22 Grams: Quantifying the Contemporary Human Body in Building 22

The human body has acted as a valuable model for architectural construing and construction since antiquity. Specifically in architectural construction the body has been utilized to create a variety of multi-dimensional representations which can facilitate layered readings of buildings. These readings depend on dynamic or static body models to establish architectural analogies and metaphors. Historically anthropomorphic analogies and metaphors were enabled by theological models of the body, which were aligned with an understanding of the body as a whole that contained the soul. However, with progressive scientific exploration in the 17th and 18th centuries, a technical understanding of the body as a series of mechanistic parts was developed. This thesis will discuss the influence of this shift to demonstrate a corresponding evolution in architectural anthropomorphism. This thesis will also examine how analog architectural representations benefit from the inclusion of the body, to enable multi-dimensional readings of drawings.