infra- and meta-

“Fundamental and fixed” conditions can occur on a physical level--in the form of tectonically specific infrastructural components--and on a conceptual level--as implicit guidelines with internal flexibility. Much of my study will focus on constructed support systems (infra-structure) but I will also delve into the conceptual realm via meta-structures.

Meta-structures are graphic abstractions that articulate rules operating among field conditions (meta meaning among, with, or after). Meta-structures institutionalize the built environment’s normative patterns. These patterns may be fixed (structure, direction, dimension, etc) or they may be recurrently ephemeral (daylighting, inhabitation, public-private gradient, etc.). As organizational representations, meta-structures can be descriptive (emerging through analyses of existing fabric) or they can be prescriptive (formulating directives for a project site). Meta-structural drawings are useful to the architect in that they inform design decisions and register criteria for assessment. For example, one can judge a project’s fidelity to its urban environment by gauging the architect’s pre-scriptive meta-structures against local and regional de-scriptive meta-structures.