GREG LYNN ARCHITECTURAL CURVILINEARITY The Folded, the Piiant and the Supple For the last two decades, beginning with Fobert Ventui's Complexity afd Contagic- tion in Architecture,’ and Colin Powe and Fred Kostters Collage Cty and continuing {rough as. Wigley and Philip Johnson's Deconstrycivst Architecture architects have been primarily concerted with the production of heterogeneous. ragmented and conflicting formal systems. These practices have attempted to embody the ‘ilerencas within and netween diverse physical, cultural and social contexts in fermal conflicts. When comparing Ventur's ‘Compionty and Contaaictioner Learning ‘om Las Vegas with Wigley and Johnson's Deconstruction frcitactureitisnecessaty {overlook many signiicant and distin- ‘uishing ditferences in order toientily at least ane common theme. Both Venturi ana Wigley argue fr the ‘deployment of discontinuous, fragmented, heterogeneous and diagonal formal siatagies based on the incongruites, |ustapesitions and oppostions win ‘specific sites and programmes. These isjunctions result roma logie which tends fo ldentty tne potential contradictions betwen dissimilar ements. A chagonal ‘dialogue between abuildig and ts context hhas become an emblem for he contradic tions within contemporary culture, From the ‘scale ofan urban planto a building etal, ‘contexts have been mined lor caliting ‘geometries, materials, styles, histories and programmes which are then represented in architecture as intemal contradictions. The ‘most paradigmatic architecture ofthe last ten years, including Robert Vantur’s ‘Sainsbury Wing of the National Galery, Peter Eisenman's Wexner Center, Berard ‘Tschumi's La Vile park or the Gehry House, invests athe architectural repre entation at contradictions, Through ‘contradiction, architecture represerts difference in violent formal conficts Contradiction has also provoked a reactionary response o formal conti, Such resistances attempt io recover unified architectural languages that ca sland against heterogenely. Unity constructed through one of to strategies: ether by reconstructing a continuous acchitectural language trough historical analyses (Neo- ‘Classicism or leo-Modernism) or by identiying lacal consistencies resulting from indigenous climates, mater, ‘wasitons.ac technologies (Regionalism). The internal ordars of Neo-Classicism, Neo- Modernism and Regionalism conventionally {opress the cultural and contextual iscontinuiies that are necessary for a logic of contradiction. In architecture, both the reaction o and represeatation at hnoterogenely have shared an origin in Contextual analysis. Both meoretical rmadels begin with a close analysis of contextual Conditions from which hey proceeds e evolve alther ahomageneous or heterogeneous urban fabric. Neither the reactionary callfor unity nor the avant: (garde digmanting of it thvough the ident ‘cation af internal contradictions seams ‘adequate as a mode! for contemporary architecture and urbanism. Inrasponse to architecture's discovery of complex. disparate citferentiated ant heterogeneous cultural and formal con texts, two options have been dominant ether conitck ane eantradiction o unity land reconstiuction Presently, an alterna tive smoothness i being formulated that may escape these dialectically opposed strategies, Common io the diverse sources ‘\lthis post-contradictory work topological ‘geometry. morphology, morphogenesis, Catastrophe Theory oF the computer technology of both he defence and Hollywood fm industry ~ are characteris- ties of smooth transformation involving the intensive tegration at citerences within a continuous yet heterogenecus system. ‘Smooth mixtures are made up of aisparate elements which maintain heir integriy \aile being blended within a continuous {ied of other tree elements, Smoothing does not eradicate atter- ‘ences but incorporates? free inienstios {rough fui tactics of mixing and blend- Ing. Smooth mixtures are not homogeneous ‘and therefore cart be reduced. Deleuze describes smocthness ae "he continuous variation’ and he ‘centinuous development ‘of form’ wigey's critique of pte form and Satie geometry‘ nccribad within geomet: ‘ie contcts and discontinutes. For Wigley, smoothness is equated with hierarchical ‘organisation: she volumes nave been purified they have become smooth, Classical and the wires all converge in a single, hierarchical, vertical reverent, Rather than investing in arrested conticis, Wigley’ ‘sipperness’ might be better exploited by the alternative smoothness of heterogeneous mixture, For the fist time perhaps, comlesty sight te aligned with ‘neither unity nor contradiction but wath smooth, plant mixture, Bot plancy and smoothness provide an ‘escape fom the two camps which would tater have architecture break under the sess of dillerence o stand firm, Plancy allows architecture to become involved in ‘complexity through lexbiliy. tmay be possible neither repress the complex. relations o ferences with fixed points of resolution nor artes ren contradictions, but sustain thom through fewole, Lunpredicted, lacal connections. To artest differences conflicting forms often precludes many of the more complex possible connections ofthe forms of architecture to larger cultural fields, Amore pliant architectural sensibility values aliances, rather tan conflicts, between ‘elements, Piancy implies fist an internal fiexiblity and second a dependence on external forces for se-cefniton, IMtnere isa single efect produced in architecture by folding, itil be the ably ta integrate unrelated elements withina ‘ew continuous mixture, Culinary neory has developed both a practical and precise ‘etinton for at leas three types of mix: tures. The first valves the manipulation of homogeneous elements; Beating, whisking land whipping change the volume But not ‘he rature ofa quid through agitation. The second mathod of incorporation ives twa cor more disparate elements; chorping, icing, gringing, grating, sicing, shredding ‘and mincing eviscerate elements nto fragments, The fst method agiales a single uniform mgredient, the second‘eviscorates aisparate ingredients, Folding, creaming and blending mix smoothly ‘multiple ingredients hough repeated gentle oventrnings without tiring or eating’ in such a way that hei ineividual Ccharactorstics are mainlained* For Instance, an egg and chocolate ae folded together so thal each is acistinct layer within a continous mixture Folding employs nether agitation nor evisceration but supple layering, Like wise, folding in geology invotves the sedimentation of mineral elements oF ‘deposits which become slowly bent and ‘compacted int plateaus of strata, These stata are compressed. by external forces, Jno more or less continuous layers within hich heterogeneous deposits are stit intactin varying degrees of ntensty ‘Alolded mixture is nether omogene- 2s, ke whipped cream, nor fragmented, like chopped nus, put smooth and hetero: ‘geneous. In both cooking and geology. there is no preliminary organisation which ‘becomes folded but rather there are Lngelated elements or pre intensities that fare ineated throug” a joint manipulation Disparate elements can be incoxporated ‘nko smooth mixtures through various ‘manipulations including fling Felts a supple soli product that proceeds alogetner cierenty. as an ant- apr, implies no separation of threads, ‘Pe intertwining, only an entanglement of ‘tres obtained by lling (loc example, By ‘oling the block bres back and forth) Wnat becomes entangled are the rmicroseais ofthe bres. An aggregate of Intrication ofthis kinds inne way homoge: ‘neous; nevertheless, itis smooth and contrasts point by point with he space of Fabre (isin principe infinite, open and Uninhibted in every direction thas neimer top, nor bottom, nor centre i oes aot assign txe or mobile eloments ut dist Utes acantinuous variation)” ‘The to characteristics of smooth mixtures are that they are compasedot disparate urelated elements ang that these ree inlenstes become inticated by lanexternal force exerted upon them joint Intricatione are inticate connections. They ‘are intricate, hey afiiate local surfaces of elements with one another by negalating intertital rather than internal connections. Theheterogeneous elements within rmixtutehave no proper relaon with one another. Lkewise, the extemal orce that intricates these erements wih one another 's ouside of the individual elements contol orprediction Viscous Mixtures Unike an architecture of contradictions, superpositions and accidental colisions, plant systems are capable of engendering ‘unpredicted connections with contextual, cultural. programmatic, structural and ‘economic contingencies by vicissitude Vicisitude i often equated with vacitation, weakness! ang indecisiveness but more important these characteristics are ‘roquerily inthe service of atactical cunning *Viissitude is a quality of being ‘mutable or changeable in response tooth favourable and unfavourable situations that ‘occur by chance, Vieissitudinous events result rom events that are nether arbitrary ‘nor predictable but seam lo be accidental “These events are made possible bya colisionafintemal motivations with external focces. For instance, when an accident ‘occurs the victims immediately identi the focces contributing to the accident and bbogin to assign blame. itisineviable however, that no single element can be ‘made responsible for any accident as these ‘events occur by vicissitude; a conlvence of ‘paricular influences at a pariular time ‘makes the outcome of an accident poss! ble If any element participating in sucha