ANARCHI T ECTS anarchist + architect.
ANARCHITECTS anarchist + architect.
emergent model of architectural practice.
Manifesto
21 st Century Architecture Yanjie Zhan
C o nt ent .
emergent model of architectural practice.
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new metaphor of knowledge system - network.
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cyberspace - a world of anarchists.
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the third industrial revolution - digital revolution.
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anarchists.
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Bibliography
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Virtualization
Anarchists
4
Architects
Rhizome
Star-Architects
Collaboration A World Without State.
Free Labouring Life Deleuze+Guattari Free grouping of individuals for the purpose of production.
ANARCHITECTS. Heroism Architects Underlying Structure.
Cyberspace New role as instigators of innovation.
A World Without Power.
Network
Digital Architecture
Power . Hierarchy . Order
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“The old system of the way we work is the tomb of our creativity ... The Virtual is the escape.”
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emergent mod e l of a rc h ite c tu ral prac tic e.
“...work is in fact co-operative in nature, and that collaboration occurs as negotiation and evaluation”
- Tom Kvan
The world is under massive changes. The economic, social and political environment has changed dramatically. We now have physical and virtual world. We now have enormous multiplicity of values, cultures and readings. How we live in both worlds is never the same. This complexity of the contemporary society has pushed the emerging big data and information technology which dramatically shapes how we live, work and play today. No exception for architects. For the hundreds of years, architectural practice has “People have benefitted fromparticipating in the ongoing dialectical way our office works, but we have also benefited
followed a well-defined pattern in adapting advancing technology. from those people. It’s a furtunate byproduct...” - Rem Koolhaas
However, the mentorship, hierarchy and star-architects, etc. is the still dominating culture in architectural practice. Moreover, in terms of the relation between architects and other discipline, the contributions from other partnership especially engineers and their knowledge to a great design are often ignored, which accumulates the unpleasant culture between architects and engineers. The idea that design is a result of singular genius cannot be sustained any more in contemporary context. We will have to admit that architecture is no longer a heroic center, but one micro-intelligence 1. Tom Wiscombe, “Emergent models of architectural practice,” Perspecta, 38 (2006): 59.
among many.1 It is fortunate that this condition has been realized and slightly changed with the development of computational tools. However, it is still slow pace of changing. Our way of working 7
needs to radically change from bottom-up to adapt the dramatically social and technical climates today.
How?
Virtual world is the
perfect escape. The dynamics of collaboration and communication today through virtual environment has gone beyond any of the physical organization. Every architect in the world will be inhouse employees who search for jobs through virtual platform in the future. Then, the human resources will
be employed by
the client and search for most suited candidates from virtual network.(Fig 1)
Network
is the new metaphor for human
knowledge. So, the human resources might change their title to knowledge resources because one has no race, no nationality, and no existence in any of the hierarchical structure through virtual reality. What is at stake today is not to reorganize the hierarchies in architectural practice; it is the emergence of an entirely revolutionary way of thinking and working about the production of architecture in general. Architects have to free themselves from hierarchical and static way of working and step towards collaborative and dynamic way of working through virtual platform.
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Physical
Virtual
APP
DESIGN
CODE Hierarchy
MARKETING
Collaboration
Working in physical world
Cloud Data technology
PROJECT
BOSS
HR
Working in virtual world
UPLOAD
Virtual Reality
PROJECT CEO HR
U.S World Knowledge
Human Resource Management
C.H.N
A.U
CLOUD
Knowledge Resource Management
Fig 1. Future way of working.
The physical and virtual run different systems in
their world. The working mode of physical world uses the tree structure hierarchy where boss
gives tasks and targets for the lower hierarchy. And the task will be divided and assigned through the entire tree system. While in the virtual system in the future, collaboration is the theme
for working mode. The CEO will divide the task into parts and deliver to knowledge resource management. Then people around the virtual
world could match up their knowledge with the required task. This system frees the every
individual from the old tree system and work for
their own, collaborate on virtual environment.
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Network Organization
Even we know collaboration is the main theme
on
network
organization,
the
types of the organization are diverse into different
behaviour
dispersing,
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such
connection
as
and
clustering, overlapping.
new metap h or of k n owle dge sys te m - n e twork .
“When everything is connected to everything else, for better or for worse, everthing matters.�
- Bruce Mau
The one of massive changes today is that the knowledge distribution today follows the pattern of network or web. The collaborative working is nothing more than a composition of knowledge or an Fig 2. The Great Chain of Being: a strict, religious hierarchical structure of all matter and life, believed to have been decreed by God.
organization of information. Over thousands of years, we believe the ranking order of the world, also known as the great chain of being (Fig 2), a top down structure. Interestingly, this structure adopts the model of the tree , a visual metaphor for delivering the information, which became a communication tool to map a variety of systems of knowledge(Fig 3). However, with the development of technology, virtual reality and internet today, we are in a more complex, intricate system which could not be mapped in tree diagram.
Fig 3. Tree of Science, Ramon Llull: each science is represented by a tree with roots, trunk, branches, leaves and fruits.
We now frequently see the new visualization system emerging to represent the connection, relations and system that we live in today – system of network. This is a new metaphor that can map out the contemporary system in biology, society and business, etc.
The
future
virtual
physical
organization,
environment which
will
gradually
emphasizes
the
adopt
the
connection,
heterogeneity and collaboration. The map of online social Fig 4. Online Social Collaboration.
collaboration
between
Perl
developers
has
shown
how
the programmers all over the world are exchanging files, 11
communicating and working on a given project.(Fig.4) The independent cells in the cyberspace are clustering and dispersing responding to the activities they involve in. The dynamics of system has gone beyond any physical organization, where one can communicate with other resources at another side of the world in matter of seconds. Before the invention of cyberspace, Deleuze and Guattari have developed a concept of
rhizome ,
which
summarizes the contemporary phenomena of network system. John Marks states, “Rhizome as a proliferating multiplicity which has no organizing dimension or center suggests metaphorical and analogical links with the Internet as a global system.2� Thus, it is evident that internet, network or cyberspace is the solution to our contemporary demands of communication and collaboration. Also, it is for our generation to escape the existing hierarchical social structure and search for their democracy and opportunities in the cyberspace. In the virtual space, our way of working can be completely changed where exchange of knowledge and information is way more dynamic than physical world. Architects, engineers, manufacturers and client, etc will be able to collaborate on the virtual environment beyond the limitation of time and space. This system can be the antidote for some of architectural profession’s characteristics such as singular genius design, ignorance of other disciplines, and slow pace of changes, etc. Also, it also rescues those architects who are stuck for doing the same task in the office and waiting for promotions. For instance, they could collaborate with artist for installation or cooperate with script writers for new plug-ins. The identity of architects has been blurred over last decades, moving 12
2. John Marks, Deleuze and the Contemporary World, (Edinburgh University Press, 2006), 194.
away from only being building designer. We are now in the middle of artists, engineers, computational designers and builders. I would say architects are now creative problem solvers or simply creators. We seek for liberation of our knowledge and creativity. Cyberspace is the escape. So what will be our new existence? maybe new anarchism?
Facebook Data Visualization
The been the
rencent
model
incrediblly emergying
of
successful
virtual
has
adapting
environment.
The
dynamic and daily growing information have become the key ingredient for their success.
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Anarchists in Hong Kong
an anarchist in Hong Kong, describing the changes in Hong Kong after China’s resumption of control of Hong Kong in 1997. He and other anarchists in Hong Kong were trying to create a libertarian counterculture from which they hoped “autonomy and
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real
democracy”
would
spring.
cybers pac e - a world of an a rc h is ts.
“Anarchism stands for...an order that will guarantee to every human being free access to the earth and full enjoyment of the necessities of life, according to individual desires, tastes, and inclinations.
- Emma Goldman
It is interesting enough to look into the recent organization of terrorism. The difficulty that we face today for dealing with the terrorism is that they profoundly adopt the system of the network which is decentralized, independent cells and no apparant leaders. Anarchism and terrorism share the certain similarity with the cyberspace. We are still living in the world that constructs the underlying structure and power. The life of the citizen obeys 3. Allan Antliff, Post-Anarchism, (Pluto Pressm, 2011), 165.
the timetable established by authorities3. However, what does anarchism stand for? A closing summary of anarchist principles, Emma Goldman, states: “Anarchism really stands for the
liberation of the human mind from the domination of religion; the liberation of the human body from the domination of property; 4. Antliff, Post-Anarchism, 160.
liberation from shackles and restraint of government4�. The future society is a stateless society, absence of rule and government. The power is not centralized but conceptualized as existing in
5. Dave Morland, Anti-Capitalism and Poststructuralist anarchism, (Manchester University Press, 2004), 28.
the rhizome of economic, social, political networks5. It is clear to perceive that cyberspace is the perfect environment to cultivate the growth of new anarchists. What anarchists propose corresponds to the rhizome theory by Deleuze and Guattari. Alberto Melucci observes that the new social movement is the complex networks 15
among different sources and meanings of social actions, an outcome of exchanges, negotiations, and conflicts among actors . Because of 6
the dynamic environment, we, as architects, will work as freelance, doing conceptual design on one project and documenting on another. The future for architects is too dynamic to stay in one firm. So how do we work in the virtual world? Finding the job in the virtual environment is not the same as the physical one. The human resources, who are the mediators between physical and virtual space, will organize the assets through the network system of knowledge based on the project. Who you are, where you are from is not important any more. What matters is what you can do. In this way, it could be efficient enough to match up the most suited candidates in order to fulfill the most desired outcome. Architects can be liberated only if they become individual, collaborating with their own preference. With all the future systems and fantasies we discuss here, how are we going to make it tangible? Technology is always the answer.
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6. Morland, Anti-Capitalism, 32.
“Anarchism really stands for the liberation of the human mind from the domination of religion; the liberation of the human body from the domination of property; liberation from shackles and restraint of government�
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Digital Design, Dunescape, SHoP Architects
The architectural design now heavily relies on the digital tools as the condition, brief, performance requirement are more and more complex and diverse. One dominant architect in the office does not work any more. Group collaboration and adapting digital tools are the new trends to architectural professions.
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the third industrial revolution - digital revolution. “When architects have a sufficient understanding of algorithmic concepts, when we no longer need to discuss the digital as
something different, then computation can become a true method of design for architecture.”
- Brady Peters
Looking through the architectural history, it is obvious that architectural profession responses and copes with the emerging technology in an amazing manner. In the second industrial revolution, Fordism was the ultimate model for mass production line lasting for many decades, responding the social and economic condition at that era. Le Corbusier prominently adapts this “Machinist Movement” in favor of using machine for production. He proposed the notion of prefabrication responds to his guideline to modern 7. Le Corbusier, Precisions on present state of architecture and city planning (Cambridge: MIT press, 1991)
architecture, where architects become open to new material and structural systems.7 Thus, the way of architects designing changed to focus on rational and efficient approaches, based on industrial dynamics.
Over decades of adapting information technology, architectural 8. Alfredo Andia, “Reconstructing the effects of computers on Practice and Education during the past Three Decades, ” Journal of Architectural Education 56 (2002): 7.
Technology affects architects on two distinct planes: the first at the skills level,
practices use digital tools primarily to improve the effectiveness and the second at the level of work processes and professional culture.8
and, in turn, better perform the design/building process. Virtual computation is refining the practice of architecture, which creates
“the processing of information and interactions between elements which constitute a specific environment; it provides a
opportunities in design process, fabrication and construction.
framework for negotiating and influencing the interrelation of datasets of information...9” - Sean Ahlquist & Achim Menges
9. Brady Peters, Computation Works: The Building of Algorithmic Thought, (London, Architectural Design, 2013), 10.
Specifically, architectural design now have used scripting tools
such as RhinoScript or Visual Basic for Application (VBA) in Bentley Systems’ MicroStationTM to generate specific programs to customize the design environment plugging into existing 19
architectural design software.10 Architects now have moved from
10. Peters, Computation Works, 10.
the era where we use software to one where we create software, which dramatically changed the structure of architectural practice in response to the work of computational designers.11 There are four
11. Peters, Computation Works, 11.
ways in which these designers are organized: the internal specialist group, the external specialist consultancy, the computationally aware and integrated practices and the lone software developer/
“Architecture has a serious problem today in that people who are not alike don’t communicate. I’m actually more
designer7. Therefore, the architectural practices today become more interested in communicating with people I disagree with than people I agree with.” - Rem Koolhaas
and more specialized and multi-disciplinary. Team collaboration has become the fundamental mode of working. The old structure of working such as hierarchy and mentorship starts to break down as the knowledge systems today are so diverse and complex that one is impossible to master all.
Open Source Architecture (OSArc) is an emerging model for building design, construction and manufacturing taking from contemporary open-source culture, collaboration of design software and transparent operations. One of the interesting features of OSArc is the universal standards of collaboration, encouraging the growth of networks of exchanges of knowledge, ideas and parts.12 This open-source platform enables designers to communicate, share and compare the information and knowledge through virtual software such as BIM and Grasshopper. The design could be easily customized, optimized and fabricated. It also helps destabilize the relation between client, architects and occupants, which leads to more flexible and responsive mechanism.
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12. Carlo Ratti, Open-Source Architecture (London: Thames&Hudson, 2015
Within the realm of architectural practice, young architectural practices, such as SERVO, are seeking the emergent network model, working with multi-disciplinary professions behaved together as a collective of knowledge cells communicated through digital technology. The SERVO’s installation ‘Lattice Archipelogics’ was the experimental combined product of SERVO, interactive computer programmers, MIT acoustical engineers, and industrial molding 13. Wiscombe, “Emergent models”, 61.
experts.13 The project is heterogeneous, operating simultaneously as atmosphere, as furniture, and as computational matrix, which
14. Wiscombe, “Emergent models”, 62.
depends on the feedback processes and technologies14.
feedback loop
This
mechanism across different professionals
is the essential mode of production, which has been carried out in the working collaboration between architects and engineers in many cases. Because of this new dynamic model of production, the architectural practice, Imaginary Forces (IF), has pushed its limits where it positioned itself between film industry and building industry, 15. Wiscombe, “Emergent models”, 62.
leveraging one to open up potential in the other.15 IF cut across the disciplinary boundary of media, industrial design, animation and
16. Wiscombe, “Emergent models”, 62.
engineer, relying on feedback for success.16 The model of IF is so resilient in general because it is flexible and has access to multiple markets. The board knowledge and network that IF accumulates enable its practice to deal with the complex and diverse context. So, it is the trends that architects can get involved and collaborated with other industries through the medium of technology. The architectural production today is diverse and dynamic. It is the generation to push these changes further, bottom-up from our mode of working.
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“The idea that design is a result of singular genius cannot be sustained any more in contemporary context. We will have to admit that architecture is no longer a heroic center, but one microintelligence among many.�
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anarchitects.
Architects have notorious reputation of long-hour working schedule, heroic personality and die young. Plus the hierarchy and mentorship of the professional culture make new starters spend years doing unwanted work thrown by their supervisors. The old system of the way we work is the tomb of our creativity. Loads of great idea and concept we developed from architectural schools are going to be wasted after graduated. It is sinful of wasting human intelligent mind. It is time to radically change and liberate our profession. With the digital tools, the efficiency and skill level of the architects improve and get better when more advanced tools introduce into the industry. With the virtual environment, the information such as fabrication techniques, engineering dynamics and material specification is sharing and feeding into design process, which frees the architectural practice from stratification and provincialism. Architects become the instigators of innovation with an exchange of expertise, knowledge and technologies through virtual environment. Take a step further, what if virtualization can free architects from architectural practices’ structure?
Being an anarchitects,
we stands for an order based on the free grouping of individual from different industries for the purpose of producing a design, architecture, a blueprint or a strategy; we stand for free development of individuals and free laboring life; we seek to blur the role of architects. Anarchitects is part of architects but more of an innovator and collaborator.
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Bibliography Andia, Alfredo. “Reconstructing the effects of computers on Practice and Education during the past Three Decades, ” Journal of Architectural Education 56 (2002): 7-13. Antliff, Allan. Post-Anarchism. Pluto Pressm, 2011. Corbusier, Le. Precisions on present state of architecture and city planning. Cambridge: MIT press, 1991. Marks, John. Deleuze and the Contemporary World, Edinburgh University Press, 2006. Morland, Dave. Anti-Capitalism and Poststructuralist anarchism. Manchester University Press, 2004. Peters, Brady. Computation Works: The Building of Algorithmic Thought. London, Architectural Design, 2013. Ratti, Carlo. Open-Source Architecture. London: Thames & Hudson, 2015. Wiscombe, Tom. “Emergent models of architectural practice,” Perspecta, 38 (2006): 57-68. Image: Future of working (refer to Fig.1), by the author. Network Organization, by the author. The Great Chain of Being (refer to Fig.2), by Didacus Valades. From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_ chain_of_being. Tree of Science (refer to Fig 3.), Ramon Llull, from:< https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_Science_ (Ramon_Llull)>. Online Social Collaboration, by Jarkko Hietaniemi, from: http://cpan-explorer.org/. Facebook Data Visualization, visualization/#m1kP12yZukqH>.
from:<
http://mashable.com/2010/12/13/facebook-members-
Anarchists in Hong Kong, by Robert Graham, from:< https://robertgraham.wordpress.com/2014/12/14/ anarchists-in-hong-kong-today/>. Dunescape, SHoP Architects, by Michael Nelson, from:< https://michaelrobertnelson.wordpress. com/2010/09/21/shop-architects/>.
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Manifesto
21 Century Architecture st
Yanjie Zhan