Digital Infatuation And The Voice Of Innovation
The therory of innovation through Greg Lynn´s evolution and the impact of the digital revolution on architecture.
Lucie KrulichovĂĄ 14074632 U30099 Dissertation January 2016
A dissertation presented to the School of Architecture, Oxford Brookes University in part fulfilment of the regulations for BA (Hons) in Architecture. Statement of Originality This dissertation is an original piece of work which is made available for copying with permission of the Head of the School of Architecture. Signed
Lucie Krulichovรก
3 Statement
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A special thanks to: My parents for their support throughout my degree and to my dissertation supervisor Kathleen O’Donnel for her invaluable input, support and critical insight.
CONTENTS
“If I design a house, I want it to look more contemporary than the toothbrush in the bathroom or the coffee machine on the cabinet. I, like most architects do, want to stay ahead of popular design rather than being nostalgic, and repackaging old stuff.” (Lynn, 2012) Singed
The Revolutionar
5 Contents
6
Fig 1. Greg Lynn: The Revolutionar (Author’s image, 2015)
Preface Introduction
7
Archaeology of the digital
11
9
Rise of the digital in architecture: the first wave of expansion
13
In the wake of the avant-garde: the second wave of expansion
16
Innovative computer processes
19
Digital thinking: Process change by digital means
21
Reconfiguration between conception and production
22
Crisis of the digital
29
Seduction of innovative geometries
31
Crisis of the intricate surface culture
35
New complexity in geometry
39
The father of innovative organic complexity
41
Algorithmic infatuation
43
Towards a digital future? Rethinking the border of digital architecture: the voice of innovation Digital cities: towards future design strategies
Conclusion Bibilography Figures
47 49 55 57 61 65
PREFACE The idea to write about the impact of digital technology on architecture stems from a pure observation I made during my second year of architectural studies. Being in a digital design unit focusing on organic and biophilic architecture, I became instantly fascinated by digital design thinking. However, as I began to discover the power of digital representation, I sensed that it provided me with not only new possibilities, but also raised an area of concern. The more my knowledge and experience in computing grew, the more I started observing geometry, texture, and materiality of contemporary architecture. Sometimes, wondering through a city, I tried to guess what type of software was used to create a cladding and, panel or to generate such level of complexity. The presence of “digitalism” began to overwhelm me no matter where I went. Quickly realizing that the revolution of computer aided design was mainly due to the environment where design occurred, I wanted to investigate, clarify, and identify the position of digital technologies in today’s architecture. Choosing Greg Lynn as the main figure was almost inevitable because of his engagement in the digital realm on multiple levels. He has expanded the academic discourse and taught in the world’s top six schools of architecture. From 1990 until today he has done over 100 conferences, exhibitions, and projects globally. From 1992, he has been publishing books that have influenced and inspired the discipline. Most importantly, he is an innovator, redefining architectural design, and a pioneer in the fabrication of complex functional and ergonomic forms, that remains to this day at the cutting edge of design. Infatuation: When infatuated, we are thrilled, but not happy, wanting to trust, yet suspicious (Dobber, 2006). Infatuation or being smitten is the state of being carried away by unreasoned passion or love. Hillman and Phillips (2007) describe it as a desire to express the libidinal attraction of addictive love. Usually, one is inspired with an intense but short-lived passion. It can be foolish or extravagant with a lack of judgment. Innovation: Innovation can be viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated needs, or existing market needs (Maranville, 1992) This is accomplished through more effective products, processes, services, technologies - or novel ideas that are readily available to markets, governments, and societies. The term innovation can be defined as something original and more effective that “breaks into” the market or society (Frankelius, 2009).
7 Preface
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INTRODUCTION We have witnessed that in 70 years since the inception of the Universal Turing Machine, the power of computation has triggered an unprecedented Information Revolution. Bill Gates has predicted that the present decade will be the “Digital Decade” and by the time that it comes to an end, the impact of the digital realm will reach so far that scarcely any facet of human existence will remain untouched by it (Leach, 2002, p.33). In the past decade, digital design was a phenomenon that was rapidly crystallizing in architecture. Publications in magazines such as AD have taken a pivotal role in the so-called “digital revolution” of the 1990s. New technologies have changed our way of thinking and are as Mark Goulthrope puts it, “spawning” digital culture (Leach, 2002, p.44). Douglas Rushkoff’s (2003 p.33) approach to the proliferation of digital media is less nihilistic, seeing it more as a reconfiguration of the way we experience our realities. He talks about the digital renaissance as being a “dimensional leap, when our perspective shifts so dramatically that our understanding of the oldest, most fundamental elements of existence changes”. Digital has changed how buildings are designed, documented, fabricated, and assembled. The evolution of this revolutionary concept has led to a major cultural transformation. The initial reactions, scepticism, enthusiasm and suspense have faded away. Today, the question is no longer whether digital should be used in architecture, but it is rather how it is changing the world of architecture and what direction it is taking (Picon, 2010, p.8). In the 1970s, the few architects working with computers were seen as strange determined utopians. In the 1980s, they were looked upon as specialists who spoke a language incomprehensible to most. During the 1990s, the understanding grew, and this field became thoroughly researched. By early 2000s digital technology had infiltrated almost every architectural practice. Today, digital design is a crucial part of the teaching process in architectural education, forming a basis of a new didactics and pedagogy (Oxman, 2007, p.116). Over the last two decades, Greg Lynn has been one of the leading figures in innovative digital design, demonstrating an instinct for the meaningfully inventive. One of his major contributions has been a cross-fertilization of technologies, introducing animation and robotics from other disciplines into architecture. Being at the forefront of this digital revolution, Lynn often works on the cusp of what is feasible, acceptable, and convincing (Brown et al., 2013). His instinct for the innovation seems to be inexhaustible. Tracing Greg Lynn’s evolution in digital architecture is a primary method of investigating this timely and explosive topic. Lynn’s journey implies different phases, projects and above all, an evolving notion of form and a fascination for computer software. Therefore, in this dissertation, I aim to look at how digital technology has changed the very nature of architecture, and by extension, -our new understanding of designing in relation to digital design media. The infatuation has become permanent, and the voice of innovation is becoming stronger. Therefore, the question is asked “How did practitioners and theorists such as Greg Lynn contribute to the reinvention of the field of architectural design and what influence did they create to trigger digital infatuation and the neo-avant-garde´s apparent esteem for vigorous form?”
9 Introduction
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In order to achieve the above-mentioned aim and address the research question in the first chapter, this paper palces digital architecture in a larger historical framework. In addition, this chapter conducts a contextual study to investigate how architecture and digital technologies have evolved together. Concluding that digital technology and design evolved. The second chapter analyses how architecture changed because of the way computation implements into new design processes. The chapter supports the thesis statement by deducing that digital technology has effectively contributed to the reinvention of the architectural field through new thoughts, methodologies, processes, and fabrication techniques. Innovation in building materials and technology has made a large contibution to this reinvention. The third chapter discusses how the contributions of architects such as Lynn have opened a new way of spatial thinking to generate a more complex geometry. In the second part of the third chapter, we discover that morphological complexity is not the only dimension to take into consideration. Trying to go beyond formalism, Lynn and architecture theorist such as Kostas Terzidis explore calculus based architecture. The closer analysis of these techniques and experiments remains doubtful creating a context of incertitude. With a critical eye, the fourth chapter will discuss infatuation and obsessions that the digital has triggered. This chapter investigates contradictory information and opinions to evaluate whether the digital has caused a crisis of traditional tectonic codes. At the end of this fourth section we will discover that the meaning of the contemporary architectural scene is fading away. Finally, looking at the strategies and innovations enabled by digital technologies aids the conclusion of a prognosis for future developments. The second part of this final chapter captures the impact of digital technologies at the scale of the city. Each chapter contains a part showing Lynn’s influence on the particular topic. The results are snapshots of each stage of Lynn’s evolution in digital architecture and are the primary method of investigating this timely and explosive topic. Lynn’s journey implies different phases, projects, and above all, an evolving notion of form and a fascination for computer software.
ARCHEOLOGY OF THE DIGITAL Christopher Alexander
Ivan Schuterland
Nicholas Negroponte Architecture Machine
Soft Architecture Machine
Notes on the Synthesis of form A pattern language Cybernetics
Sketchpad
Computer Aids to Design and Architecture
Design Methods Group Gary Moore
UC Berkley
The Fold and the Baroque
Giles Deleuze
Design Reaserch Society
Deconstructivism
Peter Eisenman Architecture in the Age of Electronic Media Biocentrum project Chuck Hoberman Expanding Sphere Mario Carpo
Toyama Gymnasium
Shoei Yoh
Ghery Partners Lewis Residence
Oxman 19,000 CNC pannels CATIA
Barcelona Fish project
Antoine Picon
BIM SVB The Louis Vuitton Foundation
Guggenheim Bilbao Archeology of the digital Canadian Center for Greg Lynn Architecture Bloom House
Composite Lantern Kenneth Frampton Juhani Pallasmaa
Embryological House Bill Kreysler File factory process
Gevork Hartoonian Architecture of spectacle
Software Monocultures Mark Foster Gage
Crisis of seductive geometries Venturi Decorated Shed Architecture of folding Blob Greg Lynn Complexity Smoothness Crisis of surface
Ornament
The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism Frederic Jameson Predator Fabian Marcaccio Biotonic Sensitivity Tea Cofee Piaza for Alessi
Atlantis Sentosa Ghery and Partners Arnell Group Kertzner International Capitaland
Animation Folds,Blobs,Rotundity Ali Rahim
Animate Form
Motion Flow Temporality Organic compexity
Preston Scott Cohen
Curvilinearity Algorithm
Kostas Terzidis
Mathematics Binary Scripting
Genetic algorithm
Karl Chu
Toyo Ioto Serpentine pavilion
Plate Prototypes Chaikin´s algorithm
Binary
Voronoi-like randomness
Self-replicating system Genetic material
Smark Mark Blobwall Supra-studio Room Vehicle High-performance Aerospace industry
Robotics UCLA Cross-field collaboration
Automobile industry
New strategies
Shipbuilduing industry Digital Cities
Artificial intelligence New City Greg Lynn Utopia Futurism
Freshness
Digital simulations New behaviours Simon Marvin
Fragmentation Transformation Self-generation Machine
Stephen Graham
Mattias Kohler ETH Zurich
Fabio Gramazio Computational Framework Manuel DeLanda
Agent-based behaviours
Archaeology of the Digital will delve into the genesis and establishment of digital tools for design conceptualization, visualization, and production from the 1960s to 1990s. In doing so the following questions are adressed: “How was the transition from analogue practices to new digital tools managed, and the dialogue between them exploited?” and “What was the cultural and technological landscape of that moment?” These questions are at the foundation of this chapter, and its accompanying exhibition unfolds around four projects selected as seminal moments in the early development stages of digital architecture. Each project established a significant direction for architectural research by experimenting with the possibilities offered by novel digital tools (Lynn, 2013). 1.
Rise of the digital in architecture: the first wave of expansion
To understand digital architecture, one has to know it´s history. In 1963, Ivan Schuterland invented a graphical user interface called the Sketchpad [Fig 3]. Thus, a whole series of further revolutionary developments were initiated. Half a century before the development of BIM (Builduing Information Modelling) Schuterland was speculating about the necessity to organize and process information. By pressing switches on a control panel while drawing the user could change the way the computer interpreted the movement (Barendse et al. 2010). This invention created a new way to manipulate forms on screen. Objects could be duplicated, rotated, scaled, and moved. The discussions about technological constraints and their impact on innovation and intuitive artistic media began to spread. However, because of many obstacles, computers remained an insufficient tool for design. The relevance of the machine remained constantly questioned until Christopher Alexander observed that a computer can be useful for design if design problems are input and processed by the machine. In the Notes on the Synthesis of Form and A Pattern Language, Alexander applied cognitive psychology, heuristics, cybernetics, and early artificial intelligence to his design process (Steenson, 2014). He saw architecture as a problem to solve and used the computer to solve it. Networks and languages of patterns [Fig 2] were a model and methodology to develop his ideas further. The idea of patterns had a big impact on computer programming, as it became a basis of - the “object oriented design“. However, criticism became shared amongst architects, and there was a danger of an end for the computer involvement in architecture.
13 Archeology of the Digital
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Fig 2. Extratcs from A Pattern Language, (Alexander, 1997)
1: Fig 3. Ivan Sutherland’s Sketchpad system demonstrated at MIT, (Unknown, 1963) 2: Fig 4. The Architecture Machine group, (Douglas 1973)
In 1970, Nicholas Negroponte published a book where he explains how an Architecture Machine [Fig 4] could act as an all-purpose cybernetic design assistant (Carpo, 2010, p.35). He investigated how to make the human-machine dynamic stronger. The two books Architecture Machine (1970) and Soft Architecture Machines (1975) explain these theories. For Negroponte, an Architecture Machine should be able to learn about architecture and have a dialogue between itself, man and other machines in order to produce an evolutionary system. The evolutionary machine should be self-improving in order to have better chances of making its computational and informational abilities relevant. In 1975, he also wrote Computer Aids to Design and Architecture where he outlined a retrospective of the first decade of computer assisted design (CAD) describing the disappointment about its unsatisfactory performance. Soon it became clear that to understand the role of the computer, one has to better understand the design process itself (Milne, 1975). Meanwhile, in the 1960s and 1970s, the Design Methods Movement organised various meetings in Europe and the U.S. (Arpak, 2012, p.34). With those events, new design methods were starting to infiltrate architecture schools. The main positive attribute was to make design more efficient and optimized. In 1967, Gary Moore founded a Design Method Group and Design Research Society at UC Berkley (Arpak, 2012, p.34). These served as an important source of information for designers and researchers. Digital computing was in symbiosis with the positivist thoughts that supported computing theories because of their direct application of the engineering technique to design. With this approach, computer systems, advanced computer applications, and CAD systems began to thrive. Cristopher Alexander and Nicholas Negroponte are two key figures who drew from computational paradigms and remained a strong influence, one that we need to include in a broader history of architecture and digital design. They were the pioneers who made the first step in the territory of the architecture of information worldwide. Alexander’s and Negroponte’s approach to design followed similar ideas: they wanted to turn the role of the architect over to a system, whether or not computerized. Others such as Moore helped to circulate new design methods amongst schools and practices around the world. Thus, in the late 1960s and 1970s, the international architectural scene was marked by all kinds of attempts to relate architecture to an increasingly pervasive computer culture (Picon, 2010, p.39). This enduring infatuation was a key influence on the postmodernist movement.
15 Archeology of the Digital
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2. In the wake of the avant-garde: the second wave of expansion In the early 1990s, many architects saw digital software as a tool to generate quicker and cheaper drawings. However, not many anticipated that it could allow something more – something not otherwise possible. Greg Lynn was one of the architects to see it as a new concept, and this intuition led him to discover a whole new universe. The geometrical limitations embedded in architectural design disappeared, and a new wave of digital excitement arose. The rapid evolution of technology within society brought enduring techno-social transformations and meaningful changes in architectural form. Nevertheless, without an already existing interest in formal continuity and smoothness, computers would probably not inspire such a desire for formal experimentation. In the history of the relationship between digital culture and architecture, postmodernism was a key turning point. Folding and formalism were reactions against the cult of deconstructivism (Lynn, 1993). It was the French theorist Gilles Deuleuze who first wrote a very meaningful piece of work called The Fold: Leibnitz and the Baroque. His work gained, even more, importance when Peter Eisenman started to create an architectural version of the fold, inspired by the possibility to create complexity with continuity (Carpo, 2010, p.85). In the text Architecture in the Age of Electronic Media, Eisenman talks about the potential of Deleuze’s concept of the fold, as it creates an opportunity to develop spaces that are not following the old traditional architectural ideals. Eisenman’s continual interest in opposition, multiple geometric orders, and the folding of form back upon itself seemed ideally suited for exploration with CAD. Greg Lynn and Peter Eisenman are examples of architects who have altered their design methods according to computer technology. Edited in 1993 by Greg Lynn, Folding in Architecture was a catalyst to trace the wave of change and evolution of the digital. Folding and topology became terms with an important relation to computer-aided design. In the process, folding evolved towards a fully digital, smooth curvilinearity. This new pliant flowing architecture reflects the desire of unity and harmony through rich diversity. Greg Lynn’s essay on architectural curvilinearity was one of the first times when a new topological approach to design was applied. It moves away from the then dominant deconstructivist “logic of conflict and contradiction” to develop a “more fluid logic of connectivity” manifested by highly curvilinear surfaces (Kolarevic, 2000 p.2). This was only the mere begging of an ongoing story of digital in architecture.
In May 2013, the Canadian Centre for Architecture mounted the first three-phase exhibition called archaeology of the digital curated by Greg Lynn. It constructs a comprehensive account of the early stages of “the digital” expansion. Four key projects have been selected to represent the digital process. All of the projects are a part of the computing revolution of the late 1980s and the early 1990s. The idea to make this stemmed from previous events: the CCA wanted to use Lynn’s project the Embryological House. Consequently, he started thinking about how to access and preserve a variety of digital file types, from static geometry, to animated geometry using entertainment software, to early parametric modelling using expression editors. He saw that a lack of evidence in the genealogy of “the digital” was not sufficient enough to understand each step in the process. There are many techniques in use today, and we are witnessing an explosion of computational practices in this pivotal decade; however the details of how computers were used to reach the final result remain unclear. Architects easily lose control over the process in the quantum of data we generated while designing. This exhibition is the first to start mapping the evidence and puts therby creating account of the complex systems that spawned the current digital architecture. The projects in the exhibition triggered the second wave of expansion of the digital culture. Greg Lynn has carefully chosen the architects of these projects for a unique potential in digital media. In Peter Eisenman’s Biocentrum [Fig 5] (1987), custom generative algorithms take some of the labour out of procedural design while strategically ceding some authorial control. Frank Gehry’s Lewis Residence (1989-95) was the first major test of his firm’s customized aerospace software, that “bridged the gap between his analogue design methods and digital rationalization” (Allen, 2013). This unique process has become his originality distinguishing him from other architects. This project gave Frank Gehry an opportunity to experiment, and in the process, achieve the formal and technological advancements that have made him one of the most influential architects of our time. The Expanding Sphere of Chuck Hoberman (1988-94) [Fig 6] launched an era of close collaboration between design and manufacturing aided by a complex knowledge of mechanical logic and computer programming. Shoei Yoh, in many ways a key figure, saw a deeper connection between nature and complex computational processes. His Galaxy Toyama Gymnasium (1990-92), the only of the projects built at architectural scale is a masterpiece in which structural optimization, engineered atmospheres, and a philosophy of life coexist convincingly (Allen, 2013). The above four architects were thinking digitally before the computer. Therefore, they were controlling the computer, vice versa. Throughout history, there have been many revolutions and shifts, such as the renaissance, baroque, or classicism. However, as Rushkoff (2002) puts it, never has it been possible to “pull out a particular story long enough to consider the way in which it is being told.” The potential of these moments is that they lead to an “open source reality” - the real revolution came with the development of open source software. This software innovation was not accessible to the public at first. Today, architects can freely use a variety of open source computer software, which we can access easily. Cyber culture is interactive and offers the audience the opportunity for active participation (Rushkoff, 2002). 17 Archeology of the Digital
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1: Fig 5. “Archaeology of the Digital” CCA Exhibition, (Unknown, 1995) 2: Fig 6. “Archaeology of the Digital” CCA Exhibition, (Unknown, 1995)
INNOVATIVE COMPUTER PROCESS Nicholas Negroponte Architecture Machine
Christopher Alexander
Ivan Schuterland
Soft Architecture Machine
Notes on the Synthesis of form A pattern language
Computer Aids to Design and Architecture Design Methods Group
Cybernetics
Sketchpad
The Fold and the Baroque
Gary Moore UC Berkley
Giles Deleuze
Deconstructivism Peter Eisenman Architecture in the Age of Electronic Media Biocentrum project Canadian Center for Architecture Chuck Hoberman Expanding Sphere
Mario Carpo
Shoei Yoh Ghery Partners Lewis Residence
Toyama Gymnasium Oxman
Guggenheim Bilbao
19,000 CNC pannels CATIA
Barcelona Fish project Canadian Center for SVB Antoine Picon Greg Lynn BIM Architecture The Louis Vuitton Foundation Bloom House Composite Lantern Embryological House Archeology of the digital Bill Kreysler Kenneth Frampton Juhani Pallasmaa
File factory process
Gevork Hartoonian Architecture of spectacle
Software Monocultures Mark Foster Gage
Crisis of seductive geometries Venturi Decorated Shed Architecture of folding Blob Greg Lynn Complexity Smoothness Crisis of surface
Ornament
The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism Frederic Jameson Predator Fabian Marcaccio Biotonic Sensitivity Tea Cofee Piaza for Alessi
Animate Form
Atlantis Sentosa Ghery and Partners Arnell Group Kertzner International Capitaland
Animation Folds,Blobs,Rotundity Ali Rahim
Motion Flow
Temporality Organic compexity
Preston Scott Cohen
Curvilinearity Algorithm
Kostas Terzidis
Mathematics Binary Scripting
Genetic algorithm
Karl Chu
Toyo Ioto Serpentine pavilion
Plate Prototypes Chaikin´s algorithm
Binary
Voronoi-like randomness
Self-replicating system Genetic material
Smark Mark Blobwall Supra-studio Room Vehicle High-performance Aerospace industry
Robotics UCLA Cross-field collaboration
Automobile industry
New strategies
Shipbuilduing industry Digital Cities
Artificial intelligence New City
Digital simulations New behaviours
Greg Lynn Utopia Futurism
Freshness
Simon Marvin
Fragmentation Transformation Self-generation Machine
Stephen Graham
Mattias Kohler ETH Zurich
Fabio Gramazio Computational Framework Manuel DeLanda
Agent-based behaviours
The following chapters deal primarily with what is happening currently in this field. This chapter discusses the changes in methods by which we communicate design. The fruits of progress and innovation have brought incredible advances that the new generation is exploring in a newfound freedom. This freedom has affected not only the conception of a project, but also the fabrication process. 1.
Digital thinking: Process change by digital means
New technologies breed new ways of thinking (Leach, 1997, p.41). New tools bring new design methods, which in turn result in new forms. To gain more insight into the linkage between architecture and digital design, we need to investigate how computer design influences and manipulates creativity. The design response of a non-digital architect, a CAD using designer and a designer who is capable of “scripting� or programming will likely be very different from each other (Loveridge, 2012). Computers more than any other tools are capable of transforming the tasks they are applied to, inventing new ideas and principles along the way. Design decisions are an expression of creativity, and the digital realm opens new possibilities in architecture because of its unique generative process and creative potential for the development of the project. Designing a project with an exhaustive use of digital media influences how the designer works and thinks. Each chosen technology and software can have a different impact. Today, the majority of architects are using computers and because of this experience, they know that if software becomes an important part of the design phase, it is likely to be embedded in the architectural language. Digital technology has caused a fundamental shift in how we see the world. In the digital age, we have come to view our world in terms of the computer, operations we find within the digital realm are mimicking those in the analogue, but the whole world is mediated through and enhanced by our experience of the digital realm. The computer stopped being a simple drafting tool, and instead, it has become a design medium. We can see this clearly in Frank Ghery’s work where in 1992 the aerospace industry software called CATIA was at first used as a drafting tool to represent the Barcelona fish project [Fig 7] and [Fig 8] , and then worked its way deeper and deeper into the earlier stages of the design process (Lynn, 2010, p.122). As the architect and researcher in computation methodologies Oxman puts it, the importance of digital design is growing not only because of its unique formal content, but also because of its unique body of architectural concepts. She believes that it is time for a new framework for design pedagogy. Researchers and educators such as Greg Lynn, Peter Eisneman, Mario Carpo, and Antoine Picon have begun to address this need to integrate digital design in architectural design. In universities such as Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Penn, UCLA, the AA, University of Applied Arts in Vienna, and elsewhere, investigations were usually motivated by important digital practitioners (Oxman, 2007, p.100).
21 Innovative computer process
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1: Fig 7. Computer and built models for Gehry´s fish sculpture (1992, Ghery) 2: Fig 8. Fish, Geometrical frame of the conservatory from Catia 3D (1995, Ghery)
If we consider that formation, generation, and performance are the motivating forces of digital design, the process can become more experimental. The project used in this as an example was developed by exploiting digital models. Greg Lynn’s practice has been interested in the technical potential and cultural implications of digital design since the 1990s (Bird and LaBelle, 2010 p. 247). The Embryological House (1997-2002) is one of the early projects where Lynn manipulated an organic prototype from which he generates a variety of iterations. He then presents the tests to the client, who chooses the version of the product he prefers. The aim was to develop a non-linear interactive process that is not technique or concept driven (Bird and LaBelle, 2010, p. 248). This example demonstrates the growing impact of computer technology as a mediator between content and skill. Microstation enabled the manipulation of geometry and the distortion of curves. The blending tool in Maya was applied to create iterations through formal transformations. The Embryological House is now part of the CCA archive. It contains a record of the evolving complexity of the forms, but very little hard evidence. A system was found to reconstruct Lynn’s workflow based on the metadata associated with each of the files: the creation and modification dates (Bird and LaBelle, 2010, p. 247). A diagram [Fig 9] according to Greg Lynn´s workflow was created illustrating all the steps of the digital thinking design process in an unconventional way. This record would is crucial trace for future re-creations of the digital model.
23 Innovative computer process
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Fig 9. Diagram of the Embryolgical House archive, organized according to Greg Lynn´s workflow (Lynn, 1998-99)
1: Fig 10. Diagrams the sequence of out puts of form from a computer simulated design program (Lynn, 1998) 2: Fig 11. Embryologic House computer rendering (Lynn, 1998)
2.
Reconfiguration between conception and production
The digital age has not only changed the way designers think, but it has also radically reconfigured the relationship between conception and production (Kolarevic, 2003). The combination of digital manufacturing technology together with digital design has proven to be a powerful way to produce complex-shaped products. Digitally driven designs need a new smarter industry of high-performance composites to face new challenges (Lynn, 2010, p. 9). Material innovation is the key to future modern and more sophisticated architecture. Today more than ever before, new construction materials such as fibreglass, foams, and polymers are lightweight and can be easily shaped into unconventional forms. Greg Lynn’s translucent composite lantern from the Bloom House [Fig. 13] is a good case study to illustrate and understand the different stages of conception and production. Working with Bill Kreysler, the owner of a company specialised in composite materials fabrication, helped Lynn to find the right combination of materials for this project. In additionm the incorporation of new technology to have a translucent intumescent material was necessary (Kreysler, 2010, p. 50). First, Lynn segmented the 3D computer file into pieces [Fig. 12] that were moldable and manageable for installation. Milling the mold out of polystyrene constituted the second phase of the fabrication process. The third stage was the application of clear resin to the mold that was then ready for a fiberglass layer. The post cure process was done in the oven to drive off the residual styrene and improve dimensional stability (Kreysler, 2010, p. 50). This example illustrates the so-called “file-factory� process of computer numerically controlled fabrication technologies. These solutions have shown how technology drives innovation and that the challenge of constructability plays a crucial role in complex geometries. Therefore, the digital is becoming increasingly more in control of what can be buildable. Design and construction are more intertwined than ever before.
25 Innovative computer process
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Fig 12. The pannelizazion strategy in Maya Software (Lynn, 2008)
Fig 13. Bloom House Photograph (Powers, 2010)
Frank Gehry’s was one of the first to build digitally realized designs. His fish sculpture in Barcelona brought a revolutionary change in building practice. Only a decade later, Ghery is working on projects such as The Louis Vuitton Foundation [Fig. 15] where the usage of BIM technology is key to bridge the gap between construction tasks and design (Carpo, 2013). The digital model [Fig. 14] was built, and was the only source to contain all the solutions to the construction. Therefore managing and validating changes was done through continuous updating of the model. The building demanded extensive mass-customization techniques for nonstandard components. (White et al., 2012). It constituted 19,000 unique CNC molded glass reinforced fiber-cement panels and 3,500 unique curved-glass facade elements [Fig. 16], each optimised for its specific geometry (Nolte et al., 2014, p.83). BIM enabled coordination from expertise around the world. The tools used were bulit on Subversion (SVB) an „open source versioning locking system”, combining a polygot model base with programs such as Digital project, XSteel, Sketchup and Rhino. Thanks to to digital technology, the control over an accurate translation of the design into the built project has increased. This project is a great example to demonstrate a „bold new way of organising the design enterprise itself” (Nolte et al., 2014, p.83). It shows how the connection between materialization and concept enables a higher depth in performative design (Mitchell, 2005). The question that may emerge is “to what extent has the close collaboration between design and execution influenced the general appearance of architecture?” Phil Bernstein (2015) the architect and vice-president at Autodesk believes that “the proliferation of various geometric shapes and curves showed that the tools became the form.” Architects have to make sure that the tool does not take over and change the design vision.
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Fig 14. 3D Development models of Louis Vuitton Foundation on CATIA (Ghery Partners, 2008)
1: Fig 15: Fondation Louis Vuitton (Dauzat, 2014) 2: Fig 16: Glass pannel montage (Dauzat, 2014)
CRISIS OF THE DIGITAL
Nicholas Negroponte Architecture Machine
Christopher Alexander
Ivan Schuterland
Soft Architecture Machine
Notes on the Synthesis of form A pattern language Cybernetics
Sketchpad
The Fold and the Baroque
Computer Aids to Design and Architecture Design Methods Group
Gary Moore UC Berkley
Giles Deleuze
Deconstructivism Peter Eisenman Architecture in the Age of Electronic Media Biocentrum project Canadian Center for Architecture Chuck Hoberman Expanding Sphere
Mario Carpo
Shoei Yoh
Ghery Partners
Toyama Gymnasium Oxman
Guggenheim Bilbao
Lewis Residence
19,000 CNC pannels CATIA
Barcelona Fish project Embryological House Antoine Picon Archeology of the digital SVB Greg Lynn BIM The Louis Vuitton Foundation Bloom House Composite Lantern Canadian Center for Architecture Kenneth Frampton Bill Kreysler File factory process
Juhani Pallasmaa Gevork Hartoonian Architecture of spectacle
Software Monocultures Mark Foster Gage
Crisis of seductive geometries Venturi Decorated Shed Architecture of folding Blob Greg Lynn Complexity Smoothness Crisis of surface
Ornament
Predator Fabian Marcaccio Biotonic Sensitivity Tea Cofee Piaza for Alessi
The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism Frederic Jameson
Animate Form
Atlantis Sentosa Ghery and Partners Arnell Group Kertzner International Capitaland
Animation Folds,Blobs,Rotundity Ali Rahim
Motion Flow
Temporality Organic compexity
Preston Scott Cohen
Curvilinearity Algorithm
Kostas Terzidis
Mathematics Binary Scripting
Genetic algorithm
Karl Chu
Toyo Ioto Serpentine pavilion
Plate Prototypes Chaikin´s algorithm
Binary
Voronoi-like randomness
Self-replicating system Genetic material
Smark Mark Blobwall Supra-studio Room Vehicle High-performance Aerospace industry
Robotics UCLA Cross-field collaboration
Automobile industry
New strategies
Shipbuilduing industry Digital Cities
Artificial intelligence New City Greg Lynn Utopia Futurism
Freshness
Digital simulations New behaviours Simon Marvin
Fragmentation Transformation Self-generation Machine
Stephen Graham
Mattias Kohler ETH Zurich
Fabio Gramazio Computational Framework Manuel DeLanda
Agent-based behaviours
In recent times, critics have accused digitally driven architecture of entering into a culture of spectacle, a lack of structural relevance, and an obsession with form and surface. This chapter explores the problems and possibilities of contemporary architecture aiming to evaluate the morality of “non-standard” digitally driven designs. 1.
Seduction of innovative geometries
“When CAD first entered architectural teaching, a young architect observed that: “when you draw a site, when you put in the contour lines, the tree and other features, the site becomes engrained in your mind. You come to know a terrain by tracing and retracing it, and not by letting your computer regenerate it for you.” (Sennet, 2010 p.40) For some time now various architects have been exploring the potentialities of the digital domain. The digital enables exciting visual imagery that can be easily compared to the utopian world of the screen (Leach, 2002, p.101). A critical counter-culture of the digital tectonics has been developed and articulated by critics such as Kenneth Frampton or Juhani Pallasmaa. They argue that the computer generated images are iconographic and utopian fantasies not linked enough to the reality. Increasing complexity is an on-going theme in architecture. What is the purpose of complex geometries: Seduction? Faith? Provocations? Manifestos? In 1962, Venturi’s frustration with formal simplicity of the modernist manifesto culminates, and thus, as a reaction, he writes the book “Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture”. He calls for “hybrid rather than pure, compromising rather that clean, distorted rather that straightforward, ambiguous rather that articulated, perverse as well as impersonal, redundant rather that simple and vestigial as well as innovating” (Venturi, 1996, p.16). Today, this text has proven to be influential considering that the complexity has become a leitmotiv of contemporary architecture. In the past decade, digital architecture has known a formalist orientation. The result has been a proliferation of seductive geometries that can be seen as a reaction against deconstruction in the 1990s (Picon, 2010). Even though “computer per so does not impose shapes,” they do create a wider range of possibilities (Carpo, 2013). Since the early development of computers, all sorts of spectacular forms have been designed and built. However, one might ask what are the positive implications of complex organic geometries in architecture? The difficulty is to use digital technique and resist becoming seduced by the culture of spectacle (Hartoonian, 2006, p.44). Gevork Hartoonian takes a critical position and shows how seductive geometries overwhelm the spectator without any deeper intentions. With Ghery as an example, he sees contemporary digital architecture becoming an entertainment. He believes that “technification” is behind the emptiness and lack of significance and that spectacle has overtaken collective space. In other words, geometry and form have become the centres of interest. He suggests that in the Guggenheim Museum [Fig. 17] and [Fig. 18] there is a discrepancy between the art form and the structural logic and that the “expressive falseness of its dressing, are suggestive of an architecture of spectacle.” 31 Crisis of the Digital
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1: Fig 17. Guggenheim Bilbao (Unknown, 2012) 2: Fig 18. Guggenheim Bilbao seductive geometry (Heald, 2005)
In the theoretical text about the formal vocabulary of contemporary architecture Folding in Architecture, Lynn describes the transformation of the nature of architectural designing. In accordance with the orientations suggested in this text, form does not need to present itself in a unified composition. The purpose is to create architecture with deeper unity through a “collision of semi-autonomous volumes” (Picon, 2010, p.80). In Lynn’s work, complexity is not achieved through the resolution of contradiction, but through pliancy (Hartoonian, 2006). Hartoonian investigates Lynn’s approach to organic complexity by asking whether there are any other dimensions to the notion of organic architecture with positive architectonic implications. The blob attempts to provide an alternative theory to those architects who invest in contradiction and search for coherencies exemplified in the work of some traditionalists. Again, the blob is a result of the spectacle of the culture industry. For Hartoonian, (2006) architecture represented an engine of society that is gone, as it has become a “scenario of human relations” “functioning as an indispensable backdrop for perfumes and automobile in television advertisements.” Dwelling on themes such as vague forms, Lynn sees smoothness in the blob. The Ark of the World Museum and Visitors Center [Fig. 19] and [Fig. 20] is a great example of Lynn’s smoothnes combined with spaces in circular fashion. There is a lack of critical eye for the increasing use of digital technologies. Software pallets of tools that have a limited amount of flexibility seduce architects to use primitive shapes to deform, multiply or connect geometries (Gage, 2010). Gage informs us about this tendency and invents the idea of “software monocultures”. The danger of software monocultures is that if we rely on software packages too heavily. Currently, there is a danger of a decreasing variety of creativity and diversity. Considering that every tool leaves its trace, architecture could face a vast never changing genetically identical development. The result would be a production of sameness not only in formal aspects, but also in cultural, typological dimensions. In the process, many architects use tools as means to establish a new concept or form. It is discovered only later that their power was based on the tool they used rather than their intellectual ability (Giamarelos, 2013, p. 54). Therefore, many theoreticians and practitioners are questioning the direction that design is taking in the upcoming years.
33 Crisis of the Digital
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Fig 19. Ark of the World, Roof plan (Lynn, 2002)
Fig 20. Ark of the World Model Photograph (Welling, 2003)
2. Crisis of intricate surface cultures The use of software has triggered a shift in the emphasis on surface. With the NURBS-based computer animation program, architects have tendencies to work on topological surfaces with increasing levels of complexity. In a broader sense, we can relate the theory of surface to postmodernism. In the seminal book, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Frederic Jameson (1991 p.12) argues that there is a lack of depth in postmodern culture “depth is replaced by surface, or by multiple surfaces”. Since the notion of surface has evolved into a formal experimentation field amongst avant-garde architects, research has led to a diversification of surface strategies. Today, wrapping, curvature, and figuration are the primary expressions of surface. Digital technologies are a productive and innovative means of introducing patterning to contemporary surface. One of the major changes digital design and fabrication technologies have enabled is repetition. Ben Pell believes that the possibility of repetition and reproduction is behind the proliferation of pattern making and ornaments (Pell, 2010). The primary motivation of patterns applied to skins seems to be driven by aesthetics and formal qualities. The trend of surface in digital architecture has become a widely discussed topic amongst theorists and architects. Multiple specific motives are behind this emerging obsession. Dressing up the façade and creating an attractive envelope is something Gevok Hartoonian considers to be a part the architecture of theatricality. He questions the value of excess. In Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao, undulating surfaces are intermingled with fragments of volumes. The expressive freedom of the clothing of Gehry’s recent building recalls Gilles Deuleuze’s association between the idea of “fold” and Baroque architecture. The surface being independent of the structure is an element of wrapping. In the virtual modelling environment, form can exist as surface without structural considerations. In contradiction with Ghery, Lynn thinks that surfaces and ornament should have structural components. Greg Lynn has recently been exploring the idea of surface recently. The question such as the link between ornament and computer-aided material fabrication arise in the Predator installation or his Tea and Coffe Piazza for Alessi [Fig. 21]. He designed them by combining nine differently shaped curves that were specially designed for undulating voluptuous forms that resulted when surfaces were stretched across them (Mendrini, 2003). By doing so, Lynn brings the spatial parameters of design software - the continuities of surface to his tea and coffee ensemble. The “orchid-like” interior of the teapots is exposed only when they are lying on their backs [Fig. 22].
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1: Fig 21. Alessi Coffe and Tea Towers 3D Model (Lynn, 2003) 2: Fig 22. Alessi Coffe and Tea Towers Reder (Lynn, 2003)
In opposition to Venturi’s “decorated shed”, the interest for Greg Lynn stems from new structural qualities that can be explored and applied to surfaces due to new stronger composite materials. It is important for the surface to be as informed by the necessities of construction as by the opportunity to reclaim architectures potentials in contemporary culture. The plastic surface of the Predator has a painted texture from the artist Fabian Marcaccio [Fig. 23]. A CNC router bit was used to texture this surface. Maraccaio’s paintings were digitally printed on large-scale clear plastic sheets. These sheets are vacuum formed with heat over 250 custom-shaped foam panels [Fig. 24]. The formwork was developed by subdividing a complex curved surface into doubly curved panels. The Predator project is a part of Lynn’s exhibition Intricate Surface. He presents new technologies of undulating surfaces combined with living animals such as blue morpho butterflies, crystal jellyfish and tropical dart frogs (Lynn, 2012). In this exhibition, he explores the idea of “bionic sensitivity” where he seeks to create surfaces that orient themselves towards the shimmering interplay of animal skin.
37 Crisis of the Digital
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1: Fig 23. The Predator - exhibition (Unknown, 2003) 2: Fig 24. The Predator- Drawing of pannel layout (Lynn, 2001)
IVNEW
COMPLEXITY IN GEOMETRY Nicholas Negroponte Architecture Machine Christopher Alexander
Ivan Schuterland
Soft Architecture Machine
Notes on the Synthesis of form A pattern language
Computer Aids to Design and Architecture
Gary Moore
Design Methods Group
Cybernetics
Sketchpad
UC Berkley
The Fold and the Baroque
Giles Deleuze
Design Reaserch Society
Deconstructivism Peter Eisenman Architecture in the Age of Electronic Media Biocentrum project Canadian Center for Architecture Chuck Hoberman Expanding Sphere
Mario Carpo
Shoei Yoh Ghery Partners Lewis Residence
Toyama Gymnasium Oxman
Guggenheim Bilbao
19,000 CNC pannels CATIA
Barcelona Fish project Embryological House Antoine Picon SVB Greg Lynn BIM Archeology of the digital The Louis Vuitton Foundation Bloom House Composite Lantern Canadian Center for Architecture Kenneth Frampton Bill Kreysler File factory process
Juhani Pallasmaa Gevork Hartoonian Architecture of spectacle
Crisis of seductive geometries Venturi Decorated Shed
Software Monocultures Mark Foster Gage
Architecture of folding Greg Lynn Complexity Smoothness
Blob Crisis of surface Predator
Ornament
Fabian Marcaccio Biotonic Sensitivity
Tea Cofee Piaza for Alessi
The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism Frederic Jameson
Atlantis Sentosa Ghery and Partners Arnell Group Kertzner International Capitaland
Animation Lars Spuybroek Ali Rahim
Animate Form Motion Folds,Blobs,Rotundity Temporality Organic compexity
Preston Scott Cohen
Curvilinearity Algorithm
Toyo Ioto
Mathematics Scripting
Serpentine pavilion Voronoi-like randomness
Structural pattern
Kostas Terzidis
Greg Lynn Chaikin´s algorithm Plate Prototypes
Binary
Karl Chu Self-replicating system Genetic material Smark Mark Blobwall Supra-studio Room Vehicle High-performance Aerospace industry
Robotics UCLA Cross-field collaboration
Automobile industry
New strategies
Shipbuilduing industry Digital Cities
Artificial intelligence New City Greg Lynn Utopia Futurism
Freshness
Digital simulations New behaviours Simon Marvin
Fragmentation Transformation Self-generation Machine
Stephen Graham
Mattias Kohler ETH Zurich
Fabio Gramazio Computational Framework Manuel DeLanda
Agent-based behaviours
This chapter is divided into two main parts: The first part focuses on the proliferation of formalism, focusing mainly on Greg Lynn’s evolution. The second part introduces the idea of calculus and algorithmic in architecture. 1.
The father of innovative organic complexity
At the end of the 1990s, the digital avant-garde started adopting and embracing with enthusiasm folds and blobs, rotundity and seamlessness, and smoothness and continuity until they gradually became the sign of the digital age. (Carpo, 2010, p. 85) Architects such Peter Cook, Greg Lynn, and Jan Kaplický, remain a prototypical examples of the so-called blob-movement. With them, blobs became a built reality. Other arhchitects such as Lars Spuybroek, Ali Rahim, Preston Scott Cohen and Zaha Hadid have projects that are emblematic of digital complexity. Smooth transition between heterogeneous subparts is a core characteristic of complexity. Quickly smoothness became representative of digitally driven designs. Greg Lynn’s evolution in digital architecture is spectacular and represents well the evolution of formalism. He is considered as one of the main proponents of complex organic geometry. The idea of flow and motion are important characteristics in his architecture during the 1990s. In his early books, such as Animate Form, he shows how different forces have an impact on a building. In contradiction with traditional architecture where gravity plays a crucial role, Lynn’s projects derive from complex directional forces. This integration of temporality and motion in the architectural process of creating form is a key to his organic complexity. He used the computer-animation techniques, as the basis for an animated architecture “defined by the co-presence of motion and force at the moment of conception.” (Reas et al, 2010) A few years later, in his essay “Architectural Curvilinearity: The Folded, the Pliant, and the Supple”, Lynn (1993) argues that smoothness and continuity define a new style of architecture. Blobs were representative of this curvilinearity because the roof was a “surface that continuously connects across all heights like a wet cloth.” (Lynn, 2010) The organic complexity in Lynn’s projects is undeniable. Looking back at his work, the Atlantis Sentosa [Fig. 25] and [Fig. 26] is probably his most complex and ambitious project so far. The challenge was to infuse every aspect of the building with animation. The voluptuous shapes are designed to move throughout the day like giant robotic towers (Rappolt, 2008, p.241). In collaboration with the Arnell Group, Ghery and Partners combined with the bravery of the Kerzner International and Capitaland client and made this project one of the most organically complex in all media. Radically innovative and futuristic at every level, it is projects such as this one that create transformative shifts in the evolution of architecture. There are presumptions that organic complexity exists only in the realm of digital architecture. However, Carpo (2013) argues that the notion of a cause-effect relationship between digital technologies and free form, or complex geometries was built on a truism, but generalized into a fallacy. Without computers, some of those complex forms could not have been designed, measured, and built. However, digital does not necessarily impose curved shapes.
41 New complexity in geometry
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1: Fig 25. Atlantis Sentosa Render (Kertzner International, 2006) 2: Fig 26. Atlantis Sentosa Render (Kertzner International, 2006)
2.
Algorithmic infatuation
“Programming is a way of conceiving and embracing the unknown. At its very best, programming goes beyond developing commercial applications. It becomes a way of exploring and mapping our own way of thinking. It is the means by which one can extend and experiment with rules, principles, and outcomes of traditionally defined architectural processes” (Terzidis, 2006). The ultimate goal of design is to develop an innovative and tradition breaking solution or process. Innovation feeds on ideas and originality, departing from previous traditional methods (Terzidis, 2006, p.53). One of the most exciting recent innovations afforded by the computer has been the introduction of the genetic algorithm into architectural design. Adopting algorithm and methods taken from advanced computer science programming architects are implementing new strategies. With the use of algorithms, designers become more of decision makers than form makers (Leach, 2002, p. 10). In the 1990s, experimentation in computational programming started a topological turn in digital design. Already in the mid 1990s, Lynn’s writings emphasized the role of mathematics, calculus, and continuous functions as new tools for design (Carpo, 2010, p.40). He observed that neighbouring forces can determine binary algorithms in a qualitative form (Parisis, 2013, p.98). Today he applies algorithms in his designs. For example, for a set of tableware [Fig. 27], he used the so-called Chaikin’s algorithm to “keep joining edges linear while smoothing collective boundary together into one whole shape and smoothing individual serving surfaces with a round lip” (Rappolt, 2008).
Others such as Toyo Ioto have built project where they successfully applied algorithms. In the serpentine pavilion [Fig. 28] built in 2002, geometry is defined by an algorithm. Two questions were proposed: “How to float a slab?” and “how to transform a box?” Ioto created an algorithm with an efficient structural pattern. Instead, of vertical columns placed around the edges, the pattern is travelling across the roof and the walls at different angles. The repetition of this pattern creates Voronoi-like randomness with a variation of size and shape of cells [Fig. 29]. 43 New complexity in geometry
44
Fig 27. Plate Prototypes, (Lynn, 2008)
1: Fig 28. Outside view of Toyo Ioto Serpentine Gallery Pavilion (Deleu, 2002) 2: Fig 29. Inside view of Toyo Ioto Serpentine Gallery Pavilion (Deleu, 2002)
Amongst others, the main proponent of algorithmic architecture is Kostas Terzidis [Fig. 30]. In his book Algorithms for visual design (2009) he argues that in regular digital design there is a lack of predictability over intention and the final output. He sees algorithms as a way of exploring other ways of design thinking. For him, architectural concepts that we create in CAD or other software are not satisfactory because the architect is relying on the design possibilities of the software. The information within a domain set by a program creates boundaries. Scripting and program language could enable the usage of the computer beyond usual boundaries. Today the dominant mode of using computers is the manipulation of an idea conceptualized in the designers mind. Therefore algorithmic would be a liberation of architectural thought (Picon, 2010 p.94). Karl Chu is an architects using algorithms in a revolutionary way, because he imagines genetic algorithms to “grow” forms [Fig. 31]. This architecture is based on symbiogenesis. He goes far ahead in his theories with the idea of creating a self-replicating system. These evolutionary simulations replace normative design methods and are an unconventional way to breed new forms. To be able to use genetic algorithm technique, a part of the design must be firstly solved. Then the process needs to be defined as a sequence of operations. The code or this sequence becomes the “genetic material” of the project. Despite those examples and an undiscovered power of this methodology, many unresolved questions exist in the scripting realm. The use of the algorithm is a new phenomenon that has raised an excitement, especially amongst young architects. The distance between code writing and recognizable architectural transformations is undeniable (Picon, 2010). Many critiques suggest that many construction problems rise with impressive complex organic structures (Herneoja, 2013 p.263). In addition, scripting is still dependent on existing software, and thus challenge to free architecture from formalism remains. The use of algorithms may also be a disappointment for many architects, as the only role left would be the judge of aesthetic qualities. The use of algorithms may also be a disappointment for many architects, as the only role left would be the judge of aesthetic qualities, which would lead to an un-authored emergence of algorithmic creativity. Finally, design practice is defined as a process that needs to be open to changes being a product of a journey, not the destination.
45 New complexity in geometry
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1: Fig 20. Algorithmic-driven deformation, (Terzidis 2009) 2: Fig 31. Emblematic project for architecture following genetic like principles (Chu, 2008)
VTOWARDS
a digital future Nicholas Negroponte Architecture Machine
Christopher Alexander
Ivan Schuterland
Soft Architecture Machine
Notes on the Synthesis of form A pattern language
Computer Aids to Design and Architecture
Gary Moore
Design Methods Group
Cybernetics
Sketchpad
UC Berkley
The Fold and the Baroque
Giles Deleuze
Design Reaserch Society
Deconstructivism Peter Eisenman Architecture in the Age of Electronic Media Biocentrum project Canadian Center for Architecture Chuck Hoberman Expanding Sphere
Mario Carpo
Shoei Yoh Ghery Partners
Toyama Gymnasium
Lewis Residence Guggenheim Bilbao
Oxman
19,000 CNC pannels CATIA Barcelona Fish project Embryological House Antoine Picon SVB Greg Lynn BIM Archeology of the digital The Louis Vuitton Foundation Bloom House Composite Lantern Canadian Center for Architecture Kenneth Frampton Bill Kreysler File factory process
Juhani Pallasmaa Gevork Hartoonian Architecture of spectacle
Crisis of seductive geometries Venturi Decorated Shed
Software Monocultures Mark Foster Gage
Architecture of folding Greg Lynn Complexity Smoothness
Blob Crisis of surface Predator
Ornament
Fabian Marcaccio Biotonic Sensitivity
Tea Cofee Piaza for Alessi
The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism Frederic Jameson
Animate Form
Atlantis Sentosa Ghery and Partners Arnell Group Kertzner International Capitaland
Animation Folds,Blobs,Rotundity Ali Rahim
Motion Flow
Temporality Organic compexity
Preston Scott Cohen
Curvilinearity Algorithm
Kostas Terzidis
Mathematics Binary Scripting
Genetic algorithm
Karl Chu
Toyo Ioto Serpentine pavilion
Plate Prototypes Chaikin´s algorithm
Binary
Voronoi-like randomness
Self-replicating system Genetic material
Smark Mark Blobwall Supra-studio Room Vehicle High-performance Aerospace industry
Cross-field collaboration
Automobile industry
New strategies
Shipbuilduing industry
Artificial intelligence
Digital Cities
New City Greg Lynn Utopia Futurism
Robotics UCLA
Freshness
Digital simulations New behaviours Simon Marvin
Fragmentation Transformation Self-generation Machine
Stephen Graham
Mattias Kohler ETH Zurich
Fabio Gramazio Computational Framework Manuel DeLanda
Agent-based behaviours
This chapter explores another area where “digital infatuation” triggered innovative ideas in architecture, leaving aside the form and algorithmic effects that we have discussed in the above chapters. The first section of this chapter delves into designing buildings with intelligent robotic movement. This area of expertise is very specific to Greg Lynn’s approach, showing that his evolution went through many phases that demanded a constant reconfiguration of architectural conventions and traditional methods. The second part expanding to the city-scale proves that digital revolution has a global impact. 1.
Rethinking the border of digital architecture: the voice of innovation
“Architecture is recasting itself, becoming in part an experimental investigation of topological geometries, partly a computational orchestration of robotic material production and partly a generative, kinematic sculpting of space” (Zellner, 1999).
49
The robotics industry has a strong potential to create change in architecture. Currently, the method of advancement in architecture is cumulative innovation. Due to the variety of industry, radical innovations come from outside the field of architecture (Kolarevic, 2003, p.10). The automobile, aerospace and shipbuilding industries are all design and engineering industries with similarities in production. As Bart Lootsma argues “instead of trying to validate conventional architectural thinking in a different realm, our strategy today should be to infiltrate architecture with other media and disciplines to produce a new crossbreed.” Communication between designers, the machine, and the material is essential. It is now time to learn specialized expertise enabling not only control, but also collaboration (Kolarevic, 2000, p.1). Over the past five years, Greg Lynn’s supra-studio students [Fig. 32] and [Fig. 323] at UCLA have been exploring the potential of robotic architectures. Lynn has applied an innovative approach to the academic environment with an emphasis on the relationship between the digital and the physical, giving students the opportunity to meet with experts in the field so that they might see, first-hand, how digitally-driven tools are put to work in extra-architectural situations that demand high-performance design. Lynn enables students to look at architectural problems in new ways, recognizing how sharing materials, tools, and techniques can strengthen the discipline (Stern, 2010, p.7). To be engaged in this type of endeavour, there is a - “very fine line” between sounding too extravagant and sounding like you’re on the cutting edge of the discipline. Lynn gives advice by explaining that it is necessary to venture into risky and unknown territories if we want to be innovative, especially when investigating the potential for robotic architectures. For over more than five years, Lynn’s studio has generated many prototypes for robotically activated, moving buildings, represented by animations technologies and modelled using digital fabrication. As robotic fabrication is becoming less rare, we are provided with new relationships between designing and making. If we strive to be successful in innovation, we have to be aware that these explorations are “on, or almost over, the edge of acceptability, viability and believability.” We can easily find ourselves “a bit off the beaten track, or just a bit “off”, and needing a good sniff to see if it’s too far over the edge or not” (Brown, 2012).
Towards a digital future
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1: Fig 32. Robots at UCLA Suprastudio (Berry, 2013) 2: Fig 33. UCLA architecture students work with robots to prepare a project (Unknown, 2014)
Greg Lynn has a reputation of innovating through the adoption of cross-field collaboration. In Animate Form, he ventured into exploring the potential of animation technologies that helped him to expand and rethink architectural form and design technique. He then started to explore the use of digital and other advanced fabrication technologies across many neighbouring industries, creating an influence on architectural construction, materiality, and formal languages. His projects such as the RV (Room Vehicle) prototype [Fig. 35] and [Fig. 36] and the Smark Mark sailing buoy have acquired admiration and wonder, because of their capacity to move robotically. In a wide range of explorations and broad focus of investigations, one can discern a persisting interest in movement, tectonics, and digitally driven machines. Projects such as Blobwall (2005) and the RV were a part of a shift in the logics of tectonics, construction and materials. The Blobwall is made out of brightly coloured, hollow plastic rotation moulded blobs [Fig. 39] used in a modular system that reinvents the idea of the brick wall. In the RV [Fig. 34] the ceiling surface can be rotated to become a new floor. This very compact living space could be a new visionary and innovative way of living. In addition, the high-performance way of living has reduced the volume and material usage. The ability to rotate the living environment in response to the weather, daylight and temperature also optimizes environmental quality. The RV is also lightweight, as it is built in foam cored carbon fibre epoxy laminate similar to an F1 car. (Lynn, 2012)
51 Towards a digital future
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Fig 34. Section RV (Lynn, 2013)
1: Fig 35. Room Vehicle Prototype (Unknown, 2012) 2: Fig 36. Robotic base of Room Vehicle (Unknown, 2012)
Many architects have characterized Lynn’s work as “innovative”, “fresh”, or “ugly”; however, these characteristics do not seem to be appropriate to his unique approach: “I spend a lot of energy staying connected with people in other fields who are using a similar medium. I think of the new as being located and somehow shared between these different fields. You find the place where people are moving in a direction which you wouldn’t see if you just only talked to all the other architects” (Lynn, 2012). Understanding the transdisciplinary territory and being able to apply alternative techniques to design is a skill that feeds Greg Lynn’s imagination for innovative and “fresh” projects. Learning to work imaginatively with robotics requires knowledge that builds up over time and with experience – their limitations and capacities have to be taken into account. Lynn’s enthusiasm is shared with Fabio Gramazio and Mattias Kohler from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, however the future of robotization remains far from being reassuring. Projects such as Lynn´s Blobwall [Fig. 37] and [Fig. 38] make us reflect upon the fact that if robotization takes command, architecture could return to relatively simple and repetitive elements.
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1: Fig37. Blobwall Plan (Pannelite, 2007)
1: Fig 38. Blobwall Pavillion (Arcspace, 2008) 2: Fig 39. Hollow plastic “blob” (SCI-Arc, 2008)
2.
Digital cities: towards future design strategies
“There has never been a more crucial time to challenge, reassess and propose alternatives to conventional urban master planning and its associated conventions, types and standards.” (Verbes, 2009). Digital architecture closely relates to the transformation of the city. Over century’s, ancient cities were improved and transformed due to military and civic requirements. Today, contemporary urbanism continues to be organised by a network of systems. Therefore, new urban strategies seek to enhance the systems deployed in our modern world. Digital design could be a means to anticipate what would have evolved over time from the interaction between inhabitants and the city. The architecture would respond to the impulses of the city and its inhabitants. Such behaviours and relationships have potential and are an interesting challenge for urban designers worth further investigation (Leach, 2009, p.6). In Deleuzian terms, the city can be seen as a network of processes, “a complex machine, consisting of multidirectional processes of connection and separation which leads to ever different formations.” In a similar way, in his utopic project New City [Fig. 36], Greg Lynn imagines a complex surface that forever folds onto itself, capturing endless dimensions of volumetric space, distance, and time. Lynn is rethinking the possibilities of the digital by exploiting its potential for future changes. He imagines a new city that would be a place for perpetual transformation and self-generation. This dynamic city in motion can be seen as an extreme example of the future developments of digital cities. Today, new strategies and innovative methodologies of digital design emerge - digital simulations are used to model the decision-making process during different stages of the project conception. When conducting simulations, one has to create a scenario that envisages different potential usages within a particular space in the city. In the future, these simulations could increase the exigencies of urban life and urban styles. Cities are becoming increasingly dependent on individual preference, behaviours, and strategies (Picon, 2010, p.176). The standard methodology used to create digital simulation is guided behaviour. An example is the simulation illustrating pedestrian movement that was developed with two interconnected computer programs to explore the possibilities of re-establishing the unique character of an inner-city site in Budapest [Fig. 37] and [Fig. 38]. Computers are guided by artificial intelligence to explore the site looking for targets. The simulation creates that are recorded and evaluated according to their intensity of use. The busiest pathways are interesting because of the possible development of new retail spaces. Their new distribution at ground level means new attractors for pedestrians (Leach, 2009). Many concerns and question have arisen regarding the urban future of what is awaiting us. Two contemporary urban specialists, Stephen Graham and Simon Marvin, are amongst the individuals discussing whether cities are entering a phase of increasing fragmentation. (Picon, 2010, p.205). With the invention of the internet, the population has become captured in individualistic lifestyles.
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1: Fig 40. New City (Lynn et al. 2008) 2: Fig 41. “Urbanoids 1”, (Krastev et al. 2005) 3: Fig 42 “Urbanoids 2”, (Krastev et al. 2005)
People need to share experiences, because as this closeness forms a crucial part of the world we inhabit. Therefore, the role of future architecture and urbanism should be to create possibilities for new public spaces “giving a new meaning to tectonic in the context of pervasive digital culture.” (Picon, 2010, p.207). Johnson imagines that the principle of emergence extends to the operations of software programs (Leach, 2009, p.56). “How might we make use of digital technologies to model a city?” Computational methodology must follow the logic of swarm intelligence. There are different ways to model swarm intelligence within computational framework. Manuel DeLanda outlines a model of agent-based behaviour that could be developed to understand the decision-making processes within an actual city. “How to respond to dynamic and changing environments and design for unforeseen use?” (Hensel and Sotamaa, 2002). Should young architects be inspired by digital theories that have been around since the early 1990s? Do we keep on going with this digital infatuation or should we start looking for the next big thing?
57
Conclusion: This cultural “snapshot” aimed to help us understand the temporal evolution architecture is experiencing. Understanding the most up-to-date techniques and forward-thinking ideas was a crucial part of this dissertation. We have learned that with changes in the media come changes in the concept, come changes in construction, come changes in form, and consequently changes in the built environment. The ambition was to understand that digital design has established new approaches to architecture, resulting in a more intricate and elaborate language. Throughout this dissertation, we have proved that digital design gave a new meaning to the tectonics. Greg Lynn has been an emblematic figure leading the way in the rise of digital technologies and digital experiments. Knowledge and skill have helped him to obtain a distinctive position amongst designers. His spirit of innovation and unique approach to design have not only created “winds of change”, but have also been a great contribution to the digital revolution. The relatively long history of digital culture has proved to create an enduring impact since the 1950s. In the first chapter, we have learned about an important part of the history of digital culture. Even when one leaves aside the early-twentieth-century developments of the information-based society, we have seen that the process of the emergence of digital culture spans over a long period of time. The proliferation of the computer in design practice had for consequence the emergence of digital architecture. The phenomena that we have discussed later in this paper appear to be the inheritors of the beginnings of digital architecture. The second chapter was a discussion about the immediate consequences of computer usage. Despite the unclear future, the time has come to assess the implications that it has brought. The most recent projects in architecture have demonstrated a growing impact of digital design media as a mediator between conception and production.Digital media has changed the way we explore, think and design. The other major shift occurred in construction, where fabrication is a direct function of computability. These formal, conceptual and technological advances have dramatically changed architecture.
Toward a digital future
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As it is with the majority of things, even computation has its “dark sides”. The crisis of the traditional tectonic code has been the focus of the third chapter. The main interrogations regarded the quest of seductive, complex, blob-like geometries and surfaces with ornaments and patterns. “Is the future inseparable from such a quest, or will a new minimalism take over?” (Picon, 2010, p.210). With the increasing interest in formalism and complexity, we have seen that projects like Guggenheim Bilbao are accused to be captured in a culture of spectacle. The crisis affecting new tectonics is engaging us to reconsider the modern trends that have been passed on to us. With the computer, it has become far too easy to build seductive images without verified constructability. One may wonder whether this crisis is only temporary or whether it will lead to a redefinition of the digital realm. It seems for now that digital architecture is on a rocky road, as the computer is the way out of trouble and it is the way into trouble. In order to fully understand the scope of the digital revolution, the fourth chapter has addressed two particular issues- the possibility to manipulate complex geometries and the extreme shift towards scripting. Should one privilege formal complexity or look for a more abstract way to envisage a project, such as algorithmics? Why should one use organic forms and scripting methods when minimalism and sustainability would be sufficient to our needs? At the end of this chapter, we have concluded that formalism and scripting are necessary, because they bring mutations that generate new rules and expand the discipline into unknown territories. In the fifth level of observation, we pushed the boundaries of the digital even further by rethinking the borders of digital architecture. We have been evaluating the efficiency and relevance of robotization. We have concluded that this new trend could effectively be a solution for mass-customization of complex geometries. However, the robotics industry still needs time for further development to be applicable on a daily basis. The borders of digital architecture are far-reaching – Digital media within the city is the last theme of the paper. With the birth of digitally mediated cities; we have discovered that the application of digital tools is begging to shift up a scale to the level of the urban (Leach, 2009, p.8). At the same time, the urban dimension presented an opportunity to recapitulate some of the fundamental ideas in the thesis. The city has to deal with all the facets of the built environment, be it formalism, performalism or complexity. The five levels of analysis in this thesis have addressed issues that cannot be indifferent to any practitioners because it has lead to a redefinition of the architectural practice. “Beyond its appeal to social imagination, architecture’s most fundamental ambition is to convey something real.” (Picon, 2010, p.210). With digital culture, one must always keep track of the factual because it is easy to get estranged from reality. On the other hand, losing the magic of the digital would be regretful, and that is why architects such Greg Lynn are necessary to fuel architecture with magical ideas. Tracing Greg Lynn’s footsteps has proven to be not only exciting, but also relevant, as he manages to polarize architecture, structural engineering, materials and manufacturing sciences in a completely innovative way. Writing about this phenomenon was crucial because it should stay in our memories to be one day part of even a larger history.
GREG LYNN’S NETWORK CLIENTS
Ivvsa & Ciudad del habitat solidario generalitat valenciana Vincete Guallart
COLLABORATORS
Schlaich Bergermann und Partners Led Effects Wexner Center For the ArtsArnell Group Jeff Kipins
Sociopolis
Transolar Capitaland
Ghery Partners Fabian Marcaccio PredatorCicada
Lam Partners
Atlantis Sentosa
Pglife.com
Mit Csail
Caran Pretty Good Life.com
Edge Innovations
Intricate surface exhibition,mak
Mak Museum
Zeiler
Manchineous Panelite Paul H. Johnoson
Camilla Schlyter Aaro
Carlos M. Lachner G. Walter Hidalgo Xirinachs
Blob Wall
Rodrigo Castro Fonesca
Ark of the worldVitra
MyHome - Seven Experiments for contemporary living Proof
Artists Space
Peter Eisenman
Rodolfo Coto Pancheco
Vision Plan for rutgers University
Rutgers
Flowering lotus tibetan rug
Alessi Tea & Coffe Towers
Alberto Alessi
Slavin House Sylvia Lavin
Alberto Alessi Timet Architectural Applications Group
Sophia Lavin Lynn
Jackilin Bloom
Jasper Lavin Lynn
Bloom House
Guggenheim Museum
Buro Happold
PTTP
Venice Biennale
Cardiff Bay Opera House Competition CFM
KREYSLER & ASSOCIATES
N.O.A.H (New outer Atmospheric Home sets for the film divide)
Sci-Fi Channel Identity Design
GARRETT CONSTRUCTION
Sci-Fi Channel
Jacklin Bloom
Max Protetch
UN Studio
Max Protetch Skylights European central bank
Matthias Pfeifer
Yokohoma Pier Competition BMW design headquarters Competition Vitra Ravioli Vitra
Thornton Tomasetti BMW group
Kohbecker Architekten & Ingenieure
The port & Harbor Bureau Buro Happold
Greg Lynn Form CNC Dynamix
Embryological House
D.I.DR. Richard Pritze
Lux Populi Maria Auboeck Thorton Tomasseti
H2 House: Austriam Mineral Oil Company Visitor Pavillion
Dr. Peter Schuetz OMV Autrian Mineral
Guggenheim Museum
Imaginary Forces
Biennale Park pavilon No.3, Saadiyat Island Cultural District
Museumsquartier Vienna, Design Competition Ove Arup & Partners
Stranded Sears Tower
House and Robertson Architects, INC.
Stanley Tigerman
Universe Corporate Headquarters
Tingler
Uniserve Corporation SF Technology Gordon Williams General Contractors Cinicinnati Country Day School Michael Mcinturf Architects
UN Studio G.B.B.N. Architects
Fabian Marcaccio
Cincinnati Country Day School
World Trade Center Site Design Competioin
Transformation of the Kleiburg Block
ABT Consulting Architects & Engineers Netherlands Patrimonium
Numinous Flowers
CTEK
OVE Arup & Partners
Imaginary forces New York City Offices Imaginary Forces
Olin Partnership Brad Pitt Dana Cuff
Kovos Architecten en ingenieursbureau
Zaha Hadid Architects
Ghery Partners
Ateliers Jean
Richard Skip Bronson
Dada builds competition
Ah´be lanadscape architects
Grand Ave
BMW Leipzig central builduing design competiton
Richard F. Cavenaugh Matthias Kohlbecker
Gage Clemenceau Architects
Harmony Atrium, Lincoln center for the performing arts
Cabrini green urban design competition CNC dynmix
Visionaire 34
Guggenheim Museum
Kevin Kennon Bubbles in the wine : grimaldi forum Monaco
Greg Foley Hedi Slimane
Martin Rendel Eyebeam Atelier Buro Happold Douglas Garofalo
UN Studio Herbert Muchamp
Lincoln center for the Performing arts
Chicago tribune
Rebeca Mendez
Eyebeam museum of art and technology competition Proof Flatware
Skidmore owings and merrill llp
Eyebeam Museum of art and technology competiton
Korean Presbyteranian Church of New York Lazlo Bodak engineers Reverend Young Lee Richard Park
Greg Lynn Form
Scion Donald Hearn Spectrum 3D
Heart Breaker Chess Set
BIBILOGRAPHY (Dissertation Word Count : 9717) Allen, M. (2013), Archaeology of the Digital, Available at: https://www.domusweb.it/content/domusweb/en/architecture/2013/05/15/archaeology_ (accessed 29/01/15). Barendse, J. McWilliams, C. and Reas, C. (2010), Form + Code in Design Art and Architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Brooker, G. and Weinthal, L. (2013), The Handbook of Interior Architecture and Design edited by Bloomsbury Academic Brown P. E, Burry M, and Burrow A, (2013), The innovation imperative: architectures of vitality, London: John Wiley & Sons Brown P.E, (2012), Greg Lynn and the Voice of Innovation, Available at: http://docslide.us/documents/greg-lynnand-the-voice-of-innovationpdf.html (accessed 29/01/15). Carpo, M. (2010), Alphabet and Algorithm. Cambridge: MIT Press Carpo, M. (2013), The Digital Turn in Architecture: 1992-2012, 1 edition, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd Dobber, M. (2006), Urban Dictionnary, Available at http://www.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=The+Mighty+Dobber (accessed 29/01/15). Gage, M. F. and Lynn, G. (2010), Composites, Surfaces, and Software: High Performance Architecture, Connecticut: Yale School of Architecture Ghery, F. and Lynn, G. (2010), In: Gage, M. F. (2010), Composites, Surfaces, and Software: High Performance Architecture, Connecticut: Yale School of Architecture Terzidis, K. (2013), Data Driven Practitioners: Architectureal investigations of the digital conditions, In: Digital Meteriality and the New Relation between Depth and Surface. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282252618_SURFACE_EPIPHANEIA_Digital_Materiality_and_the_New_Relation_Between_Depth_and_Surface (accessed 15/01/16). Gun, O. Y, Arpak, A. (2012), Theorists of design and computation, Kasim: The chamber of Architects of Turkey Hartoonian, G. (2006), Crisis of Object: The Architecture of theatricality, Abingdon: Routledge
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Loveridge, R.L. (2012), Process Bifurcation and the Digital Chain in Architecture, Accessible at : http://infoscience. epfl.ch/record/181217/files/EPFL_TH5459.pdf (Accessed 15/01/16). Oxman, R. and Oxman, R, (2014), Theories of the Digital Architecture, London: Routledge Oxman R, (2007), Digital architecture as a challenge for design pedagogy: theory, knowledge, models and medium, Accessible at : http://technion.ac.il/~rivkao/topics/publications/_2008_Design-Studies.pdf (Accessed 15/01/16). Parisis, L. (2013), Contagious Architecture: Computation, Aesthetics and space, MIT Press Pell, B. (2010), The Articulate Surface: Ornament and Technology in Contemporary Architecture, Birkhäuser GmbH Picon, A. (2010), Digital Culture in Architecture: An introduction for the design professions, Basel: Birkhauser Gmbh. Reas, D. McWilliams, C. and Chandler, B. (2010), Form + Code in Design, Art and Architecture, Princeton Architectural Press Rushkoff, D. (2002), Journal of Cognitive Liberties Vol. III, N°3 - Protest as Perspective: Do We Want a Revolution or a Renaissance? Acessible at: http://www.roemervantoorn.nl/Resources/Peter%20Eisenman%20Article.pdf Rushkoff, D. (2003), Open Source Democracy London: Demos Rappolt, M. (2008), Greg Lynn Form, New York: Rizolli International Inc. Steenson M. W. 2014. Architectures of information: Christopher Alexander, Cedric Prise, and Nicholas Negroponte & MIT´s Architecture Machine Group, Available at: http://dataspace.princeton.edu/jspui/bitstream/88435/ds01pn89d6733/1/Steenson_princeton_0181D_10875.pdf (Accessed 17/01/16). Stern, R. (2010), „Preface“ In: Gage, M. F. and Lynn, G. (2010), Composites, Surfaces, and Software: High Performance Architecture, Connecticut: Yale School of Architecture Terzidis, K. (2006), Algorithmic Architecture, Oxford: Elseiver Ltd Venturi, R. (1996), Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, The Museum of Modern Art, New York; 2nd edition Zellner, P. (1999), Hybrid Space: New Forms in Digital Architecture, Rizzoli International Publications
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FIGURE REFERENCES 1. Author’s image, (2015) Greg Lynn: The Revolutionar 2. Alexander, C. (1997) Pattern Extracts from A Pattern Language, New York: Oxford University Press. Available at: http://library.uniteddiversity.coop/Ecological_Building/A_Pattern_Language.pdf (Accessed 20/12/15). 3. Unknown. (1963) Ivan Sutherland’s Sketchpad system demonstrated at MIT, Available at: http://www.bloomberg. com/ss/08/10/1006_ceo_guide/3.htm (Accessed 20/12/15). 4. Davis, D. (1973) The Architecture Machine’s group, Douglas Davis, , Available at:http://40.media.tumblr. com/2302f11038575c8d2cadc82ea003e5b9/tumblr_n1rhiaVSEH1r9xcmto3_1280.jpg (Accessed 15/01/16). 5. Unknown. (2013) Archaeology of the Digital” exhibition CCA with the Biocentrum project, Montréal. Available at: http://www.domusweb.it/en/architecture/2013/05/15/archaeology_of_thedigital.html (Accessed 28/12/15). 6. Unknown. (2013) Archaeology of the Digital” exhibition CCA with Hobberman Sphere, Montréal. Available at: http://www.domusweb.it/en/architecture/2013/05/15/archaeology_of_thedigital.html (Accessed 25/12/15). 7. Ghery, F. (1992) Models for Gehry´s fish sculpture, Available at: https://mafana.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/1-6. jpg (Accessed 15/12/15). 8. Gehry , F. (1995) Inc. Lewis Residence, Lyndhurst, Ohio: Fish, Geometrical frame of the conservatory from Catia 3D model, Available at:http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/the-fathers-of-digital-architecture-are-reunited-in-a-new-exhibition (Accessed 20/12/15). 9. Diagram of the Embryolgical House archive, organized according to Greg Lynn´s workflow. Available at: http://www.academia.edu/1014365/Re-Animating_Greg_Lynns_Embryological_House_A_Case_Study_ in_Digital_Design_Preservation (Accessed 20/01/16). 10. Lynn, G. (1998) Embryological House. Available at: https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2002.85 (Accessed 5/01/16). 11. Lynn, G. (1998) Embryological House. Available at: https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2002.85 (Accessed 5/01/16). 12. Lynn, G. (2008) The pannelizazion strategy in Maya Software Gage M, F. (2010) Composites, Surfaces, and Software: High Performance Architecture, Connecticut: Yale School of Architecture. 13. Powers, R. (2010) Bloom House Photography, Available at: http://glform.com/buildings/bloom/ (Accessed 20/01/16). 14. 3D Development models of Louis Vuitton Foundation on CATIA, (Ghery Partners, 2008), Available at: http:// fashionlab.3ds.com/fondation-louis-vuitton-designed-by-frank-gehry-with-catia-by-dassault-systemes-will-open-itsdoors-next-october/ (Accessed 18/01/16). 65 Figure references
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15. Dauzat M. (2014) Fondation Louis Vuitton, Available at: http://www.detail.de/artikel/von-glassegeln-umhuelltfondation-louis-vuitton-in-paris-12932/ (Accessed 20/01/16). 16. Dauzat, M. (2014) Glass pannel montage, Available at: http://www.detail.de/artikel/von-glassegeln-umhuellt-fondation-louis-vuitton-in-paris-12932/ (Accessed 20/01/16). 17. Unknown. (2013) Guggenheim Bilbao, Available at: http://raredelights.com/splendid-guggenheim-museum-bilbao-spain/guggenheim-museum-bilbao-in-spain-1/ (Accessed 03/01/16). 18. Heald, D. (2005) Guggenheim Bilbao seductive geometry, Available at: http://www.davidhealdstudio.com/ museums/ (Accessed 22/01/16). 19. Lynn, G. (2002) Ark of the World Roof Plan, Available at: http://glform.com/buildings/ark-of-the-world/ (Accessed 20/01/16). 20. Welling, B. (2003) Ark of the World Model Photograph, Available at: http://glform.com/buildings/ark-of-theworld/ (Accessed 05/01/16). 21. Lynn, G. (2003) Alessi Coffe and Tea Towers 3D Model, Available at: http://glform.com/living/tea-coffee-towers-2003/ (Accessed 14/01/16). 22. Lynn, G. (2003) Alessi Coffe and Tea Towers Reder, Available at: http://glform.com/living/tea-coffee-towers-2003/ (Accessed 20/01/16). 23. Schneider, A. (2011) The Predator instalation, Available at: http://www.artschoolvets.com/news/2011/06/22/ ausstellung-mmk-1991-2011-20-jahre-gegenwart-mmk-frankfurt-jubilaumsausstellung/gregg_lynn_fabian_marcaccio_the_predator_k_01/#sthash.IxZZ0J7g.dpuf (Accessed 20/01/16). 24. Lynn, G. (2001), The Predator - Drawing of pannel layout, Available at: http://static.dieangewandte.at/gems/ archlynn/surfcamtutorial.pdf (Accessed 20/01/16). 25. Kertzner, Int. (2006) Atlantis Sentosa Render Closer View, Available at:http://waltconti.com/work/work-atlantis. html (Accessed 20/01/16). 26. Kertzner, Int., (2006) Atlantis Sentosa Render Outside View, Available at: http://waltconti.com/work/work-atlantis.html (Accessed 20/01/16). 27. Lynn, G. (2008), Plate Prototypes, In: Rappolt M., 2008 Greg Lynn Form, New York: Rizolli International Inc. 28. Deleu, S. (2002), Outside view of Toyo Ioto Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, Available at: http://www.serpentinegalleries.org/exhibitions-events/serpentine-gallery-pavilion-2002-toyo-ito-and-cecil-balmond-arup (Accessed 20/01/16).
29. Deleu, S. (2002), Inside view of Toyo Ioto Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, Available at: http://www.serpentinegalleries.org/exhibitions-events/serpentine-gallery-pavilion-2002-toyo-ito-and-cecil-balmond-arup (Accessed 20/01/16). 30. Terzidis, K. (2009) Algorithmic-driven deformation, Available at: http://www.domusweb.it/en/reviews/2011/02/04/digital-culture-in-architecture.html (Accessed 20/01/16). 31. Chu, K. 2008 Emblematic project for architecture following genetic like principles, Available at:https://s-mediacache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/b7/ca/8e/b7ca8ec7f076bafe3cd688905590bc67.jpg (Accessed 20/01/16). 32. Berry, K. Shahverdi, S. and Poustinchi, E. (2013) Robots Suprastudio. UCLA, Los Angeles, Available at: http:// www.aud.ucla.edu/programs/m_arch_ii_degree_1/studios/2013_2014/lynn/?p=611 (Accessed: 10/01/2016) http://www.laweekly.com/arts/uclas-new-campus-for-experimental-architecturewith-robots-4379109 Robots at UCLA 33. Unknown. (2014) UCLA architecture students work with robots to prepare a project 34. Lynn, G. (2013) Section RV, Available at:http://www.archdaily.com/453236/why-it-s-time-to-give-up-on-prefab/52989941e8e44e5c500000f8-why-it-s-time-to-give-up-on-prefab-image (Accessed: 10/01/2016) 35. Unknown. (2012) Room Vehicle Prototype, Available at: https://architizer.com/blog/not-your-ordinary-rv-grenlynns-shifting-room-vehicle-stays-off-the-road/ (Accessed: 10/01/2016) 36. Unknown, (2012) Robotic base of Room Vehicle, Available at: https://architizer.com/blog/not-your-ordinary-rvgren-lynns-shifting-room-vehicle-stays-off-the-road/ (Accessed: 10/01/2016) 37. Unknown. (2008) Blobwall Plan, Available at:http://www.metropolismag.com/September-2008/Blob-Mentality/ (Accessed: 10/01/2016) 38. Unknown. (2008) Blobwall Pavillion, Available at: http://www.fastcompany.com/1141277/blob-architectures-patron-dies (Accessed: 10/01/2016) 39. Unknown. (2008) Hollow plastic “blob”, Available at: http://www.designboom.com/architecture/venice-architecture-biennale-08-preview-greg-lynn/ (Accessed: 10/01/2016) 40. Frankfurt, P. Lynn, G. and McDowell, A. (2008) New City, The New York Times/Redoux, Available at: http:// www.arch2o.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Arch2O-new-city-1.jpg (Accessed: 10/01/2016) 41. Krastev, K. and Friedrich, F. (2005) ‘Urbanoids 1’, Budapest, Dessau Institute of Architecture, Germany Available at: https://neilleach.wordpress.com/teaching/studio-work/urbanoids/ (Accessed: 2 January 2015) 42. Krastev, K. and Friedrich, F. (2005) ‘Urbanoids 2’, Budapest, Dessau Institute of Architecture, Germany Available at: https://neilleach.wordpress.com/teaching/studio-work/urbanoids/ (Accessed: 2 January 2015)
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