D-B
. A: Digital-Botanic Architecture
by
Dennis Dollens.
Lumen Books, Santa Fe, NM, U.S.A., 2005.
96 pp., illus. Paper. ISBN: 0-930829-54-9.
Reviewed by Rob Harle
recluse@lis.net.au
Digital-Botanic Architecture (D-B.
A) is another wonderful and inspiring
book by Dennis Dollens. It extends and
further develops Dollens previous
exploratory design work concerning the
digital manipulation of various biological
forms as starting points for the creation
of "grown" architectural structures.
Whilst it is a slim volume, every paragraph
is jam packed with information and concepts
which open up exciting, unique vistas
for our future architecture. Dollens is
no waffler, he says in a mere hundred
pages what many other authors would take
three hundred pages to say. Consequently,
reading this book is a bit like a roller
coaster ride, hold on and enjoy the thrill
of philosophy, traditional architecture,
computer software description and evolutionary
concepts of Richard Dawkins all woven
into a brilliant vision of biomimetic
architecture.
Dollens latest work is intimately
connected with the philosophy of the great
American architect, Louis Sullivan, especially
his, A System of Architectural Ornament.
Through the use of various computer
software applications (XFrog, Rhino and
3DStudio Max) Dollens generates new digital-botanic
forms from some of Sullivans organic
plant-forms. The results are astounding.
His Fibonacci Spiral Stairway (p. 87)
is simply a stunning form, either as a
stand alone sculpture or to be transposed
into a real stairway as part of a building.
The software, XFrog, is explained in some
detail, it is Dollens main tool
for generating the growth of forms. The
program was not originally intended as
architectural design software, however,
it produces forms, "...that may,
with interpretative work, be grown over
or into Platonic solids and thus used
to experiment with botanic-like elements
that are woven into 3D architectural units"
(p. 39). After these forms are created
they can be ported to the Rhino software
which can further enhance them. For example,
by rendering, they may then be sent to
a 3D Thermojet printer or rapid prototyping
machine to produce real 3D models. As
an aside, the potential of 3D Thermojet
wax models is considerable for small sculptures
to be cast in metal.
The book is lavishly illustrated with
black & white drawings, screen shots
and photos, not only of Dollens
work but also of Duncan Browns (virtual
game architectures) and SymbioticAs
(wet-ware, living biological artworks).
These are spread throughout eight sections
with the following titles: Biomimetic
Architecture - Introduction; Seeding a
Digital-Botanic Architecture; Growing
with XFrog; Growing Game Space; SymbioticA;
Biomimetic Bridge; Digital-Botanic Specimens;
and Conclusion. There is a good Bibliography
but a rather poor Glossary.
I have three minor criticisms of the book:
(a) I would have liked the book to be
longer, simply so I could enjoy it more;
(b) the glossary could have been far more
extensive, some of the terms used in the
book are quite idiosyncratic, very new
and not mainstream. This would have made
it easier for the reader to understand
some of the technical aspects of Dollens
philosophy; (c) Dollens incorporation
of the metaphysics of Leibniz (especially
his monadology) into his own architectural
philosophy is not as developed as it perhaps
could be, or at least it is not explained
in sufficient detail to make it clear.
Dollens work is clearly holistic,
mainly because of its grounding in biological
natural forms - forms symbiotically related
to that which they were generated from
and to that which in turn are further
generated from them. Yet Leibniz, as I
understand him insists that, "...true
unities are absolutely independent of
one another"?
Dollens is a visionary and a thinker who
clearly has no desire (or possibility)
of perpetuating much of the unimaginative,
soul destroying architecture of the modernist
and the postmodernist periods. He teaches
in both America and Spain. His previous
book with Ignasi Pérez Arnal &
Albero Estévez , Genetic Architectures/Arquitecturas
Genéticas, was a result of
this relationship in Barcelona at the
ESARQ. I only hope his students appreciate
the importance and liberating consequences
of him planting such digital-botanic seeds
within their psyche. The book is essential
reading for all architectural students
and for that matter anyone interested
in or involved with design, sculpture,
biomimetics or simply the appreciation
of beautiful structures.