/ REAL MEDIA VIRTUAL ARCHITECTURE

Computers have been around for a long long time now. Architects first started using them in the 1970's(they were not taken very seriously and were seen as a group of strange romantic visionaries), and then in the 1980's it was making its way on to the commercial scene and finally in the 1990's it was a device which helped with the design process for many(?) architects.

Today, the Gen Y (apologies for using the term quite loosely) architects not just see it as a device but quite simply the main tool for designing and building. Our long held conventions of architecture, space, and time, are being challenged as the digital supersedes the real.
Using advanced computer applications and new spatial sensibilities, architects are now able to challenge the fundamental principles of structure, order and human perception.

Before we jump straight into the virtual space lets get some pertinent definitions sussed out.
The term virtual originates from the Latin which is a ‘potential essence or force’ or
‘when effective dormant forces become actualized’. It blurs the distinction between perception and ‘ representation of a rational notion of space.

Brian Massumi explains, the actualization of virtual is not the same as the realization of the possible, it can never reach a state of closure. We learnt about the term topology in the earlier post, from which we can derive to the following:


To approach virtual it is necessary it has to be topological. If we miss out of the topological, we can still get hold of the possible or maybe even the potential, which is the tension between superposed possibilities and the advent of the new, but will never come close to the virtual (if we miss it in any medium).

So what is space in the virtual and real realm?
Peter Zellner, a graudate from the Harvard design of school has coined a term "conterminous territories" that describes how architects are continually blurring the electronic-visual and material real structure.


"Coterminous territories calls into question some of the most basic and rational principles of Euclidean geometry. Euclidean geometry is the study of point, lines, planes, and other geometric "flat" figures, using the axioms of Euclid (c. 300bc). Modifications of Euclid's parallel postulate provide the basis for non-Euclidean geometry. Non-Euclidean is a term describing dynamic, durational, and transitional spaces where time and space are connected variables represented by vector flows. This is in opposition to the classical Cartesian philosophy. Continuous curvature, hyperbolic surfaces, and intersecting geometric systems are examples of non- Euclidean space. In these activated spaces, static and fixed points are replaced by the stability of vectors and values that balance one another in phase space (Animate Form, Greg Lynn, p.15).
The representation of geometric quantities that form the Cartesian conception of space was invented by Descartes. It is a triple-axis XYZ fixed coordinate box or container. In this view, time and force are independent variables adding a fourth, formally distinct, dimension to the traditional three points in space. The Cartesian theorem states form is not immanent to space but transcends it. Cartesian space thus revolves around the central opposition between empirical dimension defined as having spatial features, and the transcendent or spiritual dimension, autonomous from empirical support (Hypersurface Architecture, Edited by Stephen Perrella p.28)
The philosophy of Naga Studio Architecture reinforces this need to break out of the Cartesian box and further explore topology: the branch of mathematics dealing with continuous transformations. Turbulences and flow lead to topological manifestations: "gravitational" enfoldment, twisting, or bending of planes or volumes. For Tarek Naga, "Within this philosophical paradigm, morphological concepts cannot be adequately generated within the framework of Cartesian coordinates. An alternative spatio-temporal coordinate system suitable for simultaneous unfoldment of space and time becomes an inevitable evolutionary step…this architecture aspires to creating space that is simultaneous emergent and convergent, imploding and exploding. Space is physically and metaphysically charged with the desire to transform, transmutate, and transfold itself"- http://www.3dmilam.com/thesis.htm


In this (anonymous) thesis some very interesting questions were raised in the form of cricism and responses by the author of the thesis.


Criticism 1: In virtual reality, it is too easy to loose your mind and body altogether in an insatiable anti-physical vortex.

Response 1: Should virtual reality comfortably replicate physical reality? Is there an architecture which in principle is impossible to build? The pursuit of an object that can never be expressed in reality is not a new phenomenon. At the end of the 18th century the dramatic structures of Etienne-Louis Boulee were too gigantic to be realized. Similarly, the abstract art of Malevich recognizes magnetism, gravity, radio waves and other invisible forces and pulses in a world of objectless paintings. For architect Marcos Novak, the liquid architecture of cyberspace is clearly immaterial and what he calls "expressionistic formalism" (AA) It is an architecture composed of changing relationships between a variety of abstract elements.
Conversely, even in the physical realm of our daily tasks, asks Zellner, how often can one become lost or continue to operate on habitual auto pilot driven by half conscious tendencies?

Criticism 3: The ethics and overuse of VR technology in architecture is addictive causing "virtual fever". VR still remains unessential in our daily lives.

Response 3: The degree in which our global society is being networked is one indication of the ubiquitous nature of VR. Everything from the cell phone, ATM, swiping a credit card, global positioning satellite systems in automobiles, and the Internet are examples of telecommunication networks that affect our daily life. Increasingly in urban contexts, the reliance on technology is becoming more of a necessity. The integration of electronic interfaces in our daily life affects our cogitative response to virtual environments, organization of information, and disembodied navigation.


I think I agree with the necessity of advanced computer applications in helping architects and many other theorists or professionals 'redefine the theory and praxis of architects'.

But I might change my mind.

Or maybe not.