bricworks3 the watercube post-olympics ai weiwei - ARCHILEPSY ...

savvy designers
> Warped portal serves as entry point
> Structural lines distort perspective
viscous liquid that was frozen in place
as it flowed over the various balconies
and lighting coves. From the stage,
performers must feel as if they are
being swallowed by a colossal gilded
whale shark. The ceiling is punctuated
by hundreds of randomly distributed
pin lights, which recreate a clear night
sky when the house lights are dimmed.
Near the stage, sections of the wall
are perforated with organic patterns
of acoustic baffles, which dissipate
unwanted sound reflections. It
remains to be seen how the continuous
surfaces hold up to the humidity and
natural flexing of the building, but
upon completion the total effect of the
space is truly mesmerizing.
Stylistically, the Guangzhou Opera
House is a refined evolution of her
patented radius-edged vector-forms.
Though the official press release and
subsequent media coverage have
suggested that the initial concept for
the building was envisioned as two
stones in the Pearl River which have
been honed by flowing water, this
whimsical narrative is likely a harmless
exercise in client-friendly postjustification.
The multi-angular forms
were assuredly derived from iterative
experimentation with computational
geometries, facilitated (or even
generated) by advanced parametric
and scripting software. An ardent
champion for “Parametricism” Patrick
Schumacher served as the Project
Director for the Guangzhou Opera
House (along with Woody K.T. Yao).
In 2008, Schumacher presented his
Parametricist Manifesto at the Venice
Biennale, and has published numerous
articles on this design philosophy
since. In 2009, Architectural Design
published Parametricism- A New
Global Style for Architecture and
Urban Design, which at times reads like
a brazen love-letter for Schumacher’s
own practice within ZHA. He states:
“There is a global convergence in
recent avant-garde architecture that
justifies the enunciation of a new style:
Parametricism. The style is rooted in
digital animation techniques. Its latest
refinements are based on advanced
parametric design systems and
scripting techniques. This style has
been developed over the last 15 years
and is now claiming hegemony within
avant-garde architecture. It succeeds
modernism as a new long wave of
systematic innovation. The style
finally closes the transitional period
of uncertainty that was engendered
by the crisis of modernism and that
was marked by a series of short lived
episodes including Postmodernism,
Deconstructivism, and Minimalism.
Parametricism is the great new style
after modernism.”
With that ambitious—albeit, rather
dismissive—thesis, Schumacher leaves
very little room for a generative concept
as simplistic as “two stones in a river”.
However, as many designers who have
practiced in China know all too well,
clients there can be wary of complicated
design ideologies, favoring simple,
65