Shifting terrain in an Emergent World
Architects remap the line between nature and culture

By Mark C. Taylor

This year's Design Vanguard architects come from six countries, but share many common concerns. They do not merely break with the simplicity and rectilinearity of Modernism, but adapt it to meet different needs and changing circumstances. They tend to prefer complexity rather than simplicity, horizontality rather than verticality, continuity rather than discontinuity, open rather than closed systems, and emergent rather than fixed structures. These architects are critically informed without being driven by theory. Moreover, their use of software in design is much more subtle and sophisticated than their immediate predecessors'. This work is not architecture for the sake of software but software for the sake of architecture.

When surveying the work of these 11 firms, what is most striking is their sustained investigation of the interrelation of natural and built environments. They are not merely trying to develop green architecture but are involved in the much more difficult and important exploration of the isomorphism\formal or structural similarity\between natural and artificial systems. If physical, chemical, and biological processes are actually information processes, then natural and artificial environments can enter into genuinely interactive relationships. The nature of the interaction in these projects varies from the simple to the complex

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Photo Credits: nARCHITECTS photo © Frank Oudeman; Patterns photo © Frank Oudeman; Architecton photo courtsey architect; Alejandro Aravena photo © Tadeuz Jalocha; Byoungsoo Cho Architects photo © Jongoh Kim; Christoff:Fino Architecture photo courtesy architects; Masaki Endoh/EDH photo © Hiro Sakaguchi / A to Z Photography; Antón García-Abril & Ensamble Studio photo © Roland Halbe; dECOi photo courtesy Mark Burry; Plasma Studio photo © Douglas Spencer.