Complex Geometries, Different Technologies

Complex geometries in architecture may seem like an invention of the digital age, but for many years architects have been designing and constructing buildings that contain significant complex elements. Gaudi’s Sagrada Familiar demonstrates that complex forms could be created as early as 1882. Utzon’s world heritage listed Sydney Opera House, 1957 – 1973, is one of the most significant examples of organic architecture before the use of computers. Gehry’s Vitra Design Museum in 1990 eluded to the fluid forms that he wanted to create, but was unable calculate or realise, even with the very basic computational resources available to architects at the time.

As more developed countries become more capable of using complex geometries as an effective way to produce built structures. Developing countries are finding it harder to produce and reap the benefits of CAD and CAM technologies, due to the overall difficulty to adapt culturally to relying on machines and fear of the high costs these types of strategies can imply. An example of how this type of technology was mixed with a manual fabrication of space was with a student at IAAC drawing countless number of plans to be able to produce a design made digitally (center images, Contemporary Urban- Chris Lee Architects).
A catalyst of this type of technology would greatly benefit the social housing and customization of the built environment in either poverty stricken areas or even refugee camps. The Instant House proves to be an interesting take on the ongoing problem of housing in a limited time frame. Its use of prefabricated elements mixed with digitally modified and fabricated ones; make it a good example of the direction where this type of technology could be utilized in the third world.

In many ways, architecture as it enters the 21th Century, stands at a cusp. The development of new technologies of design and construction combined with the introduction of revolutionary new building materials means that many of the utopic dreams of the mid-20th Century dismissed then as fantasies can now be realised. Architects can design, and build, ever more complex forms, new typologies of buildings, radical structures.
In the last years, we can see the new buildings which are built by architects like NOX, Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas and Herzog de Meuron which show us the next step of architecture. Now we can see the first future visions which are designed make such a big step into the future. The most of them are just in the moment only concepts which are published in the internet, but we can be sure some of them will be built.

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New territories, Welcome to the future, Building ideas, Fluent bodies, fluent times, fluent places, Omnispace,