PARAMETRIC EQUATIONS DEFINE A RELATIONSHIP USING PARAMETERS. A PARAMETER IS A QUANTITY THAT SERVICES TO RELATE FUNCTIONS AND VARIABLES USING A COMMON VARIABLE, WHEN SUCH A RELATIOSHIP WOULD BE DIFFICULT TO EXPLICATE WITH AN EQUATION. PARAMETERS ARE PRESENT IN NATURE, FOR EXAMPLE HERODUTUS DESCRIBES THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PREDATOR AND PREY AS A PARAMETRIC RELATIONSHIP. SOME SMALL CHANGE IN A PARTICULAR PARAMETER, FOR EXAMPLE POPULATION, WILL BE CORRECTED BY ‘NEGATIVE FEEDBACK’ THAT ENSURES THE PARAMETRIC EQUATION IS ALWAYS IN BALANCE, OR STATE OF EQUILIBRIUM. HENCE THE NUMBER OF PREDATORS NEVER EXCESSIVELY OUTNUMBERS THEIR PREY. THIS LED TO THE ‘BALANCE OF NATURE’ THEORY. THERE ARE OTHER EXAMPLES IN NATURE FOR EXAMPLE HERBIVORES AND THEIR FOOD SOURCE. PARAMETERS PROVIDE A SENSE OF ORDER IN THE COMPLEX WORLD, THEY ARE A WORKING SYSTEM. LE CORBUSIER BEGAN ‘THE CITY OF TOMORROW’ WITH THE EULOGY, “MAN WALKS IN A STRAIGHT LINE BECAUSE HE HAS A GOAL AND KNOWS WHERE HE IS GOING; HE HAS MADE UP HIS MIND TO REACH SOME PARTICULAR PLACE AND HE GOES STRAIGHT TO IT. THE PACK-DONKEY MEANDERS ALONG, MEDITATES A LITTLE IN HIS SCATTER-BRAINED AND DISTRACTED FASHION, HE ZIG-ZAGS IN ORDER TO AVOID LARGER STONES, OR TO EASE THE CLIMB, OR TO GAIN A LITTLE SHADE; HE TAKES THE LINE OF LEAST RESISTANCE.” LE CORBUSIER ARGUED THAT MAN CONQUERED NATURE BY INVENTING THE STRAIGHT LINE AND THE RIGHT ANGLE. THIS WAS A CONCEPT OF ORDER AS BLACK AND WHITE, A CLASSICAL VIEW THAT ALL NATURE CAN BE REFERENCED BY CLASSICAL GEOMETRY AND STRAIGHTFORWARD RELATIONSHIPS. LE CORBUSIER BEGAN TO RECOGNISE THE SPIRIT OF ORDER IN CHAOS, AND THAT THE DONKEY’S PATH COULD NOT BE DEFINED BY THE SCIENCE OF HIS DAY, BUT THAT THERE WAS SOME LOGICAL PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING IT. IT WAS NOT UNTIL FREI OTTO’S EXPERIMENTATION WITH SETTLEMENT PATTERNS, USING MAGNETS FLOATING IN WATER AND POLYSTYRENE CHIPS. HE WAS ABLE TO RECOGNISE AND MEASURE THE ‘DISTANCE AND ATTRACTIVE OCCUPATIONS’ AROUND THE FLOATING MAGNETIC NEEDLE, THAT IS, THE CHIPS MAINTAINED A CERTAIN DISTANCE AMONG THEMSELVES. THIS IS NOT DISSIMILAR FROM TYPICAL URBAN SETTLEMENT PATTERNS FOUND IN REAL URBAN LANDSCAPES. FREI OTTO’S RESEARCH HAS SINCE TAUGHT US TO RECOGNISE, MEASURE AND SIMULATE THE COMPLEX PATTERNS OF SELF-ORGANISATION, THAT IS, THE DONKEY’S PATH. TODAY’S PARAMETRIC EXPLORATIONS GIVE MORE CREDIT TO THE DONKEY’S PATH, AS A WAY OF UNDERSTANDING THE COMPLEX RATIONALITY IT HOLDS, ITS UNDERLYING PATTERN, THAT COULD NOT PREVIOUSLY BE UNDERSTOOD USING CLEAR, SIMPLE GEOMETRIES.INSPIRED BY OTTO & LE CORBUSIER’S EARLY WORK, WE WANT TO UNDERSTAND THE ‘PATTERNS’ BEHIND SEEMINGLY RANDOM, CHAOTIC ARRANGEMENTS. ARCHITECTURE AT PRESENT IS MARKED BY A PROLIFERATION OF CONTENT AND COMSUMPTION. PRESENTLY WE ARE IN AN ERA OF POST-FORDISM; NEW DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES & ECONOMIES.“ARCHITECTURE IS CALLED UPON TO ORGANISE AND ARTICULATE THE INCREASED COMPLEXITY OF POST-FORDIST SOCIETY.”PARAMETRICISM IS FAST BECOMING THE DOMINANT STYLE IN ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE TODAY, PARTICULARLY AVANTE-GARDE PRACTICE, AS A WAY OF ORGANISING INCREASINGLY COMPLEX DATA. PATRIK SCHUMACHER EXPLORES PARAMETRICISM AND THESE IDEAS IN, ‘PARAMETRICISM, A NEW GLOBAL STYLE FOR ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN.’HE WRITES OF ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS WHO USE PARAMETRICISM TO COMPOSE URBAN FABRICS, OF TOWER AND PERIMETER BLOCK FORMS. AT CERTAIN NETWORK CROSSING POINTS, THE QUADRANT BLOCK SYSTEM ASSIMILATES WITH THE TOWER SYSTEM, TO FORM A TOWER FORM.THE IDEA THAT AT CERTAIN POINTS > SOMETHING IS TRIGGERED TO OCCUR. AN EXAMPLE OF THIS IS KARTAL-PENDIK MASTERPLAN, INSTANBUL, TURKEY, 2006.INSPIRED BY THIS TEXT WE SEEK TO CONTROL THE BEHAVIOUR OF ARCHITECTURAL SPATIAL PROGRAMMES THROUGH PARAMETRIC EQUATIONS. THESE MATHEMATICAL EQUATIONS ARE DEFINED BY THEIR OVERALL GROSS VOLUME, AS A CONSTRAINT, WHICH ALLOWS THE INTERNAL VOLUMES TO ACCOMMODATE ANY USER CHANGES. OUR GROSS VOLUMES AND RATIOS ARE DEFINED BY THE SUCCESSFUL BUILDING TYPOLOGIES WE MEASURED AND DEFINED. THIS PROVIDES A FRAMEWORK FOR EXPLORATION, OR AN INSTRUMENT FOR MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SPACES.SUCCESSFUL BUILDING TYPOLOGIES BECOME CATALYSTS FOR FORM GENERATION.YET, A USER, OR ARCHITECT, IS STILL REQUIRED TO COMPLETE THE PROCESS…
'PARAMETRICISM, A NEW GLOBAL STYLE FOR ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN', PATRICK SCHUMACKER, IN ARCHITECTURE DESIGN, 'DIGITIAL CITIES', Vol 79, No 4, July/August 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment