ABSTRACT
The metaphor of cosmogenesis is generally acknowledged and embraced by the current generation of starchitects and their followers. Of particular interest are the non-Euclidean geometries found in natural forms when viewed through the lens of complexity science and chaos theory. Folds, fractals, and blobs emerge as viable architectural forms. Of less interest is the cosmogenic principle of sustainability. It is largely neglected in the pursuit of twenty-first-century cutting-edge magazine architecture. Magazine-worthy digitally generated forms tend to be about their cleverness and uniqueness, rather than about their environmental performance. One exception is the Greater London Authority building by Foster (2002). Its form was derived directly from the pragmatics of responding to climate. It is at “one with the cosmos.” In the case of most other blobitecture the generous use of energy-intensive metal skins, combined with the complex steel armatures needed to produce the desired complex, non-linear forms, are certainly in violation of the basic environmental tenets of cosmogeneity. It seems that achieving the appearance of a cosmogenic architecture trumps following the environmental ethic of cosmogenesis.
