Better Living Through Circuitry
Abstract
As digital technology increases
in speed, it concurrently decreases in size to the point at which someday it
will become effectively invisible. Architects
have often transferred the imagery of technology into the language of our
architecture, especially when attempting to portray an image of a progressive,
forward-thinking design. Though by
now we were suppose living in bio-morphic pod homes, it is still a fact that the
most popular form of new house construction today is the single family
pseudo-colonial home. Why at the
turn of a new millennium does the public still long for a style of home that
reflects a time 200 years in the past?
This raises an interesting question. If architecture language continues to be inspired by technology, and if technology decreases in perceptibility to the point of near invisibility, from where will we derive our language for new progressive design? Without the language of technology to inspire (or distract) us, might we not have a chance to get past our biases and reflect on for whom we build buildings? Instead of using digital technology to just create new forms, can't we also use it to create a more livable world? In this way high technology can actually lead us, in a sense, forward to the past. But not the past of nostalgia; instead to the world where people, not machines, are our first inspiration for design.