6
FOREWORD Gordon Pask
This is a brilliant, coherent and rational book. It records not only the present state but also the progress of research extending over a period of thirty years. In this endeavour, the author has had the fortune to be assisted by Julia Frazer and many generations of outstandingly innovative and devoted students. The work is essential reading for architects, artists, cybernetists, scientists and philosophers (much as I dislike the arbitrary classification scheme), As the statement of a thesis, it is strongly supported by practical methodology, and is placed in context with tangible entities and systems such as astronomy, c105epacking spheres, fractals and chaos theory. The work 's originality, however, lends it another dimension. The fundamental thesis is that of architecture as a living, evolving thing. In a way this is evident. Our culture's striving towards civilization is manifested in the places. houses and cities that it creates. As well as providing a protective carapace, these structures also carry symbolic value, and can be seen as being continuous with and emerging fro m the life of those who inhabit the built environment. This is not to suggest that Frazer is simply recording the often frenetic practice of copying the works of nature in architectural forms. The author is careful , in fact, to use models which are tangible and rational but also very clearly alive and evolutionary.
Gordon Pask 's contnbi..Jtlon to C1 cchl tec ture IS descnbed In J H Frazer, 'Tile Arch tectural Relevance of Cybernetics' SY5fe.'1~S Research. Vol. 10, No 3.1993, pp. 43-4
These models are the subject of many projects which relate in varying ways to the substance of architecture and to life itself. In many cases a given process is emulated by machines of one kind or another. In general these are cellular automata, evolving according to a genetic algorithm. However, contrary to what the extreme A.1. community might suppose, the machine is not likened to life in a sense that a 'virus' program is 'alive' within the 'software' of a single machine, or even a global network of machines. In fact no device capable of adequately simulating the requirements of the author's research was available prior to its com mencement, and great advantage has been gained from the opportunity to construct one specific to its needs. Whilst computer-aided architectural design is useful if repetition or standard transformations are required . it is inadequate to the task of producing new forms .