Architecture Now
Excerpt from the introduction of the book 'Architecture Now, Volume II', by Philip Jodidio
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After all, if architecture has undergone radically positive conceptual transformations via the biological model of systems, will it ever, as a disciple, be able to refer to equilibrium or the fixed again? It will not, even if buildings appear otherwise."*
Even without reaching the radical conclusions of Neil Denari, it can certainly be argued that far-reaching changes are underway. What if Frank O. Gehry's free forms were just the first step in the liberation of architecture from its ancestral heritage? Not the tabula rasa of Gropius, but rather the beginning of a quest for a new architecture. Here, issues of function and cost necessarily would play a major role, but this new architecture exists for the most part only on computer screens and thus is not subjected to the same mundane constraints as its steel and concrete cousins. Imagine new programs such as the so-called "genetic algorithms" that are capable of creating forms that the most inventive architects could not have conceived. Some brave souls imagine that architecture can exist as a discipline without ever leaving the screen, as an intellectual, formal, artistic exercise. Others are already taking the leap from truly computer driven design into the "real" world, and the forms of a new world are beginning to appear.
* Neil M. Denari, Gyroscopic Horizons, Thames & Hudson, London, 1999.
Building Virtual Reality
Neil Denari is one of a number of architects whose influence is considerable despite their having built a decidedly limited number of buildings. This is not in itself a new phenomenon. Architects such as Rem Koolhaas established their reputations long before having built through books for example, but it is the next generation, the students of Koolhaas as it were who are now taking architecture in new directions. Born in 1957, the Dutch architect Ben van Berkel (UN Studio) studied under Koolhaas at the AA in London and has been one of the pioneers in the exploration of built forms generated by computer assisted design. "I see an increasing tendency to investigate ways in which architecture might include more and more complexity in one comprehensive complexity," he says. "It looks more and more at organic systems; and the way in which, through the impact and effect of external forces, a generic model is differentiated. The model is perceived as a whole, but is at the same time very fragmented."
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6
After all, if architecture has undergone radically positive conceptual transformations via the biological model of systems, will it ever, as a disciple, be able to refer to equilibrium or the fixed again? It will not, even if buildings appear otherwise."*
Even without reaching the radical conclusions of Neil Denari, it can certainly be argued that far-reaching changes are underway. What if Frank O. Gehry's free forms were just the first step in the liberation of architecture from its ancestral heritage? Not the tabula rasa of Gropius, but rather the beginning of a quest for a new architecture. Here, issues of function and cost necessarily would play a major role, but this new architecture exists for the most part only on computer screens and thus is not subjected to the same mundane constraints as its steel and concrete cousins. Imagine new programs such as the so-called "genetic algorithms" that are capable of creating forms that the most inventive architects could not have conceived. Some brave souls imagine that architecture can exist as a discipline without ever leaving the screen, as an intellectual, formal, artistic exercise. Others are already taking the leap from truly computer driven design into the "real" world, and the forms of a new world are beginning to appear.
* Neil M. Denari, Gyroscopic Horizons, Thames & Hudson, London, 1999.
Building Virtual Reality
Neil Denari is one of a number of architects whose influence is considerable despite their having built a decidedly limited number of buildings. This is not in itself a new phenomenon. Architects such as Rem Koolhaas established their reputations long before having built through books for example, but it is the next generation, the students of Koolhaas as it were who are now taking architecture in new directions. Born in 1957, the Dutch architect Ben van Berkel (UN Studio) studied under Koolhaas at the AA in London and has been one of the pioneers in the exploration of built forms generated by computer assisted design. "I see an increasing tendency to investigate ways in which architecture might include more and more complexity in one comprehensive complexity," he says. "It looks more and more at organic systems; and the way in which, through the impact and effect of external forces, a generic model is differentiated. The model is perceived as a whole, but is at the same time very fragmented."
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