COMPONENT ARCOLOGIES

| Research Design Studio | Fall 2007 |

| Cornell University | Instructors: Dana Cupkova + Kevin Pratt |

Contemporary building practices often describe architecture as objects situated within a spatial and cultural field. Historically, however, architecture has defined itself as an autonomous discipline, shaping form through internal discourse responsive to specific socio-political contexts and broader trends in intellectual and popular culture. Ecology suggests that entities engaged in thermodynamic relationships with other entities are interconnected within complex systems of energy and information transfer, known as ecosystems. The Component Arcologies is the first in a series of research studios investigating the scalar relationships between urban ecology and component-based performative assemblies. The studio aims to refine a holistic methodology for adaptive component systems, seeking to create architecture tightly connected to dynamic local ecologies while acknowledging that contemporary production methods necessitate repetitive processes and material uniformity for economic feasibility. This approach is fundamentally biomimetic, leveraging the flexibility of component assemblies to adapt to specific spatial and temporal conditions. The studio's objective was to develop a sequence of material component organizations—component arcologies—integrated into a synthetic system responsive to distinct performative conditions. The studio brief addressed the environmental challenge of water desalination in Dubai, UAE, exploring its potential programmatic and cultural byproducts.

| STUDENT TEAM: Ana Leshchinksy, Eddy Man Kim, Eddie Kim-Yujoong, Adriana Rodrigez Pliego, Gary He, Andrew Nahmias, Daniel de Riva, Mina Hasman, Justin Chu, Dongyoung Jung, Tania Jordanova |