Advisor: Prof. Mohammad al-Asad

Abstract:
The information revolution and the new communication techniques that have developed as part of it have affected every human activity including architecture, and are also changing the manner in which we perceive our physical environment. This notion is investigated in this thesis through a historic overview of the development of the information revolution and its effects. The thesis 'includes building a theoretical model of the industrial revolution the major preceding technical revolution and discusses its effects on architecture and on human perception of the physical environment. The results of this investigation are then applied to the information revolution. The study ends with an exploration of the expected effects of the information revolution.

The thesis involves studying new communication techniques and environments, using a number of case studies as examples. It shows how these techniques will require us to interact with our physical environment very differently than in the past.

The findings and conclusions of the study are formulated as a vision of future architecture, an architecture that may greatly differ from traditional prototypes on both the physical and perceptual levels. The widespread use of computers is changing architecture drastically, and new architectural vocabularies will need to be developed so as to express this change. All this indicates that architecture is undergoing great developments in the way it is both produced and perceived. A major consequence of these developments is that the human senses will need to deal with architecture as more than a physical reality, and architecture in this coming era might be more influenced by perception rather than by function.