Hybrid – One response in a continuum.

“Because of its dedication to permanence, architecture is one of the last modes of thought based on the inert.” (Lynn, 11)

A consistent theme in the hybrid readings was the existence of a multiplicity of instances along a continuum and the advantages that using a computer in design brings in exploring this way of thinking.

FOA discussed intensive space, a differential space. “A continuous and homogenous space has been traditionally the instrument for flexibility, but intensive space is differentially flexible, which means that it offers multiple conditions in a continuum…”(FOA, 17) Is diversity flexibility?

Greg Lynn discusses non-Cartesian, vector and parameter based forms and describes them as animate. Animation, not to be confused with motion, is an evolution of form based on forces. Our ways of dusing technology itself is an animate form because it can be described in terms fo forces and parameters.
“If there is a single concept that must be engaged due to the proliferation of topological shapes and computer-aided tools, it is that in their structures as abstract machines, these technologies area animate.” (Lynn, 41)

At on point, Lynn discusses the Zoologist Thompson. “Thompson was one of the first scientists to notate gradient forces through deformation, inflection, and curvature. These three terms all involve the registration of force on form.” (26) In an odd coincidence, yesterday in my CE130 class, we derived formulas for deformation, inflection and curvature, each a derivative or integration of the other, derived from the forces, which integrate to find the shear, which integrate to find the moment, again to deflection, again to inflection and then curvature. The differential relationship between these materials to forces and inputs can be applied to a topological architecture. “[T]opology allows for not just the incorporation of a single moment but rather a multiplicity of vectors, and therefore, a multiplicity of times in a single continuous surface.” (Lynn, 13)

Lynn gives a caution though that we would do well to heed. “The challenge for contemporary architectural theory and design is to try to understand the appearance of these tools in a more sophisticated way that as simply a new set of shapes.” (Lynn, 17)

FOA, too, discussed the presense and power of meaninglessness in their design. “What is most interesting about the development of the competition is precisely how factual and “meaningless” the sequence of decisions that led the project was, despite the many associations that have been made between the project and certain philosophical, cultural or formal trends. In fact, we now see that meaninglessness as the order that builds multiple cultural resonances.” (FOA, 9) The meaningless resonates with an international style ideal. A superficiality and neutrality becomes a sort of international code. If a building is so abstracted it flirts with universal appeal.

In the hybrid article, (which begins with a hybrid phrase, ‘Architectural constructions’) this neutrality is addressed in the idea of scale. “Hybrid structures have no authentic recognizable scale, their organization is geared towards allowing function-related expansion and shrinkage and this results in overlaps and non-determinate spaces that flow into each other.” (Hybrid, 80)

Lynn argues that “multiplicity can constitute a cohesive identity.” (84) The one and the many is an age old problem, and one that is opened for exploration by modern computing methods. The challenge is to find multiplicity, neutrality and meaning at once. “Pragmatism is being bred to utopia in the hope that a painless merger between the two can be brought about.” (114) No small order, indeed, but if, as Lynn argues, technology is an animate form, our investigative tools will evolve with our questions, our architecture and ourselves.