Forma Exquisita
Esquivel, Gabriel, Jordi
Vivaldi, and Gonzalo Vaíllo. Edited by Maximiliano
Schianchi. Archivos 1. Buenos Aires: Instituto de Arquitectura, 2025.
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This issue presents an edited and expanded transcript of the online Roundtable discussion on Form held by Gabriel Esquivel, Gonzalo Vaíllo, and Jordi Vivaldi, as part of the Exquisite Form Summer Festival of the Institute of Architecture on Friday, December 17, 2021.
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(Un)fitting Aggregations
Material-dependent Production and Spielraum of Distinct Vulcanized Fiber Pieces
Allner,
Lukas, Karolin Schmidbaur, and Gonzalo Vaíllo. In ACADIA 2024: Design Change, 1:81–92. Calgary: Association
for Computer Aided Design in Architecture, 2024.
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This study explores the integration of
unpredictable material behavior within architectural design and production,
specifically examining the properties and potential of vulcanized fiber (VF) in
the multiple realizations of the simple design of a 3 x 3 checkered pattern. It
challenges traditional production methodologies—standardized mass production,
digital mass customization, and discrete combinatorial approach—by introducing
the notion of material-dependent production. This approach is exemplified by
the distinctive morphological and mechanical transformations that VF undergoes
during the drying production process, leading to each piece uniquely shaping
itself. The divergence between the initial design of the pattern and the
singular resulting pieces leads to an array of different and unexpected
aggregation possibilities to construct the pattern. The highly local and
situated pattern-part relation and its variability for diverse outcomes are
conceptualized following Lars Spuybroek’s notion of Spielraum or “room to
play.” This concept, understood as both physical space and space of
possibilities, is defined by the material agency embedded in the pieces and the
organizational guidance of the pattern. Methodologically, computational analysis
is employed to calculate the number of feasible pattern realizations attending
to the assembly tolerances of the morphological diversity of the VF pieces. In
this sense, the study bridges computational techniques and material specificity
to understand the threshold (or Spielraum) between the designed pattern and
material-informed parts. The findings of this study advocate for a reevaluation
of material agency in architectural processes, demonstrating that an embrace of
material contingency and indeterminacy enriches architectural production and
creativity.
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Openness and Fragments
in Design Technology and Digital Production: An Architecture Anthology, edited by Gabriel Esquivel, 153–59. 2024. New York and London: Routledge.
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Whether in teaching, in writing, or in the work of my office MORPHtopia, my approach to architectural design has been profoundly influenced in recent years by philosophies that account for the gap between reality and appearance, especially Object-Oriented Ontology. So far, this motivation has revolved around two flanks. The first is an ontological interest in the architectural project (abbreviated AP) as an entity in itself, i.e., as an object with an autonomous status of existence. The second investigates what such autonomy implies for cognition at the epistemological level, especially for the architect in the design process and for the inhabitant in its experience and use. This has led to the search for an architecture capable of inducing an immaterial awareness of its existence and, at the same time, open to interpretation and free occupation, all this through a design methodology based on irritable and irritating fragments. [...]
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Ontopolitics of Equality and Xenoaesthetics of Abstraction
Technophany, A Journal for Philosophy and Technology 2 (1), 2023
Technē and Feminism, topical issued edited by Vera Bühlmann and Katarina Kolozova
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This article explores the relationship between metaphysics, politics, and aesthetics in relation to technē within the context of equality. It presents two interconnected arguments. Firstly, it emphasises that equality is situated within the framework of ontopolitics, understood as the convergence of metaphysics and politics. This fusion is grounded in a shared systematic structure within the object’s internal dynamics. Secondly, the article underlines the importance of the mode of human cognition and object presentation in implementing equality. It proposes the xenoaesthetics of abstraction as a regime of action for perception to effectively establish the ontopolitical framework of equality. By challenging prevailing notions of transcendence, the article advocates for a non-hierarchical interior of the object that embraces the mutual constitution of object and subject. It recognises the thing’s capacity to reveal itself to us and be realised through us, emphasising the mobilisation of subjectivities as additional manifestations of the object. This perspective offers a complementary pathway to contemporary critical and activist discourses, promoting the advancement of equality through an ontopolitical focus on objects.