According to some, few buildings speak as much to the imagination as
Frank Gehry's design for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.
After
recently having watched Sydney Pollack's documentary "Sketches of Frank
Gehry" from 2005, I became aware just how fascinating Gehry's design
process really is. Gehry likes to develop his elegantly shaped
buildings by means of sketches and more and less elaborate physical
models, which involves an entire team of people further developing his
initial seeds. This is an iterative process in the sense that Gehry
picks up these models and reworks them, thereby further refining his
initial ideas.
A major challenge for people collaborating with Gehry was how to translate this process of cutting, folding, and moulding into the real of the informational whilst preserving Gehry's preference to continue working in a way that is most intuitive for him. Gehry is not literate in terms of the technologies that are increasingly becoming of crucial importance in the realm of architecture.
The solution: 3D scanning.
Scanning facilitates a process of transgressing the material into the realm of the informational.
This material-informational can be seen as an expression of 'transduction' - processes that entail converging or conveying that can be observed in biology, semiotics, physiology, etc. In his L'individuation psychique et collective (Psychological and collective individuation), the French philosopher of technology Simondon defines transduction as:
"physical, biological, mental, or social operation by means of which an activity propagates
itself from one location to another (de proche en proche) within a given domain, basing this
propagation on a structuring (structuration) of the domain operating from one place to
another (de place en place): each region of the constituted structure serves the following
region as a principle and model, as a beginning (amorce) of its constitution, so that a
modification extends itself progressively at the same time as this structuring operation."
(p. 24-5)
Transduction, as expressed in this showcase of Frank Gehry's work, teaches us two lessons:
- 3D scanning enables cross-fertilizations between different stages of the creative process while also allowing particularity mode of production of these different domains that are eventually intertwined.
- Apparantly, as an architect prefering more traditional platforms to express yourself, there are still ways to get away with this, despite the fact that architecture is increasingly a programming culture.
- Matthijs
Links:
Sketches of Frank Gehry by Sydney Pollack
A major challenge for people collaborating with Gehry was how to translate this process of cutting, folding, and moulding into the real of the informational whilst preserving Gehry's preference to continue working in a way that is most intuitive for him. Gehry is not literate in terms of the technologies that are increasingly becoming of crucial importance in the realm of architecture.
The solution: 3D scanning.
Scanning facilitates a process of transgressing the material into the realm of the informational.
This material-informational can be seen as an expression of 'transduction' - processes that entail converging or conveying that can be observed in biology, semiotics, physiology, etc. In his L'individuation psychique et collective (Psychological and collective individuation), the French philosopher of technology Simondon defines transduction as:
"physical, biological, mental, or social operation by means of which an activity propagates
itself from one location to another (de proche en proche) within a given domain, basing this
propagation on a structuring (structuration) of the domain operating from one place to
another (de place en place): each region of the constituted structure serves the following
region as a principle and model, as a beginning (amorce) of its constitution, so that a
modification extends itself progressively at the same time as this structuring operation."
(p. 24-5)
Transduction, as expressed in this showcase of Frank Gehry's work, teaches us two lessons:
- 3D scanning enables cross-fertilizations between different stages of the creative process while also allowing particularity mode of production of these different domains that are eventually intertwined.
- Apparantly, as an architect prefering more traditional platforms to express yourself, there are still ways to get away with this, despite the fact that architecture is increasingly a programming culture.
- Matthijs
Links:
Sketches of Frank Gehry by Sydney Pollack
