Immaterial Architecture: Understanding Visualization Through the Lifecycle of a Building

The paper explores the dynamics between the immaterial and material aspects of architecture, the life of an idea and physical matter, and how the two communicate through the process of visualization in the lifecycle of a building, before, during, and after its completion. Through the recorded history of architecture, the phrase visualization has carried a plethora of meanings essential to the understanding of human conditions, deeply rooted in our thought process, cognition, learning, and understanding of life concerning the physicality of our built environment. The original definition of the term refers to the act of visualizing as "to make (something) visible to the mind or imagination." However, the phrase visualization has been appropriated in the field of architecture by technological advances for design, building efficiency and improvement of the quality of design imagery. As such, the meaning related to the concept of immateriality in architecture throughout the lifecycle of a building presently is largely overlooked. This study therefore addresses multiple manifestations of the term "visualization" about a building itself, starting with Alberti's [1] idea that every building is born as an immaterial image in the mind of an architect, and after its completion, it has multiple immaterial existences in the memories of all who live to experience it.