W11 Reading

A veritable epistemic revolution occurred with the advent of digital technology. The design of a project was no longer concerned with representation, but rather with calculation and computation. This upheaval within the language of architevture, which would lead to another level of project temporality, had already been anticipated by the design practices that emerged in the 1960s through radical architecture in Europe. Architecture was no longer a constructed object but an environment being perpetually reconfigured, a thing of the moment. The ArchiLab events helped to bring fame to generation of architects in France interested in research on an international scale. A number of these are featured in the FRAC Centre's collection and in this exhibition: dECOi architects and etc. Constructional architecture, the referent in these various projects, is inseparable from the genetic exploration of the process. These self-organisational systems are defined as living, phylogenetic systems, outside of all "models" and all representational conditions, opening architecture up to ideas of transformability. Thus, architecture becomes a dynamic environment. The exhibition is the result of a long-standing interest of mine in a subject which, on the contrary, because this subject is not just mathematical but also defines a culture, there has always been a underlying question involved: how can we consider computation without falling into the trap of an all-embracing analysis at a time when, from the point of view of computers in all areas of life, this same computation leads to the most global and radical transformations.

W10 Reading

A new consciousness is emerging with profound implications for architecture. The parallel world of cyberspace, created and sustained by the world's computers and communication lines is just one manifestation of deep cultural and technical changes which are reshaping our understanding of our world. The term cyberspace is used loosely to describe the invisible spatial interconnection of computers on the internet and it is also applied to almost any virtual spatial experience created in a computer. But tangible space and physical structure have already taken on a new significance as a result of the growth of cyberspace. Virtual worlds should not be as an alternative to the real world or a substitute, but as an extra dimension which allows us a new freedom of movement in the natural world. Contemporary science fiction concentrates on the coexistence of the real world and the metaworld of cyberspace. Every theatregoer or opera lover has already experienced the simultaneous existence of two worlds in a more physical sense. We are aware in the theatre of the sounds and smells around us and yet transported todistant realms in time and space by the magic of bright lights, exaggerated sets, fantastic costumes, excess makeup and larger-than-life voices. The concept of comperhensive ephemeralisation and the need to take a global view were pioneered by Buckminster Fuller earlier this century and the concepts are coming of age with the technical realisation of a cyberspace which simultaneously achieves both dematerialisation and global communication. But the greater impact will be on the reflected effect on our physical environment and its relationship to the virtual worlds.

Week9 Reading

Versioning is an operative term meant to describe a recent, significant shift in the way architects and designers are using technology to expand, the potential effects of design on our world. There are a few digital architects and theorists are emerging who have placed an emphasis on open models of practice where the application of technology promotes technique rather than image. The computer has enabled architects to rethink the design process in terms ofprocedure and outcome in ways that common practice, the construct industry and conventional design methodologies cannot conceive of with. Versioning relies on the use of recombinant geometries which allow the external influences to affect a system without losing the precision of numerical control or the ability to translate these geometries using available construction technology. All the design decisions are based on an organisational strategy capable of responding to the effects of speed, turning radius, gradients and etc, to create a fluid behaviour of variable movement. Versioning also extends to methods of practice where nontraditional use of architectural theory is appropriated by other disciplines. If versioning operates at different scales within a design, it should also operate at different scales of practice. Architects and designers are using innovating building materials and construction techniques to expand the possibilities of design and effect, and to keep all aspects of techniques to expand the possibilities of design and effect, and to keep all aspects of construction under their control.