IaaC Bit 6.3.1

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Implementing Advanced Knowledge

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6.3.1 Interview Greg Lynn


Interview: Greg Lynn

(The text that here follows is an extract from an interview prepared and executed by Areti Markopoulou that can be seen at https://vimeo.com/143110016)

This interview by Areti Markopoulou was executed at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia in October 2015. It was done under the UrbanNext program and in occasion of the Lecture of Greg Lynn at IaaC. In this extract, the discussion is orbiting around how the new digital technologies of design and manufacturing are impacting the future of the urban scale. AM: As an expert on digital design and fabrication on architecture and design process, how do you foresee the new digital technologies of design and manufacturing impacting the future of the urban scale? GL: What is interesting about Urban Next is focusing on not just interactivity in digital technology and also not focusing on fabrication and robotics but thinking about the two things together is really where all of the action is with cities. If buildings can control their envelope, if automobiles can control their navigation, if people have access to that information on things they wear or things they carry, networking all that together it produces not justefficiency but also a completely new way of being in the city and being a citizen. Machines (not just for manufacture) but also networked is something that obviously the whole world is going towards. If I look at something like Uber which is a great economic system and I try to think about what that could mean for buildings and occupacy and living, gets really interesting to think about what cities can do. You dont have to owe something, you could actually use things in a different kind of a way. AM: We are witnessing a radical shift in the design process passing from the Machine for Living in (of Le Corbusier) to a dweling that is more interactive with the environment and the users. At the same time technology Cover - Greg Lynn workshop, IaaC Archive 2


is becoming out tool to behave behaviors. Do you see that Living Machines will oppose to the concept or to any Machine for Living In? GL: Architecture is always in negociation with all the people that occupy it and if a building used to be a kind of a machine (that was like a wine bottle or even a smartest crueship) its very different than thinking about architecture being as intelligent as a Smart phone. Its a totally different concept of machine. Information machines havent figured out what their architectural equivalent is yet, therefore people dont know what it is to live in an Information Machine.

“People’s expectations for buildings have changed because of their expectations in relation to Information Machines�


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People’s expectations for buildings have changed because of their expectations of Information Machines. People accept from buildings to deliver things that will define their relationship in a similar way as their relationship with their Smart phone or their computer and buildings arent delivering these yet. Looking at mobility and dynamism and a kind of interactivity that is appropriate for buildings (which is different than what you expect from your phone) is really what the next Phase of Digital Design is, I think. AM: Urban Next is a multidiciplinar project that debates on what would be the future of our urban environments based on the one hand on the existing challenges of the 21st century (global urbanization, economical and environmental crisis) and on the other hand on the possibilities of the new means of digital technologies. In the dicipline of architecture which one do you think is the Next Architectural Design? Should we keep on talking about designing objects? Should we change our way of thinking towards designing relationships or designing performances and behaviors on architectural objects and urban environments? GL:In 2015, being asked whats the job of architecture to be thinking about for Urban Next, I would say Augmented Reality is hugely impacting the experience of spaces and it is about to become readily available and the only people I would put in charge of that would be Architects. Because for 2,000 years we have been thinking in plans and sections and abstract virtual things but we are very good in marrying that to the physical world and thinking of its implications on making people citizens. Facebook does not make people citizens. Facebook turns relationships into comodities and therefore I would rather have architects involved to a really thinking about what it is to be social and be a citizen and not only thinking about how to commercialize things. Thats a job I think architects need to be thinking about. Because there is a whole other architecture thats about the layover cities that somebody is going to be designing. With the implementation of technology in the urban spaces you dont have anymore to own things, you can just use and share things in a different way.

Figure 1 - Greg Lynn lecturing at IaaC Figure 2 - Greg Lynn with Enric Ruiz-Geli Figure 3 - Greg Lynn attending IaaC students 6



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