Greg Lynn: Animate Form

In this article, Lynn discusses animation and it's applications in architecture. The first point to be made is the difference between animation and motion. While the two are often confused, motion pertains to actual movement and action, while animation shows the evolution of a form through a series of still images that give the illusion of motion. (One could say animation can be a re-presentation of motion.) The problem architects have with animation lies in the fact that architects deal in statics; buildings are designed with the intent of lasting forever, though it is rare for a building to be preserved for anything grand duration of time. While animation is different from the fundamentals of architecture, it can inform architecture in a way that could help advance the discipline.

An architect typically works in an environment based off of a Cartesian coordinate system, while other design fields deal with space as an environment with forces and motion. While physical forms are often conceived of in terms of statics, the forces of the environment can help inform how these forms take shape. An example would be the design of airplanes. The form of airplanes are meant to adjust air pressure in a way that allows the vehicle to lift off the ground. The forces themselves do not change the form of the plane, but an understanding of these forces helped influence the design. As the airplane was designed, so may architectural form, though this would still leave the forms themselves static.

Stasis and architecture are linked through the ideas of permanence, usefulness, typology, procession, and verticality. However, these ideals are often more theory than practice. Permanence is one example. Buildings are built with an intent to last forever, but more often than not, they are built to last for a relatively short time, through techniques that foster obsolescence, dismantling, ruination, recycling, and abandonment. Another problem related to statics in architecture is fixed functionality. Buildings are often designed for a specific set of functions, making it difficult to adapt a building through time. A potential solution to this problem would be the implementation of controlled multi-type buildings with enough flexibility to provide for many potentials within a building.

(I believe the ideals of permanence and flexible building programs would greatly benefit from animation. Animations could be used in conjunction with physics to test a buildings ability to stand through time and survive a set of factors known to degrade a building over time. With respect to flexible program design, animations could be used to test a building's ability to support multiple functions within, and potentially provide for functions well beyond the building's primary functions. Both ideals work with each other, with flexible design fostering permanence, and permanence providing for the introduction of new functions compatible with the building design.)

Architecture survived as the last refuge for the flat earth society with respect to the general understanding of gravity as a straightforward, unchanging vertical force. While structure to force and gravity relationships are numerous and interrelated, architects continue to cling to the ideal of buildings standing as vertical structures. This truth leaves buildings open to being about down by wind and other lateral loads that have the potential to be much greater than the forces gravity exerts. These forces have the potential to generate uplift in lighter buildings. While architects and engineers do not ignore these facts, they are still bound by the base assumption that buildings are vertical structures.

Animation can provide a set of parameters and statistics to generate architectural form. While many architects would not be so bold as to allow an animation based in mathematics to design a building for them, these forms can provide the groundwork for new forms in architecture. The forms generated may be abstract, or may create a symbol for a culture. These processes could yield what can be described as an abstract machine, and a concrete assemblage. As an abstract machine, these structures are both a technological statement and a symbol, but not as either one or the other. As a concrete assemblage, these structures represent the movements and organization of elements based in reality. A computer keyboard is an example of that which is a concrete assemblage and abstract machine. It is a concrete assemblage in that it is a physical piece of technology, and an abstract machine in that the key placements were determined via an open algorithm determining efficiency in typing out the words of the past, present, and future versions of the English language. The potential of using these algorithms in informing architectural design can lead to buildings that can be described as animate rather than static.