final presentations :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWYrr-lnB4U&feature=youtu.be

Deluze explains about rhizomatic growth and how it occurs.in this text about rhizomatic growth , he explains with many examples as to how the growth occurs. The main characteristics about this growth is that -it has no center ,  -The connection for the growth occurs between two unrelated elements , -there is only an implication of a periphery, – there is continuation and multiplicity.

To further explain about the connection between unrelated elements, he gives the example of pollination and hence a connection between a wasp and a flower. They are two different species, connected in a process  of and for growth.

But the important aspect to note in this growth type is ” there is no firm causality leading to the event” . i.e., there is no  starting point ,And so also , there is no end  point either.

there are five main points that deluze marks out for rhizomatic growth -

1. connection 2. heterogeneity  3.multiplicity 4. asignyfying rupture 5. cartography

these five aspects form the main characteristics of rhizomatic growth according to Deluze.

case study : Blur Building Swiss Expo 2002 by DILLER SCOFIDIO + RENFR

This building was a temporary exhibition structure.The concept of this structure was to use water,not just as a context but  as an architecture element.The architect believes that architecture is a special effect machine. In this structure , the special effect was created by the water.The architect intended to create an architecture of atmosphere where the atmosphere is actually a part of the building element.Elements like space and skin was re evaluated and  an attempt to break away from the conventional notion of space and skin was made.

water is pumped from the lake and is filtered and shot into the air with high pressured fog nozzle located the the edge / border of the structure.This water jutting out of the nozzle creates a facade and a notion of the space. this is a responsive system trained on actual weather conditions.the system reads the real weather and produces semi artificial and real weather and adapts itself accordingly.

Research interests

As my research topic, am interested in generative design logics. Prototypes where a whole emerges from the multiple interactions between a single element.A system of growth which can generate itself from its own. A non static element which is designed to adapt and sustain, like a living organism. And to generate this concept to form a part of the larger system of growth and therefore the connections between them.

Reading:   Thousand Plateaus -Rhizome   |  Deleuze- Guattari

Case study:  Blur Building  |  Diller Scofidio – Renfro

Image collage for academic assignment: Javier F. Ponce

Difuminating the limits

A Thousand Plateaus :Capitalism and Schizophrenia, by Deleuze and Guattari, was written in 1980 in a non-linear way which allows the reader to move among plateaus  in any specific order. Plateaus propose self vibrating regions of intensities. A Plateau is always in the middle, not at the beginning or the end.

The authors describe some types of logics, like the tree-thinker / central trunk logic (vertical, territorial, hierarchical), the Radicle system (fascicular root, indefinite multiplicity of secondary roots, but the root’s unity subsists) and the Rhizome. The latter can be illustrated as a vegetable which propagates, an acentered system which spawns and proliferates. A Rhizome is made of  Plateaus. We can say that the Rhizome is inherently multiple, it has no center, its horizontal (avoiding vertical or linear connections) , it just proliferates, it is not genetical, all within a Nomadic non-territorial approach which opens endless possibilities.

They also talked about the following principles:

- Principles of connection and heterogeneity: any point of a rhizome can be connected to anything other, and must be.

- Principle of multiplicity:Multiplicities are rhizomatic

- Principle of asignifying rupture: A rhizome may be broken..against the oversignifying breaks separating structures or cutting across a single structure.

- Principle of cartography and decalcomania: a rhizome is not amenable to any structural or generative model. It is a stranger to any idea of genetic axis or deep structure.

As in the example of the Orchid and the Wasp, the orchid forms an image and the wasp reterritorializes on that image, they form a Rhizome.

While discussing the case study and the reading in class, a few analogies came to my mind: Just as the Blur building difuminate the limits of  “the container” , allowing the mist (fog-mass)  to expand in the context , the Rhizome proliferates, it has no limits and it is not contained within a linear structure. When entering the Blur building, the person experience a lack of all visual and  acoustical references, the visitor is not sure what to expect. The same happens  in a rhizomatic system, in which different unexpected inputs from different sources can emerge from any direction, allowing for new relationships and multiplicities. Internet can be a good example of a rhizomatic system where information can be shared form endless different sources.

Regarding my personal research or line of inquiry, I’ve been attracted by self-sufficiency, de-centralized systems and non hierarchical structures related to the way people interact and how  architecture can play a significant role in this type of logics. As an example, a decentralized energy network based on the contribution of the neighbors to the energy system can be far more efficient and sustainable, if managed properly,  than the current centralized scheme, where someone produces and others consume, at almost any price…I’ll like to kep on exploring the Self-sufficient agenda and the way our profession can be a major input.