Digital Morphogenesis
by Banko Kolarevic

In recent years new digital design technology has started a revolution in architecture. The advances in design on the computer have created new tools for architects to use to create more diverse and complex structures. Today architects are able to build structures with amazing accuracy that only decades before would have been impossible. Banko Kolarevic argues in his essay "Digital Morphogenesis" that digital design as helped transform and progress the architecture profession to new heights. I agree that the use of computer designed buildings bring a new level of sophistication to architecture, as well as helping to build structures that are more efficient, and cheaper and faster to construct.
Kolarevic begins his discussion about digital design by talking about revolutionary buildings of the industrial age. He points to the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Crystal Palace in London as buildings that helped start a revolution in iron and steel design. He says that this is architecture adapting to new technology. He then points out that digital design technology is very similar to these iconic structures of the industrial age as it allows us to use our new technology to produce buildings once thought impossible. Kolarevic is correct in his assessment. Digital design is allowing architects to enter a whole new world of building design. Architects can now create shapes and distort forms that would have been to complex a generation before. Look a Frank Gehry's work at the Guggenheim Museum in Spain. The unconventional shape of the building could only have been produced on a computer and without a computer it would have been almost impossible to create the construction documents.
The revolution is moving architects from creating boxes to creating "blobs." This movement Kolarevic argues is a change to a more intelligent building. As we use computers the precision of our construction will increase, this allows us to build structures that aren't subjected to the constraints of a basic structural system. This is a massive release for architects. Architects now have more freedom over their design work as the structural systems that can be built advance tremendously.
The design process has also changed in this revolution. No longer does the architect work so strongly in plan and section. Now an architect has the ability to design with 3-D modeling and perspectives. Borrowing a design tools from ship builders (who work almost exclusively in model and 3-D form) architects can now work on all aspects of the building at one time. This simplified process allows the architect to deal with forces and problems faster and with a better understanding of what is going on. The designer also has the ability to take risks with designs that can easily be corrected at a later date. The form of the structure also begins to take a more important role. Now an architect can work with form while working in plan, meaning he can give a form a more meaningful purpose in relationship to the plan. Architects also have the ability to distort a form creating unstable curvilinear forms. This level of complexity is interesting, but the architect now must edit. The architect must edit his work to make sure the form doesn't overwhelm the function.
Kolarevic, make a strong point about the future of the digital revolution. The production of "Blobs" is interesting today, but if architects don't edit and redesign their work to complete functional tasks then their the novelty of their work won't survive. "Blobs aren't enough," Kolarevic says and he is right. Architects have been given great new tools to build structures inconceivable 100 years ago, but if they can't preform functions beyond their facades then they are doomed to fail. The new forms created by the computer should still follow the motto "form follows function." We should use the computer to progress our designs and create better buildings, not just use this new technology to entertain ourselves with interesting forms.