A Study On The Architectural Variability Design Based On Structuralist Methodology

In the background of Alejandro Aravena winning the 2016 Pritzker Architecture Prize,this thesis focused on systematic present of architectural variability design based on a structuralism methodology,its thoughts,its practices,and its origin and development.Combining the current background and trend,this thesis made a expectation on the development of architectural variability design in the future.Such kind of architectural design methodology was emerging centrally in 1960 s,when the structuralism philosophy was widely spread throughout the western world.It includes the Dutch Structuralism architecture of Aldo van Eyck and Herman Hertzberger,the technological utopian architectural thoughts and practices of Yona Friedman,Archigram and Metabolism Movement,and the dystopian architectural theory and practices of N.John Habraken’s SAR system and Open Building Movement.Similar to Alejandro Aravena’s social housing projects,they all represented a characteristic of structuralism methodology based architectural variability preservation,and thus all could be contained in the unitive framework of “architectural variability design based on structuralism methodology” to be studied and compared with one another.Meanwhile,based on the same methodological basis and designing purpose of variability,they developed different modes of method on designing variability in architecture.Thus,through the analysis on both theoretical and practical levels,we could summarize its designing system and mentality,and re-evaluate them in current social background.This thesis attempted to research and identify those practices above through the same systematic framework of “architectural variability design based on structuralism methodology”,and find out the basic mode on the designing operation level of this kind of architecture,summarize the designing system basing on both synchronic and diachronic aspects,to provide a more comprehensive reference and mentality to the designing of variability in current social background.On this basis,this thesis was divided into four parts containing six chapters.The first part of this thesis(Chapter 1)expounded the background,the purpose,the research situation domestic and overseas,the containing and the value of this study.The second part of this thesis(Chapter 2 to Chapter 4)analysed the architectural thoughts and practices from 1960 s by far on both structuralism methodology and architectural variability aspects to recognize a same framework and field for the study.This thesis then analysed,compared and summarized the architectural theories and practices within this framework.Based on the diachronic comparison study,the designing methodology which corresponding structuralist methodology and the purpose of architectural variability with the architectural system was summarized,the basic notion and the compositional means of open basic structure in material system and spatial system of buildings were also pointed out.The third part of this thesis(Chapter 5)is based on the studies above,attempted to make a expectation on the future possibilities in the background of the development of digital architectural design methods.As an epilogue,the last part of this thesis(Chapter 6)concluded the conclusions and deficiencies of whole thesis and made an expectation about further research.