Hybrid/Animation

Hybrid/Animation

Anders Rotstein

Un studio/van Berkel describes hybridization as “An intense fusion of construction, materials, circulation and programme spaces creates uncertainty as to the exact properties of the components from which these structures are assembled; they are hybrids which don’t know their history”(p79). Further on in the reading it is suggested that the hybrid structures have no authenticity and is created from function related expansion and shrinkage put of flows instead of programme spaces. The Manimal, a hybrid between lion and man, is the icon of the hybridization. The relationship between author and technique, relation to time and the relation of component part to whole are of high importance. The process of hybridisation is also described as a mutation over time.

Gregg Lynn describes animation as the evolution of form. It is very similar to hybridization but it is still ongoing, possibly never-ending. I especially liked a part in the “animate form” reading on page 19-20 where Lynn suggest how architects should see the cad-software to get rid of their “ethic of stasis”: “instead of approaching the computer as either a brain or nature, the computer might be considered as a pet. Like a pet, the computer has already been domesticated and pedigreed, yet it does not behave with human intelligence” and “one can cultivate an intuition into the behaviour of computer-aided design systems and the mathematics behind them.” I find the “animate form” reading as a great pedagogic work. It clarifies some of my misunderstandings from last years 101 with Anthony Bourke. Lynn puts the problem of stasis in focus and force upon the need for architecture of the early 21^st century to find ways to incorporate time and force. It would have helped me a lot I would have read these readings in the beginning of last semester.