| This thesis considers the numerous, complex, and sometimes redundant tools of architectural design and attempts to unify them with a hacker approach. A hacker mentality allows one to consider the problems of design from the tools outward. Focusing on the 'how' instead of the 'what' to design, a hacker reconsiders the existing methods and concepts and recombines them to find new potential.;Hacking the tools of design and manufacturing then becomes a way to reevaluate the looming challenges of energy generation and transportation. The hacker becomes a key individual in a de-globalized world.;Using an applied research process - a hacker approach - to re-examine some of the current tools of architectural design, opportunities for alternate methods of design might emerge.;In so doing, could these methods enhance the designer's proficiency and capability and, at the same time, achieve a potentially more holistic balance between traditional design and the rich potential offered by digital systems?;Three hacker projects of architecture are considered: Katalogos , a tool to map and archive Internet media and references, nTerface, a hybrid drawing interface, and the Modifacture Machine, a fabricating instrument. Each 'tool-hack' flows directly into the next, resulting in a critical practice that incorporates the best of human- and computer-assisted design in a singular process. |
