Reterritorialising concrete as an agent of comfort

Moustaka, A

Abstract

Idealist strands of philosophical thought and phenomenology implemented into architectural theory conspicuously neglect the role of matter. They treat it as a passive and inert receptacle of a creators order, rather than an active presence. The active abilities of matter within a network of human and non-human actors, has been limitedly explored with regards to the potential it offers for understanding what shapes an architectural experience. My research investigates the listed concrete in a post-war Social Housing development and the way non-human actors operate with human ones in a network of actors is revealed through the lens of the material. The material exposes how its properties act within a network of social, visual and aesthetic parameters, critically positioned between extremities that on the one hand view matter as an inert component of the built environment and material determinism on the other.
This paper consists of three parts: In the first part I will start by drawing upon Deleuzian vocabulary to describe the building as an assemblage of human and non-human actors all operating in a network. I will explain how I bring in the notion of assemblages to describe the built environment as an array of material and immaterial elements that come together to make the building a living, moving entity. I will then focus on the notion of comfort, which I argue should not be confined to a tight environmentally defined concept, but should include parameters of the visual, social and the aesthetic in line with a Deleuzian framework. In the final part, I describe concrete as a de-territorialized material, forming relations of interiority and exteriority with other parts of the built assemblage and triggering infinite potential for shaping the experience of comfort. Part of this material has been presented as my unpublished PhD Thesis. (Moustaka, 2016)

• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2017
• Deposit Date: Mar 25, 2019
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Book Title: Architectural and Urban Reflections after Deleuze and Guattari
• ISBN: 9781786605986
• Related Public URLs: https://www.rowmaninternational.com/book/architectural_and_urban_reflections_after_deleuze_and_guattari/3-156-8914bacc-1537-4049-a811-7c34f3ba514c