Erik Majcher_Reading Summary

DEEP DECORATION

Nina Rappaport, Architectural Critic, Curator and Educator

Rappaport describes a growing trend in architecture which uses computational algorithms to determine a buildings structure. Several possibilities have developed by using this method; they include the generation of structure that has characteristics that qualify the structure to coexist with and define a buildings skin, structure that takes on a decorative nature, and structure that becomes occupiable as space.

Beijing National Swimming Center – “The Water Cube”, PTW Architects and Arup Engineers

http://detail-online.com/inspiration/watercube-national-swimming-centre-in-beijing-103313.html

The crescendo of the article is the quote by Robert Le Ricolais (1894-1977), a French engineer who studied natural forms and their properties in relation to structure:

“If you think about the voids instead of working with the solid elements, the truth appears. The structure is composed of holes, all different in dimension and distribution, but with an unmistakable purpose in their occurrence. So we arrive at an apparently paradoxical conclusion, that the art of structure is how and where to put holes, to show things that are hollow, things that have no weight…which have strength, but no weight.”

This way of thinking about structure is what drives the idea of Deep Decoration; when considered in this way and with the aid of the computer, structure can have a more compatible relationship with the creation of space and definition of form, making a more cohesive whole.

http://www.designbuild-network.com/projects/watercube/watercube12.html

DELEUZE AND THE USE OF THE GENETIC ALGORITHM IN ARCHITECTURE

Manual de Landa, Adjunct Associate Professor at Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University

De Landa discusses the use of genetic algorithms in architecture in relation to three forms of philosophical thinking; populational, intensive and topological. The first concept is that when considering genetic algorithms you must think in terms of the entire population of reproductions that are occurring, not just the individual generators or a specific outcome. The second is that when an object is divided there are measurable quantities that are also divided such as area and weight, but there are also some characteristics which are not divided, such as pressure or temperature. These latter characteristics are “intensive” characteristics, which are the critical traits that must be passed from generation to generation. Finally is the concept of topological thinking, which means the architect must consider an abstract geometry that can be twisted and bent without breaking, in order to develop a significant population of offspring.

La Sagrada Familia Barcelona, Antonio Gaudi

http://americablog.com/2013/10/stunning-video-shows-gaudis-sagrada-familia-cathedral-meant.html

The concept of intensive features is an important way of thinking. The process of distilling architecture into those types of features, which can't be divisible or scale-able is an interesting exercise which seems to be worth further exploration and analysis. 

http://marble-b.blogspot.com/2011/11/sagrada-familiya-by-gaudi.html