Monday, June 23, 2014

W9 - The Lure of the Continuous Skin: Reflection (TE2.3, TE2.5, C4.2, C4.4)

Reflection: Parametricism's Consideration On Human Values and Human Association In Architecture Compared To Its Predecessor.

"Fabricating the Future" (2014) by Neil Leach and Philip Yuan in
their attempt to focus on digital tools and fabrication, materials,
design approach and methodology - a quick example of the
general progress of Parametricism as an "epochal" style.




Before initiating my study on Parametricism, I was well aware on its popularity among the new generation of Architects of the 21st Century. My enthusiasm on understanding this new architectural ideology was well-driven by the fervour of its practitioners on demonstrating how our technological advancements pave the way to new dimensions of form designs and functional optimisation.

While this technology-oriented architecture style implies the nonessential need of the conventional human interpretation in the design process, it certainly has the capacity to revive the notion of generating human values and enhancing the essence of human association in Architecture. This expectation was developed from my awareness on the actualities of computer modelling on human behaviour towards form and space, as well as the claims which were consistently addressed by the leading practitioners of Parametricism on the need of this architecture style to cater for our new societal behaviour that greatly distinguishes ourselves from our forefathers, or as Patrik Schumacher describe, “the post-fordist network society”.

As an architecture student whose principles value the subtle relationship between man and his built environment, I feel that the aspects of human nature, values and ethics are necessary in the Architecture evolutionary process, especially in this new generation that gradually replaces human capability with technological dependency. After all, these aspects have constantly been in the ancient and traditional architectural discourse, and are observable in the manifestations of the architecture of the past.

This suggestion had guided my search in indicating the extent where Parametricism considers human values and human association in architecture. By going through the Parametricism theoretical discourse that concerns the wellbeing of humanity, I have uncovered the fact that Parametricism does have a theoretical approach that defines the role of architecture on societal function. 


Through spatio-morphological framing of communicative interaction, Architecture is able to frame social behaviour with the use of parametric semiology, and interact with the human senses by parametric phenomenology. The emergence of software’s such as ‘MiArmy’ or ‘AI.implant’ allow architects to determine the functional optimization of parametric semiology by means of visual illustration and computational description through human behavioural modelling within specifically designed environments. There are notable numbers of mostly conceptual and few constructed projects by practitioners of Parametricism that demonstrated this approach; a good example would be the Vienna University of Applied Arts by Magda Smolinska, Marius Cernica, and Monir Karimi. 

However, there is little noteworthy evidence that suggests the use of parametric phenomenology that may have demonstrated the strengthening of interaction between architecture and the human senses, despite the Parametricism’s attribute as an advanced architecture instrument. Perhaps the progress on the exploration of Parametricism has not yet reaches its fullest potential; nevertheless this still implies that Parametricism has little initiation on the topic of human values and association in its architecture manifestation. Moreover, its major contribution on the societal aspect of humanity suggests that it neglects the importance of individuality in human character and the subjective nature of human behaviour.

In terms of the appreciation of human values and association, as generally demonstrated and consistently achieved throughout the ages by traditional architecture (and as demonstrated by Gothic style on last week’s post), the dominant use of computation towards the design process and realisation restricts human creativity, resulting to the absence of natural characteristics in the architecture and consequently dehumanize the built environment by disallowing the human users to appreciate their own existence which may have been projected passively by the contextual elements.   

There is the minority within the sphere of Parametricism who are aware of the importance of these elements, namely Lars Spuybroek, who as Patrik Schumacher personally called the protagonist of Parametricism who has “lost nerve”. Spuybroek has proven his appreciation towards human association with architecture through his most recent projects as well as his extensive research on ornamentation from Gothic architecture, where he emphasized on the characteristics of its style as a product of human imperfection and intuition and the resulting beauty that it projects.

In one of Spuybroek’s prominent project called the “D-Tower”, he put an emphasis on human reaction and incorporates it in his design through active interaction between the user and his built environment. By allowing human feelings to determine the design character of the structure, he connects the users with their built environment and making the structure represents the locals’ behaviour. The structure itself is designed to subtly resemble a silhouette of an organic being, thus removing the distinction of characters between itself and the human users.

Conclusion

Parametricism has indeed the capacity to be the epochal architecture style of the future and today’s generational technology is undeniably useful to optimize architectural functionality. However, without the consideration of the integration of human values and association within the architectural product, as emphasized by the architecture of the past, future generations may not apprehend the significance of our human existence, nor will they appreciate the meaning and capability of our human skills and intelligence. 

In acknowledging the importance of technology as an innovative instrument for the betterment of our lives and the fact that the relationship between man and technology has always been an integral part of sustaining the relevance of our built environment’s architectural evolution, we should also remind ourselves on how we can use our technological marvels to preserve our natural behaviour, rather than allowing ourselves to be fully dependent on the artificial intelligence. Moreover, by using technology to reflect ourselves, we should be able to provide functional optimization for our future generation through Parametricism, while at the same time preserving our human values and our natural behaviour.    

Friday, June 20, 2014

W8 - The Lure of the Continuous Skin (TE2.3, CC3.4, C4.2, C4.4)

Introduction
Throughout my years of architecture education I have become more and more aware of the subtle relationship between architecture and humanity, in a sense that architecture is predominantly the product of human intervention, rather than two separate entities merging into symbiotic relationship where both contribute to one another's existence. This relationship affects an important aspect of our nature, which is the ‘human’ experiences, senses, thoughts and how these characters affect the decisions we make.
That is what I as an architecture student understood on the importance of architecture and how this sequential information process between man and the built environment have remained consistent throughout the architectural style evolution, and that idea guides me through my reading on Parametricism.

   Crowds modelled as physical flows.
   Source: 
Parametric Order – Architectural Order via an Agent
   Based Parametric Semiology
During my search on understanding Parametricism, its potential as an epochal architectural style of the 21st century, and the technologies that produces it and therefore allows its hegemonic appearance as a relevant architecture style, I mainly followed Patrik Schumacher’s stands on this new style, since he is the leading voice of this movement. I encountered frequently his notion of the capability of Parametricism to provide the current architecture’s task of organising and articulating, as he claims, “the societal complexity of post-fordist network society”.
The involvement of architecture in defining human behaviour and movement through Parametricism brought my attention and triggered my recollection on traditional architecture and its reconciliation between man and his built environment. Schumacher has indeed, elaborated consistently on the development of parametric style from retrospective approach of understanding previous architectural style all the way from the Gothic Architecture.

This has compelled me to come up with a research question:
“To what extent does Parametricism consider human values and human involvement/human ‘touch’ in architecture as compared to its predecessor?”

GOTHIC V.S PARAMETRIC

    (Left) Gloucester Cathedral, (Right) Installation – Zero/Fold | Adam Lazar Onulov

In the effort to find a parameter for this study, the Gothic Architecture is chosen as a representation of parametric style’s predecessor, since it is where as Patrik Schumacher suggests, “the transition from tradition-bound building to a self-consciously innovative architecture starting with the renaissance” happened. While I personally feel that this notion is too bold a statement, it does bring significance to this ‘transitional’ style as a starting point of a significant change in architectural implementation according to Schumacher's perspective. 

A quick review on the Gothic style - Preserving human nature through human intervention.
   Six characters of Gothic Architecture.
   Source: John Ruskin, Plate I, The Seven Lamps of Architecture,
   extracted from Lars Spuybroek's talk on "The Simpathy of Things" 2012



John Ruskin, an anti-classicist in the 19th Century Victorian era wrote a book on Gothic Architecture and defined the style in six characters; savageness, changefulness, naturalism, grotesqueness, rigidity and redundancy. His study on Gothic style antagonized the classicist architecture and its ‘a priori’ (theoretical deduction rather than empirical observation) methodology in style, where novelty is restricted and almost non-existent due to the constant association of ancient Greek and/or Roman principles, where variations of combinations are possible but the order is always fixed.
On the contrary, Gothic style, as Ruskin argued, has the capacity of “perpetual novelty”, i.e. ever-changing originality where complete repetition is almost inconceivable no matter how similar the order or figures may appear to be. This perpetual novelty brings forth the existence of human intervention in the production of the style, which can be elaborated from the first two characters of savageness and changefulness in Gothic style.     

   St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City - Late Renaissance Architecture (the starting point of "self-consciously innovative" style. An example of
   how order and forms are unchanged, while combinations differ. Human interventions are mostly projected from its facade and
   ornamentations and act as separate elements from the forms.

Savangeness – Rough variation
Imperfection is in some sort essential to all that we know of life. It is the sign of life in a mortal body, that is to say, of a state of progress and change. Nothing that lives, is, or can be, rigidly perfect; part of it is decaying, part of it is nascent.” 
– John Ruskin, the Stones of Venice, 1853


      Variation of Rose windows with their configurations digitalized through visual
      interpretation. Extracted from
 Lars Spuybroek's talk on "The Simpathy of
      Things" 2012



Lars Spuybroek spoke on the “Nordish characters” exemplified in the Gothic style of roughness and savageness and how these characters are produced by the human intervention and his incapacity to produce perfection. What’s significant about this character is how imperfection is permitted in architecture in order to allow “natural” characters to flow into architecture and consequently creates a subtle natural relationship between man and his built environment, as opposed to Parametricism’s reliance on the almost unseen limitation of algorithmic computation to evaluate what is required for the users’ wellbeing.
This permissive attributes on the human capacity therefore allows locality, reality and values projected by the architecture, which until now, remain as a major responsive aspects of architecture that architects and end-users prefer to be irreplaceable.
Changefulness – Smooth variation
The Gothic’s capability to instil perpetual novelty in architecture style allows smooth transitional change between variables that can be achievable through human intervention and intelligence without the need of computation. This changeful character challenges the separation from form to structure and from structure to ornamentation. Lars Spuybroek gave an example of these sorts of undefined elements by demonstrating the Gothic style of rib vault designs.
By looking at the ribs of the Gloucester Cathedral’s corridor, there is no clear distinction between the windows, the walls and the ceiling. The resulting configuration of decorations merges different forms together the same way Parametricism allows continuity of forms without rigid contrasts between form elements.  But what distinguishes it from Parametricism is how it is limited by human capability and imperfection in constructing the elements, rather than the parametric limitations by its set of design criteria demonstrated through computation. This human interpretation of organic movement that vitalizes geometry, as Wilhelm Worringer expressed, forces the sensibility of the users, hence allowing sympathetic communication which intuition establishes between the user and the architecture. 
The human values are therefore appreciated and subconsciously sympathized, generating an experience for the users of the building that enables them to recognize the ‘human’ character embedded within the building.
Self sketched (2014) - An illustration showing the similar process of Gothic Architecture, which is derived through intuition, undefined, permissive imperfection of human capacity and the inseparable elements configured to form a whole. 

Parametricism - Of form, not content.
Since traditional architecture is in fact well-known for its coherence with human intervention, I wonder, does human intervention and the preservation of human values continued to be considered throughout this so-called “self-consciously innovative architecture” styles and ultimately the 21st Century Parametricism? Schumacher did stresses his idea on architecture's responsibility in the built environment by being in charge of the form, rather than its content, and deny architecture's need to be competent on social justice as shown in his facebook post below:
But has Parametricism at least been able to preserve human values through its technological advancement and application? If it is true that Parametricism can contributes towards the civilizational progress of the post-fordist network society, are human value and human intervention still included as topics of reflection? 

Parametric Semiology on human behaviour

Schumacher's attempt to illustrate architecture's societal function through spatio-morphological framing of communicative interaction is as close as he gets to demonstrates Parametricism’s capacity of shaping humans and their social characteristics. Through articulation he proposes two task dimensions: phenomenological project and semiological project.
The three dimensions that together procure architectural order, derived conceptually by two binary distinctions, which are organisation and articulation. Extracted from Patrik Schumacher's talk on "Parametric Order - 21st Century Architectural Order" 2012. 
Contributions of the fundamental dimensions of architecture make to architecture's essential societal functions. Extracted from Patrik Schumacher's talk on "Parametric Order - 21st Century Architectural Order" 2012. 
 
In the effort of proposing parametric semiology to frame social behaviour through architecture, Schumacher demonstrated the use of crowd modelling tools like ‘MiArmy’ or ‘AI.implant’ as a means to make behavioural modelling within designed environments. These tools allow a more coherent understanding on crowd circulation flows and helps architects to apply proper navigation for the users within its built environment. Moreover, the use of this modelling is in the process of being upgraded to even simulate detailed human interaction towards his surrounding physical context, as Jan M. Allbeck from George Mason University explains:

“We use roles and groups to help specify behaviours, we use a parametrised representation to add the semantics of actions and objects, and we implemented four types of actions (i.e. scheduled, reactive, opportunistic, and aleatoric) to ensure rich, emergent behaviours.”
   "Functional crowds" - Crowds with aleatoric, reactive, opportunistic and scheduled actions.
   Source: Patrik Schumacher, 
Parametric Order – Architectural Order via an Agent Based Parametric Semiology 2012.
     (Above left) Parametric Semiology: Semio-field, differentiation of public vs. private as parametric range.
     (Above right) 
Parametric Semiology: Semio-field, master-plan with program distribution.
     (Below) 
Vienna University of Applied Arts, Masterclass Hadid, Parametric Semiology: Semio-field. Project authors: Magda Smolinska, Marius
     Cernica, and Monir Karimi.
The diagrams above illustrate how phenomenological and semiological articulation configure and ultimately achieve the requirements for spatial optimization for the users. It involves the stimulating of perception and the consequential behavioural responses of the users to indicate important spaces, private and public spaces and the transitions in between. The whole configuration almost acts as a farm that navigates cattle to and fro within their confinements using wooden railings (Since this metaphor was used by Schumacher himself to describe the traditional urban fabric, I believe the same can be applied to this approach, and it does sound quite disturbing). 

Parametric Phenomenology on human senses

Several attempts had been made by parametric practitioners to prevent further deprivation of vital human relationship with the built environment and to preserve and generate meaning through parametric association in architecture. The D-tower, designed by NOX whose head of architect is Lars Spuybroek himself, is an interactive sculpture and building that visually represents the collective emotions of the contextual users. The structure changes colour at night, with each colours representing the most deeply felt emotions of the day, indicated by the questionnaires answered by the inhabitants of the city via internet. The design outcome generated active participation of the city’s inhabitants, bridging a relationship between human emotions and values with the building while maintaining a sense of locality through the building.
D-tower (2001 - 2003), located in Doetinchem (NL) is an interactive sculpture and building by NOX/Lars Spuybroek and Q.S. Serafijn, co-developed with V2_.
A sensory parametric architecture thesis by Yirao Lee from Victoria University of Wellington attempted to integrate sensory experiences within parametric design by incorporating symbolic and phenomenological imperatives into the design. By experimenting on the interior ambiance through form and material parametrically, the design outcome of the thesis brings the possibility of reconnecting human existence within the parametric world.
However, the design experiment may also achieve its hypothesis without the use of parametricism and therefore does not produce the novelty that only parametric design can achieve. The result would be the same as how architecture has always been capable of producing, even in before the advent of parametricism. This reality undermines the technological advancement of Parametricism and is constantly the case in the discourse of the relevance of Parametricism as an epochal style of today.





Can Semiology parametric and Phenomenology parametric preserve and stimulate humanness through architecture the same way Gothic architecture has achieved?
Parametric semiology engages on human’s (or sentient beings) perception and comprehension by producing the type of built environment that optimizes navigation, communication and interaction, while providing transitional private to public space configuration appropriate for the program that it designs for. In terms of optimization of functionality for human use, parametric semiology is heading the right direction. But a church with human-made ornamentation and a modernist church of pure form can never produce the same atmosphere, even if the latter provides the most functional efficiency. On the contrary, John Ruskin, in his writing on Gothic Architecture exemplified the preservation of human nature in architecture and how this element radiates over the functional imperfection of its building. If humanness is considered irrelevant for the design of buildings of today as opposed to being functionally optimised, it does not explain why traditional buildings are ever-reusable and ever-qualified even for centuries, and how contemporary humans still able to connect themselves with these traditional buildings the same way their predecessors experienced. 

Therefore, based on my understanding, Semiology parametric and Phenomenology parametric CANNOT preserve and stimulate humanness through architecture the same way Gothic architecture has achieved.

Personal artwork, using acrylic on canvas (2014) - My attempt to demonstrate the interdependence of form and space, moulded by thoughts and intuition, thus letting human imperfection to drive the production of the art piece - paradoxically inspired by parametricism, but more similar to Gothic interpretation of style.


Conclusion

“Science has not and never will have the same ontological sense as the perceived world, for the simple reason that it is a determination or an explanation of that world.”

“Truth does not “inhabit” only the “inner man”. Or more accurately, there is no inner man; man is in the world, it is whithin the world that he knows himself.”      

- MERLEAU-PONTY, Maurice; Phenomenology and Perception, 2006

The same statements can be applied as an argument over the theoretical representation of Parametricism in architecture and its functional capability without clarifying why the idea of human connection with the style seems to oppose their relevance as an epochal style in architecture. Although the Practitioners of Parametric design appears to consistently bring forth their technological achievements and their capacity to produce an architecture style that allows an interaction between contextual phenomena and the users, or “cognitive sentients” through architecture, there is an apparent gap that is reserves for a discourse to understand the significance of human values and intervention through and towards architecture that I believe Parametricism has to consider.



Reference:
Ruskin, J. (1849), Plate I - The Seven Lamps of Architecture.
Ruskin, J. (1853), The Nature of Gothic, The Stones of Venice.
Schumacher, P. (2012), Parametric Order – Architectural Order via an Agent Based Parametric Semiology, Adaptive Ecologies – Correlated Systems of Living by Theodore Spyropoulos, AA Publications, London 2013
Schumacher, P. (2012), "Parametric Order—21st Century Architectural Order", Harvard University.
Schumacher, P. (2012), Parametric Semiology – The Design of Information Rich Environments, Architecture In Formation – On the Nature of Information in Digital Architecture, edited by Pablo Lorenzo-Eiroa and Aaron Sprecher, Routledge, Taylr and Francis, New York, 2013.
Schumacher, P. (2014), The Impact of Parametricism on Architecture and Society, interviewed by Angel Tenorio.
Spuybroek, L. (2012), "The Sympathy of Things", Faculty of Architecture, University of Innsbruck 
Worringer, W. (1911) Form in Gothic.
Yirao Lee, (2010), Sensory Parametric Architecture, School of Architecture, Victoria University of Wellington.

http://v2.nl/archive/works/d-tower
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfAgl4dhuFs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG2WMVkD5dw&hd=1

Thursday, June 5, 2014

W6 - The Lure of The Continuous Skin (TE2.3, TE2.5, CC3.4, C4.2, C4.4)



INTRODUCTION

Upon having an understanding of Parametricism through a week of reading, I find its relevance as a global architectural standardization for a future that insists on boundlessness. The exploration of seamless characters that can be achieved in form and space, made possible through computational synthesis, provides us a clear picture of practicality with the absence of geometrical rigidity, hence extending a whole new dimension of architectural interaction.

My WEEK 1 blog post discusses on the seeds that may have developed into the idea of Parametric Design, as well as the constraints that restricts Parametricism into completely covering all aspects of architectural application. From this discussion comes out the main Research Question that is of my interest which will be discussed on the next week post:

"To what extent can Parametric Surface/Skin composition contributes towards the complexities of human inhabitation?"

PARAMETRICISM AS NEW GLOBAL STYLE FOR ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN 
Zaha Hadid & Patrik Schumacher
Patrik Schumacher’s audacious claim in promoting Parametricism as a style for the global scale architecture movement demands our attention towards understanding parametric application in design.
He justifies his claims by calling for an observation of Parametricism in a global convergence in recent avant-garde architecture over the last 15 years and the possibility of having rightly claimed as hegemony within avant-garde architecture. As a new long wave of systematic innovation, it succeeds modernism. The style finally closes the transitional period of uncertainty that was engendered by the crisis of modernism and a series of short lived episodes including Postmodernism, Deconstructivism, and Minimalism was marked.
After modernism, parametricism claims its relevance in architecture and interior design to large scale urban design. The larger the scale of the project the more pronounced is parametricism’s superior capacity to articulate programmatic complexity. In a three year research agenda at the AADRL  - Parametric Urbanism, the urbanist potential of parametricism has been explored and demonstrated by Zaha Hadid Architects by a series of competition winning masterplans.

WHAT IS PARAMETRIC DESIGN?
The word 'Parameter' is technically defined as a numerical or other measurable factor forming one of a set that defines a system or sets the conditions of its operation. Parameters are the constants in an equation, set of equations, or a computer program (script) that define and limit what the equation will produce.

A video below demonstrates a clear example of how architecture and urban design process is applied through parametric approach, where a set of criteria determines the parameter of the design within which the design configuration is explored. 

Peter Trummer's Parametric Associative Design
It is clear that hand drawings and sketches can only contribute towards the visual and physical representation of initial ideas. Since the only possible method of achieving parametric design is through computational algorithms, it should be noted that the idea of parametricism is far more sophisticated than using computer instead of drawing boards (Ceborski, 2010). In order to understand the sophistication needed for the use of Parametricism in design, let us have a brief look on how the idea of Parametric Design was developed.

WHAT POSSIBLY TRIGGERED AND DRIVES THE IDEA OF THE USE OF PARAMETRICISM IN ARCHITECTURE?

1.      Surface Composition

By revisiting historical examples from veins of architecture that have previously pursued (unintentionally) the idea of parametricism, I can understand its significance as a reference for architects such as Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher, Herzog and de Meuron, Weil Arets and other parametric practioners, who in contemporary times attempt to reopen the general issue of surface composition as a “legitimate” aspect of design, after almost a century of (near) omission by modernism.
Take Islamic architecture as an example, being particularly relevant due to its avoidance of representational iconography in favour of highly sophisticated geometry and pattern, there is a significant use of algorithm which produces hierarchy and movement which consequently constitutes a whole. Although its use was only applied on two-dimensional canvas due to the absence of necessary technology for a three-dimensional representation, its relevance is clear and observable throughout the 21st Century surface pattern design through parametricism.

One lesson that I can take from examples such as the surface articulations of this mosque is a reminder of the clarity of intent required to compel us to fight beyond the easier products of our tools, as opposed to a forfeiture of authority to the tools.  The more sophisticated our tools, the more difficult this becomes.


Aranda/Lasch: Rules of Six, Installation of MoMA, New York, 2008
Zaha Hadid's Architects: Civil Courts of Justice, Madrid, 2007


2.      Space of Movement
In 1996 Patrik Schumacher discussed the idea of “The Architecture of Movement” by questioning the conventional exception of observing the system of movement as a key to space in architecture and the escaping from the architectonic system. This seeming “revolt” against the conventional rules in architecture design dimension, e.g. the reference on Cartesian grid and presupposing points of connection, deviates the perception of space from the compartmentalized and objectivity of space. Hence, the idea of “subjectivity” and “freedom” that registers and thinks itself against the framework of an institutionalising "architecture" (Schumacher, 1996).  
Schumacher justified this idea as a birth given by the technology of architecture, while asserted the fact that the idea emerged in the 18th Century, during the trend of artificial reconstruction of nature, although the configuration of space of movement were derived through “playfulness” and not through viable systematic approach. 


3.      Radicalism
Zaha Hadid's Kartal-Pendik Masterplan, 
Istanbul, Turkey, 2006



The importance of Zaha Hadid’s persistent radicalism for the last 20 years of architectural experimentation to the culture of architecture lies primarily in a series of momentous expansions - as influential as radical - in the range of spatial articulation available to architects today. Her conquests for the design resources of the discipline include representational devices, graphic manipulations, compositional manoeuvres, spatial concepts, typological inventions and the suggestion of new modes or patterns of inhabitation.

Through these contributions, Hadid aimed to describe a causal chain that significantly moves from the artificial to the significant and thus reverses the order of ends vs. means assumed in normative models of rationality.

The point of Hadid’s engagement in this idea is the assumption of a new medium (multi perspective projection) which allows for certain graphic operations (multiple, over-determining distortions) which then are made operative as compositional transformations (fragmentation and deformation) leading to a new concept of space (magnetic field space, particle space, distorted space) which suggests a new phenomenology, navigation and inhabitation of space no longer oriented along prominent figures, axis, edges and clearly bounded realms.




WHAT ARE THE CONSTRAINTS IN PARAMETRICISM?
1.         Segmentation
While some architecture theorists and practitioners still convey and understand the idea of parametricism simply about parametric design and its potentials, Richard Coyne pointed out the need to clarify the existence of its constraints. He explained that much of the skill in parametric design resides in establishing the relationship between parameters, and the fact that constraints are the key to the idea of parametric design.
In a design based on parametric approach, each segments and parts of a design is interrelated. In this case, we are emphasizing on the physical aspect, where the changes in parts of a design affects the other parts due to the continuity and flow achievable within the fixed parameter suggested by the design synthesis. Various parameters and constraints will interact and therefore restricts the limitless probability of forms as falsely understood by some people.

2.         Bigger Blobs
Philip Steadman's The Automatic
Generation of Minimum Standard
House Plans (1970)
The complexity of parametric design gets even more compounded in the case of designing bigger structures or entities, such as whole houses or hospitals. Not only are real buildings made up of many geometrical relationships and constraints, but also involve the selection and arrangement of many parametric components.
Graham Shawcross has illustrated the so-called combinatorial problem (“explosion” of results) of arranging rooms in a house, or perhaps just dividing a rectangle into a series of smaller rectangles. There are millions of ways of dividing a rectangle into just a dozen sub-rectangles. It’s not just a problem of enumerating all those possibilities, but of sifting, sorting and selecting the best or most suitable for some purpose or other.


3.         “Wicked” Designs
Another type of issues of programs, constraints, combinatorics and limitations which are well known to those within the area of parametric design are the case of the ill-defined, “wicked” and random configuration of constraints imposed by environment, context, people, competing stakeholders, social norms, and cultural practices.
Although there are parametric definitions of crowds, swarms and mobs, but nothing has yet to cover the aspects that models human sociability and responses to environments in total — the stuff of architecture. This constraints in Parametricism explains why parametric design only flourishes in the production of elegant sweeping building facades and continuous organic roof structures, rather than floor plans, circulation routes, and subtle spatial interventions. With skins, surfaces and sculptural abstractions the constraints and their interdependencies are more amenable to algorithmic control, unencumbered by issues of use, history, culture, politics, and the complexities of human inhabitation.

CONCLUSION
These issues of programs, constraints, combinatorics and limitations are well known to anyone who has worked in the area of parametric design. It’s no wonder that parametric design flourishes in the production of elegant sweeping building facades and continuous organic roof structures, rather than floor plans, circulation routes, and subtle spatial interventions. With skins, surfaces and sculptural abstractions the constraints and their interdependencies are more amenable to algorithmic control, unencumbered by issues of use, history, culture, politics, and the complexities of human inhabitation.
Reference:
Kaplan, D (2011), Safavid Surfaces and Parametricism, Achinect Features,
extracted from http://archinect.com/features/article/29553480/safavid-surfaces-and-parametricism
Schumacher, P (2000), In Defence of Radicalism - On the Work of Zaha Hadid, City Visionaries, Venice Biennale of Architecture, Catalog for the British Pavilion, Cornerhouse Publications, Manchester
Schumacher, P (1996), The Architecture of Movement, ARCH+ 134/135, Wohnen zur Disposition, Dezember 1996 German: Architektur der Bewegung
Coyne, R (2014), What’s Wrong With Parametricism, Reflections on Digital Media & Culture. Extracted from http://richardcoyne.com/2014/01/18/whats-wrong-with-parametricism/
http://www.rethinking-architecture.com/introduction-parametric-design,354/
http://richardcoyne.com/2014/01/18/whats-wrong-with-parametricism/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EhjUli4cYEg