Post Parametric Design Intelligence

A critical shift must occur within the generative culture of computationaldesign and digital fabrication, as revolutionary now as Le Corbusier’s VersUn Architecture was when originally published in 1921. Parametric Virtuosity,in itself, is no longer sufficient to carry forward the innovations enabledby the confluence of new computational methodologies and digital fabrication.The early promise of pioneering projects such as SHoP’s CameraObscura has given way to a culture of parametric, robotic exhibitionism,largely devoid of practical applications beyond the demonstration of thetechnologies themselves.Michael Speaks has written on the “Post-Vanguard” generation that replacedtheory-laden “truth” or functionalist innovation, with global “DesignIntelligence” fostering a new wave of innovation. This culture continuesto thrive and inform contemporary practices, in large part thanks to theemerging technologies offered by computational methods, and advancedprototyping. The era of computational virtuosity and fabrication has beenlargely mainstreamed, with the adoption of fully articulated robotics nowseen as the newly emerging “market” for academic research, leveragingboth parametric design and fabrication.Rather than simply scaling up the complexity of projects produced underthis new wave of (robotic, parametric) technologies, a new, perhaps “Post-Parametric” Design Intelligence must emerge, transcending the short-termvision of computational exhibitionism, towards a new design rationality,informed, rather than determined by computational methods and roboticfabrication.What will guide this new phase of research? A return to the conceptual,theoretical positions that Speaks termed the Theoretical Vanguard is unlikely.Similarly, the continuation of computational virtuosity as an end initself will not produce further innovation. One possibility is a new look at thematerial-based practices of twentieth century modernism, which ran counterto, or alongside of prevailing modernist ideologies. These practices, suchas the work of Jean Prouve, or the Eames office, pre-figured both emergingtechnologies and the methods of production enabled by global capitalism.They were early adopters of “Design Innovation.”The author’s interest is in REFRAMING FABRICATION within what Aaltocalled an Extended Techno-Humanist Rationality, repositioning emergingwork within the larger sphere of global praxis, leveraging computational androbotic technologies beyond mere formal play. This paper is both a manifestoand diagnostic tool for examining the impact of computational and fabricationculture on the larger sphere of Design Innovation. It is hoped thatthrough this critical, reflective lens, a new series of projects may emerge,leveraging both computational and robotic technologies, nevertheless informedby a Post-Parametric Design Intelligence.

Volume Editors
Martha Thorne & Xavier Costa

ISBN
978-0-935502-83-1