On the Singularity of Value
Designing an Unexpected Opportunity to Decelerate
H.J. Wehrle (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
R.R.J. van de Pas – Mentor (TU Delft - Architectural Engineering)
J.A. van de Voort – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Architectural Engineering)
S. Kousoulas – Mentor (TU Delft - Theory, Territories & Transitions)
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Abstract
The reason for this choice of topic is a life-long bewilderment towards the self-destructive potential of humankind. Supposed continuous accumulation of value is nurturing some of the most destructive and unvaluable events that this globe has ever seen. In many cases, the driver for what we do - our idea of what is valuable - seems to be leading us to do things which are anything but valuable in the long term.
A rationalizing approach has led to the establishment of one-dimensional evaluations: Quantity is attempting to express quality. The resulting introduction of a level of abstraction is distorting the evaluation of what makes a decision valuable. This attempt of capturing value is very much not capable of expressing it to a satisfying degree – necessary information is lost in the process of reduction. One establishes a distanced perspective on how a decision becomes valuable in its qualitative and specific sense.
Especially the profession of the architect - as taking decisions from a very distanced perspective towards the real-life engagement with the architectural product and its construction - is at risk to rely on general typologies and predeveloped solutions as proposals for their designs. In this graduation, it is therefore the goal to challenge this plane of abstraction while decision taking by introducing a conscious engagement with the real-life interactions and material processes of the architectural object which allows to focus on the affective specificities of place and time.