The un-diagrammed parts in diagrams: doppler effect, emergence, parallax, and traces
The success of diagrammatic architecture lies in the un-diagrammed parts of the diagram. Diagramatic architecture is produced faithfully according to diagrams. They engage society with a firm agenda and prevent it from slipping into social flux. Yet actual existence is a continual transformation, a temporal duration whose meaning is continually being decided. Doppler effect, emergence, parallax, and traces converge at the adaptive process and heterogeneity that cannot be accommodated by a single and fixed diagram. The success of diagrammatic architecture lies in the last gesture that creates blank space in the diagram. Therefore, in the Seattle Library, Koolhaas firstly disturbed his diagrammatic blocks and then put the blocks in a loose metal net.
I like your example because Koolhaas’s diagramming is so iconic to his design process. It is hard to recognize his buildings just visually by themselves but if showed a concept diagram they register as his. His proposal for Parc de la Villette with the various layers and stripes running through the site is such a digestable concept when shown the plans. His clear concepts are reflective of how he wants the user and lay person to understand his project. “What the OMA process focuses on is not the creator but the critic. In our way of working, the important person is the one who is shown various options and then makes a critical decision. The result is better architecture.”
ReplyDelete— Rem Koolhaas
I second your comment, Koolhass's work can only make sense when reading together with diagrams.
ReplyDelete