Barbie is now an architect (with appropriately stylish glasses) and the Autonomy of Architecture

Architect Barbie Now a Reality

And now on to the topic at hand.

As architecture/interior design students, we are always asked to do some relatively extensive precedent study as we begin our design process. Nobody is telling us we should outright steal our ideas from anywhere, but we are asked to find a sort of justification for whatever we had in mind - proof that what we want to do has worked in some form somewhere else. Also as students of design, we are being prepped to be the next generation of thinkers in our field. A lot of the time we'll be beholden to a client and what they're familiar with, but it doesn't hurt to have the ability to think completely outside of the box and then reign it in as necessary. We're not being told, take this classical order and completely recreate it in the form of a coffee bar.

Autonomous architecture is all about flexibility and transformation. It means that we can create new designs that don't have to be literal, that can be interpreted in countless ways, and that what is understood to have the function or appearance of a column etc isn't necessarily a typical column or door. The best example that comes to mind from our very own SoA is the use of the words "opening" and "transition" instead of the word "door." This careful phrasing means that when we talk about our designs, people don't get bogged down in the connotation of what a door is. I think that in the future, we should all talk about our designs this way. It leaves room for the imagination of possibilities when it comes to created places.

What this class, other theory classes, and studio has taught us in this program is that we should understand the essence of things and their basic forms and functions, and then question those things and consider how we can convert, invert, or subvert them.  This is what I think autonomous architecture is all about. When we fully comprehend concepts, we can apply them in complex and unexpected ways, instead of just seeing them and copying them in slight variations. This way we generate form in original ways. This means that our designs will get their own legs, so to speak, and people can interpret them somewhat apart from context.