But what if we can change that by creating new technologies
that can vary the physical properties of matter at a resolution
and sophistication that approaches that of the natural
world? If bricks were smart, buildings would likely weigh less,
generate less carbon, and function more like a body than
a building, accommodating multiple functions in real time.Moshe Safdie is an architect and founder Safdie Architects
TOYO ITO
Design & OrganismTI Your glass pillar installation at the Lexus Design
Event during Salone del Mobile last year was so
beautiful, it is still burned into my mind. Throughout
my career, I have been trying to create architecture
that comes close to natural organisms, architecture
that breathes like fluid. However, there is always
an inexpungible barrier between architecture
and nature because, in this moment, we must still
use geometries when creating architecture. So, I
adopted an approach to create buildings that seem
unconnected with nature at first and then bring
out the artificial nature inside the building. I call
this secondary nature ‘inner nature’. On the other
hand, you are trying to assimilate architecture
with organisms more directly by utilising new
technologies. This pioneering attitude gives me
great encouragement for the future. But, would you
please tell me how you plan on moving closer to this
future dream from the current reality?NEO I love your ‘inner nature’ approach; one that reveres
nature by making a conscious choice to disconnect from
it. It is very Japanese. It is also true that by attempting to
assimilate architectural and organismic construction one
is limited in terms of scale. We are currently exploring
two approaches. On the product scale, we are combining
robotic weaving with biological spinning of silk fibres
in the creation of highly customised textile structures
that exhibit control and tunability over fibre density
and surface thickness without boiling a single cocoon.
Think manufacturing through metamorphosis. On the
architectural scale we are moving away from biological
organisms and towards biological materials. For example,
we have recently completed a circa 5m structure made
almost entirely of biocompatible materials including shrimp
shells and corn starch. Our technology – entitled Water-
based Digital Fabrication – enables the use of water as the
driver for mechanical and property variation. The structure
is composed of environmentally responsive bio-composites
made of the most abundant materials on our planet(cellulose, chitosan, and pectin). In life, these materials
modulate their properties in response to light, heat and
humidity; in death, they dissociate in water to fuel new
life, eliminating the need and use of plastic along the way.
On urban scales we are starting to explore the implications
of glass 3D-printing across architectural and urban scales.
The technology was developed in our lab with the goal of
ultimately printing full-scale architectural façades for solar
harnessing. Since our glass printer enables the design and
production of structures that function like optical lenses,
we may be able to revisit the design and engineering of smart
glass façades in environmentally meaningful ways. Also
on the urban scale we have recently completed a project
exploring the utilisation of a swarm of robots that work
together to build a structure larger than themselves.Digital fabrication is at the heart of a new age where
technique and expression unite and we are committed
to nourishing the special relationship between matter
and the environment.Toyo Ito is an architect and founder of Toyo Ito & Associates
PAOLA ANTONELLI
Design & BeautyPA In the ten-plus years I have known you,
through all your different technological and
scientific investigations, aesthetic intention
has remained a constant. The fact that all your
experiments generate – simply put – beautiful
demo artifacts can be neither happenstance
nor biological consequence. What is the role of
formal elegance in your work? What kind of
beauty do you strive for, and at what point of the
process does that striving begin?NEO Formal elegance (a beautiful sunset) is just as
relevant here as intellectual elegance (the Constitution of
United States of America) or organisational consistency
(architecting the United Nations); it embodies the value
system it represents, and represents the value system it
embodies to the point where form is function. And where
choices regarding genus and typeface are equally important.The Greek origin for the term, Kallos, denotes ‘goodness’
or ‘possessing fine quality’ and has a broader meaning than
the ‘gladness of the senses’ (Sontag). In transcending the
common definition of beauty as one that relates to physical
or material beauty, beauty becomes a ‘suitcase word’ like
intelligence or sensitivity. It exists as a continuum arranged
on a scale of value. »332 ∑
Neri Oxman