Belong to theBlob architecture (also called Blobitettura or Blobitecture) buildings with wavy and curvilinear shapes, free of edges and traditional symmetrical geometries, similar to Amebe or bubbles. On the design level, these forms with an organic and biomorphic appearance were almost impossible to create before the digital era, because they are difficult to imagine and draw by hand, but above all to be calculated structurally. With the advent of the first 3D modeling softwaresome Blob architectures managed to be built, becoming real icons of the experimental language of late 90s and early 1900s: a moment of crucial change on the eve of the digital revolution. If, however, on the one hand, the technology allowed to imagine forms never seen before, on the other, the economic and constructive limits made it difficult to pass from the concept to reality. Among the Blob buildings actually built and among the most significant, we remember the Kunsthaus of Graz, designed by Peter Cook and Colin Fournier, the Selfridges Building of Birmingham, made by Future Systems, and the Sage Gateshead by Norman Foster.
Birth and evolution of Blob architecture
We could say that the Blobitecture was launched, around the mid -90s, by the American architect Greg Lynnpioneer of Computer Aided Design (CAD) and author, in 1996, of the Enlightenment essay Blobs, or Why Tectonics is Square and Topology is Groovy, Published by Any magazine. The Concept of “Blob” However, it is not a tout-court invention, it derives from the computer acronym Binary Large Objecta field that in computer science is generically associated with the storage of large data in binary format not directly interpretable by the databases. In the specific case of three -dimensional modeling softwarethe same entity describes spheres that can be collected to form larger (and therefore “heavy” objects). In the 3D program of the time, alias-Wavefront, there was in fact the “Blob” module that allowed to control these spherical primitive details, called “Metaball“.
Lynn began to experiment and sensed that the computer -assisted design software would not only have been useful tools to speed up work, but real creative allies. He explored his potential, questioning the relationship between digital calculation, architectural and structural composition, and between 1995 and 1999, with Douglas Garofaloe and Michael Mcinturf, built the Korean pRestbyterian Church In Queens in New York: one of the very first buildings – complex but not Blob, although the initial intent was that – made with the aid of software in the phase of conception of design. Although technology was not lacking – the computer graphics sector went crazy, numerical control machines were already widespread and increasingly cutting -edge digitization systems – building amorphous buildings, from organic profile and from sometimes questionable aesthetics, he placed remarkable technical challenges. In particular, the high realization costs often led to results on paper, and there were a few who made Blob architecture in concrete architecture.
The most famous Blob buildings in the world
Following some of the most significant results in the world – all in Europe.
Kunsthaus Graz in Graz, Austria
Engaged in the sixties in the avant -garde project to apply technology to the construction of biomorphic buildings, tires and capable of moving in space, the former Archigram (now Spacelab) Peter Cook and Colin Fournier, inaugurate in Graz in 2003 – the year in which the Austrian town was the European capital of culture – the bizarre Kunsthaus Graz. The building, used as a museum of art and nicknamed “Friendly Alien“For its organic form, it is covered with a multimedia skin of 1,066 elements of blue plexiglas and 930 fluorescent lamps that light up in the evening by creating plays of light and different effects. Inside natural light passes through skylights placed on cover, these are all facing north except one that looks east in the direction of the clock tower, a historical symbol of Graz.
Selfridges Building in Birmingham, United Kingdom: an example of Blobitettura
Completed in 2003 and designed by the Future Systems Studio, founded by Jan Kaprický and Amanda Levete, the Selfridges Building of Birmingham is known for its curved facade, covered with 15,000 anodized aluminum discs Inspired by the famous metal knitted dress designed by Paco Rabanne in the 1960s. While the interior follows functional logic, the outside is conceived as an independent sculptural shell. The casing consists of a steel supporting structure, covered with a continuous layer of projection cement that has made it possible to obtain soft and continuous surfaces. The discs were then digitally modeled And tailor -made products to follow precisely, point by point, the silhouette of the volume. Selfridges is one of the most photographed buildings in the United Kingdom – it is even found among Windows’ default backgrounds – and has contributed to the transformation of the city’s urban image.
Three Blob buildings signed by Norman Foster
Also the famous British architect Norman Foster He built buildings with Bloboidal forms in the early 2000s. The philological bookcase of the University of Berlin, called “The Berlin Brain“(2006), has an ellipsoidal shape and a double leather composed externally from alternating transparent and metal panels, and internally by a white glass fiber fabric that spreads the incoming light. The Glasshouse International Center for Music (ex Sage Gateshead, 2004), in Gateshead in the United Kingdom, instead recalls a shell and shares with the first a system of paneling to plans rectangular elements: result easily obtainable on surfaces derived from revolution operations. A third building with a Bloboidal shape, but completely made of wood, is the Chesa Futura (2003), a residential complex in St. Moritz, Switzerland
