From megamachine to living machine : an evolution of machines as design models

Abstract

Machines are a pervasive societal element, now, and to some extent, throughout mankind’s history. Their influence may be viewed as positive or negative across any human population. Human design has certainly been affected by the machine’s algorithmic nature. The task is to determine how machines influence design arts, such as architecture and landscape architecture, and to question whether that influence is valid, and is understood by designer and user. To accomplish such a determination, we must first understand the genesis of human design, and also design’s basic intentions. Further, we must understand the machine’s attraction to mankind. By examining a collection of design thinkers whose design is somehow guided by machine aesthetics, it becomes clear that each designer may bring a unique machine conception to design. These unique conceptions provide an evolution in the manner in which mankind perceives the machine, culminating in a unique, ecologically-based machine conception: the living machine®.