Digital Morphogenesis

In a recent article by Branko Kolarevic titled “Digital Morphogenesis”, Kolarevic attempts to explain the reasoning behind the strange amorphous shapes often found throughout modern architecture and the methods and tools used to create this new “blobby” architecture.

One of the first points Kolarevic makes is to simply state that the sometimes highly criticized “blobby” architecture may be new and strange looking to the inexperienced eye but it is not without precedent. Kolarevic gives concrete examples of, in the more abstract terms, previous philosophers and scholarly writings that have had major influences on architects and have presented certain questions that have allowed this new style and form of architecture to advance. From the more conceptual writings of German philosopher, mathematician, and logician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and one of the most influential French thinkers of the twentieth century, Gilles Deleuze to the more concrete physical representations found in the Baroque, Neo-Baroque, and Art Nuevo styles of architecture. This new digital age has a plethora of precedent raging from the 17^th century all the way up and into the 1960’s and 1970’s.

From here Kolarevic moves to the physical tools of the digital age and how they are being used in professions across the boards. Architecture is not the only profession being affected from the emergence of new technologies and new ways of challenging traditional thinking. The truth is actually far from it. These technologies and new tools have been in use for many years in almost every industrial designer for the better part of a decade. To the trained eye the somewhat strange designs of “blobby” architecture have seen a surge of popularity in other industrial design situations. Almost everything we use from our toothbrushes to our toasters, even extending into the cars we drive, has been influenced by the new emergence of digital design tools. All of these products incorporate what many refer to as “blobby” architecture but would be better suited as smooth architecture.

What is so unique about this new push to the digital design is the emergence of a digital continuum. This process incorporates everything from the very earliest conceptual design to the rigorous construction drawings all into one simple to use and understand four dimensional model. This can be most clearly seen in the model for the Boeing 737 and for numerous large scale shipping models used throughout the shipping industry. The shipping model presents an interesting example due to the historical reliance of architects on the ship building industry. A past and present link, which should undoubtedly be examined more closely to further advance both professions.

The only way for this digital continuum to exist is through the use of a highly sophisticated set of tools that Kolarevic attempts to explain throughout the remainder of his study. The four examples of tools and methods of a new era of digital design that Kolarevic mentions that are the most interesting and somewhat easier to understand are parametrics, dynamics and fields of force, and performative architecture.

The first new tool that has already had a very scrupulous and practical application is that of parametrics. Parametrics is the establishment of formulas that allow a designer to create dimensionally different yet identically configured design elements. This has been put to use throughout many design proposals and consequent physical buildings. The most striking example can be found in the International Terminal, Waterloo Station located in London, UK and designed by architect Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners. For this project Grimshaw was presented with unique and challenging site considerations of the maze of tube rails and how to effectively cover all of them keeping the same typology. To solve this problem Grimshaw used a parametric equation to create “36 dimensionally different, yet typologically identical, bowstring trusses.” Through the use of parametrics we are allowed an explanation for the strange curvilinear shapes as well as a solution for many difficult design applications.

Another tool that is making its way into the design tool shed of the digital era is that of dynamics and fields of force. The study of dynamics is not as simple as one could be led to believe. It is not merely the design of a building and then the application of fields of force to that building. But rather a more complex design process that involves creating and designing while these forces are present. This is made possible through the materialization of new digital technology. To be put in a simple analogy, designing in the traditional sense of the word would be like building a sand castle and anticipating the rise of the tide (fields of force.) Where dynamics comes into play would be like building this same sand castle but rather than anticipating when and where the tide would come in one would actually build the castle while the tide was physically affecting the construction process. This has been made possible through digital applications and partly explains once again the strange shaped architecture pervasive in modern design.

One of the last relatively new digital applications being used in modern design is that of performative architecture. This is the knowledge and digital capabilities of creating an ideal response to all of the various site considerations and then inputting ones own design and watching it physically take on the form of the ideal structure. The capabilities to do this are at our finger tips and just need to be tapped in order to bring about and era of extreme sustainability and “ideal” architecture.

The last point Kolarevic makes is that these new digital tools should be used to aid in the creation of ideal architecture not replace the profession of architecture. They are means to an end. An end that has already been realized in numerous other professions and should be implemented in our own profession of architecture. Through the use of digital advancements we can explain and then in turn create our own ideal “blobby” architecture.