The Architectural Oracles Game: A Futures Tool for architecture and design.

Architecture is a dynamic, complex system that is subject to an endless number of uncontrolled variables. Such complex systems must respond and adapt to constant changing variables in order to survive in the future. The profession needs to understand these worldwide changes and their impact on architecture. The goal of this dissertation was to help architects and designers to recognize major facets of change. This was accomplished through a gaming/simulation methodology that engaged groups of design professionals in a future-orientated architecture and design problem scenario. Specifically, a game model was designed, called The Architectural Oracles Game, which incited three teams of architects and/or designers, in a workshop setting, to speculate about change and its consequences to the architecture profession as we move into the next millennium. Six separate case studies, each consisting of nine design participants, were conducted. Data generated from the six game runs, in conjunction with the global futures research literature, provided the basis for five major external patterns and five internal patterns that will impact the future of architecture. The external patterns are forces aimed at professional practice that originate from outside architecture and include: (1) globalization, (2) change in corporate America, (3) advanced technology, (4) new market needs and clients, and (5) demographics. The internal patterns are forces that arise from within the profession itself. These include: (1) changing composition of architectural practice, (2) CAD changes in practice, (3) competition from other service consultants, (4) traditional versus non-traditional service offerings, and (5) continued education of the architect. The successful execution of the game and generation of research data concerning the future of architecture and design suggests that The Architectural Oracles Game is a stable research instrument and can act as a Futures Tool. It conveyed the complex and systemic gestalt of architecture, provided an awareness of key social and political elements, improved communication, and broadened participants' awareness of the future.Ph.D.ArchitectureCommunication and the ArtsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/131738/2/9929907.pd