"SCRIPTED SPACE"

"ENGINEERING THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT"

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The basic idea behind Scripted Space is that every three-dimensional form in a building has a relation to a layering of texts that illuminate it with significances. Every space that these forms enclose, and (even more importantly) every 'void-event' created by the cancellation of an 'expected' form, is similarly linked to a layering of Texts. These are Texts which, we have argued, have always 'inhered' within the Medium of Architecture. It was thought, at the beginning of the 20C, that they, along with the Architectural forms, materials and spaces inherited from 'Tradition' had to be discarded if Progress was to be made in the planning and construction of an effective human lifespace. Our work, in JOA, over the past 40 years, has proved that this is not the case. The decipherment, not so much of the inherited written texts (for these, perhaps after all, are not the Medium of Architecture itself) but of the inherited buildings, has led us to re-write the Texts and reconceive the forms and materials of the built medium. This simultaneous, as well as circumlocutory, archaeologising, building, drawing and writing has slowly led us to our present position, where, in our recent buildings, the spaces are strucured according to a Textual order that we see as both inherited, as well as practical, both as a means to socially engineer space, and, along with the techniques of "scripted surface" conceptually enhance it as well. For an extended illustration of 'Scripted Space' design see the exploration of Site Planning in Duncanology Two: "Claude's Key", and Duncanology Three: "Cram's Plan".      TBC.     End of "Scripted Space ", Return to "Innovations:"Automatic Architecture"       * JOA can be reached by E-Mail at anthony@johnoutram.com , by telephone on +44 (0)207 262 4862 or by fax on +44 (0)207 706 3804. We also have an ISDN number : +44 (0)207 262 6294.