AIA Lecture on Monday
I will be giving this month’s AIA Technology lecture at the Center for Architecture in NYC:
Geometry and Language: Creativity, Intent, and Collaboration
Over the past 6 years Grimshaw has researched and implemented new digital design processes, revealing not only the vast range of possibilities brought by design computation but also limitations of the methodology. Mass-customization, usage of external data sets, environmentally-driven form – each requires careful examination for its reality and for how it compliments individual design processes. Regardless of a designer’s aesthetic, these systems must be used within a thoughtful, well-developed conceptual framework. An in-depth look at Grimshaw’s Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center in Troy, NY, completed in October 2008, will serve as the starting point for this framework: computation expressed as a creative language – an abstract notation that enables a form of art.
BIM has democratized 3D modeling, yet has not expanded our creative freedom. Design computation can be used for more than just the development of quicker design iteration. It can become part of the creative process, including both formal and logical design moves, as well as the embedding explicit and implicit intelligence in our work. More importantly, it serves not as a paradigm shift in how we think about architecture, but instead as a home for collaborative creative efforts.
Discussion about elements of this framework and their implementation in a range of current Grimshaw projects will further develop the view that computational tools can thought of as a design catalyst. Rather than serving as software symbolic of an aesthetic style, computation should be a method designers can feel comfortable using as an extension of their toolset: an enhancement rather than replacement of an individual’s creative thinking.