The act of design is fundamentally a synthetic process. Synthesis in the sense that architecture is born, always, in the context of culture, as a combination of needs, methods, ideas and feelings. The aim is to maximize this synthesis, particularly through the design process. Using a system of competition and association, the process itself becomes the architecture, in a continuous, expansive exploration of architectural ideas. The goal; to create a model of design that can communicate and address the complexities within architecture.

So what does this model of maximum synthesis include?

1) Maximum synthesis includes the synthesis of common architectural considerations. Space, Light and Context are just some of the divisions architects have created in order to better consider a complete design. Yet to say that a particular design is about ‘light’ is to reduce and deny the complexities of architecture. Although the divisions are initially helpful, our design process should aim to unify those division. A cohesive design is achieved by working through all architectural considerations.

2) Maximum synthesis includes the synthesis of media. As architects, we deal solely in representation through media. Our final product, a set of construction drawings, are a form of representation. As such architects must know the limits and possibilities that each unique media offers us. A plan can convey certain ideas better than a rendering, and vice versa. Using all available media will help to achieve maximum synthesis.

3) Maximum synthesis includes the synthesis of design 'affect'. To affect someone through a single effect in design, although powerful is one-dimensional. The complexities in architecture should be allow for multiple readings of intent, affecting different people in different ways.

Select Specimens

Above: Specimen 16, combination of section and comic (Affect: Gravity)


Above: Specimen 17 Still, examination of material and structure to produce the affect of gravity.

Select Video Specimens

Specimen 12
Specimen 17
Specimen 07
Specimen 13
Specimen 15

Process

The process begins with the architectural considerations. In the first phase, through the synthesis of two architectural considerations, the first seed of an architectural idea is born. These specimens are classified as explorations and aim to materialize a particular affect through the given medium. In the second phase, specimens that were created in the first phase are combined to create a synthesis of media that aim to further heighten the particular affect. In the final phase specimens of each affect combine to create complex specimens that are a synthesis of the given affects. Throughout the process, certain specimens mutate to become "translations"; physical artifacts that mimic the architectural practice of codifying particular ideas into set designs. The entire process is cyclical yet expansive, feeding on itself as it continues to reach out. The goal is not to come up with a single solution but to come up with multiple instances where each forms an integral part in a network of architectural ideas. Through the mapping of the development the designer can be critical about smaller intuitive decisions within a larger systematic context.

Specimen 06

Pre-Production

Left to Right: R.M. Schindler, Zaha Hadid, Morphosis, Neil Denari,　Douglas Darden, Fujimori Terunobu

Each of these examples from vastly different architects show a different form of manipulation on the image or artifact to produce a heightened architectural sensation. Through deliberate exaggeration, distortion, juxtaposition or overlay of certain parts of the process, these artifacts are producing an effect which is directly linked to the medium in use. In other words the sensations of the image cannot be directly translated into an architectural design without the risk of losing that particular affect. In such a case, what is the relationship of the process to the proposed design, let alone the built work?

Forms of Synthesis

Below are six different forms of synthesis which form the foundation of all creative assemblages.

Collage - the assemblage of sampled parts through composition without radical alteration of the original. A technique of synthesis used in modern movements from surrealism to postmodernism. The collage relies on associations brought by the original sample to deepen the work.
Blend - the merging of two parts done through a smooth transition toward a homogenous whole. Used throughout cinema, linguistics, and music, the blend is relies on blurring the boundaries of one part to another through a gradient.
Bridge - a part that segues one unique motif to another. Beethoven and Mozart used this device to take radically different musical forms and synthesized them to create a single unified work. This sort of musical mathematics, is what Milan Kundera terms "the spiders" spinning webs of connective thoughts to synthesize a piece.
Fusion - the absolute joining of two parts in which their fundamental makeup is altered. Fusion in the physical sense is the joining of two molecules due to extreme heat in which their atomic nuclei fuse, causing a the chain reaction of released energy and the birth of a new molecule.
Hybrid - the union of similar things in which their favorable traits are inherited toward an amplified effect. The mule is an example of a hybrid animal which is stronger for it's size, has better endurance and a longer useful life span than it's parents. The only drawback is that they are sterile.
Narrative - the use of story, characters and time to connect radically different parts. Unique to narrative is the notion that the parts can have no apparent relation aside from the fact that they follow one another. Early literary works such as the Odyssey combines radically different events through narrative and characters in order to create a single vast and cohesive world.

Categories of Synthesis

Considerations -Time -Light -Space -Materiality -Social Structures -Site+Context -Environment -Building Tech. -Utility -Structure

Media -Written Story -Comic -Drawings (Section, Axon, Plan) -Video -Model -Traditional Media (Perspective) -Digital Model -Photograph -(Building)

Affects Lucidity - to sense the relationship within a system through abstraction. Clarity, and Focus. Viewing the world as a diagram. Gravity - to be completely present and engaged with the world. Weight and Belonging. To feel yourself as part of a time and place.