VERSIONING: Evolutionary Techniques in Architecture
The opening paragraph of the article has many parallels to the previous article titled Roller Coaster Construction. In said reading, Alejandro Zaera-Polo makes the argument that architectural design no longer needs to be based strictly on the re-interpretation of existing works, but could expand to local constructs and processes. Similarly, SHoP Architects is proposing the design concept of Versioning, which permits "architects to think or practice across multiple disciplines, freely borrowing tactics from film, food, finance, fashion, economics, and politics for use in design." The resulting architecture stems from the conditions of its context rather than from the architects' prescribed 'style.' Although some semblance of style will inherently be evident, the driving force of design is left open to the found unique qualities of the site and of the dominant culture. Manipulation of type is replaced by parametric configuration of particular design criterion. As a result, the consequential design is far more adaptable to change in construction and cultural constructs. Versioning thusly challenges the notion of blob architecture for blob architecture's sake, calling out the 'aesthetic object' as solely an image, and therefore no more suited to its condition than its Cartesian predecessors. Instead, form and function should be consubstantial and part of the same formal expression.
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You relayed these points in a really clear way. I liked all of these points because they make me want to discuss them individually against one another and all at once. I agree with this notion that "form and function should be consubstantial and part of the same formal expression", especially when considering your previous point that "architects to think or practice across multiple disciplines", because it make the form we design as architects directly relate back to not only the function but its environment and context.
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