WEBVTT 00:00:00.470 --> 00:00:02.919 As an architect, I often ask myself, 00:00:02.919 --> 00:00:05.759 what is the origin of the forms that we design? 00:00:05.759 --> 00:00:08.664 What kind of forms could we design 00:00:08.664 --> 00:00:11.487 if we wouldn't work with references anymore? 00:00:11.487 --> 00:00:14.872 If we had no bias, if we had no preconceptions, 00:00:14.872 --> 00:00:17.079 what kind of forms could we design 00:00:17.079 --> 00:00:18.679 if we could free ourselves from 00:00:18.679 --> 00:00:20.815 our experience? 00:00:20.815 --> 00:00:25.549 If we could free ourselves from our education? 00:00:25.549 --> 00:00:28.576 What would these unseen forms look like? 00:00:28.576 --> 00:00:32.287 Would they surprise us? Would they intrigue us? 00:00:32.287 --> 00:00:34.702 Would they delight us? 00:00:34.702 --> 00:00:38.623 If so, then how can we go about creating something that is truly new? NOTE Paragraph 00:00:38.623 --> 00:00:41.015 I propose we look to nature. 00:00:41.015 --> 00:00:45.279 Nature has been called the greatest architect of forms. 00:00:45.279 --> 00:00:48.867 And I'm not saying that we should copy nature, 00:00:48.867 --> 00:00:51.247 I'm not saying we should mimic biology, 00:00:51.247 --> 00:00:54.695 instead I propose that we can borrow nature's processes. 00:00:54.695 --> 00:00:59.149 We can abstract them and to create something that is new. 00:00:59.149 --> 00:01:03.027 Nature's main process of creation, morphogenesis, 00:01:03.027 --> 00:01:06.856 is the splitting of one cell into two cells. 00:01:06.856 --> 00:01:08.913 And these cells can either be identical, 00:01:08.913 --> 00:01:11.088 or they can be distinct from each other 00:01:11.088 --> 00:01:13.152 through asymmetric cell division. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:13.152 --> 00:01:16.951 If we abstract this process, and simplify it as much as possible, 00:01:16.951 --> 00:01:19.184 then we could start with a single sheet of paper, 00:01:19.184 --> 00:01:21.680 one surface, and we could make a fold 00:01:21.680 --> 00:01:24.616 and divide the surface into two surfaces. 00:01:24.616 --> 00:01:26.879 We're free to choose where we make the fold. 00:01:26.879 --> 00:01:31.789 And by doing so, we can differentiate the surfaces. 00:01:31.789 --> 00:01:33.683 Through this very simple process, 00:01:33.683 --> 00:01:37.295 we can create an astounding variety of forms. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:37.295 --> 00:01:40.020 Now, we can take this form and use the same process 00:01:40.020 --> 00:01:42.012 to generate three-dimensional structures, 00:01:42.012 --> 00:01:44.420 but rather than folding things by hand, 00:01:44.420 --> 00:01:47.005 we'll bring the structure into the computer, 00:01:47.005 --> 00:01:49.980 and code it as an algorithm. 00:01:49.980 --> 00:01:52.988 And in doing so, we can suddenly fold anything. 00:01:52.988 --> 00:01:55.147 We can fold a million times faster, 00:01:55.147 --> 00:01:58.308 we can fold in hundreds and hundreds of variations. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:58.308 --> 00:02:00.788 And as we're seeking to make something three-dimensional, 00:02:00.788 --> 00:02:04.004 we start not with a single surface, but with a volume. 00:02:04.004 --> 00:02:05.357 A simple volume, the cube. 00:02:05.357 --> 00:02:07.077 If we take its surfaces and fold them 00:02:07.077 --> 00:02:09.133 again and again and again and again, 00:02:09.133 --> 00:02:11.996 then after 16 iterations, 16 steps, 00:02:11.996 --> 00:02:15.845 we end up with 400,000 surfaces and a shape that looks, 00:02:15.845 --> 00:02:18.380 for instance, like this. 00:02:18.380 --> 00:02:21.092 And if we change where we make the folds, 00:02:21.092 --> 00:02:22.733 if we change the folding ratio, 00:02:22.733 --> 00:02:26.156 then this cube turns into this one. 00:02:26.156 --> 00:02:30.295 We can change the folding ratio again to produce this shape, 00:02:30.295 --> 00:02:32.122 or this shape. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:32.122 --> 00:02:33.745 So we exert control over the form 00:02:33.745 --> 00:02:37.249 by specifying the position of where we're making the fold, 00:02:37.249 --> 00:02:41.955 but essentially you're looking at a folded cube. 00:02:41.955 --> 00:02:43.019 And we can play with this. 00:02:43.019 --> 00:02:45.635 We can apply different folding ratios to different parts 00:02:45.635 --> 00:02:48.380 of the form to create local conditions. 00:02:48.380 --> 00:02:50.323 We can begin to sculpt the form. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:50.323 --> 00:02:53.211 And because we're doing the folding on the computer, 00:02:53.211 --> 00:02:56.907 we are completely free of any physical constraints. 00:02:56.907 --> 00:02:59.858 So that means that surfaces can intersect themselves, 00:02:59.858 --> 00:03:01.347 they can become impossibly small. 00:03:01.347 --> 00:03:04.948 We can make folds that we otherwise could not make. 00:03:04.948 --> 00:03:06.826 Surfaces can become porous. 00:03:06.826 --> 00:03:09.555 They can stretch. They can tear. 00:03:09.555 --> 00:03:14.190 And all of this expounds the scope of forms that we can produce. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:14.190 --> 00:03:16.940 But in each case, I didn't design the form. 00:03:16.940 --> 00:03:21.541 I designed the process that generated the form. 00:03:21.541 --> 00:03:26.029 In general, if we make a small change to the folding ratio, 00:03:26.029 --> 00:03:27.624 which is what you're seeing here, 00:03:27.624 --> 00:03:31.397 then the form changes correspondingly. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:31.397 --> 00:03:33.653 But that's only half of the story -- 00:03:33.653 --> 00:03:37.976 99.9 percent of the folding ratios produce not this, 00:03:37.976 --> 00:03:42.872 but this, the geometric equivalent of noise. 00:03:42.872 --> 00:03:44.992 The forms that I showed before were made actually 00:03:44.992 --> 00:03:46.640 through very long trial and error. 00:03:46.640 --> 00:03:49.856 A far more effective way to create forms, I have found, 00:03:49.856 --> 00:03:53.744 is to use information that is already contained in forms. 00:03:53.744 --> 00:03:56.399 A very simple form such as this one actually contains 00:03:56.399 --> 00:03:59.991 a lot of information that may not be visible to the human eye. 00:03:59.991 --> 00:04:02.472 So, for instance, we can plot the length of the edges. 00:04:02.472 --> 00:04:05.808 White surfaces have long edges, black ones have short ones. 00:04:05.808 --> 00:04:09.385 We can plot the planarity of the surfaces, their curvature, 00:04:09.385 --> 00:04:13.472 how radial they are -- all information that may not be 00:04:13.472 --> 00:04:15.419 instantly visible to you, 00:04:15.419 --> 00:04:17.844 but that we can bring out, that we can articulate, 00:04:17.844 --> 00:04:21.220 and that we can use to control the folding. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:21.220 --> 00:04:23.179 So now I'm not specifying a single 00:04:23.179 --> 00:04:25.355 ratio anymore to fold it, 00:04:25.355 --> 00:04:27.907 but instead I'm establishing a rule, 00:04:27.907 --> 00:04:30.343 I'm establishing a link between a property of a surface 00:04:30.343 --> 00:04:33.316 and how that surface is folded. 00:04:33.316 --> 00:04:36.267 And because I've designed the process and not the form, 00:04:36.267 --> 00:04:38.589 I can run the process again and again and again 00:04:38.589 --> 00:04:41.124 to produce a whole family of forms. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:53.385 --> 00:04:57.828 These forms look elaborate, but the process is a very minimal one. 00:04:57.828 --> 00:04:58.957 There is a simple input, 00:04:58.957 --> 00:05:00.909 it's always a cube that I start with, 00:05:00.909 --> 00:05:04.485 and it's a very simple operation -- it's making a fold, 00:05:04.485 --> 00:05:08.437 and doing this over and over again. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:08.437 --> 00:05:10.717 So let's bring this process to architecture. 00:05:10.717 --> 00:05:12.317 How? And at what scale? 00:05:12.317 --> 00:05:14.045 I chose to design a column. 00:05:14.045 --> 00:05:17.421 Columns are architectural archetypes. 00:05:17.421 --> 00:05:20.488 They've been used throughout history to express ideals 00:05:20.488 --> 00:05:25.563 about beauty, about technology. 00:05:25.563 --> 00:05:27.485 A challenge to me was how we could express 00:05:27.485 --> 00:05:30.781 this new algorithmic order in a column. 00:05:30.781 --> 00:05:33.765 I started using four cylinders. 00:05:33.765 --> 00:05:37.541 Through a lot of experimentation, these cylinders 00:05:37.541 --> 00:05:40.676 eventually evolved into this. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:40.676 --> 00:05:45.292 And these columns, they have information at very many scales. 00:05:45.292 --> 00:05:47.810 We can begin to zoom into them. 00:05:47.810 --> 00:05:51.365 The closer one gets, the more new features one discovers. 00:05:51.365 --> 00:05:55.037 Some formations are almost at the threshold of human visibility. 00:05:55.037 --> 00:05:56.989 And unlike traditional architecture, 00:05:56.989 --> 00:05:59.773 it's a single process that creates both the overall form 00:05:59.773 --> 00:06:05.118 and the microscopic surface detail. 00:06:05.118 --> 00:06:07.809 These forms are undrawable. 00:06:07.809 --> 00:06:11.185 An architect who's drawing them with a pen and a paper 00:06:11.185 --> 00:06:12.977 would probably take months, 00:06:12.977 --> 00:06:15.361 or it would take even a year to draw all the sections, 00:06:15.361 --> 00:06:17.665 all of the elevations, you can only create something like this 00:06:17.665 --> 00:06:19.801 through an algorithm. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:19.801 --> 00:06:21.833 The more interesting question, perhaps, is, 00:06:21.833 --> 00:06:24.462 are these forms imaginable? 00:06:24.462 --> 00:06:27.097 Usually, an architect can somehow envision the end state 00:06:27.097 --> 00:06:28.961 of what he is designing. 00:06:28.961 --> 00:06:31.786 In this case, the process is deterministic. 00:06:31.786 --> 00:06:34.145 There's no randomness involved at all, 00:06:34.145 --> 00:06:36.152 but it's not entirely predictable. 00:06:36.152 --> 00:06:37.728 There's too many surfaces, 00:06:37.728 --> 00:06:41.338 there's too much detail, one can't see the end state. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:41.338 --> 00:06:44.552 So this leads to a new role for the architect. 00:06:44.552 --> 00:06:48.163 One needs a new method to explore all of the possibilities 00:06:48.163 --> 00:06:49.939 that are out there. 00:06:49.939 --> 00:06:53.171 For one thing, one can design many variants of a form, 00:06:53.171 --> 00:06:55.385 in parallel, and one can cultivate them. 00:06:55.385 --> 00:06:57.633 And to go back to the analogy with nature, 00:06:57.633 --> 00:07:00.129 one can begin to think in terms of populations, 00:07:00.129 --> 00:07:03.657 one can talk about permutations, about generations, 00:07:03.657 --> 00:07:08.520 about crossing and breeding to come up with a design. 00:07:08.520 --> 00:07:10.905 And the architect is really, he moves into the position 00:07:10.905 --> 00:07:14.337 of being an orchestrator of all of these processes. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:14.337 --> 00:07:16.681 But enough of the theory. 00:07:16.681 --> 00:07:19.208 At one point I simply wanted to jump inside 00:07:19.208 --> 00:07:23.037 this image, so to say, I bought these red and blue 00:07:23.037 --> 00:07:25.973 3D glasses, got up very close to the screen, 00:07:25.973 --> 00:07:28.045 but still that wasn't the same as being able to 00:07:28.045 --> 00:07:30.397 walk around and touch things. 00:07:30.397 --> 00:07:32.300 So there was only one possibility -- 00:07:32.300 --> 00:07:35.397 to bring the column out of the computer. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:35.397 --> 00:07:38.317 There's been a lot of talk now about 3D printing. 00:07:38.317 --> 00:07:41.276 For me, or for my purpose at this moment, 00:07:41.276 --> 00:07:44.358 there's still too much of an unfavorable tradeoff 00:07:44.358 --> 00:07:51.141 between scale, on the one hand, and resolution and speed, on the other. 00:07:51.141 --> 00:07:53.398 So instead, we decided to take the column, 00:07:53.398 --> 00:07:55.837 and we decided to build it as a layered model, 00:07:55.837 --> 00:07:59.965 made out of very many slices, thinly stacked over each other. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:59.965 --> 00:08:01.862 What you're looking at here is an X-ray 00:08:01.862 --> 00:08:04.637 of the column that you just saw, viewed from the top. 00:08:04.637 --> 00:08:06.637 Unbeknownst to me at the time, 00:08:06.637 --> 00:08:09.013 because we had only seen the outside, 00:08:09.013 --> 00:08:11.173 the surfaces were continuing to fold themselves, 00:08:11.173 --> 00:08:13.437 to grow on the inside of the column, 00:08:13.437 --> 00:08:15.983 which was quite a surprising discovery. 00:08:15.983 --> 00:08:19.597 From this shape, we calculated a cutting line, 00:08:19.597 --> 00:08:22.621 and then we gave this cutting line to a laser cutter 00:08:22.621 --> 00:08:26.435 to produce -- and you're seeing a segment of it here -- 00:08:26.435 --> 00:08:31.326 very many thin slices, individually cut, on top of each other. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:33.480 --> 00:08:36.293 And this is a photo now, it's not a rendering, 00:08:36.293 --> 00:08:38.093 and the column that we ended up with 00:08:38.093 --> 00:08:41.140 after a lot of work, ended up looking remarkably like the one 00:08:41.140 --> 00:08:44.850 that we had designed in the computer. 00:08:44.850 --> 00:08:46.971 Almost all of the details, almost all of the 00:08:46.971 --> 00:08:50.011 surface intricacies were preserved. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:52.626 --> 00:08:54.972 But it was very labor intensive. 00:08:54.972 --> 00:08:57.373 There's a huge disconnect at the moment still 00:08:57.373 --> 00:09:00.133 between the virtual and the physical. 00:09:00.133 --> 00:09:02.259 It took me several months to design the column, 00:09:02.259 --> 00:09:04.977 but ultimately it takes the computer about 30 seconds 00:09:04.977 --> 00:09:07.825 to calculate all of the 16 million faces. 00:09:07.825 --> 00:09:09.786 The physical model, on the other hand, 00:09:09.786 --> 00:09:13.994 is 2,700 layers, one millimeter thick, 00:09:13.994 --> 00:09:18.141 it weighs 700 kilos, it's made of sheet that can cover 00:09:18.141 --> 00:09:20.279 this entire auditorium. 00:09:20.279 --> 00:09:22.367 And the cutting path that the laser followed 00:09:22.367 --> 00:09:27.484 goes from here to the airport and back again. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:27.484 --> 00:09:29.233 But it is increasingly possible. 00:09:29.233 --> 00:09:31.844 Machines are getting faster, it's getting less expensive, 00:09:31.844 --> 00:09:34.604 and there's some promising technological developments 00:09:34.604 --> 00:09:36.387 just on the horizon. 00:09:36.387 --> 00:09:39.459 These are images from the Gwangju Biennale. 00:09:39.459 --> 00:09:42.983 And in this case, I used ABS plastic to produce the columns, 00:09:42.983 --> 00:09:44.837 we used the bigger, faster machine, 00:09:44.837 --> 00:09:47.894 and they have a steel core inside, so they're structural, 00:09:47.894 --> 00:09:50.870 they can bear loads for once. 00:09:50.870 --> 00:09:52.885 Each column is effectively a hybrid of two columns. 00:09:52.885 --> 00:09:56.294 You can see a different column in the mirror, 00:09:56.294 --> 00:09:58.344 if there's a mirror behind the column 00:09:58.344 --> 00:10:01.416 that creates a sort of an optical illusion. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:01.431 --> 00:10:03.262 So where does this leave us? 00:10:03.262 --> 00:10:07.730 I think this project gives us a glimpse of the unseen objects that await us 00:10:07.730 --> 00:10:11.613 if we as architects begin to think about designing not the object, 00:10:11.613 --> 00:10:15.006 but a process to generate objects. 00:10:15.006 --> 00:10:18.279 I've shown one simple process that was inspired by nature; 00:10:18.279 --> 00:10:21.127 there's countless other ones. 00:10:21.127 --> 00:10:24.574 In short, we have no constraints. 00:10:24.574 --> 00:10:28.144 Instead, we have processes in our hands right now 00:10:28.144 --> 00:10:32.725 that allow us to create structures at all scales 00:10:32.725 --> 00:10:35.757 that we couldn't even have dreamt up. 00:10:35.757 --> 00:10:40.576 And, if I may add, at one point we will build them. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:40.576 --> 00:10:47.199 Thank you. (Applause)