Blobatecture
I posted this short essay on MeFi today, but I wanted to share it with you. Because of my current posistion, I am deeply familiar with how computers affect design, for good and for bad. My short summation of the current thought is no way complete, and it is from someone who is a true beliver. Caveat Emptor.The ACADIA Conference was at the university about four years ago, and even then [with the more limited computing programs] was amazing. Lets discuss the current state of architecture and the rise of the so-called "Blobatecture". As computers became more and more powerful, and rendering programs improved, firms started to use programs such as AutoCAD to speed up their construction documents. As firms needed more visualization tools, more and more programs sprouted up. But what people don't understand is the immense theoretical underpinning to many of the current practitioners work.
The root of this vein of study is the difference between seeing the world as a straight line or a curve. The line or the segment was the principal design element throughout architectural history. The architectural break with the segment started in the Baroque Period where the ellipse and circle started to dominate the plans of cathedrals, civil spaces and most prime monumental structures. This then disintegrated back to the segment during and after the building of Versailles. Architecture is influenced by society around it, and by the other professions. So it is not surprising that Darwin's Origin of Species and later Einstein's Theory of Relativity had an affect on architecture [not to mention society as a whole]. The switch from the Classical {Newtonian] way to view the world to the Quantum way of looking at the world [along with other factors] changed society and architecture. Now instead of the world as a determinate system, a great machine that we observed running, we were in an indeterminate system in which we were the machines. Therefore the Renaissance way of looking at the world, not segments but of arcs, circles and spheres rebounded wholeheartedly. The difference this time around is that we are adding time into the equation, bringing all four dimensions into the design. This is where the computer comes in. With programs like 3d Studio, Form-Z and my favorite Maya, we are able to bring a whole new dimension to design.
There is a concerted effort to test the bounds of the computer, materials, site and sometimes clients to try to open up the closed system of architecture. I am not even talking about Frank O. Gehry, but of the hundreds of firms that are on the cutting edge of design research. We strive to create juxtapositions, layered systematic design and classical orders together to form a design that exists on many different layers and scales. If it sounds like I am one of the converted, I am. No more singular dogma of Modernism, nut the "both-and" world of Post-Modernism, albeit without the stereotypical classical/traditional styles.
That is why this work is important, and I am up every night working on it. It doesn't necessarily have to be a blob, but more often it is. Some practitioners run amok with their newfound power. I see it as a tool that can help exploit the power of serendipity and the power of the artist.
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Comments
mikey3times says:
i agree with opening up or destroying the boundaries of architecture and what
constitutes quality form, but i am stuck on what is actually appropriate. i
guess i need to work for an office that is doing it to see how they arrive at
the "blobs" as opposed to how i always arrive at more liebeskind-ish or hadid-
ish forms.
regardless, this issue of metropolis is a must for all of us.
Posted by: mikey3times at August 20, 2002 12:54 PM #
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This is the permanent home of Blobatecture. I wrote this post at 23:20 on August 5, 2002. This post is part of grubbykid.com, a weblog. If you liked this entry, why don't you read some other posts such as The country is now safe for air travelers or Note to Self? Or you could go to the site archives or return home. All are good choices.
