs radiation over time
Water
Shields against neutron rays not at all against
gamma radiation.
Other Materials –
In order to create a receptive environment, some
responsive or “smart” materials could be used, ex
amples are as follows:
Smart Metal Alloys - Shape-Memory Alloys are
metals that, after being strained, at a certain
temperature revert back to their original shape. A
change in their crystal structure above their trans
formation temperature causes them to return to
their original shape.7
Polymer Gels - polymer gels consist of a cross-

linked polymer network inflated with a solvent such
as water. They have the ability to reversibly swell
or shrink (up to 1000 times in volume) due to small
changes in their environment (pH, temperature, elec
tric field).
Micro sized gel fibers contract in milliseconds, while

thick polymers layers require minutes to react (up
to 2 hours or even days). They have high strength and can
deliver sizeable stress (approximately equal to that of hu-
man muscles).
The most common are polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyacryl-

icacid (PAA) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN). Many potential
7. Ibid.
8. http://www.designinsite.dk applications (e.g. artificial muscles, robot actuators, absorb-
ers of toxic chemicals), but presently, few of them have a
commercial diffusion.8
_program .intro 69
Movement Materials:
Festo Muscles
http://www.festo.com
These flexible hydraulic piston/muscles can preform in areas
and situation that demand a more organic form and direction.
These are just a few examples of materials that have proper-

ties that would be condusive to this type of design. Most
interesting of all, I think, would be the high-density polyeth-
ylene as it allows translucentcy but blocks out most radiation.
As the common misnomer about radiation has been the need
for very thick and heavy barriers a material like HDPE makes
for a more light mobile design.
_program .intro 70
_program .intro 71
_program .intro 72
SITE MAP
BUILDING TYPOLOGY MAP
RADIATION ZONE MAP
ACCESS POINTS
GROUNDWATER
_program .intro 73
_program .intro 74
_program .intro 75
DVD._
THE FLIP SHIP
A RESEARCH FACILITY PRECEDENT.
IN 1969 THE UNITED STATES NAVY BUILT A RESEARCH VES-

SEL CAPABLE OF REMAINING COMPLETLY STABLE IN HIGH
SEAS AND INCREDIBLY SILENT. THIS WAS NECESSARY TO
FACILITATE RESEARCH CONDUCTED ON BOARD ABOUT
SOUND AND THE OCEAN. THE EXPERIMENTS REQUIRE THAT
THERE BE ABSOLUTE SILENCE AND THAT THEY HAVE ACCESS
TO THE SURFACE, BECAUSE WAVES CAUSE PLENTY OF
NOISE OFF OF THE HULL A SUBMARINE OR TRADITIONAL
CRAFT WERE NOT VIABLE. WHAT THE NAVY DID WAS
CREATE THE WORLDS LARGEST BOUY, WHICH CAN ROTATE
90 DEGREES BY SHIFTING BALLAST, IT IS DONE IN SUCH A
SMOOTH WAY THAT ALL EQUIPMENT INSIDE REMAINS UN-
DISTURBED. BECAUSE THE SHIP HAS TO PERFORM IN TWO
DIFFERENT PLANES (HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL) SOME
HARD EQUIPMENT IS DOUBLED (I.E. ONE HORIZONTAL SINK
AND ONE VERTICAL ONE.) AND SOME EQUIPMENT SIMPLY
FLIPS, LIKE THE REFRIDGERATOR.
1. http://aquarium.ucsd.edu/
learning/learning_res/voyager/
flip/
76
77
“I’m not a robot like you. I don’t like having disks
crammed into me... unless they’re Oreos, and
then only in the mouth.”
Phillip J. Fry_Futurama
78
79
Robotics Research
Everyday, new building materials are be-

coming actuated by robotic and computer-
ized mechanics. The concept of haptics is
now being considered the next frontier of
interaction with information and mechanics.
The idea of an ambient information flow
that can be sensed through a non-display
function has become the most popular form
of research within the field of robotics. By
83 2007 the United Nations estimates that over
600,000 robots will be in use in households
around the world and in industrial circles the
number stands at somewhere near 1 million
as of today. As of 2004 the production
of most robotics has shifted from japan to
Europe and the United States, this shift has
caused the entire idea of robotic technol-
ogy to become global. A common misnomer
about robotics would be the assertion that
there are more robotic workers than human
ones, that’s not even close to being true,
between 50 and 80 per 10,000 workers,
and although the number is rising it’s not
expected to overtake the amount of work-
ers anytime soon. The car industry on the
other hand the average is one robot per ten
workers. For the past ten years the price of
a single robot unit has fallen by 43% while
the speed, capacity, capabilities etc have
all risen by more than 100% each. As each
unit becomes cheaper and more powerful
81 they become more ubiquitous.1 Included is a
list of robots in use around the world today,
notice there is no heading for architecture.1
1 United Nations Economic Commission for
Europe: Report on worldwide robotic invest-
ments. United Nations. 2004
My own investigations into robotics
led to a LEGO set called Mindstorms which
robotics research 80
allows the user to program without having to do all
of the electrical engineering. So far its been my
understanding that intelligence isn’t something you
can just tell a machine to have, instead it’s a care-
ful set of instructions that react in a way to appear
to be intelligent. A robot runs on a series of loops,
also called if then statements, if “a” happens then
do this, if not then repeat untill “a” happens. While
the possibility of an intelligent machine is growing,
we are more likely to see an machine utilize human
cognizance to embody its intelligence before we see
a truly sentient machine. The appeal or fascina-
tion with robots has more or less stemmed from the
fascination of the mechanic represented in a human-
ised image. When we look at robot or robotics in
general we see ourselves creating our own likeness
in the availiable technologies of the day.
Therefore, perhaps the more relevant prec-

82
edent would be a prosthetic. There’s a plethora
of examples of prosthetic in the world today, as
mentioned earlier, the car is a major prosthesis in
most Americans, if not all of humanities’ lives. With
a prosthetic the appeal of the robot, the mechanic
personification, is driven by the attachment of the
mechanic to the human. Prosthesis also avoids the
84 apocalyptic visions of the previous chapter, by
firmly placing humanity within the equation as an
intrinsic part of it.
Roomba
Robotic Vacuum
iRobot Corporation
Burlington, MA
copyright 2004
79
Bionic Arm
http://mediatheek.thinkquest.nl/~ll106/Ap-
plications/Medical/bionic.jpg
80
79
Production Image
“The Iron Giant”
Warner Brothers 1999
Dir. Brad Bird
80
_diagrammatic programming
86
Life_Safety Analysis.
Pripyat Expedition Unit 1
Pripyat, Ukraine
Chernobyl NPP Exclusion/Restricted Zone
REFERENCES + RESOURCES
A. IBC 2003
B. Uniform Fire Code 2003
C. Radiation Research
D. Ukraine Ministry of Energy
E. United Nations Monitoring Verification and Inspection
Commission (UNMOVIC)
SITE+ CONTEXT
The Project is to be restricted from moving flex space into hot

zones.
-Hot Zones to be defined as areas of greater than 100 curies per
hour and larger than 4 sq. feet
Usage
-the facility is to be used to research post-nuclear events and liv-
ing conditions in extreme habitats
Height Restrictions
-all buildings within the town of Pripyat must be shorter than 10
stories the existing maximum height
Existing Buildings
-No structure built pre 1986 may be demolished without
first verifying the
Resultant debris will not be radioactive
OCCUPANTS NEEDS
Occupancy Groups
Applicable IBC Use Groups - H5 and R2
-Pod/Bunker_H5
_program .diagramming 87
-Flexible Transitional Space_R3
-Research/Lab Zones_
-Living Area_
Separation
Any connection with a safety pod/zone must be airtight and impen-
etrable to low-level radiation
BUILDING NEEDS
Structural Design Criteria

A. Radiation Loads
Mechanical Systems
A. Power Source
B. Ventilation
C. Motor/Kinetic
Electrical/Computational Systems
The Building shall adhere to the Uniform Fire Code

-Excerpts from NFPA National Fire Code
4.1.1 Goals – The goals of this Code shall be to provide a reasonable level of
safety, property protection and public welfare from the hazards created by fire,
explosion and other hazardous conditions
4.1.3 Safety. This Code shall provide for life safety by reducing the probability of
injury or death from fire, explosions or events involving hazardous materials.
4.1.3.1.1 Safety-from-fire Goals. The fire safety goals of the Code shall be as
follows:
1. To provide an environment for the occupants in a building or facility and for
the public near a building or facility that is reasonably safe from fire and similar
emergencies.
2. To protect fire fighters and emergency responders.
2.2.2.2.2 Safety-from-Hazardous-Materials Objectives.

2.2.2.2.2.1 The storage, use, or handling of a hazardous material in a building
or facility shall be accomplished in a manner that provides a reasonable level of
safety for occupants and for those adjacent to a building or a facility from illness,
injury, or death due to the following conditions:
1. An unplanned release of the hazardous material
2. A fire impinging upon the hazardous material or involvement of the
material in a fire
3. The application of an external force on the hazardous material that
is likely to result in an unsafe condition.
Safeguards During Building Construction, Alteration, and Demolition Opera-

tions
1.1 General Requirements.
1.1.1 Structures undergoing construction, alteration, or demolition opera-

tions, including those in underground locations, shall comply with NFPA 241,
Standard for Safeguarding Construction, Alteration, and Demolition Opera-
tions, and this chapter.
4.4 Fundamental Requirements
4.4.1.1 The Design of every building or structure intended for human oc-
cupancy shall be such that reliance for property protection and safety to life
does not depend solely on any single safeguard.
Construction Requirements
A. Type IA Construction IBC

Requirements for Type 1A Construction
GROUP MAX HEIGHT/AREA

A-1 UL
A-2 UL
A-3 UL
A-4 UL
A-5 UL
B UL
E UL
F-1 UL
F-2 UL
H-1 1/21,000
H-2 UL/21,000
H-3 UL
H-4 UL
H-5 3/UL
I-1 UL
I-2 UL
I-3 UL
I-4 UL
M UL
R-1 UL
R-2 UL
R-3 UL
R-4 UL
S-1 UL
S-2 UL
U UL
Max Allowable Height 110 ft/ 10 Stories

C. Area per floor?
D. Sprinkler System/Computational Control
E. Fire Resistance Ratings
1. Load Bearing Walls
2. non-Loadbearing Walls
3. Structure
4. Horizontal Surfaces
5. Fire Walls
6. Separation Types
DANGER/LIFE SAFETY REQUIREMENTS
Accessibility/Egress Requirements
Life Safety/Exiting
Any buiding that architecture interfaces with must be mapped
for life safety exiting. (referring to _POD system)
Life Safety Exiting defined as:

2 Paths of exit neither of which can pass through a radiation
“hot” area.
Zoning Diagram
D. Toilets
1. At least 1 toilet per safe area.
“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. “
Albert Einstein
92
cryptotechnophobia
the secret belief that technology is more of a menace than a boon.
from Generation X: Tales for an accelerated culture
93
Paranoia and the Techno_
Apocalypse
Man has had a love-hate relationship with tech-

nology since day one; he has feared it’s eventual
dominance over himself. Better technology for
your enemies meant better weapons and better
technology for yourself meant leaving traditions
behind and leaving old beliefs with them. The
apocalypse of the technological ideal has been
a popular subject of science fiction for years,
everytime man creates something that reaches
beyond the boundaries of his own abilities the
world collapses on itself in complete chaos. In
95 The Matrix men create machines that make more
machines which eventually leads to a dystopian
future where the machines walk the surface of
the earth and the human are forced far below
ground.
When people think of A.I or robotics these are

96 the images that come to their heads, a mechani-
cal likeness of a man embodying all that man
fears and desires.
The United States military has been experiment-
ing with unmanned aircraft and has recently
deployed these vehicles in the war in Iraq. The
plane has even been responsible for actual
strikes against enemy forces. After one success-
ful mission, Bob Martinage, defense analyst for
the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assess-
ments in Washington was quoted as saying: “The
Predator, I think you can view it as a stepping
stone to a future battlefield where unmanned
systems figure more and more”.1 So control over
our most powerful weapons will be handed more
paranoia and the techno-apocalypse 94

and more in the future over to machine guid-
98 ance. The Air Force has stated that all UAV
(unmanned arial vehicles) are to be guided by
remote control, but already basic tasks have
been handed over to the computer rather than
having an operator pilot the aircraft for the
length of the mission. The military has gone
out of it’s way to set up a complex command
structure for these planes, that command and
control structure allows for various situation
and deployments always keeping control in
the hands of humanity. It’s easy to see how
the logical next step would be to give the
Predator autonomity as presently the craft
requires a line of sight to the controlling sta-
tion severly limiting deployment. If the craft
is given self-control, the role of ethics comes
into play. A program has no more ethics than
a block of wood, the idea of turning loose a
program with control of a more powerful or
more intelligent structure than a humans is akin
to setting a running circular saw on the ground
and hoping the cut gets made. The program
is not evil, nor does it bear malice, it merely
exists in the path of humans, so how does it
keep from harming human life in multi-varying
situations? Bruce Sterling discussed this very
dilemma in WIRED 12.05, “Who will be held
morally accountable for an unmanned war
crime? Are machines permitted to give or-
ders? In a world of networked minefields and
even smarter-bombs, are we blundering into
mechanized killing fields we would have never
1 http://www.underreported.
com/modules.php?op=modloa
have built by choice?”2
d&name=News&file=article&
sid=508
Isaac Asimov wrote about this issue as well, in
2 Sterling, Bruce. “Robots and I, Robot he described the three laws of robot-
the Rest of Us” WIRED 12.05
page 116 ics which he developed with his editor John

Campbell, those laws were three logic statements
that Asimov presumed would prevent a robot from
causing harm to humanity.
These rules were critical in the book because they

retained a logic loop in which it should be theoreti-
cal for humanity to exist without harm. The later
goes on to show that method may not actually
work, I believe to avoid any of the dystopian situ-
ations described that designers must understand
the nature of the technology they are designing
with and for. Utilizing critical thinking may pre-
vent any of the nightmarish horrors of automation.
Because machines cannot truly think, we must think
99 harder. While the ideas of science fiction have
bearing on today’s designs, the science of today
has found ways to keep an ethical front in robot-
ics. The ethical mechanics of today are defined by
the designer and not through any written coding.
Research into swarm intelligence has shown that the
express intentions of the system do not have to be
programed, just defined by the constraints.
To summarize, the man-technology situation
100 falls onto a curve. On the left you have the lud-
dite-like position stating that there should be abso-
lutely no technology and all humanity; on the other
hand we have the ultimate end-game of technology
where the machines of man no longer need their
creators. In this situation we find something that is
very bad for humanity and good for technology, in
the middle of the curve we see the mix of humanity
and humanities’ creations which provides an exten-
DVD._ sion into an entire new plane of existence though
this is not to be confused with a religious experi-
3 Asimov, Isaac. I, Robot New
ence, I’m merely referring to the best possible situa-
York: Spectra. 1950 tion using todays and tomorrow’s innovations.

Scenes from “Brazil”
Director: Terry Gilliam
93

Scenes from “The Animatrix”
Directors: Andy and Larry Wachowski
93

RQ-1 Predator MAE UAV
DRONE AIRCRAFT
United States Air Force
94.95

still from Blade Runner
Director: Ridley Scott
94

94

CONCEPTUAL DIAGRAMMING
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
Swarm Intelligence
In the movie, Beautiful Mind, Russell Crowe’s

character, John Forbes Nash stands at a
window observing the birds in the courtyard
below attempting to extrapolate an algo-
rithm for their movements. What at that time
might have seemed like insanity; defining the
actions of flocking creatures by mathemati-
cal algorithm, may not be as far fetched as
it once was. Lately, there has been much ado
about the impact of insect social behavior on
the field of computers and robotics; it seems
ants are “programmed” very simply which is
much easier for roboticist. Other research has
111 been ongoing into termite mounds, a termite
mound is an emmense architectural structure in
relation to it’s builders and not out of a grand
design but out of simple constraints. Each
termite has a simple program/goal: add on
to this area here, avoid this object, etc. that
results in a structure that is a very organic
growing form. I’m not supporting an architec-
ture without an architect, rather an architec-
ture that may become more than the just the
sum of it parts.
In a swarm the ideas of the greater hive/
group are driven by the majority of the parts.
The collected reactions of the many represent
the actions of the one. In this way various
autonomous pieces of the architecture can be
derived from varied elements, and change in
relation to those elements.
A swarm is always in motion, extending it’s col-

lective edges outward. This sets up a strategy
for an architecture that is constantly exploring
swarm intelligence 109

it’s own environment. In order to truly respond
to the SITE+ , the swarm constantly re/evalu-
ates the parameters that make up SITE+.
The advantages of a swarm in artificial intel-
ligence are two-fold, programming becomes
much simpler but outline becomes more im-
portant, and the chances of success increase
with the increase in units. To quote Lebbeus
Woods: “Pre-determined design goals are
combined with spontaneous invention accord-
ing to new types of rules for the shaping of
space activated in the course of the instal-
lation process. The architect is no longer the
planner who determines the shape of space in
advance, but one who sets up the limits—the
rule structure of materials and how they are
shaped—then steps back and lets collabora-
tors do the work.”1 The goals and even the
shape become apparent in the installation of
the fall but not necessarily in the design phase.
This is not to say that the designer did not have
some idea of the general look of the space just
not the exacting qualities. The actions of the
architectural parts create the shape and space
of the whole rather than the shape and space
of the whole defining the actions of the pieces.
Precedent_Swarm:
111 VLA (Very Large Array) Radio Telescope
The costs of building a enormous radio tele-
scope made the National Radio Astronomy
Observatory consider other means of reading
a very large area. The solution was to build
several smaller dishes and join the collected
visions of each to create a very large range,
once again taking inspiration from the insect
1 Virilio, Paul. Unknown Quantity. Thames world much like a fly’s eyes. The elements of
and Hudson. New York, New York. 2002.
pg.156 this architecture work in tandem to create the

larger whole, each element acting on it’s own
with it own determinations in such a way that
the overall action of the final architecture is less
determinate from the outset. This demonstrates
a connection between large built elements but
not between their physical interaction. Due to
the fact that each object is the same the interac-
tions can only be taken to a certain level, while
the interactions of several objects becomes much
more complicated and harder to predict.

VLA (Very Large Array)
Radio Telescope Array
Sorroco, New Mexico
photo by National Radio
Astronomy Observatory
109

Termite Mound
Nifold Plains
Lake Field National Park, Austrailia
photo by Kerry Trapnell
108

114
Final Documents
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
WHAT DOES ALL OF THIS MEAN?
I’ve agonized over the last few years how to

come up with new designs, without cribbing
from those who’ve gone before. The implica-
tions of utilizing a site that extends beyond the
geographic are enormous; in investigating the
“space” created by interaction we throw ar-
chitecture into a completely new world which
only science fiction authors have explored. The
impacts of technology become ever important in
this type of design. The other facet of creating
something that is truly my own means under-
standing and utilizing the technologies (analog,
digital, organic...nano...etc.) at my disposal in a
manner that reflects personal expression in ad-
dition to any technical expertise.
The architecture of this thesis will create a dy-

namically changing space which will mold to the
site in order to allow a realization of an unper-
ceivable site situation. The architecture of this
thesis will roam free, un-tethered by the tradi-
tional constraints placed upon it, spaces created
will be dynamic to facilitate an ever changing
environmental topography. The architecture fit-
ted within the topography of radiation and the
geography of nature and technology in Pripiat
will function as a prosthetic for humanity to ex-
perience the elements it traditionally has no per-
ception of. It’s impossible to truly predict what
that understanding will be or what impact that
interaction and understanding will mean for the
world untill it has been done. This means that
there is still more experimentation and investiga-
tion to be done beyond this thesis.
_conclusion 122
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DYNAMIC PROPRIOCEPTION

A thesis in partial fulﬁllment of the require-

Montana State University

This thesis has been read by each member of

In presenting this thesis in partial fulﬁllment

If I have indicated my intention to copyright

4. Thesis Statement - page 19

5. Hacking the Architectural Mainframe - page 22

7. _Interaction Technologies - page 48

8. _Object Experimentation - page 56

10. Robotics Research - page 75

11. _program.diagramming - page 83

12. paranoia and the techno-apocalypse - page 89

13. swarm intelligence - page 99

14. _conclusion - page 106

15. Bibliography - page 109

“Anyone wanting to produce architecture should discard the pre-

1. Hill, Jonathan. Actions of Architecture.

CHAPTER LIST AND DVD TO BE HANDED OUT AT PRESENTATION

The goal of these tags is to provide a more interactive ex-

WHAT - We’ve always been surrounded by ecologies (systems

WHY - In understanding the ecologies around us, we are

HOW - We can easily “look” at these ecologies on graphs

Main Entry: 1hack

4 a : to write computer programs for enjoyment b : to gain access to

A slang term for a computer enthusiast, i.e., a person who

“Playfully doing something difﬁcult, whether useful or not, that is

Is an architect a hacker? A hacker

hacking the architectural mainframe 24

Research into the ﬁeld of reﬂexive archi-

hacking the architectural mainframe 25

“Many of the operations, vectors and machine-

31.109 SITE+ brings the palimpsests of Neil Spiller’s

The word palimpsest refers to a parchment that

hacking the architectural mainframe 26

We live in a world of prosthesis’s, objects which

We are already becoming coded for

hacking the architectural mainframe 27

hacking the architectural mainframe 28

The designer describes the experience

hacking the architectural mainframe 29

The nOX pavilion includes static and dynamic ar-

hacking the architectural mainframe 30

With the installation piece, The Fall, Leb-

The SITE+ can and will be occupied by human-

hacking the architectural mainframe 31

hacking the architectural mainframe 32

hacking the architectural mainframe 33

hacking the architectural mainframe 34

hacking the architectural mainframe 35

hacking the architectural mainframe 36

hacking the architectural mainframe 37

On April 25th -26th, 1986 the World’s

Since that time, it has been estimated that

1:00-1:20 am The operator forced the reactor up to 7% power by removing

2:10 am the ﬁrst 29 causalties arrive at the pripiat hospital

11:00am Emergency teams ﬂy to kiev from moscow

2:00pm evacutation of pripiat ofﬁcially announced,.

3. Mould, Richard. Chernobyl: The Real Story. Pergamon Press,

The site isn’t a complete loss though, as the

Almost every man-made object in the world

The Institute of Illegal Architects

Wise mentors guide you throughout the realm,

The unpredictability of interaction.