614 Re.Building Entropic Migrant Conditions FAREH GARBA Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Mobility as an impetus for architectural design pro- The intent of the projects developed within Entropic cesses has many implications including its capacity Migrant Conditions is to explore the potentials of to transform the conception, production, fabrica- mobility in architecture and invent dynamic topo- tion, occupation and interaction of the architecture, graphic, geometric and programmatic architectural its occupants and its environment. The notion of organizations in search of a new typology which designing an architecture which responds dynami- sustains the capacity to accommodate oscillations cally to its environment is one which must be in- which arise from existence within a contemporary vestigated and defined through various modalities environment. Rather than anticipate a decline in the in order to reveal new and emergent models. Mo- role of mobility specifically that of the car, between bility in architecture refers to a dynamic perfor- home and work, the premise of the two projects, mance which is defined by what the architecture detailed in Entropic Migrant Conditions is one which does, how it acts, its cultural, socio-economical ef- capitalizes on and intensifies the notion of mobility. fects and its aesthetic value. It is a concept which is applicable and can be modulated at many scales, Entropic Infrastructures and the EM-House, are within varying material conditions and in response projects through which I propose a new model for different conditions. Mobile architectures possess the dwelling and its relationship to the development dynamic characteristics which include but are not of the contemporary landscape as an emergent, limited to the ability to be adaptive/adaptable, flex- performance driven and user defined network. ible, responsive and deployable. “Landscape emerges as a matrix or framework for Adaptive/adaptable refers to the ability of a body1 development, as living material in the functional sense, as a site of production, as structural tissue to physically change whether through inherent ma- that supports often contradictory programs.”2 terial properties or specific structural attributes. Flexibility also requires a capability to change but The contemporary landscape is a network which refers to motion which resides within a defined as it exists supports specific relationships between range with an identifiable limit which is based on various defined zones of occupation i.e. residen- Responsiveness readily flexing without failure. is a tial, commercial, business, farming, industrial, qualitative reaction of a body or system to external recreation and/or open-space. It has mainly been or internal stimuli which results in changes which defined by intense suburbanization and increasing Deployable may be irreversible. , describes mobility individual mobility, essentially extending the space as an implementation and refers to a systematic, between these defined zones of occupation. As a strategic distribution and organization of multiples result, this type of divisional organization privileg- bodies, elements, figures which develop some form es an inherently static built environment thus fail- of interconnectedness of relationships which can be ing to accommodate for change and variation and understood as a network. therefore increasing the frequency of and travel distances of the individual. ENTROPIC MIGRANT CONDITIONS 615 Each of these occupational zones characteristically, Surface: The surface mitigates the relationship organizationally and functionally differ, residential between the body and the landscape-it is flexible zones are designed to sustain activities associated and multifaceted and its role is as a mediator with personal lifestyles and therefore consist of el- between the inside and outside, public and ements which are/should be invariably linked with private, secure and vulnerable. It protects from the identities of the user/occupants. the elements, has the capacity to induce cultural phenomenon, it can communicate information and “The American dream” is a term that was first used respond to interaction. Landscape: The landscape by James Truslow Adams in 1931 in regards to the provides continuity-an infinite boundary continuous right of citizens of every rank feel that they can and blurred conditions that extend from the body, achieve a “better, richer, and happier life.”3 This to the surface, to the site and to the city. It term has also been interpreted and associated with redefines the relationship of the body and surface the individual’s strive toward home ownership, and to the landscape by substituting demarcation with the rise of the acquisition of a “home as a status unanimity creating zones of influx and variability. symbol which separates the middle class from the poor.”4 The projects are positioned in the space between habitation and transportation attempting to The majority of residential housing models are qua- transform the notion of shelter- the dwelling, a si-optimized, utilizing repetitive layouts, partially ubiquitous component featured in contemporary in an effort to streamline construction, striving landscape, by examining its relationship to the for uniformity and standardization, which extends dynamic patterns of the activities and experiences from solely material and methods of construction related to human habitation, occupation and through to affect the visceral experiences of hous- migration. ing environments. The imposition of a framework which is generic, places undesirable limitations on Through both projects I explore conditions the users failing to accommodate for change and perpetuated by constant mobility and the potentials variation which is inevitable and rapidly occurring. for integrating the infrastructures necessary to accommodate this continually changing condition Entropic Migrant Conditions (EMC) is a term I use to essentially revising the notion of architecture describe an architecture which employs a series of as inherently static in exchange for dynamic design strategies that aim to introduce dynamism organization based on cultural and environmental and locate fissures in apparently stable organiza- flux. tions, hierarchies and networks that typically de- veloped equilibrium through habit, ritual and code. With a convergence of telecommunication and data communication, advanced digital applications have By performing a series of investigations at multiple relied on seamless wireless networking and have scales to developed these inextricably linked proj- thus become inherently mobile. Similarly, the social ects, Entropic Infrastructures and the EM-House, structure of our time is heavily dependent on the I envisage the contemporary landscape and built ability to efficiently and easily move while remaining environment as a perfomative network which is ‘connected’ and having access to and exchanging adaptive, flexible, responsive, deployable and mul- information instantaneously. This condition favors tiple. These investigations occur at various stages nomadic lifestyles which are perpetuated by the act utilizing both analog and digital methods of analy- of ‘commuting’ as part of daily life activities; the sis through the lens of the specified framework; mediator between work/play, home/office, public/ through an oscillation between three scalar per- private, and efficiency/duration and has the capacity spectives defined as follows: to blur the existing boundaries which have stabilized the division that subsists between these zones. Body: Refers to the main portion of an assembly- one which is responsive and adaptable to chang- One of the main ideas explored in Entropic ing environmental conditions and programmatic/ Infrastructures is the contemporary landscape spatial needs. and the issues revolving around the existing 616 Re.Building infrastructural organizations and their inability to Entropic Infrastructures efficiently respond to influx in population and shifting densities due to increased migration and mobility of Entropic infrastructure is a project which employs users. The proposed network is designed to anticipate the notions of George Bataille’s L’informe, as an temporal change and is able to adapt and transform operation in opposition of a form. This idea is in- at various scales reforming successively as emergent terpreted as the ability of the contemporary land- organizations. The Entropic Infrastructures proposal scape to transform in order to accommodate influx integrates an organization which is initially undefined and varying rates of change in density and informal but one that emerges from an interaction between organization. Conceptually, it maintains a constant the individual and their landscapes respectively. potential, an anticipatory energy rather than de- finitive zones. As performative requirements change and shift, the contemporary landscape re-configures its Entropic infrastructures proposes a conceptual network to accommodate that change; this is not model of future contemporary landscape patterns, suggesting that it must be able to exist in completely it addresses two issues, the first, live‘ points’ re- kinetic state but argues against the opposite by quires a reconfiguration and relocation of munici- suggesting an existence based on the potential pal/public services into specific locations within the for multiple states. The resulting architectures can network, each defining its zone of influence. The be described as formless,