A (Cybernetic) Musing: Architecture of Distinction and the Distinction of Architecture

Introduction I have not written about architecture in Cybernetics and Human Knowing, although my last column was about design (and architecture is at very least an artefact of design). Yet I have earned my living teaching architecture. Architecture can provide a very rich model of (almost) everything, allowing the teacher to teach (almost) anything they chose! In a world where the academic possibilities for working in cybernetics are slim, this was one strategy I could use at the start of my career to allow me to continue working in cybernetics. But my involvement was not solely mercenary. Amongst other things, I found a remarkable connection between cybernetics and how we experience architecture, which I present here as a precursor to a column I intend to write on George Spencer Brown’s (1968) Laws of Form. Because I am writing about an intimate and personal revelation, I write this column in a more personal way than usual. The column may also interest readers who, perhaps, are not so well informed about the material at the heart of architecture, and/or architecture as understood by an architect.