WA/SA [waldrip architects/ s.a.] [architecture- los angeles]
Alberti, Sandro Biomimetic Architecture; 30 September, 2002 [text23]
Working 9-5, at...
‘WA/SA’, ‘Aloha8’, and ‘Working 9 to 5, at...’
are fictions of fen-om: [www.fen-om.com]
A couple of nights ago, as I found the opportunity to sneak downtown and take a peek at the F.A.T.-London lecture [for more on this, see text22], I certainly could not avoid the exciting energies at the venue (the Southern California Institute of Architecture, right by the LA River, downtown). As it was just the second or third week of classes, everyone A leading text. was there, into the night, teachers and students, in ‘crescendo’ build-up, at the entrance ramp, in the lecture space, sliding down the hallways, concentrating studio pods… A couple of hours later, the lecture having concluded, ‘we’ proceeded to explore (in an entourage that included Erin Sharp- fen-om diva and collaborator- and Matteo Cibic- from the post-Memphis Italian tradition). The students’ living patterns were revealed as we ‘pierced’ into the studio spaces, filled with more or less permanent individual ‘differentiations’ (depending on the students’ level in the program; latter-year students get to build more permanent live-study sheds around their desks, as they don’t have to move around very often). We also found a tendency aimed at modular proposals (just as would be seen at UCLA some weeks later, where cellular elements and building blocks continue to be considered). But what we agreed was the most particular and ‘avant-telling’ was that small group of students huddled about a desk’s backboard, where a miniaturized projector produced an impromptu course lecture. Colorful images of cellular surfaces at molecular levels, evanescent comments regarding structural strength and surface treatments. Just a brief minute as we stepped through. Just enough to impress. I was very soon to find out that this theme is quite media-popular. By chance, the next evening, I was browsing through Laptop Magazine (10-2002) at the Borders bookstore, and found this article by Diane Stresing: “… The term biomimetics comes from the Greek ‘biomimesis’, meaning to mimic life. ‘Biomimicry is what happens when you invite a biologist to the design table’ [Janine Benyus, author of ‘Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature’]. The allure for designers… lies in the efficiency, strength, and general compactness of natural designs… Generally, humans use high heat, high pressure, and chemical treatment to create
Butterfly-wing scales.
Cells= cells.
CoCrX/Cr magnetic recording media.
