Iteration 34-V.2
I’ve recently been looking
at a lot of the work created by Lebbeus Woods, an architect who passed away
about a year ago. He has always inspired me, but I have never had a chance to
take that inspiration to the next level…..until now. I’ve been studying a lot
of his work, and perhaps one of the most intriguing aspects of his work, it
seems to me, was that he was not interested in what the finished product was…or
if he was, he wanted the finished product to be determined by the design
process, without any pre-conceptions. For Lebbeus Woods, the art of design was
about discovering the unknown, through the creative process, rather than using a process to
reach a pre-determined solution. It almost seems as if he wanted to liberate
architectural form, idea and theories from the pre-conceptions and
deterministic thinking that continually generate a recognizable product of
architecture.
In that spirit, I began to
explore different processes that eliminate a target destination (a finished
product in which all decisions are made to achieve a preconceived target idea).
Essentially the goal was (is) to explore processes in which the end product is discovered during the
process, evolving from internal factors and forces found within that process. This is the first post of what I hope to be many, that I will share a few studies employing processes where the end result, the product, is not a
target destination but rather a discovery….. …….Thank you Mr. Woods for the
inspiration!
Image Interpretation Series
This process employed the
under-layment of an image, and evolving a product from the interpretation of the
data contained within the image. While there is a “signature” element (evidence
of my involvement in the process) within the compositions, the original essence
of the image remains.
The Path
The Abstracted Path
Sangre De Christo Arts Center, HGF Architects
SDC-Iteration 33
Falling Water, Frank Lloyd Wright
FW-Final Iteration
So what have I discovered? While the process eliminates a target destination, it does not necessarily eliminate pre-conceptions. In these cases, the pre-conception is the image itself. The image, or more specifically, the information or data contained within the image influences the process much the same way as a pre-conception does. Regardless of the decisions I make through the process, the DNA if you will, of the original image is always present. This is not necessarily a negative outcome to the process, just a realization that in deed "the apple doesn't fall from the tree".
On the other hand the cover photo, Iteration 34-v.2, was essentially generated and evolved from SDC-Iteration 33, and it would be pretty difficult identifying that as a product generated from the original image( Sangre De Christo Arts Center). So what does that mean? If I do enough iterations, will the product evolve and mutate into something where the original seed (the image in this case) is unrecognizable? That process sounds vaguely familiar and Darwinian.
In terms of the larger picture and many of the issues that Lebbeus Woods was intrigued by, I think I have a better understanding now of his complete body of work. It seems to me that he was searching for methods, indeed a process, that kept the study, the theory, the practice and the reality of Architecture dynamic. Lebbeus Woods recognized that if the input(program, challenge, question, goal, etc) is always processed exactly the same way, each and every time, the output( solution, product, answer), is destined to be the same, each and every time. Without exploration and the discovery of possibilities that exist outside the realm of conventional thought;Without investigating and exploring the creative process; then the whole of Architecture is destined to be a stagnant existence, void of any true evolution. That is the underlying genius of Lebbeus Woods, and I am forever grateful and continually inspired by that genius.
This is the first in a series of posts regarding Discovery through Process. More to come………………
RBP
2.7.14
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