Elizabeth Grosz: Architecture from the Outside: "The Future of Space: Toward an Architecture of Invention"

In her essay on the future of space in architecture, Elizabeth Grosz discusses the common ground between the study of architecture and the study of philosophy. This common ground, which forms the basis of her essay, is the idea of the new or virtual, the latent or becoming. Architecture is described as the art and science of the manipulation of space. This manipulation of space must occur through time, and use two kinds of time. One of these kinds of time being time that comes before space and time, the idea of a space-time difference. This difference gives rise to the idea that space does not evolve over time, but that space evolves from time. In order for this idea to hold, the idea of time as a succession from past to present is re-presented as past and present needing to be in contact with one another, existing simultaneously; the present and it's past exist together, present succeeds present, past succeeds past. The past as memory is a virtual representation of that which formed the present. The past is the virtual, while the present is the real. The virtual derives its limits from the real, while the real embodies these limits. The past is dependent on the present and vice-versa. The two must touch in order for one to "travel" to the past, the virtual. To travel to different points in the past, one often must return to the present. It is the dependency the provides for the evolution of space.

To apply this to architecture, one would have to define what constitutes the real in architecture, and what constitutes the virtual. The virtual of architecture is plans, sections, perspectives, etc. The real of architecture is the built environment. The virtual must follow the limits of the built world in order to be viable as a built form. The built world must evolve from ideas represented by the elements of the virtual world. The virtual and real constantly interact. The experiences in the world of the real inform the planning of the virtual, and the experiences in the virtual inform the world of the real, allowing each to evolve. New forms are derived from old forms, adapted to new desires. This reinforces the idea that everything in architecture has been done already, in some way or form, and what is considered "new" is merely an interpretation of that which already exists. The evolution of the virtual is based in the rules of the real. Current technologies allow the virtual to take many new forms through the complex math this technology can utilize. However, the limits of the real, such as the ability of a form to stand through time, remain in place. The virtual adapts to these limits in ways it could not before, and thus allowing the built world to do the same. The real and virtual worlds continue to evolve within themselves, and from each other, constantly molding the ways in which architecture forms space.