BEN VAN BERKEL
The process of diagrams in design. A new perception…
CONTENTS
BEN VAN BERKEL TECHNOLOGY THE ABSTRACT MACHINE-DIAGRAMS BEN’S USE OF DIAGRAMS, HIS IDEA.. PR0JECTS 1.THE MOBIUS HOUSE
Carnegie Science Centre proposal. -Ben Van Berkel, UN Studio.
Van Berkel and Caroline Bos
The new technology will free design from the traditional constraints of the thinking, logical mind, and finally tap into the creative unconscious, which Van Berkel identifies as the real source of creativity.
This allows concepts that are capable of being suggestive to the unconscious, and hence generate universal acceptance, where design will incite a response in all users. This approach is interpreted and applied through the implementation of a “diagrammatic and ideogramic design process”
Ben Van Berkel’s process…
Berkel places priority on the( abstract machine) diagrams with which he begins his projects. Invents new forms of spatial experimentation using diagrams from physics, biology and engineering. Also uses complex geometries, advanced spatial models, and non-linear organizational techniques to arrive at unprecedented typologies for these new private and public infrastructural projects. Combines abstract conceptual diagrams, a strong aesthetic facility and the pragmatism of engineering structures in order to develop a vocabulary that is simultaneously formally expressive and technically informed.
WHY USE DIAGRAMS ?
Diagram is a whole new way to approach the process of design. The diagrammatic’ design process represents a faster, more efficient way of designing that is more applicable today. Drawing is more on our intuitions as designers rather than the logistical, pragmatic approach that is currently adopted by architecture. With ever increasing technology rapidly developing the built fabric of the world, the architect now has to possess more technical information on a broader range of building specifications. This increased demand on the logistical resource of the architect has lead to the demise of the concept of ‘architect/designer’ and the increase of architect / technician. The problem with this is that it is surely going to lead to the neglect of visually stimulating design that creates rich urban environments.
Van Berkel’s says..
The relevance of diagrammatic design process to the technology of today is evident through analysis of how the diagram works as a tool in the design process. This method instead of beginning with the pragmatic zoning or planning of a building, uses a diagram to express the strategies and intentions of the design. The diagram is seen as more than a representation, it is utilised in the design process not only in the communication of ideas, but as a method of design. It is employed to epitomise the response to the specific design, which will then be used proactively within the realisation of the project, providing a mechanism for determining all elements within the design from detail to form.
“In general, diagrams are best known and understood as a visual tool for the compression of information.”
THE MOBIUS HOUSE -A provocative formal and spatial experiment. ď ąThe Mobius House is an experiment in modern, fluctuating domesticity orchestrated by Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos. ď ąThe familiar twisted figure-of-eight. Berkel & Bos increasingly use diagrams as a Means of exploring and developing alternative typologies. DESIGN Their separate work areas are folded and meshed into the other spaces of daily life. Unlike the traditional single-family home's explicit functional and social distinctions, the spaces of the Mobius House are like a continuous piece of intertwined ribbon that has no beginning and no end.
North-east of Amsterdam
Movement through the loop follows the pattern of a typically active day.
The generative circuit begins, nominally, at the entrance hall incised into the long south flank. Off this space, compacted into the house's overhanging prow, are a studio for the male occupant and the main bedroom. The route runs parallel with a long glass wall on the south side, bisecting the kitchen and meeting room, to the main dining and living spaces that occupy the house's east end. Along the route, wall planes dissolve and fracture to reveal changing views of the surrounding forest and a modern garden designed by West 8.
Its complex, fragmented form has more in common with an inhabitable sculpture or Expressionist film set and its stark materiality and spatial perversions do not conform to conventional notions of gentle, Roof plan informal domesticity.
REFERENCES 
SUPER DUTCH -BART LOOTSMA