GREG LYNN: Localization – Static to Dynamic Spaces & Infrastructure

On July 31, 2017, Greg Lynn gave the Keynote Lecture at the inaugural xLAB Summer Program. The lecture was titled, Localization: Static to Dynamic Spaces & Infrastructure.

In looking back at the relationship between architecture and technology, Greg Lynn posits that digital technology did not change architecture, as much as it changed the thinking surrounding architecture. While digital tools allowed architects to animate spaces by creating visual dynamism, technology had no significant change to the underlying goals of the architect. However, the thinking about architecture changed, as seen in Lynn’s use of computational fluid dynamic space for his catamaran project . Unlike building modeling, where an object is created in a fixed space of  x, y, z coordinates, computational fluid dynamics modeling allows for the visualization of air and water behavior based on the object’s unique form. Through this type of environment simulation, the object’s geometry can be optimized for high performance. Recently, Lynn’s work has evolved to include moving structures whose dynamism comes not through animating spaces but through physically moving volumes, opening the potential for robotic integration.

In today’s digital ecology, Lynn outlines three themes relevant to the discussion of cities. The first is positioning, which looks at who is in the building and how that building is used. Important to the architect, the statistical user information within a building can be used to inform design. The second is mobility, which considers objects driving through buildings and mobility being able to penetrate built environments. The last is machine vision, where architects design buildings considering a regime of machines with vision.  For example, by flying drones for projects, designers look through the eye of the machine. This way of looking not only changes the scale of and movement through the site but also affects designers’ attitudes of buildings and their thinking about space.

At the intersection of these three topics lies Lynn’s work with Piaggio Fast Forward. The mobile carrier, Gita, creates new typologies of autonomous mobility by focusing on quality of life and social interaction, rather than positioning autonomous mobility as a service that brings goods to people. By concentrating on a scale of granular mobility, autonomy can intelligently move people and things quickly, while providing an alternative to the automotive city. To conclude, Lynn suggests the point of access for the designer lies at the intersection of mobility, civic, and social thinking.

Greg Lynn is Principal at Greg Lynn FORM and co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Piaggio Fast Forward. He is a founding Board Member of California Carbon Industry, Inc., Design Advisor of Curbside, and serves on the xLAB Board of Directors. He is also a Studio Professor at UCLA’s Dept. of Architecture and Urban Design, and a University Professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna where he is currently spearheading the development of an experimental research robotics lab.