Permanent Change Plastics in Architecture and Engineering

PERMANENT CHANGE PLASTICS IN ARCHITECTURE AND ENGINEERING The FOurth COluMBia CONFerence ON Architecture, engineering and Materials MARCH 30—APRIL 1, 2011 3 4 5 glass concrete metal plastic light… The FOUrth COLUMBIA ScIentIFIC COmmIttee MemBerS Felicity SCOtt Abstract Permanent Change: PLASTICS In COnference ON ArchItectUre, PAOla AntOnelli Director, Program in Critical, ArchItectURE anD EngIneerIng EngIneerIng anD MaterIALS Senior Curator, Department Curatorial and Conceptual Practices Permanent Change: Plastics in of Architecture and Design in Architecture, The Graduate Architecture and Engineering is the The Museum of Modern Art, New York School of Architecture, Planning and Plastics have become the most ubiquitous and increasingly perma- fourth in a series of conferences on Preservation, Columbia University nent materials in construction. The material capabilities of plastics architecture, engineering and mate- Michael Bell both as a generic material nomenclature and as specific polymers rials. Each conference explores the Professor, The Graduate School Werner SOBek boundaries between architecture, of Architecture, Planning and Werner Sobek Engineering and Design, and the processes that underlie them suggest a potential to reshape engineering and materials science by Preservation, Columbia University Stuttgart design and the roles of architects and engineers in construction. bringing together a wide range of lead- Director, Institute for Lightweight While plastics are perhaps the most deeply engineered building ing architects, engineers and scholars Jean-LOuis COhen Structures and Conceptual Design materials today, they are still in their nascent stages of understand- in an intensely focused investigation. Sheldon H. Solow Professor in the (ILEK), University of Stuttgart How is a new generation of profession- History of Architecture, ing in terms of their potential applications and uses. Permanent als and manufacturers fusing engineer- Institute of Fine Arts, New York HeikO TruMPF Change sheds new light on these materials and their implications for ing and architectural practices, and University Engineer, Principal the fields of architecture and engineering. how do new materials and material con- Werner Sobek Engineering and Design, Traced through history, plastics in the overarching sense reveal cepts change our professions? Laurie HawkinsON Stuttgart Professor, The Graduate School aspects that are often completely contrary to assumptions. CONVeneD BY of Architecture, Planning and Mark Wigley Permanent Change undertakes to reexamine the histories and reas- The Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation, Columbia University Dean, The Graduate School sess the futures of polymers, exploring their origins in industry Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) of Architecture, Planning and and science as well as their role in domestic and public realms, up Columbia University Juan HerrerOS Preservation, Columbia University Mark Wigley, Dean Senior Professor and Design Studio through recent advances in composites and the new forms of fabri- Michael Bell, Professor of Architecture, Chair, Escuela Técnica Superior de cation assembly these portend. Materials that originally anticipated Conference Chair Arquitectura, Madrid easily molded, re-formed shapes have become a permanent measure and control point in design. From their means of production to their In COLLABOratION WIth Steven HOll AcaDemIC partnerS: Professor, The Graduate School assembly and to their presence in design, polymers have continually The Fu Foundation School of of Architecture, Planning and been redeployed and developed in ways that often do not align with Engineering and Applied Science Preservation, Columbia University either the early scholarship or technical forecasts of their capabili- Department of Civil Engineering and ties. Plastic, as both broad material nomenclature and specific poly- Engineering Mechanics, Columbia Christian Meyer University Professor, Department of Civil mer, may no longer be capable of sustaining the breadth of cultural Feniosky Peña-Mora, Dean Engineering and Engineering ambitions the term has held at various historical points. As a mate- and Mechanics, Columbia University rial that is still being engineered and increasingly leads to composite Institute for Lightweight Structures The COnference WILL BE assemblies, how are the multiple histories and mediatic aspects of and Conceptual Design (ILEK) GEOrge T. MiddletON accOmpanIED BY INStaLLatIONS: University of Stuttgart, Germany President, George Middleton Plastic Chains its developments being remade? Werner Sobek, Director & Associates Curated by Rosana Rubio Hernández Assisted by adjunct curators EXCLUSIVE SpONSOR Sylvia MOOre Mara Sánchez Llorens and The Vinyl Institute Director of Technical Development, Carlos Fernández Piñar www.vinylinfo.org Shintech, Inc. AirFlow-er and Poly-Columnar www.vinylindesign.com Designed by Yoshiko Sato Jesse Reiser Assisted by Shuning Zhao EXCLUSIVE MEDIA SpONSOR Professor, School of Architecture, and John Hooper The Architect’s Newspaper, New York Princeton University On display in Avery Hall, 100 and www.archpaper.com 200 Levels, March 30–April 1, 2011 2 3 PLASTIC Space: PLASTIC MaterIAL industrial design devices that have became newly personal, bearing private experience. In architecture and engineering the term plastic has historically If the cultural connotations of plastic include artificiality and at referred to aspects of space and form; that is, how building forms times superficiality, the term also connotes all manner of technical become virtually active, complex in shape and contour or visually innovation if not new levels of authentically original modes of expe- compelling as form. In engineering plastic refers to a material’s abil- rience. Plastics are ubiquitous and have increasingly become essen- ity to sustain itself and recover at the limits of its elastic capability. tial to construction and to the entire built world, from transportation Both aspects of the term are deeply historical if not ancient — they to architecture to electronics and equipment. They are as likely to be are fundamental aesthetic and technical aspects of architecture, part of a medical or food production process as embedded in indus- engineering and materials. trial procedures, but they have almost never delivered a capability Yet during the second half of the 19th century, these broader to shape architecture in a fuller sense. In fact, they have seemingly artistic/cultural and technical meanings of the term were essentially become more invisible and have enabled architecture to sublimate revised if not fully replaced. Plastic literally came to mean a new and technical concerns to substrata of performance (weatherproofing, engineered synthetic material rather than the aesthetic or tech- insulation, electrical casing) and consign overall figure and design nical attributes of a material. Polymers dramatically affected the to a host of linguistic signifiers. That is, polymers are doing work historic, i.e., “plastic,” modeling of form, shape and color but also gar- beneath the surface while the surface is free to look like anything it nered the technical capacity afforded by research and development. wants. Yet this is once again changing, as composites — polymers, They are old and unprecedented simultaneously: the hybridization fused with carbon and other materials — are increasingly reshap- of plastic as quality and as as engineered material conflates expe- ing the production of planes and other results of technologically rience and material science and leaves both terms inadequate to sophisticated industrial production, of highly capitalized processes. describe their social meaning and potential.The advent of polymers In these cases we are again at a threshold where polymers are per- and the 100-year evolution of the chemical engineering of polymers haps beginning anew to reshape their own cultural/technical legacy: prior to the 1950s met with a mid-20th-century strain of commer- to revise their promise as both technical and aesthetic revolution cial mass media, mass production and social upheaval that today is in ways that challenge both the design and technical capacities quasi-historical but also still evolving and shaping both culture and of other materials but also the initial waves of design and engi- production. Polymers are everywhere in construction, but they are neering that polymers have activated since the mid-19th century. also not at all evident in architecture in ways that they were prophe- Composites promise change in how things are made and what they sied as recently as the 1950s. What is the state of plastics as both a can do but also in what they look like, what they connote and the net- broader term and also as the more specific strains of polymers that work of professionals who form the development teams. are embedded in building today, and how do the current manifesta- The more precise annotation for what we call plastics, the subset tions relate to the waves of promise that drove much of our last cen- of polymers — vinyl, PVC, resins, to be specific, but more broadly, tury’s fascination with the material? composites and the processes that define their formation — are a With any shape seemingly possible, plastics have often repro- stark contrast to the easy use of the term plastic and the complex duced or mimed existent forms rather than deliver new shapes: range of capabilities for specific materials. Plastics have reshaped aspects of

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