Physical form, according to D’Arcy Thompson, is the resolution at one instant of time of many forces that are governed by rates of change. In the urban context the complexity of these forces often surpasses human comprehension. A machine, meanwhile, could procreate forms that respond to many hereto un-manageable dynamics. Such a colleague would not be an omen of professional retirement but rather a tickler of the architect’s imagination, presenting alternatives of form possibly not visualized or not visualizable by the human designer .
— Nicholas Negroponte. The Architecture Machine. Cambridge : MIT Press, 1970
SUSTAINABILITY AND PARAMETRICS
5-10 years ago when architects would talk about digital design, the conversation would revolve around the box and the blob. Always the characterization was of the box buiding with substance and the blob building (as all computer assisted design was labelled) with a misguided play of libido/branding/ and consumerism masquerading in a field where people once dealt with serious problems. Also the argument was that digital design inherently unsustainable.(…)
