Parametricism As Style - Parametricist Manifesto Patrik Schumacher, London 2008
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Parametricism as Style - Parametricist Manifesto Patrik Schumacher, London 2008 Presented and discussed at the Dark new, long wave of research and inno- of a new style’s unique potential, not Side Club , 11th Architecture vation. buildings that are balanced to func- Biennale, Venice 2008 tion in all respects. There can be nei- ther verification, nor final refutation We pursue the parametric design Avant-garde styles might be inter- merely on the basis of its built re- paradigm all the way, penetrating preted and evaluated in analogy to sults. into all corners of the discipline. Sys- new scientific paradigms, affording a The programme/style consists of tematic, adaptive variation, continu- new conceptual framework, and for- methodological rules: some tell us ous differentiation (rather than mere mulating new aims, methods and val- what paths of research to avoid (neg- variety), and dynamic, parametric ues. Thus a new direction for con- ative heuristics), and others what figuration concerns all design tasks certed research work is established. paths to pursue (positive heuristics). from urbanism to the level of tectonic My thesis is therefore: Styles are de- The negative heuristics formulates detail, interior furnishings and the sign research programmes. strictures that prevent the relapse into world of products. Innovation in architecture proceeds via the progression of styles so un- old patterns that are not fully consis- derstood. This implies the alternation tent with the core, and the positive Architecture finds itself at the mid- between periods of cumulative ad- heuristics offers guiding principles point of an ongoing cycle of innova- vancement within a style and revolu- and preferred techniques that allow tive adaptation – retooling the disci- tionary periods of transition between the work to fast-forward in one direc- pline and adapting the architectural styles. Styles represent cycles of in- tion. The defining heuristics of para- and urban environment to the socio- novation, gathering the design re- metricism are fully reflected in the economic era of post-fordism. The search efforts into a collective en- taboos and dogmas of contemporary mass society that was characterized deavor. Stable self-identity is here as avant-gared design culture: by a single, nearly universal con- much a necessary precondition of Negative heuristics: avoid familiar sumption standard has evolved into evolution as it is in the case of organ- typologies, avoid platonic/hermetic the heterogenous society of the mul- ic life. To hold on to the new princi- objects, avoid clear-cut zones/territo- titude. ples in the face of difficulties is cru- ries, avoid repetition, avoid straight cial for the chance of eventual suc- lines, avoid right angles, avoid cor- The key issues that avant-garde ar- cess. This tenacity - abundantly evi- ners, …, and most importantly: do chitecture and urbanism should be dent within the contemporary avant- not add or subtract without elaborate addressing can be summarized in the garde - might at times appear as dog- interarticulations. slogan: organising and articulating matic obstinacy. For instance, the ob- Positive heuristics: interarticulate, the increased complexity of post- stinate insistence of solving every- hyberdize, morph, deterritorialize, fordist society. The task is to develop thing with a folding single surface - deform, iterate, use splines, nurbs, an architectural and urban repertoire project upon project, slowly wrench- generative components, script rather that is geared up to create complex, ing the plausible from the implausi- than model, … polycentric urban and architectural ble – might be compared to the New- fields which are densely layered and tonian insistence to explain every- Parametricism is a mature style. That continuously differentiated. thing from planets to bullets to atoms the parametric paradigm is becoming in terms of the same principles. pervasive in contemporary architec- Contemporary avant-garde architec- “Newton’s theory of gravitation, Ein- ture and design is evident for quite ture is addressing the demand for an stein’s relativity theory, quantum me- some time. There has been talk about increased level of articulated com- chanics, Marxism, Freudianism, are versioning, iteration and mass cus- plexity by means of retooling its all research programmes, each with a tomization etc. for quite a while methods on the basis of parametric characteristic hard core stubbornly within the architectural avant-garde design systems. The contemporary defended, … each with its elaborate discourse. architectural style that has achieved problem solving machinery. Each of The fundamental desire that has pervasive hegemony within the con- them, at any stage of its develop- come to the fore in this tendency had temporary architectural avant-garde ment, has unsolved problems and already been formulated at the begin- can be best understood as a research undigested anomalies. All theories, in ning of the 1990s with the key slogan programme based upon the paramet- this sense, are born refuted and die of “continuous differentiation” . ric paradigma. We propose to call refuted.” The same can be said of Since then there has been both a this style: Parametricism. styles: Each style has its hard core of widespread, even hegemonic dissem- Parametricism is the great new style principles and a characteristic way of ination of this tendency as well as a after modernism. Postmodernism and tackling design problems/tasks. cumulative build up of virtuosity, res- Deconstructivism have been transi- Avant-garde architecture produces olution and refinement within it. This tional episodes that ushered in this manifestos: paradigmatic expositions development was facilitated by the 1 attendant development of parametric in the maintenance of a modernist variables are extremely Gestalt-sensi- design tools and scripts that allow the aesthetics, i.e. using parametric mod- tive. Parametric variations trigger precise formulation and execution of elling to inconspicuously absorb gestalt-catastrophes, i.e. the quantita- intricate correlations between ele- complexity. Our parametricist sensi- tive modification of these parameters ments and subsystems. The shared bility pushes in the opposite direction trigger qualitative shifts in the per- concepts, computational techniques, and aims for a maximal emphasis on ceived order of the configuration. formal repertoires, and tectonic log- conspicuous differentiation. This notion of parametric figuration ics that characterize this work are It is the sense of organized (law-gov- implies an expansion in the types of crystallizing into a solid new hege- erned) complexity that assimilates parameters considered within para- monic paradigm for architecture. One parametricist works to natural sys- metric design. Beyond the usual geo- of the most pervasive current tech- tems, where all forms are the result metric object parameters, ambient niques involves populating modulat- of lawfully interacting forces. Just parameters (variable lights) and ob- ed surfaces with adaptive compo- like natural systems, parametricist server parameters (variable cameras) nents.Components might be con- compositions are so highly integrated have to considered and integrated structed from multiple elements con- that they cannot be easily decom- into the parametric system. strained/cohered by associative rela- posed into independent subsystems – 4. Parametric Responsiveness : tions so that the overall component a major point of difference in com- We propose that urban and architec- might sensibly adapt to various local parison with the modern design tural (interior) environments can be conditions. As they populate a differ- paradigm of clear separation of func- designed with an inbuilt kinetic ca- entiated surface their adaptation tional subsystems. pacity that allows those environments should accentuate and amplify this to reconfigure and adapt themselves differentiation. This relationship be- The following 5 agendas might be in response to the prevalent patterns tween the base component and its proposed here to inject new aspects of use and occupation. The real time various instantiations at different into the parametric paradigm and to registration of use-patterns produces points of insertion in the “environ- push the development of parametri- the parameters that drive the real ment” is analogous to the way a sin- cism further: time kinetic adaptation process. Cu- gle geno-type might produce a differ- 1.Inter-articulation of sub-systems: mulative registration of use patterns entiated population of pheno-types in The ambition is to move from single result in semi-permanent morpholog- response to divers environmental system differentiation – e.g. a swarm ical transformations. The built envi- conditions. of façade components - to the script- ronment acquires responsive agency ed association of multiple subsystems at different time scales. The current stage of advancement – envelope, structure, internal subdi- 5. Parametric Urbanism : within parametricism relates as much vision, navigation void. The differen- The assumption is that the urban to the continuous advancement of the tiation in any one systems is correlat- massing describes a swarm-forma- attendant computational dresign tech- ed with differentions in the other sys- tion of many buildings. These build- nologies as it is due to the designer’s tems. ings form a continuously changing realization of the unique formal and 2. Parametric Accentuation: field, whereby lawful