The intro to geodesign was interesting for the fact that is
exactly the thing architects’ hate, having to design based on a set of
evidence. However, the study of the surrounding area, and integration of
information in the design process is very prevalent in urban design and
landscape architecture. In these fields, the product of the design process is
not a singular piece of a larger designed system. Instead, the product is the
system in which architecture sites, and as a system, it must respond to emergent
properties of the area. This is why architecture can get away with not
following evidence of its surroundings, because it responds to the larger
“designed” landscape and can choose to integrate or reject it. On the contrary,
an urban system cannot reject itself; only change the trajectory of the current
system.
In the case of urban design and landscape architecture geodesign,
and the tools that allow it to be integrated into the design process are
extremely useful. The ability to study and design around existing and predicted
growth means that designers can control, or influence, the 4th dimension
of design, time. It’s a quality that is readily visible to the two fields, but
really only accessible to architects through the weathering of materials. While
its possible to create form that is derived from a topological understanding of
time, it is not yet possible to create buildings that respond to the passage of
time. Barring a sudden, dramatic shift in our anthropological understanding of
buildings, people will still walk the same way through the halls, they will
enter through the door, and the way that people inhabit spaces will be the
same. Urban spaces change, and that is the reason that evidence, or layers of
information are extremely important to the design process, and I think
geodesign, and its quest for better tools to integrate information into the
process will eventually sway the opinion of architects who will find a good use
for the vast amounts of information available about the city and the
environment.
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