Framing Optimization in Contemporary Architecture[1]

Keywords: optimization, architecture, computational techniques

I am in debt to the generous friends (Patrick, Matas, Gustavo) who shared their thought on the initial rather thoughtless rant which was the base for the following piece, as well as to Henriette Bier who guided and steered its manufacture. Thanks!

Optimization, and the processes which inherently give birth to it, have become a central topic in both the discourse and practice of computational architecture. Despite this fact, there have been little attempts to probe and test this concept (or technique) by studying its theoretical implications. Subsequently, the final purpose of this paper is to test optimization against several critical insights stemming from recent advancements in systems theory. Essentially laying out a strategie fatale scenario will hopefully expose some crucial insights with clear repercussions in the way we design or justify our designs. In order to do so, we must first explore the concept of optimization in a more broad historical context and try to identify it in the standard, pre-digital architectural design process and then clearly expose its digital manifestations, along with the limitations and advantages it implies.

Optimization, as a concept per se, is anything but a new concept[2]. Nature, as well as humankind, has always strived to do things better, which usually means increased performance of the resulting object[3] coupled with less effort spent doing the thing itself. It is probably the reason our monkey ancestors picked up the first branch and transformed it into a weapon. More recent manifestations, such as the industrial revolution, are bespoke manifestations of this concept. Mechanical tools replaced human workers due to their increased efficiency and reliability. Henry Ford’s invention of the assembly line is a clear improvement of the process of manufacturing – in such a manner that it ushered in a new age in human society. In the non-anthropic world[4], optimization is an intrinsic quality of nature. For example, the trajectory of a river is optimized in such a way that it follows the lines of least resistance through its geographical context. Trees branch and grow in such a way that maximize their reach of sunlight and yet maintain structural integrity against wind. The phenomena we know as evolution is essentially a process of optimization against the testing ground of the environment. From this standpoint, the built environment is the result of an optimization process of the human society, which needed to improve its chances of survival against the elements and its predators (which, more often than not, include itself).

Now that we’ve succinctly considered the ubiquitous nature of optimization and its intrinsic role in both natural and artificial processes, we can start to narrow down our investigation and elaborate on its presence in the architecture. Our focus lies in the direction of conscious architecture and not in the direction of vernacular architecture, in which optimization is more akin to the collective, unconscious forces of nature. In the pre-computational period of architecture, optimizing a design was simply achieved by iteratively adjusting the design with the aim of making it better. One can argue that for any designer one of his fundamental instincts are to find the best fitting solution for a given assignment – in order to ensure his project’s viability and as well as to distinguish it from the other possible competitive designs. Thus, every time we sketch a possible solution for a plan, we always try to improve on the previous variant – sometimes with success, sometimes without. The mechanism behind such actions is quantifiable only to a certain degree – it’s a heuristic process loosely defined as architectural intuition. Nevertheless, in the wake of computational techniques, this exact heuristic nature of the optimization process changes towards a more precise, algorithmic[5] approach.

As we have argued above, optimization is not a new concept – or desire – inside design disciplines. We can even argue that the act of designing is inseparable from the act of optimization[6]. Nevertheless, its current manifestation as a process in computational architecture is new. We shall now focus on how optimization manifests itself in the digital practice, and try to answer the first critical question of the essay: whether optimization is theoretically capable of replacing architectural intuition[7].

Digital techniques have exposed to the rational speed of the computer more parameters – at the expense of the traditional, heuristic, methods, thus making different optimization models possible as well as increasing the accuracy of existing ones by several degrees of magnitude. For example, before the advent of environmental analysis software, solar optimization was the result of the architect’s intuition, experience and education. Now, using computational tools, the detail and accuracy of such an analysis allows for more precise architectural decisions to be taken in the context of a given design assignment. New optimization models based on highly specialized algorithms derived from science are repurposed to solve architectural problems. For example, swarm intelligence algorithms are used to negotiate complicated functional distributions over an environmental and contextual setting which can now be described using a much higher level of accuracy.

Example of structural topological optimization: the problem is "well constrained" and the "global" optima is credible; in more technical terms, the solution "converges" towards one predictable optimum.

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