Architecture as Material Flows in Systems of Energy and Extraction: Towards an Architectural Drawing

Buildings are complex systems. They vary widely in style, function, and lifespan. Some are classical, some are modernist, while others profess no style at all. Buildings can be contemplative spaces for worship or for study. They can be ruckus spaces housing sporting events or political rallies or even military training. They may also be entirely prosaic, enclosing the humdrum of everyday life; a supermarket about to close at night or a monochromatic suburban villa with an unnaturally green lawn. Some buildings stand for hundreds of years, while others pass on even before the generation who inhabits them leaves this world. All buildings, however, share a great many characteristics. All buildings are constructed from materials, which might be extracted virginally from the earth, or recycled from previous structures (a practice well known to the Romans (Machemer, 2020)). These materials might be raw (e.g., stone, adobe, timber) or processed (e.g., steel, cement, lumber), and they may be combined in any number of ways through any number of manufacturing processes (e.g., casting, molding, forming, framing (Groover, 2010)). Nearly all (modern) buildings carry machines within their bodies to sustain their operations−luminaires, fans, boilers & chillers. The occupants also bring with them their own machines to furnish their lives with necessities and frivolities−computers, television sets, microwave ovens−all drink from the building gaining their power. Finally, all buildings do perish. As Orson Wells said of the fruits of human ingenuity, “Our works in stone, in paint, in print, are spared, some of them, for a few decades or a millennium or two, but everything must finally fall in war, or wear away into the ultimate and universal ash (Welles, 1973).” The same is true of architecture...