Archinect
University of Miami

University of Miami

Miami, FL

The Rationality of Parametricism - Lecture by Patrik Schumacher @ UMSoA

Mon, Aug 31 '15
Coral Gables, FL, US

Patrik Schumacher is the first on the list for this year's UMSoA Currents lecture series held at the University of Miami School of Architecture.   UMSoA Currents is a forum for the diversity of voices and interests in the field. Previous guests have included architects, critics and real estate developers, including those involved in the transformation of Miami into a world-class metropolis. Lectures in the Currents series are regularly scheduled on Mondays in Glasgow Hall at 6:30 p.m.

 

Text From Graphic Card:

The Rationality of Parametricism

The lecture argues that parametricism is architecture’s answer to post-Fordism, the only contemporary style that addresses the challenges and utilizes the opportunities of our computationally empowered civilization. More specifically it is the only style compatible with recent advances in structural and environmental engineering based on advanced computational analytics and optimization techniques. All other styles – like minimalism and neo-rationalism – are incapable of working with the efficiencies of the adaptive structural and tectonic differentiations that issue from the new engineering intelligence, i.e. they force its adherents to waste this opportunity and thus to waste resources. So, once contemporary architects take those performance conditions seriously they are nearly inevitably led to parametricism and the geometric transcoding of parameter variations into differentiated geometries. This much pertains to parametricism’s obvious superiority in terms of the built environment’s technical functionality. What is far less obvious but by no means less compelling is parametricism’s superiority with respect to the advancement of the built environment’s social functionality. The lecture will attempt to demonstrate this latter, more crucial point.

Patrik Schumacher is partner at Zaha Hadid Architects and the co-author of most key projects. He joined Zaha Hadid in 1988 and has been seminal in developing Zaha Hadid Architects to become a 450 strong global architecture and design brand. In 1996, he founded the “Design Research Laboratory” at the Architectural Association in London and continues to teach in what has become one of the world’s most prestigious architecture programs. He is lecturing worldwide and has been a guest professor in many prestigious schools of architecture, and recently held the John Portman Chair in Architecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Over the years he has contributed over 80 articles to architectural journals and anthologies. In 2008, he coined the phrase “Parametricism,” and has since published a series of manifestos promoting Parametricism as the new epochal style for the 21st century. In 2010 and 2012 he published his two-volume theoretical opus magnum, “The Autopoiesis of Architecture”. His writings are available on his website: www.patrikschumacher.com.

Back to Event List...