benjamin
The continued use of this tripartite, through the ages as an equation set to result in an architecture of quality, suggest it maybe valid. But how does the injection of the information age in to the equation affect its validity.
Mitchell translates the equation into the electronic world easily...
"Commodity" you can think of as functionality and user-friendliness, if you like. "Firmness" is logical integrity - the system doesn't crash, doesn't collapse and doesnąt do terrible things. And "delight" is just being really cool. You know that is what architects have always tried to do with physical space. It seems to me that electronic environments have to have essentially those characteristics.
The equation for quality Virtual Architecture in response to Mitchell's definition would be the same, after all he does state that...
What architects and urban designers have always been concerned with is creating places for human interaction and supporting human interaction. So it seems to me that this is still what you have to do.
Mitchell throughout City of Bits advocates that the importance underlying Virtual Architecture should be one of imagining and creating digitally mediated environments for the kinds of lives that we want to lead and the sorts of communities we want to have. The crucial task is that of imagining rather than that of putting into place the digital plumbing of broadband communication links and associated electronic appliances. A task which Bill Gates might view as more important.
This concentration of Gate's on the physical attributes, is not surprising considering his background as founder of the Microsoft company and pioneer in the technology arena. His house, as discussed in Virtual House, is an example of getting into place straight away the physical foundations for a Virtual Architecture. But he admits himself the amazing changing nature of technology and the inability to predict the future directions it might take, resulting in the fact that the software and hardware groundwork that is in place today may not handle the vapourware of tomorrow.
The personal-computer revolution happened and it has affected millions of lives. It has lead us to places we barely imagined.
Still the question remains, what need to be the underlying principles of a Virtual Architecture. To understand what a Virtual Architecture of quality might be, we need to understand the structure of our society, the way we view and think about the world. This is where Robert Pirsigs book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Mechanics becomes important. Pirsigs work is an exploration of contemporary society. It is an enquiry into values.
In a similar way to Virtual Architecture having aspects which are real and other which seem unreal, there exists in people a similar dichotomy.
The problem, the contradiction the scientists are struck with, is that of mind. Mind has no matter or energy but they cant escape its predominance over everything they do. Logic exists in the mind. Numbers exist only in the mind. Its that only that gets me. Science is only in your mind too, its just that that doesn't make it bad. Or ghosts either.
The western mind is very much governed by science. From early schooling and right through adult life the acceptance of a series of rules covering physical qualities is encouraged. The reality of something which cannot be justified by the series of rules, has is reality called into question. Did the things these rules govern not exist before the rules existed? It is this marriage of ideas and physical parts which make life exciting. Pirsig describes this in terms of systems.
Precision instruments are designed to achieve an idea, dimensional precision whose perfection is impossible. There is no perfectly shaped part of the motorcycle and never will be, but when you come as close as these instruments take you, remarkable things happen, and you go flying across the countryside under a power that would be called magic if it were not so completely rational in every way.
To see the beauty in a item (in the above case a motorcycle) it is crucial to see how the physical parts go together to form the non-physical idea. Either the physical parts or the non-physical parts can be by themselves be beautiful, however this judgment is dependent on the individuals personal thinking. Dependent on weather they are classical or romantic thinkers.
A classical understanding sees the world primarily as underlying form itself. A romantic understanding sees it primarily in terms of immediate appearance.
An example of the differences between the two forms of thinking is this...if you were to show a series of working drawings to a romantic it is unlikely they would find much interest in it. It has no appeal because the reality they perceive is the surface of the paper. Dull, complex lists of names, lines and numbers. Nothing interesting. But if you were to show the same drawing to a classical person, they might look at it and then become fascinated by it because they see that within the lines, shapes and symbols is a tremendous richness of underlying form. Architects might refer to this as an ability to read drawings but it is really the attribute of classical understanding.
A romantic understanding is primarily inspirational, imaginative, creative, intuitive. As a result feelings rather than facts predominate. Feeling, intuition and aesthetic conscience proceed reason and laws in the thinking process.
In contrast the classical thought process sees reason and laws proceed feeling and intuition. In European cultures it is primarily a masculine behaviour and in the fields of science, law and medicine . Each thought mode has it own set of aesthetics. The exterior appearance is important to the romantic, where as it is the interior appearance which is special to the classicist.
To the romantic the classic mode often appears dull, awkward and ugly. Everything s got to be measured and proved. Oppressive. Heavy. Grey. But then within the classic mode, the romantic has appearances of its own. Frivolous, irrational, erratic, untrustworthy, interested primarily in pleasure seeking . But this is not to say that an item cannot exhibit characteristics of each other...
Although motorbike riding is romantic, motorcycle maintenance is purely classical.
Central to both modes appreciation is the issue of quality. Both sides find 'quality' in the items they see, all that differs is the perceived source of the quality. So what is this quality?
Quality is a characteristic of though and statement that is recognised by a nonthinking process. Because definitions are a product of rigid, formal thinking, quality cannot be defined.
Emmanuel Kant says there are aspects of reality which are not supplied immediately by our senses. These he terms a priori. An example of a priori knowledge is time. You can't see time. You can't hear it, smell it, taste it or touch it. It isnąt present in the data we receive from our senses. Time is what Kant calls an 'intuition' . We intuitively know what time is.
Quality is a similar issue. Without being able to pin point its definition,m we instinctively know what quality is. We intuitively know what quality is. Quality is that little something that makes life special.
So what makes quality, a term we cannot describe with any rational or classical thinking, such an important part in our perception of what is good.
Squareness. That's the look. That sums it up. Squareness. When you subtract quality you get squareness. Absence of quality is the essence of squareness.
Imagine a world without quality. Imagine taking quality away from the market place. Since quality of taste would be meaningless, supermarkets would carry only basic grains such as rice, oats and flour, maybe some meet and milk. There might be vitamins to make up deficiencies, but spices, herbs, beer, tea, coffee, and chocolate would vanish. So would movies, parties and sport. We would all use public transport, wear grey overalls and Blundstone boots.
Quality is that essential ingredient which in essence breathes life into life.
The world now...was composed of three things:mind, matter and Quality.
So how does this relate to Virtual Architecture. In the same way the architecture of real space, the architecture of bricks and mortar deals with issues of human interaction so does the architecture of virtual space, the architecture of software and telecommunications. The underlying form of real space architecture is a consolidation of firmness, commodity and delight. It takes into account the users, the site, the environment, the materials. Virtual architecture needs to go further.
Of course there needs to be 'commodity', the architecture needs to function. Of course there needs to be 'firmness', the architecture needs to stand up to use. Of course there needs top be 'delight', the architecture needs to give that little something special. But it needs to have a consistent undercurrent of quality.
This is a developing world were are exploring, and each step needs to be taken with care, taken with quality. This quality cannot just be skin deep, it needs to go right through to the underlying structure, such that the skin does not wear away to an empty soul. The process of virtual architecture needs to take into account both the processes of classical and romantic thought to produce an architecture of quality.
