Technology changes ideas about structure.
As visitors enter the lobby of Bcom Electronics Inc. in suburban Taipei, they are greeted by an unconventional, almost erratic design that occasionally elicits stares of disbelief. A short hallway that looks like it was lifted from a spaceship leads to an elaborately curved reception desk. One wall of the entire corridor is composed of flat steel bars while the other is covered with square panels--all at various angles.
The lobby was an experimental project conducted by Liu Yu-tung, professor of architecture at National Chiao Tung University. Its bizarre form stems from the digital technology used in the design process. Every design detail Liu's students could have imagined was created on screen, and from there, incorporated into a set of blueprints for eventual construction, bringing the virtual world inside the computer into our own. Some have taken to calling the process "digital architecture."
For Liu, this new method of architectural design heralds a new era, but for many others, it is a sketchy idea at best. Is digital architecture just another fancy name for something that promises more than it can deliver, or is it a leap in design technology that will revolutionize the architectural realm?
"New technology helps liberate architecture," Liu says. "There are no limitations to space and form. Your wildest design ideas are no longer confined to your imagination. They can actually be built."
Despite the hype, there are those who look at digital architecture as nothing more than a few high-tech gizmos added to the architect's toolbox. To them, the computer cannot be used to design anything that could not also be designed with pen and paper. The old way just takes more time, effort, training and discipline.
According to Liu, a broader definition of digital architecture refers to the application of any digital technology to architectural design, planning and construction. The term also implies that the electronic nature of the design process somehow introduces significant changes to the building's form and interior spaces.
"When digital technology helps build something in a completely unconventional style that goes down in architectural history as socioeconomically and culturally important, I'd call that digital architecture," says Liu.
Since the early 1960s, computer technology has advanced from basic graphic design to simulation, from single to multidimensional and from static presentation to animation. All this has, one way or another, unleashed the imagination of architects who are no longer satisfied with building orthodox structures.
"Take Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum at Bilbao for example. Its magnificent, curvaceous design marks a mile stone in the development of digital architecture," says Liu. Gehry's 1997 work demonstrates that any form, however strange it may look, is buildable, Liu says, adding that every detail involved in the museum's design and construction was conceived on a computer. A curved steel plate or beam, for instance, can be produced using computerized numeric control machining, a process by which the designer or architect puts certain variables into the computer while a machine creates a mold. The way Liu sees it, what is shown on the screen comes out directly from the machine. What architects call free forms are transported from virtual space to the everyday world.
Many in the field share Liu's enthusiasm. Alfredo Andia, professor at Florida International University's School of Architecture, believes that digital technology has significantly changed how architects work and how people perceive a built environment. Andia says today architects are able to develop designs with a high level of complexity by using automated fabrication systems that allow greater control over the delivery process and the final price of construction.
The miniaturization of information technology and the quick deployment of wireless devices, on the other hand, allow computing to move away from the computers' physical boxes. Information technology, says Andia, is being embedded into all types of objects, and ultimately architectural spaces.
Andia, who was curator for the digital architecture section at the 13th Chilean Architecture Biennial in late 2002, notes that people have come to realize that "architects and designers in general can no longer provide universal solutions to human habitation. Each solution has to be precise, unique and transitory." This is unlike in the 20th century where architects aimed to find universal, formal solutions to human habitation.
The 20th century saw architects trying to build more houses to meet the demand of increasing populations. Le Corbusier, for example, was famous for his standardized housing complexes such as la Cité radieuse. His ideas of the house as a machine for living in and mass production of architecture had an immense influence on post-war architecture.
As Le Corbusier's modernist designs played an important role in architectural history, Liu hopes to see the same happen for the digital form. "What I care about is what the architecture of tomorrow will be, and I don't want to miss the chance of participating in something that is happening the world over."
Already Liu has helped put Taiwan on the architectural map by organizing the Far Eastern International Digital Architectural Design Award. Sponsored by the Far Eastern Group since 2000, the annual event drew 78 architects and architecture majors from 22 countries in 2004. "This is a platform to attract the world's attention to Taiwan. We stand a good chance in digital architecture, because the one strong area in which Taiwan can compete with the West is technology," Liu says.
Liu explains how difficult it was in the beginning to introduce the award to the international community of architects. He tried to attract attention by inviting world renowned architects and designers to sit on the jury, and he made a concerted effort to tout Taiwan as a high-tech country that welcomes everyone to define architecture in the digital age. Today, he is highly encouraged by the fact that the Swiss publishing house Birkhäuser is willing to publish, free of charge, the award's book, which contains images of all the entries.
His efforts have borne fruit. As Andia points out, the Far Eastern award "is considered today one of the most prestigious awards in [digital architecture] around the world."
In addition to physical structures, Liu believes another type of digital architecture can be found in cyberspace. The high penetration rate of the Internet inadvertently forms a completely new spatial realm. And the computer's advanced simulation power enables interaction between humans and machines that can easily take on a life of its own.
This idea has led Liu's team to design a virtual museum for Quanta Computer Inc. The museum containing the digital images of artwork owned by the company's chairman is actually a small oval room where visitors can walk into a painting and interact with its characters by wearing head-mounted displays and tactile gloves.
Some practicing architects in Taiwan are doing similar work and even encourage their peers and future architects to do the same. Evan Kuo of Ekuo Architects designed a relay booth for one of Taipei City Hall's subway station exits. The booth's physical structure was designed with a computer, yet it is the virtual meeting place embedded in the structure that Kuo calls digital architecture.
Kuo set up a portal to enter a virtual Taipei City. If visitors click Taiwan Power Station, for example, they will be able to see a three-dimensional representation of the vicinity. From there, they can browse the Taiwan Power Co.'s Web site if they wish. The same idea can be applied to shopping malls, where Net surfers will enjoy the same shopping experience as they do in actual stores. When the technology is mature enough, people may be able to shop at any department store, wherever and whenever they want, and the experience will be nearly as authentic.
"Space and reality now have an open definition," Kuo says. "What we see in the computer doesn't have to materialize to be called digital architecture. The whole trend should be looked at as a way to challenge our perception and push our imagination."
Like Liu, Kuo thinks that Taiwan's technology will spur the growth of digital architecture. "We're more wired than many countries and more adept in using information technology," Kuo says.
Even though Kuo, who has been designing schools and other buildings for the past decade, admits that the digital will not replace the physical, he has great expectations for the virtual world. "Not all architects should build actual houses like I do," Kuo says. "Physical structures take up huge amounts of space and money, but digital architecture can be rapidly replicated and easily accessed by every individual."
While digital's supporters see nothing but promising horizons, the reality seems to be that there are far more problems to be solved in Taiwan's architectural practices than promoting the trendy, smart-looking digital architecture. Sprawling high rises mingling with historical monuments or simply derelict buildings is not an uncommon scene in the metropolitan and suburban areas. An overhaul would involve too much red tape and negotiation with private landowners, thus stalling urban planning. How to solve that problem and determining how architecture should serve the city in the long run are more immediate issues, according to Shyu Ming-song, an architecture and urban-planning critic.
"Architects must have a sense of social responsibility. Digital architecture's overemphasis on free form is a narrow manipulation of aesthetics," says Shyu. "It's also an underestimation of the existence of architecture." For Shyu, architecture is meaningless if it cannot help improve the cityscape. "I am not opposed to new, varied forms, but it has to be put in the urban context, to be able to engage in a historical discourse with the city." When a beautifully weird building is erected in, say, Switzerland, where the cityscape is gorgeous and urban planning on track, it makes more sense, Shyu argues.
Shyu, who also lectures at Ming Chuan University's Department of Architecture, laments that a growing number of architecture professors are encouraging their students to design strange forms rather than paying more attention to the design problems of Taiwan's chaotic cities. He has seen students at design competitions who come up with fancy plans that clearly push conventional digital technology to the limit, but are totally unworkable. There are also more practical students who seek solutions to integrate old city blocks with new ones.
"Both are results of hard, dedicated work. But what does Taiwan need now?" Shyu asks. "I don't deny that digital technology is a powerful tool and hosting awards to promote the concept is all good, but it shouldn't be stressed to the extent that if we're not doing digital architecture, we're out of fashion."
Most critics of digital architecture say it is too far removed from Taiwan's reality. Still others insist that digital technology remains a tool at most because it has not altered the fundamentals of construction. And it is too early to tell whether it will bear any historical significance on the level of Gothic, Baroque and Rococo influences, or those of the 20th century's modernism and structuralism. Even the labeling of Frank Gehry's work as "digital architecture" is in dispute.
Liu and Kuo both admit that they have not thought much about what impact digital architecture will have on the general public. "If my work can stimulate people's imagination, that's enough for now," Kuo says.
Liu says candidly that when he first started his digital projects, he was not going to solve any of the architectural problems facing Taiwan. Having said that, he stresses that his Bcom lobby has become a reference point for local architecture magazines since, in the past, they could only talk about work designed by foreign architects. Many young architects have also expressed an interest in learning more about the design process. "I also get positive feedback from the public, telling me they really like the Bcom lobby. I even have restaurant owners asking me if I could design something like that for them."
The lobby design was highlighted in a + u , a Japanese architecture magazine, shortly after its completion. Japanese architects first thought the lobby was only a simulation and did not believe that Taiwan had the ability to build it. That kind of publicity is exactly what Liu and his like-minded team members are after.
"What I am doing helps Taiwan gain a voice in the world's architectural development," Liu says. "We can take part in defining what might be 'digitalism' in architecture, rather than always follow the West."
Alfredo Andia agrees. It is of enormous importance for Taiwan and Asian countries to develop a leading avant-garde design culture, he says. He describes how European and American corporations have developed a name, a logo and a design strategy, while most of their production takes place in Asia. Asian producers often lack a design strategy, brand recognition and ultimate contact with the final purchaser.
Designers and managers of companies like Alessi, Nike, Gucci and Prada are intrinsically related to a design environment in which architecture has traditionally led in terms of cultural and theoretical development, Andia says. "I believe the field of digital architecture in Taiwan has the potential to not only influence the profession of architecture but ultimately help generate an artistic milieu that could alter design culture throughout the continent."
Meanwhile, Liu is shuttling between Taiwan and China to oversee a project he has been working on for Greatlink Electronics Taiwan Ltd. He designed the company's Shenzhen headquarters. Set against the mountains, the complex's two main buildings and cafeteria will be housed under a wavy structure that mimics the rolling hills. A twirling stairway is built right into the structure. It will be his second free-form project to be brought to life after the Bcom lobby.
Most architects may disagree with his vision of where digital architecture is heading, especially given the other, more pressing issues that Taiwan's architects and urban planners need to deal with. But digital architecture is still in its formative years, and as such, it remains to be seen whether it will complement traditional forms or urban planning.