Versioning

response to Versioning: Evolutionary Techniques in Architecture

SHoP

SHoP begins their introduction by providing a definition for versioning as "an operative term to describe recent, significant shift in the way architects and designers are using technology to expand... the potential effects of design on our world." I appreciated their introduction as it cut to the chase and provided a robust overview of this idea of 'versioning'. Before this reading, I was not exposed to this ideology that has formed from current technological advancements, or as SHop put it, "an attitude not ideology." 

The idea of testing and adapting sets of conditions is similar to Angelil's view of education as research oriented-- designed by probing questions and challenging norms. SHoP views this approach as a "process product" where the focus is on the fabrication process rather than a final image, also similar to Angelil's critique of architecture's focus on object. "Here the form, the forces that shape it, and the assemblage of materials in which we execute the ideology are part of the same gesture."

SHoP's Dunescape at MoMA PS1

Office dA

Monica Ponce de Leon and Nader Tehrani

Representing their approach to versioning as a reciprocal and codependent relationship between surface and space allows the exploration of the relationship between geometry and tectonic systems. Their goal is to have the skin and interior space(s) of buildings to read as one, rather than two separate systems. For most of architectural history, these two can be seen as separate systems, as discussed, such as load-bearing Renaissance construction in which the facade is read as an applique pasted onto a heavy building mass. 

"Precision becomes the operative technique for manipulating the membrane that materialises or represents the contents of the spaces of buildings." This idea was illustrated through Kahn's Exeter Library and Eladio Dieste's Church of Christ the Worker. Kahn uses the unit of a brick as patterning, but it becomes a system independent of the structural system, whereas Dieste combines surface and space into a singular entity, yet the geometry of the tectonic units is sacrificed. Geometry and patterning are in opposition in both of these works. Office dA attempts to address these simultaneously, such as the example they give of  their Hookah bar at Mantra. Plywood 'bricks' are employed as the unit of structure. This might simplify the relationship between geometry and tectonics, but it complicates its reading. The beauty I see in Dieste's Church is the advanced geometry used to create a skin simplistic in materiality yet rich in character and experience.