The presented research on Immediate Systems in Architecture (IS-A) is an attempt to afford a better human-technology match in architecture, pursuing a state of immediacy where humans can simultaneously use and design, apply and amend the technical system they engage with. The thesis contains both theoretical and experimental contributions on IS-A. Initially, the notion of Immediate Systems (IS) is introduced and framed. IS offer interaction in the style of direct manipulation, embed design and implementation in situations of use, and overcome limitations of remote design. IS are related to psychological concepts and described through the lens of Gibson’s Theory of Affordances. Characteristics and conditions of IS are distilled from the presentation and discussion of a series of examples. The application of IS in architecture is approached from three angles. First, from the lived perspective of a user-designer, as adhocist mode of action. Second, from the methodology and technology, as accelerated design transfer. Third, in an ecological perspective, as human-architecture symbiosis. Each of these readings is hypothesized to be more feasible by implementing IS-A as Human-in-the-Loop Cyber-Physical Systems (HiLCPS). Following the method of research by design, prototypes were developed in a series of experiments. The experiments result in multiple tools for real-time multi-directional volumetric design exploration that allows users to interactively model and ad-hoc reconceptualize parametric geometry, topology and components of architectural assemblies. A combination of these tools with digital fabrication and interactive building components lead to the most encompassing IS-A prototype, an attempt to realize an open-ended building system that joins simultaneous design, adaptation, construction and reconfiguration as interaction possibilities embedded in the built environment.@en

Design activity, especially in architectural praxis, takes place in spatialand temporal remoteness from the use of its outputs. Thisremoteness impedes the ability to respond to actual needs that arise in situations of use. Ultimately itmakes design dependent on hypothesis.Aim of this essayis to introduce the notion of Immediate Systemswhichembed design and implementation in situations of use and thus overcome the limitations of remoteness. Immediate Systems,as defined by author, are cyber-physical systemscomprised of interacting digital, analogue, physical, and human components. As meta-systems they include people and environments in a tight loop between human intention and immediate adaptation. Immediacyin this contextindicates a state of continuously available adaptability at the speed of human intention. Such meta design systems take design methodology to an extreme whichparadoxically resembles the situation before design emerged as separate praxis. The essaycontains three theoretical contributions. The first one proposes and frames the very notion of Immediate Systems. The second one, presents and discusses a series of examples of such systems. The third contribution, identifies conditions forand characteristics ofImmediate Systems derived from the first two contributions.@en

Immediate Systems are defined as systems that overcome the limitations of remote design by embedding design and implementation in situations of use. This paper extends the theoretical framing of IS and traces three approaches towards IS in architecture: as adhocist mode of action, as acceleration of design transfer and as human-architecture symbiosis. These three approaches consider the same phenomenon from different perspectives respectively, that of the lived experience of the user-designer, that of the designer’s methodology and technology, and that of ecology. @en