by
Sam Lubell
Sean Ahlquist, a 30-year-old, San Francisco-based architect,
has designed a civic gathering space that’s daring and
original, bursting with light, detail, and color. The twisted,
warped structure of glass, steel, and stone tests the limits
of architectural possibility. Its contours challenge established
notions of space arrangement. It’s even won him acclaim
in a national design competition.
Ahlquist’s building is not real. And it will never
be built. But who cares? He certainly doesn’t.
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Winning
entry for ACADIA design competition, 2001 (left);
Private residence, currently in design (bottom)
Architects Sean Ahlquist and Ryan Spruston fashioned
a flexible, virtual gathering space in Berlin. Designing
this entry was a proving ground for Ahlquist, who
is using some of the ideas from that project in
a home he is designing for an avid climber who lives
on the California coast. |
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He’s one of a new generation of architects brought
up on powerful, ubiquitous computing technology who design
and build in virtual space. The digital age has given younger
architects like Ahlquist, who would likely be relegated to
menial tasks like drawing details in a traditional architectural
practice, the chance to experiment boldly and disseminate
their ideas and designs to a large audience via the Internet,
exhibitions, and print and online publications.
And while some practitioners hold virtual architects in
contempt for their lack of practicality, most recognize that
computing technologies are inevitably shaping both the practice
of architectural design and the form of buildings themselves.
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