The second came with the industrial revolution and particularly the industrialization of building materials, which uprooted the individual piece of architecture from its unique position stemming from the genius loci into a universal solution to be enacted at will at any given location only with minor adjustments for local peculiarities. This in effect created a proliferation of architecture with standardized components and had a profound effect on the scale and volume of buildings erected. Essentially, architecture was rediscovered as a commodity at an industrial scale. The overwhelming mass was balanced by a loss of uniqueness, which was not without its side-effects.
The third revolution is the digital. Curiously, it had almost no physical effects upon the built environment, at least compared to the first two. Whereas the first had left its mark in creating shelters where there were none before and the second fundamentally enlarged the stock of built matter, the material effects of the third are miniscule to the point of being invisible. And yet, as Alain de Botton argues, this is precisely what happened to Villa Savoye 14; although having had a negligible effect on the overall building practice of the time, it has come to epitomise 1920s and 30s’ western architecture.
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| Digital revolution – detached from physicality 13 |
The only physical effects of this latest shift can be seen only through occasional road works where broadband digital infrastructure is being laid. And yet the essential shift is in its virtual potential, as reflected by the users connected to this network. The latest overhaul of architecture as a whole is, essentially, not architectural.
As illustrated by the Barcelona pavilion example, this digital virtuality has permeated society’s perceptions of the material, i.e. non-digital world. When recreating a material structure, even if from the same components, never results in the same actual result; however that does not exclude it being perceived as the same object in due to its virtual characteristics.
This, in part, shows the physical implications of virtuality. Even though intangible in its immateriality, the virtual has an influence on the actual that results as the materialization of the virtual. The implications are not limited to the actual, but are even greater over other parts of the virtual because of the ease of flowing and not being hampered by materialization into the actual.
The result of this flow and contra-flow is that the a wholly virtual approach to creating buildings will inevitably have a profound effect on the shape and use of buildings in the future same way the light bulb thoroughly changed architecture by introducing constant artificial light. This did not result in a constant illumination of industrial-age facades, but eventually brought on deeper plans, bulkier buildings and brought use to previously inaccessible or impractical parts of architectural plans. Thus, the light bulb was illuminating in several ways, even if its actual effects were not brought by the bulb itself but by its effects.
In much the same way, the reciprocal relationship between the virtual and the material has brought fundamental differences in the perception and shaping of the built environment. However, this shift is not so much about mangled formalistic extensions (or parasites as get affectionately called) or enormous brutish media walls. The implications (and subsequent changes) will undoubtedly be far subtler and more expansive.
Through history the virtual has been regularly implemented. Early recorded examples are Roman illusionistic frescoes depicting idyllic landscapes painted on to interior walls. Such an image introduces a virtual extension of the existing space, vastly expanding the available room, even if only imaginarily. Later on Baroque capitalized on the virtual, utilizing not only visual illusions, but a vast arsenal of devices to create an immersive virtual world.
These simulations have today evolved into digital representations, either on screen or as fully immersive environments through specialized wearable equipment. While keeping with the notion of establishing a make-believe world, their biggest innovation is the transformation of the observer into the user, and ultimately, creator. It is this interactivity and co-authorship that fundamentally sets digital virtuality apart from other strands.
As the elaborateness of the virtual increases, so do its influences on the individual. This has reintroduced Descartes’ notions on the reality of the real as a relevant issue, amongst others. With a virtual world becoming almost as tangible as the real one, every bit as complex and considerably more malleable, the boundaries between the two have become blurred. Through that, the influences of the virtual have become assertive on the actual. As Žižek points out, this is the latent reality of the virtual, where although the virtual is incorporeal and entirely fictional, its influences are still very much present it the real.
Each tool and mindset leaves an inevitable trace of itself it its products. As a chisel leaves a specific texture on stone and only a certain level of detail can be drawn in a pencil drawing, so is digital virtuality making an imprint inherent to itself. Most prevalent is the copy-paste approach which can be show in entire buildings repeated indefinitely or, more often, individual components (such as a part of a facade) applied in numerous unique buildings at various locations.
In this way entire segments can be reenacted in much the same form and ensure a systematized result regardless of their surroundings. A generic petrol station thus becomes self-perpetuating, as its influence is both the result and cause at the same time. Accompanying these repetitive slices is a standardized materials palette that has emerged which enables almost effortless multiplication of a generic recipe, marginally adjusted for local peculiarities, as shown by sprawling shopping centers and malls.
A certain inherent materiality, scale and level of detail have become ubiquitous with such environments. Expanses of inaccessible sheet glass and corrugated metal mingle overhead while a ruthless carpet of likeable paving patterns defines the designated semi-public areas. The proliferation of generic brands works very well with the repetitive building segments, as shown by numerous mixed-use developments worldwide. The resulting environment is equally as neutered as the virtual environment that, along with an equally tainted regulatory body, spawned it.
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| A generic strip mall 15 |
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| MVRDV Expo 16 |
Incessant copying is not limited only to building segments, but has been applied to transplanting entire environments, presumably as easily as bits from one part of a magnetic strip to another. What MVRDV’s Expo 2000 pavilion has shown (although primarily influenced by the Dutch ‘constructed’ mindset) is the ease of transplanting entire biotopes and even stacking them one on top of another. Essentially it showed that if it can be conceived conceptually and composed virtually, the final step of constructing it materially is but a trivial matter.
A rooftop sea or potted trees aren’t so much impossible as they were unimaginable.
However the virtual repertoire doesn’t end with copy-pasting or repetition. Other concepts, otherwise absent from the actual world, have migrated as well. Flipping, omitting or framing as well as numerous flowing, moving and bending forms have been materialized. While Beaubourg’s insides were an actual reality before being put on display, their presence is in a way the affirmation of its virtuality as functioning building. More recently, though, many elaborate non-Cartesian shapes have taken form as a direct reflection of digital form-finding processes. Their materialization is heavily dependent on standardized uniqueness which in a way serves as a crutch to perhaps forcefully materialize inherently virtual forms.
In either case, a heavy dependence on various systems is at the core of the materialization of the digital virtual. This is felt through an increasing emphasis on complex systems themselves (such as shelving, heating, structure and similar) as a true reflection (or an unintentional emulation) of a computerized organization. The automated warehouse fuses regimented reality with the fluid organizational principles of a digital system and can be exposed as the purest example of this approach.
