ABSTRACT
Materials and surfaces have a language of their own. Stone speaks of its distant geological origins, its durability and inherent symbolism of permanence; brick makes one think of earth and fire, gravity and the ageless traditions of construction; bronze evokes the extreme heat of its manufacture, the ancient processes of casting and the passage of time as measured in its patina. Wood speaks of its two existences and time scales; its first life as a growing tree and the second as a human artefact made by the caring hand of a carpenter or cabinetmaker. (Juhani Pallasmaa)1
Over the past decade we have seen in architecture the (re)emergence of complexly shaped forms and intricately articulated surfaces, enclosures, and structures, whose design and production were fundamentally enabled by the capacity of digital technologies to accurately represent and precisely fabricate artifacts of almost any complexity. Some buildings produced by this digital technological shift feature smooth, “liquid” forms, while some are simple “boxes” with complexly patterned envelopes; many blend both approaches. These new buildings are attractive to many who relish their innovative potential; to others they are merely provisional distractions from the historically distilled essences of the discipline. Beyond the valuation verdict (“good” or “bad”), the proliferation of these types of expressive projects is undeniable; often lacking historically affirmed subtleties, they provoke established formal and material conceptions of architecture. For example, the first projects that exploit the newfound capacity to digitally design and manufacture highly crafted surface effects are being realized, featuring series of panels with unique decorative reliefs, cut-out patterns, striated surface configurations, etc., hinting at the emergence of new “ornamentalism” in contemporary architecture. Experimental building skins with dynamic, adaptive behavior are also beginning to materialize, challenging prevalent assumptions about tectonics and the permanence of material conditions in buildings. Fundamental to this technological and material experimentation is that atypical buildings realized over the past decade or so – whether complexly shaped, complexly patterned, or behaving dynamically – are affecting in novel ways our perceptions of surface, form, and space through carefully crafted effects, explorations of inventive material organizations pursued across a wide range of scales.
