greg lynn_ probable geometries [1] and blob tectonics [2]

[1] “anti-architecture” “nonconstructive gestures” “against architecture” “anti-form”; a resistance to exact geometries, a rejection of eidetic forms; in support of incompleteness, undecidability, amorphousness, vagueness

lynn argues that ideal proportions in architecture are incapable of describing corporeal matter. anexact yet rigorous geometries can be described with local precision yet cannot be wholly reduced. biomedical image processing uses the “random section model” of probable geometry to measure shapes and shape changes. architectural process is contrasted with the scientific approach which begins with the amorphous. architecture is criticized as beginning with ideal geometries that do not embody or symbolize anything rather occupy a provisional relationship to the matter they describe.

true, architecture does not seem to begin with defining anything, rather it begins with ideas about site, space, program, qualities of a building, etc, all of which are at the whim of the designer. lynn is advocating starting with pure form. a definable something. exploitation of geometric probability as a foundational position in architecture. lynn is clearly stating his preference for architectural theory, design methodology and ultimate form. [a digital aesthetic culture]

probability: scripting?
discrete probability: known anticipation? always symmetrical?

idea: something being “more or less” of a known geometric form; the resistance of biological structures to geometric exactitude. the morphology of a shape due to adjacent pressures, distension, compression of exterior forces. random section analysis. applied to architecture: is it ambiguity for ambiguity sake? the rebuttal of venturi’s “both, and”?

[2] blobs. blobs. they can only offer architecture its antithesis. blobs cannot be reduced to a typological essence, no 2 are identical. their form and organization is contextually intensive and dependent on exigent conditions for internal organization. they are detached from place, but capable of melding with their contexts. [melding as in merging with?] a blob is all surface: the interior and exterior is continuous.

it’s the “sort of, not really” form.

this theory of complexity abandons both the single and the multiple in favor of a series of continuous multiplicities and singularities. complexity as the fusion of various systems into an assemblage that behaves as a singularity while remaining irreducible to any single simple organization.

“halos of relational influence”: zone of fusion, zone of inflection
an organization of simplicity and stability, the result of which is more complex and unstable

at the end of this essay, again, lynn advocates starting with something that is known, a known form. he is explicit in stating that tectonics and construction techniques should be developed simultaneously with form.