Monday, March 3, 2008

Greg Lynn's "Folds, Bodies & Blobs"

The following is a response to selective articles from Greg Lynn's Folds, Bobies & Blobs.

"Probable Geometries: The Architecture of Writing in Bodies"
"Blob Tectonics, or why Tectonics is Square and Topology is Groovy"
"Forms of Expression: The Proto-Functional Potential of Diagrams in Architectural Design"

The most power statement here is:

"Until blob organizations develop beyond the proto-type of the shed, they will remain open to such accusations." (p 176)

(The specific accusations are not defined, but it is implied that blobs have not fully developed the potential of simultaneously developing both formal and programmatic aspects of architecture.)

The power of this statement is in its implication of immaturity in the practice of dynamically generated forms, their formal function and their internal use and the relationship thereof. This almost describe the technique as masonry construction, as we have begun with mud bricks but now we must improve upon the construction. And hopefully with the technological potential of today, we can reach "high gothic" in less than millenniums.

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Given the third article, "Forms of Expression", was published in 1998, I presume all projects by Ben Van Burkel was pre-1998 (or at least pre-UNStudio, since the firm was founded in 1998). Before 1998, Ben Van Burkel was affiliated with the firm of Van Berkel & Bos. Nevertheless, the founders of Van Burkel & Bos are also the founders of UNStudio.

"Series" and "pattern" are terms used to describe Van Burkel's conceptual process. The emphasis here is put on Van Burkel's process of design, and not so much the actual artifacts post production.

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