~ SpringerWienNewYork VISUAL CATALOG: GREG Y N'S STUDIO AT TH E UN IVE RSITY OF APPLI ED ARTS VI EN NA Edi ted by Kristy Balliet and Brennan Buck with an Introduction by Greg Lynn SpringerWienNewYork VISUAL CATALOG: GREG LYNN'S STUDIO AT THE UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED ARTS VIENNA Head of the Institute of Architecture: Wolf D. Prix Editors: Kristy Balliet, Brennan Buck Design: Paulus M. Dreibho!z, Emma Williams Atelier for Typography and Graphic Design Prepress: Nicolas Berthelot Printing: Holzhausen Druck GmbH This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically those of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, broadcasting, reproduction by photocopying machines or similar means, and storage in data banks. Product Liability: The publisher can give no guarantee for the information contained in this book. 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ARCHITECTURE CONTENTS 6 INTRODUCTION 8 INNOVATION CYCLE 10 THE CONTEMPORARY APPRENTICE SURFACE: FORM 14 TOPO-PANELIZATION 28 PLEATED SURFACES 40 INFLECTION POINTS 52 CREASES SURFACE: EFFECT 64 ALBEDO 76 DIE CUTTING 86 INJECTION MOLDING VOLUME: POCHE 96 PETTICOAT LAYERING 106 SURFACE POCHE 122 FIGURAL STRUCTURE VOLUME: VOID 136 SUPERFLAT LAYERING 148 PROGRAMMED POCHE 162 WOVEN VOLUMES 176 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION 6 GREG LYNN The Angewandte is a unique university of as vertical planes where the volumes for three key reasons; its legacy as an of the interior of the building were incubator for creativity and criticality projected at a ninety degree angle in design culture; the combination of onto the city; now that we are using international teachers and students in complex curved surfaces for design how a variety of design disciplines; and do you proj ect interior volumes onto finally its commitment to depth as shown a sculptural surface?". By defining the by the structure of the school where architectural problem first, the students study with the same design extra-architectural functional, urban, professor for their entire academic cultural and civic problems get career. The Visual Catalog reflects the redefined based on emerging creative general character of the University more solutions. In the studio we understand than it does any of the preoccupations that culture and urban life is con and topics that I have assigned over the stantly evolving and mutating and by years. One thing all students from the redefining the architectural design Angewandte have in common is that they problems in concert with these new types understand the strength of design and of urban and culturalli fe a more creativity and they diligently and robust design culture is fostered among critically employ design technique not our students. Combined with the many just for its own sake but as a historical disciplines of design represented at the mode of critical thinking. The most Angewandte it provides a fertile poignant characteristic of all of the culture for our students' growth and Angewandte students, whether in archi critical acumen. tecture, design, media or fashion, is the respect for a tradition of radical Sometimes the design tasks that we pose change. The reverence for tradition at to the students have a specific focus on the Angewandte is for creative pursuit structure, building systems, building and innovation rather than the imitation envelope design, site planning, vertical of history. The Visual Catalog is not circulation or some other discrete a pattern book of forms nor is it a prag architectural problem and sometimes the matic manual. It is an attempt to ask questions are broadly defined. The the next important design questions for Visual Catalog is a collection of the future architects. design questions we have given the students during the last five years and We begin each semester wi th an archi tec their work defining and elaborating tural question rather than a set of these questions through creative design solutions, but this does not preclude thinking. This is why it is a "visual" instrumental solutions to cultural catalog and not a style manual or pattern problems. For example, instead of book. This pedagogical approach beginning a design studio with the is only possible at a university where problem: "how do I solve the problem the students have continuity of of designing a lobby for a music hall on instruction, because we can for example the Ringstrasse when the site has two afford to tell a student to focus on important faces?" we define the problem the design of the ground plane, stairs, as: "in the past, facades were thought ramps and handrails for an entire 7 semester, as we know that the next university despite the fact that we vertical circulation or fa<;ade. All over semester this same student can then give our students a technical education. the world, for some inexplicable focus on the design of a building's -We aspire to be educating leaders in reason, most likely the use of the com- structure. The students are able to go design who will have a profound impact puter by amateurs, universities began to into more depth and focus on specific on culture and society through design. teach design through the analysis of topics because we are not under the Because of this ambition to educate data. For the last two decades students pressure to schematically design a innovators and leaders in design, the have been taught to analyze transpor- building in 12 weeks over and over and students graduate when they are prepared tation, financial markets, library over again for 5 years with different to make a statement of their ambitions. catalog systems, or other extra-archi- studio inst ructors. The ability to We call this statement of ambitions tectural statistics and turn that focus on specific and sometimes myopic the diploma proj ect. It is at the diploma into a form and then interpret that form issues is unique in the world to the that the students are tasked with as architecture. By architects of Angewandte and this is what makes this coherently forming and presenting their older generations, this is often skill university so special. own question, a question they are fully interpreted through the trans expected to work on for the rest of their formed language of Corbusier, Mies or In contrast to most other universities careers. The diploma is also a test of others, but for students who have never our students are surrounded by world vocational capabilities and technical been taught design skills through the class professors and their students from knowledge, but at the Angewandte there analysis of great works of architecture, a much broader range of fields than only is a higher level expectation: that the results are less meritorious and architecture, landscape architecture the student has developed Significantly certainly less interesting. The Visual or urban planning. They are housed in enough as an individual designer Catalog is highly dependent on digital a building with media, fashion, indus to be able to state a design question tools and media, but it is not a collec trial, and every other kind of design worth investigating. The diploma is a tion of data analysis by CAD jockeys. student that can be defined. This puts a statement of a paradigm. In order to The student work is guided by analysis pressure on and opens up the opportunity prepare the students to develop their of architectural design methods and for the students to get into dialogue own critical and creative capacities often it launches from the analysis of with contemporary design in the broadest to be able to define their future one or more building precedents by great sense. The Visual Catalog is grounded professional proj ect, we spend four and architects. Again, this is a reflec in the traditions of architectural one half years in studio looking at tion of the Angewandte' s commitment to education while remaining in dialogue specific design problems where we define rethinking tradition from within a wi th contemporary design culture. We are the question and ask the students for tradition of architecture as much as it often inspired to ask certain questions their responses. Through this process, is of our own peculiar studio's inter from the perspective of our neighboring the students gain enough experience to ests and obj ectives. colleagues: how does a fashion design define their own problems for their student think about folding and draping, diploma proj ects. for example, and what would a media design student do for lighting in the Finally a word on analysis. Twenty five building? years ago when I was a student we were taught design through the analysis of At the Angewandte the penultimate moment architectural masterpieces. We would in every student's career is their analyze a work by Corbusier, Wright, diploma. As arrogant as a statement like Mies, Hoffman, Loos, Lutyens, Ledoux, this is, we educate our students with the Palladio, Bernini, Borromini or others expectation that they will all become for volume, mass, structure, fenestra great architects. We are not a technical tion (windows and openings) , landscape, INNOVATION CYCLE 8 KR I STY BALLI ET An architectural education, analogous anomaly and introverts the focus by to an architectural career, is a col highlighting the collection of refer lection of parts that comprise a whole. ences emerging from the cumulative These parts include historical and study trips, lectures, and research contemporary precedents, academic undertaken by our studio. These experi environments, mentor influences, indi ences result in a dilated view that vidual motivation, peer interaction, provides a platform for discussion and and exhaustive levels of research and critique. analysis. This complex array of input requires tools to evaluate and acknowl The difference between generating some edge dynamic shifts in design culture thing "new" and something "innovative" that often occur fluidly. In this book is that the innovative evaluates the we have emphasized the cycle of inno current spectrum of a problem by looking vation, distinguishing between the within and beyond its own discipline iterative process that advances ideas to calculate ways to develop the next and abrupt newness. It highlights step or evolution. It is necessary to various techniques that were essential evaluate and understand the past in order for the development of design, assessing to contribute and develop something the smooth transitions, which emerged innovati ve. The studio is constantly within Studio Greg Lynn. looking to historical precedents for inspiration and inserting past develop Our studio is uniquely positioned ments into a new context. These acts of to assess these innovation shifts as it reappropriation are common to the realm resides within an environment that of art and culture. The extent to which supports a sustained critical approach artists, deSigners and architects to design. In most architecture schools, borrow from one another, previous genres a student selects a different design and nature is boundless. In the seminal studio each semester, allowing a differ book Learning from Las Vegas, Robert ent group of students to work together Venturi and his co-authors associate the under a different professor. In contrast, word "evolutionary" with the use of the unique Meisterklasse system spe historical precedents in his comparison cifies that students pursue the majority of the Guild House and Crawford Manor. of their design education within a single They argue that the evolutionary is studio. The Meisterklasse structure is contrary to the revolutionary (or anti unique within the realm of contemporary traditional) attitude that does not architectural education, posing a lead to a deeper architecture but one rare opportunity to peer into the depth that is 'empty and boring' . In the same of work and utilize the accumulated text, Venturi is critical of ' ... the research to discover core issues that modern architect's tendency to glorify are emerging. The inherent energy that originality through copying it.' While is generated lacks the traditional he does not condone this action, he release valve or remix button that is suggests that, ' ... the replication standard in the alternating studio would have been done better if it had structure. The categorization of work been accepted philosophically and used in this catalog takes advantage of this wittingly .. .' These observations are 9 still relevant today as every design In architecture it is profoundly diffi Our studio is a collective exploration. whim is proliferated instantly through cult and tremendously rewarding It encompasses the curiosities of rampant blogging, saturating the field to oscillate between and negotiate the many students, each diligently working with "new" ideas. We are again in a multiple facets of the architectural to develop their own design language in moment when we need to acknowledge the discourse through practice, academia dialogue with each other, architecture tools and techniques of our time and work and research. In order to make an impact, and other disciplines. The oscillation to advance their position. While there architects must limit their area between these two considerations, the are differences between Greg Lynn's of innovative focus, while remaining part and the whole, creates a system that design tools and those of Robert Venturi, receptive to relevant agendas and is in constant evolution. In a recent the pedagogic interests are akin to strategies. A goal within the studio is lecture at the CCA, Greg Lynn referenced one another. In reviewing a recent studiO to develop a student's interest in his flatware design for Alessi, describ proj ect, that was accompanied by the a technique that can pose questions and ing that, 'it really works like a family, explanation, 'it is new', Greg Lynn res challenges that will propel them i love everyone equally, but no one ponded, 'We are not interested in deep into their careers. It is critical is better than any of the others, they producing something new but in advancing to understand that architects do are like my kids' . This analogy pOints ideas .' not blindly design something new within to a process of fertile generation, a bubble but rather seek innovation visualizing a relationship between the I am drawing a fine line between what is within an elaborate history. individual and the collective. new and what is innovative, however it is a warranted discussion within a design Productive themes of the studio lie at This book serves to frame a moment studio. Advancing design concepts is the intersection of form and fabrica- in time of a constantly evolving studio, paramount to the contemporary architec- tion, where we are conSistently seeking discipline and discourse. It was con tural education which must constantly innovative forms through digital ceived as a means of internal evaluation, evolve, incorporating new tools and investigation and perfect and refine but we hope that the result inspires methods of instruction. As illustrated them through large scale , digitally others to evaluate, catalog and question in this catalog, architectural knowl- fabricated physical models. The poten- the current directions of their own edge can be gleaned from a multitude of tial for reinvention comes from the work. All work is derived from somewhere adj acent and far reaching fields. unexpected discoveries made in these and/or something prior, innovation is Critical evaluation of work within and two-dimensional to three-dimensional not only about creating something new but around the discipline of architecture processes that push both the form also understanding and acknowledging is an essential component of a design and material to profound new limits. what preceded the current iteration. education. Our catalog indexes a selec- Theoretical and formal exuberance lead tion of visual references and their con to architectural invention. In the sequent transformation and manifested studio we intentionally move from far language in the architectural projects reaching topics like space tourism of the studio. These proj ects sit to typologically grounded proj ects like at an important point of reflection and a performance hall on the ring located observation, serving to evaluate the directly across from the Vienna Opera collective efforts of many students and House. It is important for students to instructors over five years. It is not both consider fresh ideas (like space meant as a "best of" or as a comprehen tourism) alongside the age old problems sive collection but instead isolates of section, sequential movement, and innovation in a categorical and critical facade. The shifts are often abrupt and way useful for appraising the work of the intentional in order to agitate and studio and charting future traj ectories. avoid reflex. THE CONTEMPORARY 10 APPRENTICE BRENNAN BUCK The Meisterklasse, the studio structure from the singularity of the master- maintained at the Angewandte nearly apprentice relationship as students since it was formalized in the 19th cen - look inward to develop a personal tury, is a reinvention of the medieval approach in opposition to that of the relationship between master and appren - professor. tice. One professor designs and runs the curriculum for every semester Our attempt to formulate a contemporary of a student's five years in the school. Meisterklasse and to re-present it here Greg Lynn accepted an Angewandte pro is centered on a set of design devices fessorship in 2002, and with it began that synthesize modes of production and formulating a 21 st century form of this expression. The thirteen devices we very traditional structure. This book describe are essentially relationships maps the hybrid form that developed, between contemporary production consolidating the students' collective techniques-fabrication, manufacturing research over the last five years into and construction-and contemporary a taxonomy of design devices-configu sensibili ties-effects of light, color rations of technique and sensibility and surface. Although they are largely that evolved within the studio. culled from design cultures beyond the boundaries of architecture, they The studio Lynn inherited from Hans have re -emerged in architectural form Hollein when he arrived in Vienna was in the studio work over time. They largely defined by two characteristics: are assembled as a loosely structured consistency (students remained collection, a visual catalog that in the class for five years, and tutors makes the relationships within and normally were there for much longer) between devices explicit. As a taxonomy, and collectivity (vertical integration this book is also intended to give con insured that first through fifth-year sistency and identity to an eclectic students worked on the same design task collection of work, potentially making every semester) . The evolving studio it useful and relevant beyond the bounds ecology that has unfolded since balances of Studio Lynn. individual and collective study, allow ing students to engage in a consistent, As way to understand and find con collective exploration of a wide range sistency in architectural practice, the of aesthetic and technological cultures taxonomy has been reconstituted in a from outside the discipline while asking number of ways since 2000, most notably each one to define an individual disci by Alejandro Zaera-Polo and Farshid plinary 'proj ect'. That ecology inhabits Moussavi in their monograph Phylogene a middle ground between two potential sis. In the book's introductory essay excesses of the Meisterklasse: stylistic they write that consistency is necessary replication, where a single aesthetic for a body of work to become operative, based on the professor's work becomes to produce resonance between individual dominant, subsuming a wider range of proj ects and a broader set of effects. competing techniques and sensibilities, The set of patterns or techniques that and at the other pole, the autonomous, emerge is more likely to have an effect intuitive exploration that can develop on the broader discourse and practice of