A summary and critical analysis of the written text ‘Parametricism: A New Global Style for Architecture and Design’ by Patrick Schumacher.

A style in architecture usually emerges from the history of a society.  Most architecture can be categorized as styles with chronological influences, which change and adapt over time as fashion trends or emergences of new ideas evolve.  A style will also materialise from new technology, successful exploration of innovative materials and social complexities that are influenced by people’s beliefs, religion, needs, ways of living, tendencies and emotions.

Patrick Schumacher claims parametricism as a ‘new global style’ in architecture.  He defines it as the succession to a modernist transitional period of uncertainty with its new long wave of systematic innovation.  A new movement with radical ambitions and values is suggested to address a current societal demand, that is the mass heterogeneous society, via the employment of new digital techniques; such as animation, simulation, form finding tools, scripting and parametric modelling. Thus claiming to introduce mass customization and continuous differentiation in design.  This is all to be achieved through computationally advanced design techniques combined with five agendas that push parametricism further.

• parametric Inter-articulation of sub-systems, interactions between various sub-systems such as the envelope, structure etc.
• Parametric accentuation of differentiation, and the merging through organic integration.
• Parametric figuration, which allows for complex configurations with multiple readings to have different variables.
• Parametric responsiveness, which enables an environment to change and adapt in response to prevalent occupation patterns.
• Parametric urbanism, where the morphology of both the building and the urban fabric are completely integrated.

The article challenges the Modernist movement with its Euclidian geometry and limitations upon order, and suggests that the understanding of nature’s complex order was limited by the science of those days.  Now, in the current day, both the complexity theory and the research of Frei Otto has taught to recognise, measure and simulate complex patterns that emerge from processes of self-organisation.  Schumacher claims that parametricism reproduces the organic networks of nature.

After reading this article, doubts on whether parametricism can be claimed a style arise. To avoid possible debate Schumacher introduces this new proclaimed style as a research programme, which immediately suggests a ‘work in progress’ and a process that is not fully resolved.  He argues that parametricism, with ambition and values, addresses and integrates societal complexities and mass customisation, yet the only clear explanations that are expressed are on how the buildings and space within can morph.  There is no clear indication on how the parametric tools will influence social integration, but if the tools were capable of being influenced by the complexities of society itself, then integration might be achievable.  The philosophy of a style would usually relate a human being with society and space, yet Schumacher does not touch base with these concerns in his article.  In terms of innovative use of materials, the only visible materials used in their displayed built projects are non flexible and would restrict any morphing of a structure.  At no point is there any explanation on new, innovative materials that would allow for change.  Another important considerable fact is how history of a city influences a style in architecture; parametricism does not build onto any chronological order that has been built up through time but rather erases everything that existed before it.  There is no more new land to be built on unless we tackle the in-between spaces within cities.  This radical approach of parametricism in an urban scale is therefore an unrefined answer to improving societal complexities but maybe implementing it parasitically within built cities would allow a more achievable and positive outcome.

This article has helped in creating a better understanding on what could be a solution to addressing the complexities of the mass heterogeneous society.  By the notion of applying the digital techniques of parametric design within a concept of urban parasitism, where adapting new morphological forms in and onto existing built fabric become a core strategy.

References

http://www.lem3a.es/index-en.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_architecture

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architectural_style

http://www.dezeen.com/2012/01/23/

A brief summary taking into account an article, Primative Future, by Sou Fujimoto and a case study on Wall House by Frohn &Rojas.

By identifying and forming relations between two or more things in any instance will help conclude logical and meaningful decisions.  In architecture it is vital to identify the relations between the natural and cultural & social environments.  The natural environment impacts human decisions within the built environment, from climate and weather to terrain and vegetation type.  It enhances our senses of smell, taste, touch, hearing and sight, in turn heightening our quality of life and creating a positive atmosphere within the spaces we surround ourselves in.

It is apparent that a large percentage of architects have lost touch with nature as a design informant.  Instead of making use of the existing natural elements around, architects will contribute to tearing it down so they can reconstruct functional and artificial environments that segregate them from one another.  An article Primitive Future by Sou Fujimoto describes a different approach to architecture by utilizing the existing natural environment and how architects can merge buildings with it rather than perceive it as a boundary.  Fujimoto contrasts the concept of a nest with a cave, where the nest represents a functional hospitable place and the cave a naturally occurring place that whether hospitable or inhospitable for a person to inhabit is still suitable to live in.  A cave does not have the functional spaces and attributes like that of a nest to its inhibitor but its contours and random forms can be reinterpreted into anything if imagination is applied, “When people set foot in a cave, they rediscover how to inhabit these geographical features” (Fujimoto, 2008, p.130). Like the nest, the conventional building is closed off to the environment around it forming a distinct boundary between what is inside and what is outside, between what is private and what is public, between what is natural and what is built.  There is no boundary between a cave and its surroundings and there is a gradation between the outside and the inner most crevices of the cave, a transition between the two spaces that merge with one another.  This series of successful change from one space to another is what needs to be existent in architecture, the places in which we travel to and from need to merge with one another creating eventful spaces to journey though.

A prime example relating to Fujimoto’s philosophy is Wall House, located in Santiago de Chile and designed by Frohn & Rojas, where the notion of eliminating boundaries between inside and outside space is achieved through gradation. Traditional walls of a house are broken down into a series of four delaminated layers; concrete cave, stacked shelving, milky shell and soft skin.  This creates a transition between the inside and outside environments merging them together so there is no distinct boundary between the two. The progression of the layers takes on the notion of a natural occurrence just as Fujimoto describes in a cave (Fujimoto, 2008, p.130) where a gradation of light, visibility and space occurs from the enclosed, dark and private internal space towards the exposed bright exterior environment.  The materiality of the layers control visibility and filter light through the in-between spaces creating a haze from interior to exterior space, the layers change in materiality from dense to less dense to openness forming an atmospheric relation to that of a cave with the natural environment.

Architects needs to design buildings that interrelate with the surroundings.  The challenge lies in attempting to form a gradation from one space to another. Sou gives an example of how ordinary architecture does not embrace the series of successful change between one thing and another, stating that “our world is clearly arranged according to the word ‘function’ as is clearly divided into black and white.  But isn’t real life sustained by the innumerable acts that lie between them?” (Fujimoto, 2008, p.132).  Relational logics define the importance of interconnections between architecture and the natural environment, building on the human senses.

The notion of forming a successful sequential change between environments is an interesting topic in which to delve deeper into.  To discover a way to introduce architecture into the in-between spaces, to dissolve boundaries between the built and un-built, consequently merging environments.