Versioning

After reading this article, the intent of our final assignment became much more clear to me. I find the concept of seamless integration of design, process and production quite provocative but begin to wonder where this will eventually lead the profession of architecture. A line from this reading about Dynaform that I struggled to justify was the statement that “The architect finds himself- as a designer- controlling a process that allows the form to manifest itself.”

To me this is novel yet troubling due to that fact that physical form and the creation of space is in effect being left to happenstance. Granted these variations and mutations are based on scientifically derived algorithms and the process by which the mutations occur are being closely monitored in a semi-controlled environment; it begs the question of weather the design process has become too dehumanized.

As technology advances in this direction, it begins to cut out the need for human though and intervention. You no longer need groups of engineers slaving over calculations because they are already inherently incorporated into the integrated software. Once we start relying on algorithmic sequence to define form, pattern, space, and tectonic form, doesn’t that begin to make the traditional studies of the architectural professional obsolete.

I have to play the devils advocate here because I hear this criticism every day. Personally I find this new integration of technology, mathematical language, process and design to be the new avant guard for architectural thought and I feel like the rest of the professional community aside for firms like OfficeDA and SHoP, need catch up to the curve.