Paperless Studios and the Articulation between the Analogue and the Digital: Geometry as Transformation of Architecture’s Ontology

Abstract

The paper, at a first place, sheds light on the epistemological mutations that are related to the emergence of the paperless studios at Columbia University’s GSAPP. The paperless studios, which were conceived in 1992, established a new set of terms for the ongoing conversation on the role of digital tools in architecture. The aim is to trace how new concepts of spatiality emerged thanks to the experimentation with geometry, on the one hand, and virtual reality, which was made possible because of the combination of diverse software, on the other hand. The objective is to show how this experimentation with the digital tools should be understood beyond their formalistic characteristics, since their very force lies in their capacity to transform architectural artefacts’ ontological status. At a second place, the paper presents three case studies – Greg Lynn’s Embryological House (1997-2001), Asymptote Architecture’s 3DTF Virtual Trading Floor (VTF) (1997- 1999), commissioned by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Securities Industry Automation Corporation (SIAC), and dECOi’s Aegis Hyposurface (1999-2001) – in order to make explicit how such an ontological transformation takes place. Two issues that are are: firstly, the mutation of the ontological status of the architectural artefact because of the fact that the form is generated through the use of digital tools; secondly, the implications of the possibility of real-time data visualisation for the reconceptualization of the notion of spatiality. The objective is to render explicit in which sense digital design tools and the hybrid use of software and hardware provide the conditions for more mutable and open-ended generative processes than those provided by conventional methods of architectural design. The distinction between the term “digital” and the term “computation” is pivotal for grasping the epistemological mutations that are pinpointed here, in the sense that the former refers to a kind of state of being, or a condition, while the latter concerns active processes. Additionally, the interaction between the physical, the virtual and the augmented reality and the real-virtual relationship in the case of augmented reality are among the issues that are addressed in thispaper. Special attention is paid to the importance of the articulation between the analogue and the digital for the execution of the projects.