Perhaps more than anything, the work of MONAD consistently makes the argument - contrary to the perception of digital design as strictly experimental and alien - that pulsation in architecture means space that is humanized through a new sense of craft.

Though Eisenman’s early work focused on the implications of an indexical process of formal iterations on mostly orthogonal space and the rythms which were layered upon them, City of Culture marked the highest point of that evolution integrating layers of embedded information into a topographical spatiality. Index as subject has now devolved into one of layers of material culture and history imposed on his architecture. City of Culture is an amazing project and we love it!!!

ASL

RUR bridges the gap between digital tools and the existing conditions of building technology, essentially resulting in architecture that is studied or it’s engineering ingenuity as much as the conceptual repercussions.

Asymptote gained early notoriety for their polemical positioning of the evolution of urban space. This questioning resulted in architecture that is cogniscient of the activity that theoretically exists within the space.

The work of Preston Scott Cohen creates a partial contrast to many of the works presented. Angles are accentuated by their dialogue with each other, questioning preconceptions of vertical and horizontal planes, ie, floor, ceiling, wall. The angularity of the work becomes the trace of the movements and rhythms implicit in the architecture, while the interior is very much an inflection of the exterior formal manipulations. Cohen is definitely the oddball of the exhibition, yet the work should not be seen as opposing, but pushing up against/with some of the other practices in ways that are not easily reconcilable.

ASL/DMD

UN Studio’s body of work is rigorously studied by a range of academics, students, and practitioners, both within and without the digital design circles. Inflections of the vector to the extent that it becomes almost transparent, creating a new language of spatiality.

kokkugia has been able to generate innovative forms at both a variety of scales, each with varying implications. The varying scales with which kokkugia operates are cross-influential, gradually pushing forward language of highly articulate structures holding up broadly stroked curvaceous surfaces. Their approaches to the smooth surface brings a bit of simplicity of form and complexity to their structural frames, where a multivalent language of both/and can be explicitly seen.

ASL/DMD

The undulating formlessness/formfulness of CAP’s Reebook Store in Shanghai takes the single surface question, divides it by its seams and reformulates a complete surface experience into a single, clear, and light space. The movement imbued into the clear plastic surfaces and the fluorescent lighting used to highlight it, achieve a sort of non-divided surface experience. This ‘total design’ of sorts conflates interior design and architecture into an ambiguous distinction not necessarily visible, but always felt. 

-ASL

The work of Minimaforms strikes us as engaged in a disciplinary history of architecture not only in content, but in formal construction. Their interest in the vehicle and representational drawings of ‘Vehicle’ harken back to the days of Corbu’s obsession with the machine aesthetic; while their interest in revisiting Archigram’s walking cities makes us feel as if the influence of architecture’s swerves through adjacent discourse have actually augmented the edges of our field enough to influence a new generation of digital practitioners.

-A.S.L. 

GCA’s Estonia Museum inflects the subtle formal manipulations of rhythmic waves into the vertical surface plane on its elevation. These waves are then subdivided by an almost veil-like (think veil from little old lady from church) language that achieve a complex fenestration that allows light to penetrate in several ways and forms. As an additive mechanism, the rhythmic waves seem to punctuate a moment in the last 10 years where the scripted and controlled qualities achieved by the digital discourse have become stylized? Well to us at least:)

-ASL

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A lot can be said about the impact that Greg Lynn has had with and on FORM. But I digress. The impact of his projects from Embryological House to his latest interest this decade with repossessed toys in FOUNTAIN have created yet another disciplinary project in architecture, using the techniques and processes afforded by digital fabrication for the ends of architectural production. We tend to see him as a litmus to check just where you fall in the field of using digital tools or being a digital tool, which he definitely is NOT.

-ASL

In contrast to the controlled discourse instigated by Peter Eisenman’s work, Miralles & Tagliabue represent a paradigmatic shift in architecture, existing long before the commonplace utilization of digital technologies. The curvilinear forms that dominate the collection of work in Pulsation in Architecture are influenced EMBT, whose projects provided a body of work that questioned the orthogonal in favor of spaces coexisting in fluidity.

DMD

Perhaps the most experimental and polemical of the group, Xefirotarch has amplified the conversation amongst young designers regarding the definition of the architect. Diaz Alonso posits architecture as an endeavor enabling us [human beings] to imagine space in a new way while simultaneously questioning most architectural norms. Regardless of one’s opinions on architecture existing solely in the digital realm, Diaz Alonso has undoubtedly facilitated a shift of focus in both academics and practice.