Game of architecture

This PhD is an interrogation of the work of WHAT_architecture over the past thirteen years. The PhD attempts to assemble a dialogue around the manner that architecture might embrace a different set of strategies in order to deliver buildings in an environment where the role of the architect is ever increasingly marginalised.
The research began with a proposition that Architecture is played by a set of rules that the architect is not in control of. The architecture of this PhD reveals that, with the appropriate strategy, the Game could be changed. Information has saturated contemporary existence such that the practice of architecture today is a contested field of rules, regulations and guidelines. In order to make some sense of this predicament, information is being curated, manipulated and played with. Diagrams, datascapes and infographics have emerged as the dominant projection systems of architectural representation.
In playing with information, how exactly is architecture demonstrating gamefulness? Beyond representation, what other forms of play are evident within practice? If the death of architect has in fact occurred, as so commonly stated, where does that leave the profession? Should architecture demonstrate greater innovation by becoming a role-playing-game? How can a team game like football that is so seemingly oppositional in nature to architecture hold interesting possibilities: in strategy, in tactics, in performance metrics, as entertainment? If 'You’ll Never Work Alone' who are the fans of enchainment: the challengers, the coaches, my fellow players? What is the fan base of architecture? How can we take more possession of the profession? Does our Code of Conduct render architects perpetually offside when it comes to entrepreneurial gamesmanship? Is money that hidden metric that underpins practice - a game of survival? How can architectural practice achieve innovation and relevance in response to both rule interpretation and rule making? Or are we merely witnessing the emergence of gaming mechanics applied to a resistant discipline? Isn’t funology the ultimate goal of any endeavour? And what exactly are tiki tactics? This is the Game of Architecture.