(Image from 'Content', Blob vs. Box, p.70-71, AMO/OMA)

Blob

Energy Bar: Draws on advances in theory, mathematics and computing
Power Moves: Fluidity, Asymmetry, Biomorphism, Structural Dynamics, Multiplicity

Box

Energy Bar: Draws on intuitive appeal of orthogonality
Power Moves: Rationality, Golden Mean, Universality, Exactitude

Blob WINS

The blob wins because he’s fat

…and whatever else he wants to be. He gets to be whatever he wants because he lives in the digital realm. Look at that pathetic karate guy. You know exactly what he is going to do. He can only jump so high and those things that he shoots can only go so fast. He doesn’t have a chance.

Not enough architects have the courage to stray from the surety of hard lines and cardboard models. “Why does architecture dwell exclusively on the probable when it can dwell on the improbable?” (Architecture and Hygiene - Adam Kalkin p. 136) Improbability in architecture first exists in things digital. Its translation into built architecture often removes its intrigue. Can an architect truthfully promise the exciting things he shows you on his laptop?

The purpose of this blog is to explore the boundaries of architecture by way of digital design. Is a space better appreciated when a user can explore it before it is built? Many architects have turned to digital renderings and animations as a way of exciting the client. Is The Turning Torso as exciting as it appears in the digital realm?




How is this discrepancy justified? Is there a way to regulate it; or does it matter?

I will attempt to answer these questions over the course of the next 20 posts; I will resort to modern and historical precedents, user interaction response, and experimentation in different forms of media.