on pdf resolutions and the crisis of architectural criticism inspired by clogclogclog, ian_nazareth, and Maurice Berger

Isaac Mathew
3 min readMay 2, 2022

I have 461 kindle e-books as of now. In the lot 6 are pdfs. 2 I have just written about, 3 I will get to in a bit and there is this one, the first pdf kindle e-book I purchased by mistake. It is a research project about form-making, drawn freehand around a specific set of visual methods derived from Japanese writing. The 1001 forms are situated in the 5 cities they were drawn in. Question here is, can this project be criticized? A good architectural practice is in part a media company. They should possess a workable theory, demonstrate it in square feet, and should submit a plausible experience in photographs, augmented or otherwise. It is not very easy to do all three successfully. 90% of us can only figure out one of the states, as disturbing that proposition sounds. Climate change has brought about the question of what are the alternative design methods to consider than discourses in vogue. Academic design studios train to address every project separately and at its own pace. Blanciak’s proposal here is towards a prefabricated international architectural practice. Assemble a collection of building forms, have clients select from the lot, and modify it as per contextual specifications. Plausible and sustainable. Comparatively less work too. If hand drawing is a bit of a stretch rhino scripting could come to the rescue. Getting back to the point how does one get critical of something that is beyond criticism as in this case a catalog of forms. It is a frame that is unquestionable. The pdf, therefore, is frustratingly a very good case study of an architectural book in the post-information age. A mediocre hack dismantling processes of a generation. Should, can this be tested further?

should we craft of set of architectural forms and put it out there for the right client to program it?

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Isaac Mathew

i think #architecture #art #planning #design #engineering