Architecture and structure

This study is a research conducted on the question if digital tools brought a chance/turn/transformation on the relationship between architecture/architects and civil engineering/engineers. This question depends on the diagnosis that digital technologies have disclosed a potential on the context of tectonics (that was not possible before) by claiming to provide a continuous work process which usage of the same representation tools from early design to construction phases made possible. There are two courses of the research that go parallel and sometimes blend into each other in order to help achieving answers for the main question of the study. First course tackles with "designed+built" and effects of the usage of technology on it with the themes such as the usage of design tools, the representation design relationship, the purposefulness of design and authorship issues. The second course examines the architect and civil engineer relationship and how this relationship affects the process. Although the main question rises on the transformative effects of the digital tools, the digital turn itself can be described to be a part of the historical agents, technologies that have been transforming the practice that is the architectures relationship with structural design. In this sense this study does not focus on the development of the digital technologies itself. Because the debate on the relationship between the architect and the structural composition being the center of the study, the technology is studied with its effects on the design and construction process. The object of this research is the "designed+built". Invisibility, which is one of the main characteristics of new technological environment, and invisibilities collaboration with free market interests leads to the trivialization of "the visible/ structure". The designed+built is becoming trivial on field of architecture. That is why it and the evolutionary processes that have lead to it has become main object for this research. When the subject of the research is built environment, the builders become the main agents and also main objects of the study. Architect and civil engineer are still considered the most important actors of design and construction phase of the building process which starts with the employer and requirements. Built is composed by these two actors and further others who participate during the process. That is why it is considered important to study the builders as an indicator while researching the built. There is a loss of meaning that occurs when the dynamic nature of the structure is stabilized and when the act of composition (structure) starts to refer mainly to the composed (construction) that is, structure is reduced into load bearing system. This loss of meaning overlaps with the main interest of the research and thus the usage of the concept of structure is crucial. Eduard Sekler's definitions of structure, construction and tectonics coincide with the usages of these words in the text. The distinction between construction and structure is used significantly. While structure is conceptualized as a more general and abstract system or an organization, construction is defined as the built form of this system or organization. Construction is more static (and open to grow old) while structure is the dynamic and is itself the act of composing. Tectonic refers to the qualities related to the meaning of visual/bodily affect when the structural concept has the opportunity to become a building. Tectonic both is related to the building which is the constructed version of structural concept and includes the experiencing subject by nature and the usage of the material. While the structural composition can be designed tectonic cannot completely be a subject of design. Since case analysis is chosen as a research method, design processes of the cases are studied through these aspects: architect and civil engineers in design process, authorship issues, the tools used when the design decisions' transform into the built, the representation and structure and the transformation of program into structural composition. In the introduction current debates on the subject are paraphrased after the problem is defined and conceptual framework and objectives are clarified. On the second chapter, the subject is approached through cases from the 18th century, which is admitted to be the beginning of the architect - engineer distinction of today. This chapter tends to provide a basis to the main argument by dealing with the effects of both the distinction that is set as structure/load bearing system/ civil engineer vs architect/architecture and the technological transformations on the designed+built in a historical perspective. The two narrative courses work together to investigate the main case. The determinant effect of the developments on the material technology and the tectonic transformation caused by the usage of iron/steel followed by reinforced concrete act as the chronological sections of this chapter. The structure-architecture or architect-civil engineer relationship before digital is studied by placing emphasis on three case buildings that were built before the emergence of digital tools. A section that summarizes the innovations that digital technologies lead to on structural composition and tectonics follows. Towards the end of this chapter the selection criteria of the case study buildings are explained. Third chapter is where the main debate is conducted through the five cases. The Guggenheim Bilbao Building, which is considered a landmark building on the usage of digital technologies in its design, is used as a starting point. Projects that are designed and built in a time period which is considered the early age on the usage of digital technologies and which are considered for public use are selected onwards. Public usage, being built by public resources, being chosen by competition processes are valued as a criteria so that, it could be claimed that, decisions about design and constructions were not personal provisions of private employers. If the design and construction of the buildings were made possible with the usage of digital technologies was another criteria. It is given importance if architectural criticism has shown interest to a building or if the building was subject to debates on design approaches of its architect or engineer. According to the two coursed narrative, the buildings are discussed through both with building and design processes, the usage of technology in these processes, relationship between representation and build result, authorship issues and with the positions of architect and engineer during these processes. The aim is to investigate how the digital technology changed the relationship between the design and the built and if the digital tools achieved a facilitation in case of structure and tectonics. In the fourth chapter the main argument is studied with the conclusions which are derived from the investigations of the five buildings. These conclusions are merged into new debate titles such as the relationship between form and modification, the process of taking form of the plan layout, the transformation of the public space and the architect and the engineers relationship during design and construction processes. The titles have emerged from the similarities that were observed during the study of the cases. It is argued that the transformative effect that digital tools have caused on the design of structural composition can be summarized under these titles. The conclusion is the chapter where the objective of this study, new ideas that derive from the research, possible new fields of studies and the possibles reflections of today's topics that derive from this study are argued. This is a thesis that tries to be a research on "how quality is produced" which was important for the researcher's personal agenda as well as her intellectual quest and also an important question that i believe will be architecture will struggle through different mediums. While tracking the transformation that field/occupation of architecture has undergone and the potentials that this transformation has lead to, the research show that cooperation of structure and architecture on the same goal reveals a quality which can be defined as tectonic consistency.