Co-Adaptation 04

Autonomous Tectonics

Autonomous tectonics are intentionally designed in a vacuum. They are often conceived and created for a singular purpose, to be applied simply in various contexts and scales. In this model, pure engineering and fi xed assembly line repetitive construction practices dictate forms and geometry regardless of place and time. In a Fordist ‘one size fi ts all’ mantra, the designed object in inherently placeless, as it ‘fi ts’ equally well or poorly with its context. Highway infrastructure, with the primary goal of facilitating an automobile’s direction at a certain rate of speed, is placeless. Autonomous tectonics are imperialistic: they require that the site respond to them. As the model for infrastructure, and some urban planning, for the past 100 years, the coming challenge will be how to fi t into and mediate timeless and placeless
fi xed geometries.

Co-adaptive Tectonics

Co-adaptive tectonics are defined by a shared reciprocity with their given context. They are intimately site specific. Also, termed ‘mass-customization,’ these Post-Fordist assembly methodologies enable a class or range of objects that fi t together to respond to sites specifi cally. They are determinately non-linear, and intelligent and self refl exive enough to respond to local conditions, geometries, and mandates. Toshio Shibata’s photography illustrates a fl exible, adaptive organization that responds to specific needs. The conditions of the site, whether economic, ecologic, social, cultural or political inform the tectonics and then the tectonics enable strategic operation on the site.