11 Extension of ultra-modern techniques to all forms of innovation and construction
Even the most intricate adaptations that can be conceived in a building, and at scales of speed, size, number and intricacy which stagger the imagination, become possible through a combination of computer techniques, unusual technology that is linked to the computer, and forms of management which break projects up in unfamiliar ways.
The essential issue, in every case, is that part of the building is able to receive the same detailed and intimate artistic care that was possible in the era of handcraft, and that, as before, this is to be achieved by human intelligence and human skill, now using new tools, but maintaining the subtlety, detail, and care of great artistic production in the 14th century.
What is new is that this human intelligence and craft-agility is to enter the world of construction through very unfamiliar methods. The use of hours of time and the reliance on skillful hands and fingers may in future be supplemented by ways of acting on physical material that allow each part to be given soul, or being, in its fabric — ways and processes that allow the maker to infuse the parts with soul, even while acting on them at a distance.
The essence of this procedure will lie in a combination of
(1) very high speed fabrication techniques;
(2) control of these techniques through computer screens that are under human control;
(3) the possibility of mockups and adaptation where the craftsman interacts with the place and with the emerging building while also having control over fabrication through the kinds of computer methods, relying on fitting and adaptation of every part; and
(4) immense speed and efficiency in the operation so that the artist or craftsman manages to control very large areas in extremely short periods of time, making production of massive volumes of material possible at low budget and in short periods of time.
We may say, when contemplating such entirely new procedures, that we human beings will have achieved, then, the structure-preserving unfolding which is achieved by the beautiful flowers and grasses on a hillside. By then, we may have the capacity, truly, to act as nature does.
#book/The Nature of Order/3 A Vision of a Living World/17 The production of giant projects#