08.05.2018
Blob architecture is a type of wavy, curvy
building design without traditional edges or traditional symmetric form.
It is made possible by computer-aided-design (CAD) software.
American-born architect and philosopher Greg Lynn (b. 1964) is credited
with coining the phrase, although Lynn himself claims the name comes
from a software feature that creates Binary Large Objects.
The
name has stuck, often disparagingly, in various forms, including
blobism, blobismus, and blobitecture. Examples of Blob Architecture
These buildings have been called early examples of blobitecture:
Selfridges Department Store (pictured on this page) in Birmingham, United Kingdom
Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain (designed by Frank Gehry)
Xanadu Houses in Kissimmee, Florida
The Sage Gateshead in Newcastle, UK (designed by Norman Foster)
Admirant Entrance Building in Eindhoven, Netherlands (designed by Massimiliano Fuksas)
Galaxy SOHO in Beijing, China (designed by Zaha Hadid)
The Experience Music Project (EMP) in Seattle, Washington (designed by Frank Gehry)
CAD Design on Steroids
Mechanical
drawing and drafting changed radically with the advent of desktop
computing. CAD software was one of the very first applications to be
used in offices transitioning to personal computer workstations in the
early 1980s. Wavefront Technologies developed the OBJ file (with the
.obj file extension) to geometrically define three-dimensional models.
Greg Lynn and Blob Modeling
Ohio-born
Greg Lynn came of age during the digital revolution. "The term Blob
modelling was a module in Wavefront software at the time," says Lynn,
"and it was an acronym for Binary Large Object — spheres that could be
collected to form larger composite forms. At the level of geometry and
mathematics, I was excited by the tool as it was great for making
large-scale single surfaces out of many small components as well as
adding detailed elements to larger areas."
Other
architects who were the first to experiment with and use blob modeling
include the American Peter Eisenman, British architect Norman Foster,
Italian architect Massimiliano Fuksas, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid and
Patrik Schumacher, and Jan Kaplický and Amanda Levete.
Architectural
movements, such as the 1960s Archigram led by architect Peter Cook or
the convictions of the deconstructionists, are often associated with
blob architecture. Movements, however, are about ideas and philosophy.
Blob architecture is about a digital process — using mathematics and
computer technologies to design. Mathematics and Architecture
Ancient
Greek and Roman designs were based on geometry and architecture. Roman
architect Marcus Vitruvius observed relationships of human body parts —
the nose to the face, the ears to the head — and documented the symmetry
and proportion. Today's architecture is more calculus-based using
digital tools.
Calculus is the
mathematical study of changes. Greg Lynn argues that since the Middle
Ages architects have used calculus — "the Gothic moment in architecture
was the first time that force and motion was thought of in terms of
form." In Gothic details such as ribbed vaulting "you can see that the
structural forces of the vaulting get articulated as lines, so you're
really actually seeing the expression of structural force and form."
"Calculus is also a mathematics of curves. So, even a straight line, defined with calculus, is a curve. It's just a curve without inflection. So, a new vocabulary of form is now pervading all design fields: whether it's automobiles, architecture, products, etc., it's really being affected by this digital medium of curvature. The intricacies of scale that come out of that — you know, in the example of the nose to the face, there's a fractional part-to-whole idea. With calculus, the whole idea of subdivision is more complex, because the whole and the parts are one continuous series." — Greg Lynn, 2005
Today's CAD has enabled the building of
designs that were once theoretical and philosophical movements. Powerful
BIM software now allows designers to visually manipulate parameters,
knowing that Computer Aided Manufacturing software will keep track of
the building components and how they are to be assembled. Perhaps
because of the unfortunate acronym used by Greg Lynn, other architects
such as Patrik Schumacher have coined a new word for new software
by Jackie Craven
