Similar to Gaudi’s method for the Sagrada Familia, Frei Otto studied the “optimized path systems” by developing a method of generating forms, he used wool thread, and soap and water to generate vectorized systems that minimize the number of paths and make them share the same geometry.This algorithmic procedure is developed in three steps, mapping the different program points, increasing the length of the wool thread by at least 8% and then dipping the entire model in water and watch the threads mixing and forming a different pattern every time.
Otto’s Cartesian grid is solid and immovable and is different from that of what Spuybroek suggests. Spuybroek’s grid is wet and flexible enough to create a certain level of plasticity and yet is rigid enough to create a rigid structure. For Aristotle any curve is considered a mixture of straight lines and circle segments, however in advanced geometry a curve is measured by how far off they are compared to a straight line which reduces the complexity of a curve so to speak. The fundamental issue is the difference between flexibility and movement “I believe that extensive body locomotion is possible only when it is intensive first “both in the body and in the system”.
Spuybroek argues that the thread method should not be exclusive to generating shapes from plan, however, “threads should be three-dimensional from the start :plan-threads can twist and become wall-threads”
Is it really intelligent architecture or automatic architecture? Can I really call a computer generate design my design?
Where is that really leading the future of architecture? Where is the sensible and emotional part of creating a building? We can’t argue anymore that a piece of architecture is art anymore because it does not represent the architect’s view anymore.
