The Glitch as a Design Language

In the book “Drawing Futures”, we can see how Eisenman’s theory on the Digital is being applied to Architecture (Eisenman, P. 2004). Architects are starting to utilise and explore the digital codex as an experimentation tool, acting as a method to find a design language (Allen, L., Migayrou, F., Sheil, B. and Pearson, L. 2016). It proposes the idea that the lines of digital architectural drawings are fundamentally abstractions of data, pixels, colour, binary, coding, etc. and that this relationship of drawing and data can affect the way we use digital drawings. (Allen, L., Migayrou, F., Sheil, B. and Pearson, L. 2016).

For example, by giving different values to the data that constitutes the drawing – we can “glitch” the conventional plan or section to create new spaces/spatial understanding (Allen, L., Migayrou, F., Sheil, B. and Pearson, L. 2016). The concept of the pixel array is introduced, and how it relates to the architectural drawing. In Figure 1, we can see Architects have data bent the pixel array of the Barcelona Pavillion and re-applied it to the plan, creating a three-dimensional interpretation of the glitch. (Allen, L., Migayrou, F., Sheil, B. and Pearson, L. 2016). By undertaking this exercise – we can remodel our understanding of existing Architecture to create space that is more dynamic and atmospheric to the users.