The Heart and The Spring

Architecture in the Third Machine Age: Between Servant-Served and the Von Neumann Architecture 

We operate within the analog-logical tension. In classical thought, architecture has always been framed by the tension between space and material. Louis Kahn’s contribution in coining the terms of servant and served, is in recognizing that for modernism, the significance of the spectrum between these two concepts outweighed that of the classical tension. The definition of the servant-served dichotomy encapsulates the “Second Machine Age” – the technological progress in the first half of the 20th century – as architectural thinking: An age characterized by speed (road networks and electrical grids); Kahn’s spatial distinction is made possible precisely because of speed, through a spatial movement that compensates for this split. Today, the world is going through another change, which started with the invention of the computer. In the Third Machine Age, this is all about information – and accordingly, speed has been replaced by simultaneity. The functional and served human space is also flooded by data and information systems. And so, there is a need for an appropriate architectural structure that will also maintain human space. With this in mind, we examine the application of the von Neumann architecture to the physical space through four categories: user, control unit, logical unit, and server – space in the Third Machine Age.