Ingeborg Rocker: "Versioning: Evolving Architectures - Dissolving Identities 'Nothing is as Persistent as Change'"

In the article "Versioning: Evolving Architectures - Dissolving Identities 'Nothing is as Persistent as Change,'" Ingeborg Rocker discusses the evolution of presenting ideas in architecture. Frank Gehry and Peter Eisenman are the earliest precursors of the development of technology as a means of informing and altering architectural production. Both architects look at the two pieces of this technology puzzle, the conceptual and programmatic implications of the digital medium; however, neither one of the two consider both at the same time. Rocker defines versioning in architecture that links software configuration management and engineering data management, establishing architecture as a processual data-design, continually processing projection and convergence; architecture evolves through the process of different/ciation. Differentiation is the precursor to any presentation. The precursor of differentiation is different/ciation; behind it, there is nothing. Differentiation is necessary for any difference. Differences are fundamental to evolution in architecture through versioning. Differentiation is part of the process of repetition. Repetition in this instance is not repetition of the same, but repetition of difference. This ongoing repetition is the engine to this evolution of architecture.

Versioning as a system of integration is becoming more prominent in the architecture profession today. This integration of the different design elements is a fundamental of BIM, Building Information Modeling. Versioning and BIM bring together the different members and aspects of the design process to work together and produce a more refined product. At its highest level, the virtual realm of BIM and versioning imitates reality to its details. This is reality in the virtual realm. The difference between reality in the virtual realm and virtual reality is that in the former, all the rules of reality are near perfectly imitated as best as they are currently understood, while the latter typically holds to a specific set of rules aimed at creating one or few specific representations. This reality in the virtual realm allows for a new step in the design process. While versioning and different/ciation in design are not a guarantee for positive developments, the lessons learned through versioning and different/ciation in BIM and other applications can be used to make adjustments to design that were previously only possible through physical construction.