Contemporary architecture has already appropriated animation software such as Maya, 3DStudio Max, gaming industry software, and other code-based scripts and algorithms.
The creation of new environments through the use of developments in Information Technology is significantly altering not only architecture itself but also the roles and tasks of the architects. Architecture can no longer be described in the terms we are familiar with since it no longer corresponds to the form of architecture as we know it; an inclusive and exclusive structure, clearly defined, with a single interior and a single exterior. For architects, the challenge of the future will increasingly lie in creatively coming to terms with hybrid environments, understanding and exploiting the design potential of digital spaces within the physical world, and redefining the role of architecture within a visually dominated culture.
This is where cryengine and similar software come into play. These gaming engines put power back into the hands of the architect, giving him the ability once again to apply his subjectivity to the design process whilst refraining from the restrictive and procedural characteristics associated with scripting and algorithmic software.
When applied appropriately, as is the case with the art house, the result is a system of interactive and dynamic mediated interfaces which permeate architectural and urban environments via sensing, processing and actuating configurations, augmenting architectural experience beyond the occupation of space based on inert materials.
The application of cryengine to the design process subsumes smaller scale interactive environments and aims for increased shorter term customization to more individualized specifications. In other words, real time manifestation of occupation.
The charging of material surfaces with embedded technologies aims to saturate the visible and visceral field of micro-environments with dynamic information graphics, lighting , translucency, reflectivity, material porosity and sound.
The question which the art house aims to answer, is the means and mode of translation, of the dynamics of the gaming engine into the physical.
Is there no other means of manifestation other than the ‘bells and whistles’ of a highly cinimatized environment or is there a more traditional means of manifestation of this dynamicism making it more accessible on a global scale?
