Narrative Collective: Designing Architecture as Social Machine Through Speculative Worldbuilding

Abstract

The Critical Research Paper’s logic progresses from theory to application and finally to implication. It first establishes a framework for reading space as a “social machine.” It then systematically applies this framework to analyze how different power structures—totalitarian and capitalist—are manifested in dystopian architecture. The argument evolves to explore more complex narratives, including critical utopias and architectural simulacra, before culminating in a conclusion that connects these fictional allegories to contemporary spatial politics. The core thesis is that architecture’s ultimate function is the construction and enforcement of a collective narrative.