7

In Seal'ell of a New AI'cllitectural Order TI1e order of , The dramatic developments in

modernist architecture construction methods in the
TOYO ITO twentieth century exemplified
by the steel frame or reinforced concrete brought a
significant change in architectural paradigms. The marked
Architecture is the act Houses once were built by people increase in world population and its concentration in urban
of creating order to protect themselves from the areas after the industrial revolution made it imperative
various dangers of the natural world. for urban architecture to expand in size, to verticalize, and
TIlis attempt at securing a place to be, one that provided a to be industrially mass produced. The mass production
stability that was impervious to the effects of the fluctuating of tridimensional grid -like architecture, in which columns,
conditions of the external world, was simultaneously also beams and floor slabs were sequentially placed horizontally
an act aimed at defining human relationships (such as those and perpendicularly to each other, was a result of this
of the family) in terms of spatial order. In other words, necessity. Now all cities around the world present a strikingly
what was required of a house from the very first stage of its similar urban landscape characterized by high-rise office
historical emergence was the creation of a stable order that buildings and apartments built in close succession.
both defied external and obeyed internal conditions. Architecture originally used to be synonymous with
Since antiquity, humanity has endeavoured to give this the construction of a house in the sense of creating a
stable order a clear form through diverse intellectual and stable place for dwelling. However, the advancement in our
technological developments. It could be said that the reason civilization caused houses to expand and workplaces to
that the house as a dwelling-place came to be. understood as differentiate and specialize. Factories and stores also became
'architecture' was in the 'formalization of order' which inte- independent, followed by office buildings.
grated spatial composition, a framing system, and a correct When people lead a communal life, houses cluster
response to the environment. For example, in terms of together to form a settlement, which then expands and makes
Japanese wooden buildings, from the primitive forms of pit various functions independent to develop into a city. Those
dwelling to the refined forms of 'shoin-zukuri' (one ofJapan's facilities we deem public today, such as the library, the
most important residential architectural styles, dating from auditorium, the museum, or even sports facilities and schools,
the sixteenth century) and teahouses, different historical all originally stemmed from the house and subsequently
periods saw the emergence of architectural conventions that became differentiated and independent. It is therefore
were appropriate for the times, through the holistic combi- possible to think about the contemporary city that we live in
nation of the manners and rules in social and everyday life, as an extended house, however complex its structure may
aesthetics and technology. TIle same goes for stonebuilt be. In this' sense the city should in fact possess a constitutive
architecture, where the newly discovered technologies and principle or format, just as architecture does. Cities used to
structural and framing systems made possible by them, embody a clearly defined order. However, in cities the
such as the arch or the dome, were subsequently used for political and economic mechanisms of every historical perioc
different expressive purposes according to the dominant are physically accumulated and superimposed in layers,
ideology of the period, thus inducing distinct architectural malting it difficult to recognize a clear order.
meanings in different periods. We spend the majority of our everyday lives in tri-
Diverse architectural forms thus came to life through dimensional grid architecture. The places where we live,
the conjunction of various factors such as meteorological work, eat or play, in other words the places where we spend
conditions, existential conditions in relation to the external an unparalleled amount of time, are all situated in spaces
world, and the structural systems available at a certain constructed on this grid. TIle architectural order of the
period. TIlese systems were also compositional in that they twentieth century could therefore be understood as that
would also define the plan and the facade of the building. of the tridimensional grid.
To construct architecture was therefore an act that depicted TIlis framework is aesthetically embodied in the images
the holistic order encompassing the thoughts and sensi- ofMies van der Rohe's steel and glass skyscrapers or Le
bilities of a certain society in a certain historical period. Corbusier's concrete Unite d'habitation. TIlese forms express c
The element that has constantly played a crucial role in pure and abstract quality that can be refelJed back to
the process that defines this order is geometry. This was Euclidean geometry, but they in fact present a contrasting set
especially true in the \Vest, where any act aimed at express- of meanings when compared to classical geometric expressior
ing order could never be dissociated with the strong sense \Vhereas classical geometry emphasized a firmly static and
of purity and completeness of the schema of Euclidean completed order, the geometry of the grid expresses the
geometry. It is unsurprising that geometric forms with the potentially infinite expansion of a centreless space.
highest sense of conclusiveness, such as the circle or the The transparent and homogeneous grid space was
square, were valued in pursuit of the architectural expression economical in terms of production and universal in terms
of an order that was independent from the natural world. of its versatility of use, and it was widely supported by
 city-dwellers, who sought free and non-hierarchical contact with pature is constantly and latently present in us,
human relationships. Its usage continues to expand to the and that even small stimuli could prompt it to manifest itself.
present day. How, then, could architecture provide stimuli to this
animal instinct? The first possibility that comes to mind is tc
Is a new architectural Contemporary society is controlled transform homogeneous space.
order possible? by the dominant logic of capital. For example, a rudimentary method could consist in
Architecture too is on the verge of inclining the lines that are parallel to the x, y and z axes of the
becoming a product of economy and information. New grid in diB'erent directions. Tbose lines will no longer
products, such as offices, apartments or hotels, can easily intersect orthogonally, but will do so in various obtuse and
be produced one after another just by changing the surface acute angles. The shapes engendered by the lines will no
of the grid's frame. This architectural form will continue to longer be solely square but also triangular or pentagonal.
dominate contemporary society as long as the logic of capital Even this lund of elementary manipulation can bring about
remains unchanged. an inhomogeneous and unstable space unlmown in the
The order of the grid assiduously amplifies the language of the grid pattern, and induce a certain sense of
homogenization of space. 'Dlis is because a homogeneous tension in the people using the space. By maldng the lines
space ensures better economic efficiency and the provision curved, the heterogeneity of the space could be further
of equal environmental conditions. However, the homo- accentuated, or in other words a soft instability would arise.
genization of space doesn't only go hand in hand with this However, as much as these series of manipulations
characteristic of contemporary society - namely the based on bending, distorting and creating non-orthogonal
homogenization of human relationships or even of society intersections would be successful in generating inhomo-
itself; there is also a synergetic effect. To put it succinctly, geneous spaces, they could not generate a new order. It would
the grid is causing the homogenization of human beings. perhaps be more accurate to understand them as actions
Traditional wooden residential architecture retained a taken to dismantle an existing order.
variation of different spaces within it, however small it may What kind of method could be employed for an in-
have been. TIlis was due to the fact that its architectural homogeneous or unstable order to be generated? TIle
forms were derived from environmental influences such as answer lies in biological organisms in the natural world.
sunlight, wind and luminosity. An intimate relationship Humanity developed its classical geometric shapes and grid
was maintained between nature and people, who responded spaces by seeldng an absolute order against the world of
to the differences in the spaces through the five senses. natural phenomena, a world of animals and plants regarded
Is it not alarming that people are letting the sharpness of as having no conceivable order because of its constant
their senses, in other words their animal instincts, degenerate repetition of the cycle of fluid growth, decay and death. V\That
under the order of a grid which cuts them loose from nature? today attracts our attention most compellingly is exactly
A further problem is posed by the impossibility of this fluid order in nature that constantly grows and changes.
fundamentally solving the greatest issue of the twenty-first TIle fact that there are fundamental rules that generate
century, that of energy conservation, by continuing to all the living manifestations of the universe is now being
utilize the homogeneous grid. TIle majority of the energy clearly revealed in various fields of the biological sciences.
conservation measures now discussed are based on this The most prominent characteristic of living organisms is
homogeneous space, and rely on the production of an the fact that their order is not absolute. The conformity of
artificial environment with an ever-greater level of isolation things may reach a certain balance in one particular instant,
from the external world achieved by improving the thermal but in the next moment it transforms into a different one.
insulation performance of the boundary that delimits This order is relative, flexible and soft. It is a constantly and
the inside from the outside. It is hard to imagine any solution dynamically repeated self-organization.
based on the idea of augmenting an internal artificial space Let us think about a tree as the most easily comprehen-
(regardless of how much natural energy is used) leading sible example of such a flexible order. TIle final form of a tre(
to a departure from the doctrine of mechanical performance is a highly complex one despite the fact that its growth is
which has got us in this trouble in the first place. based on the simple rule of one limb branching out into two.
We must recover an intimate relationship with the natural Each tree is unique even amongst the same tree species,
environment. Human beings were once a part of nature and due to the balance each attains through negO'tiation with its
so was architecture. Is it possible for us who live deeply internal and external environments. A constant process
immersed in the uniform spaces of the contemporary city of autogenic growth can be observed in their gradual change.
to be reconciled with nature? Is it possible to recover the To generate order by setting a basic rule such as the
understanding of architecture as part of nature? one found in a tree's growth, and allowing various external
This issue may seem to have no easy solutions, but the factors to interact with this rule: Would this not be the
corporal senses do significantly alter in relation to our correct method to attain a new architectural order based
consciousness of it. I believe that an instinctual yearning for on instability and heterogeneity?
 9

An 'algorithm' could be defined as a rule that correctly

generates a complex and unstable, but at the s.ame time soft
and highly flexible, order. It is an internal rule which, in
relation)o the various parameters that are added to it, hetero-
geneously determines how the architectural organization
offorms will be externalized. Any algorithmic method must
of necessity be a non-linear process that changes every
second in accordance with changes in eA'ternal conditions.
TIle result is always non-invertible: that is to say, the process
always leads to unknown results.
An algorithmic architectural order thus closely
approximates the order of the natural world. Presently, the
algorithms that are utilized in architectural design are still
in their primitive stages, but there is no doubt that they will
generate spatial structures that have little to do with those
of the grid architecture of the twentieth century. TI1ere is
equally no doubt that if architecture comes to approximate
the system ofliving organisms in the natural world even
slightly, people's basic bodily sensations would be awakened.
I think we should create architecture that makes people
happy, cheerful and more energetic, taking at the same time
a significant step towards a humane solution to the issues
posed by the global environment.

- Page 6:
Foyer area (Matsumoto Performing Arts Centr

- Following pages:
View of the roof (Meiso no Mori Municipal FUI
Exterior view (MIKIMOTO Ginza 2)
View toward the street from the stairs (TOO'S
Aerial view (White U)
Inside of the west passage to the concert hal
View of the structure from the interior (Serper
View from across pond (Island City Central PE
A tube under construction (Sendai Mediathec