Work

A Working Title
Simon Robinson
I have attempted in this project to question whether it is possible as architects to actually have
the effect on the built environment that we claim to have and to do this what would we need to
re consider as the role and agency of architecture.
Can we begin to see architecture as a type of machinery of production rather than the
product, and it is the working of the machine, its sequence of movements and its internal
process that we need to understand in order to decipher the result. Typically what we
recognise as architecture is its formal qualities, but what I am proposing is that there is an
embedded dna that is put in place prior, and by understanding this can then be manipulated
to control the output or result.
The project is to recognise the architecture of eventual development within the site, using
planning rules, laws, building amenity and contractual agreements to guide an increase in
urban liveability. As a sequence of small interventions most of which are seen quite generic,
the outcome becomes very specific to the place as the existing develops the architecture
rather than being imposed by it. Through understanding the components that pre-empt what
is typically seen as architecture, I have attempted to question our role and agency within the
built environment with an opportunistic agenda.