Dark Matter:
Making(,) Time(,&) Matter in Architecture Robert Trumbour Assistant Professor
Dark matter is hypothesized to contribute roughly 85% of the total known matter in the universe, greatly outweighing the amount of visible matter we are familiar with. Dark Matter is considered dark because it cannot be seen or readily accounted for. Despite its invisibility, astronomers have recognized the presence of dark matter for decades, and its influence on our universe is considered by many to be immense. The gravitational force of luminous matter alone does not justify the behavior of our universe. How is it possible that the speed of bodies at the outer edge of a galaxy equals those near its center? This condition illustrated by the Galaxy Rotation Curve depicts the paradox between what is predicted and what is observed, a condition counter intuitive to scientists and inexplicable by Newtonian physics. How is it possible? Dark Matter. Dark Matter is not emptiness, it is not nothing, it is in fact, something. Something however, that we cannot see but paradoxically appears to be the largest contributor to the shaping of our universe. What is Dark Matter's equivalent in the architectural cosmos? What is this something for us? What are its parameters? What are its dimensions? Does our dark matter operate by a different set of rules as the Dark Matter of the larger universe does? Is it an immeasurable energy, a force or an invisible reoccurring change of state? This abstract seeks to find the dark matter of architecture, the predominant force that we cannot see, at least not so readily through our normal way of viewing. Rather than proposing an answer, it provokes questioning. Is the matter we see the most important matter there is? Does it only matter or perhaps, is it only matter if we can hold it in our hand or roll it, crease it or fold it as Serra’s 1967-68 Verb List propagates? Although there are likely many possible outcomes from the search for dark matter in the architectural cosmos, time will serve as the subject for this inquiry. Time is understood; it is felt but not seen. Its presence is evident in the processes, qualities and limits of all matter. It operates under its own set of rules and possesses a trajectory that is both linear and cyclical. Unaffected by the basic laws of gravity, time appears to possess its own force equal in strength to the inescapable pull of gravity. Time undoubtedly shapes our universe but does it contain the mass and dimension we can build with? If matter, or more explicitly in the case of architecture, material is the stuff we build with, can we use time as a material rather than simply an effect. Materials age and yet some resulting forms are deemed timeless. Does time matter?