ABSTRACT
The Cartesian apprehension of the reality of lived experience subtly eroded and undermined the traditional object of architecture as a discursive activity throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Architecture is a mode of knowledge, a way to conceptualize and internalize the external world. The Cartesian apprehension of the reality of lived experience subtly eroded and undermined the traditional object of architecture as a discursive activity throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The categories of efficiency, universality and preoccupation with history not only presuppose each other but are also inherent in the initial act of installing the machine as a metaphor in architecture. The search for techniques expressive of the fragmentation wrought by the increasing acceleration of life characterizes much of modern architecture as it does much of modern painting, music, sculpture and literature. The effort to place process or change at the center of architectural theory has led to the distinct formal attitudes of our time.
