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DISCOURSE AND EXAMPLES most prolific designer to theorize this new interest. In his book ‘Animate Form’ published in 1999 he described how architecture was transitioning from being a frame for actions to unfold to a dynamic entity itself, shaped by various factors present in its context.16 Lynn made constant reference to the technical background he was using to conceptualize his ideas. In his book he grounds his argument withi n animation techniques: “Because splines are vectorial flows through sequences of points they are by definition continuous multiplicities rather than discrete entities.“17 Despite this fascination with animation techniques and dynamics Lynn did not argue for an actually moving architecture, but for topologically complex surfaces shaped by a set of dynamic vectors. The ability to generate surfaces through setting up animation parameters, provided a lens to look at the computer as a generator of form. In a video from 2006 Greg Lynn shows the way he modeled the embryological house- he created six sliders representing morphed stages of a form and then produced even more variation by mixing the sliders.18 The embryological house became a canonical example of a architecture following a basic prototype allowing for infinite variation through subtle changes in its form. Lynn’s contribution is in emphasizing and demonstrating Maya as a design tool rather than merely a drafting tool. He is very clear on the heritage of the animation techniques he is using and it is because of an intimate understanding of the software that Lynn could first theorize it effects. The pitfall of this approach is that Lynn was trying to produce rigorous methods and design proposals with an intrinsically inexact tool- in the end Maya is primarily directed at a virtual reality, not meant to be produced in the real world. It has limited input and output channels towards data from the physical world- it is a closed system within itself and it works best within its own parameters. Lynn’s early ideas of adaptable form generated in Maya are illustration of an idea, that needs to picked up with different software to become operable in the 16
Greg Lynn: Animate Form (New York : Princeton Architectural Press, c1999)
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Greg Lynn: Animate Form (New York : Princeton Architectural Press, c1999), 23.
18 Excerpts from a working session with Greg Lynn and CCA curator Howard Shubert recorded in Lynn’s Venice, California, studio on 29-30 October 2007. (Canadian Centre for Architecture, accessed May 8th 2015, http://www.cca.qc.ca/en/collection/6-greg-lynn-embryological-house)