Caixa de ferramentas cibernéticas: a conversação como interface de projeto

Abstract

The present research consists of the investigation of forms of decentralized architectural control, in which users can act autonomously in the configuration of their spaces. Its development took place against the backdrop of the early 20th century, when architecture professionals began working on large-scale housing projects that abstracted their inhabitants from their specificities. Since the renaissance, designers have refined their work based on models, as accurate mappings of reality of a linear-causal nature. This way of designing was able to amplify human actions, resulting in the great techno-scientific advances of the last two centuries. However, the new information technologies, emerged from the mid-twentieth century, resulted in a proliferating increase in the complexity of social systems, a context in which reality is no longer capable of being modeled so precisely. Thus, functionalist design methods are problematized as an attempt to attenuate societary variety, linked to processes of social domination over individuals and social groups. In the opposite direction, this research starts from cybernetics concepts to investigate less restrictive design practices. Based on the work of Gordon Pask, the design practice will be discussed with a conversational process, in which the high social complexity ceases to represent a threat, becoming productive for the establishment of more effective actions in the face of current issues. In practical terms, it is proposed that Entailment Meshes, a simplification of conversation processes, can serve as an interface to give greater focus to relational aspects in the development of objects of use, dissolving the main ethical dilemmas of modern architectural practice.