2a - Spiller and Burry

Neil Spiller - Towards an Animated Architecture Against Architectural Animation

The process of architectural animation too often homogenizes the uniqueness of the architecture that is being put on display; it results in a banal movement across vistas or along paths, degrading the intrigue or mystique surrounding the design of an individual building. This problem arises because of a seemingly static progression through a site or down a corridor, putting the minutia of the building on display instead of highlighting the "fluid multiple viewpoint 'snapshot in time.'" These snapshots in time or framed clips left pieces of the building in the 'dark,' giving the architecture a realm for imagination. In the realm of artistry, the most successful enterprises are those that leave the finessed details to the imagination of the beholder. In a similar way, the most unique and intriguing architectural animations leave the audience the ability to complete the story of what they are seeing. Animation as a tool for the representation of architecture is capable of producing stunning results, but it is equally capable of muddying the intent of the design. How can one harness this medium without adding to the cacophony of badly animated architecture?

Mark Burry - Beyond Animation

"In teaching architecture one often ponders on what today's student, released by the computer from the hours of hatching and other manual craft-based time-consumers prevalent in traditional architectural study does in their stead. What should we offer in their place, of equivalent usefulness and less excruciating time commitment?" The world of animation has the potential to release the designer from the tedious work of crafting details within drawings. We are freed to bring life to our creations by digitizing their being across a series of virtual Cartesian coordinates, creating infinite variability. Yet something is missing within the digitization of Our World; the answer to that age old question -'Why?' Yes, we should tackle this new medium of animation and define the animate, and the precision with which Burry accomplishes the translation between Phileban geometries is certainly laudable. Yet there seems to be a disconnect between the digitized translation of these geometries and the art of the "master-builder." How does the shifting of a cube to a sphere create better spaces for people to live - are these spaces animated without thinking about life? Are these digitized geometries getting in the way of our imagination?