Beyond Technology: Efficiency, Aesthetics, and Embodied Experience

The spaces we live in are increasingly entwined in a complex weave of architecture and technology. With the evolution of intelligent devices that work in the background, design of place will eventually be a seamless integration of not just efficient but also experiential and virtual technologies. This signals a paradigm shift because “smarti architecture affords users a new interaction with architecture. In spite of such promises, we have seen interactive architecture ideas and “smart” environments only within laboratory walls or in the form of simplistic implementations. Perhaps the reason is simple. Rachael McCann asks if the integration of technology within the context of an increasingly information-driven modern era has abandoned the body in favor of the mind (McCann 2006). If we acknowledge that “smart” computing has the opportunity to transcend an efficient backbone to generator of experiences, perhaps we, as designers, must reconsider our position and strategy in this modern world. This paper is designed as a critical essay ? one which evaluates interactive architecture and “smart” environments within the context of todayis socio-cultural climate. The paper hopes to open a discussion about the role of computing as architecture and the role of the architect in the design of such architecture.