Further insight into the real nature of living form
The importance of generated structure lies mainly in two things:
first, in the tinkering that we do, to adjust things which makes subtle and correct adaptations;
and second, in the differentiating process which allows the generated structure to be born from successful differentiations.
It is true that these are two fascinating and important points. But we find out now, that the nature of generated structure is much deeper still, and even more interesting than we may have suspected.
In the process of messing about with the possible sequence that we are trying to build, we play with its steps (the patterns), we play with their arrangement in time, and we have to play, also, with the actual contents of the steps themselves. What we are doing there is to try and find a sequence of differentiating steps that will, all in all, generate a nice structure.
This idea that a sequence of differentiations can be nice, or not so nice (and believe me, that is a real distinction) means really that the differentiations are nice when as we go forward through the sequence, each step does something nice (graspable, simple, beautiful) to the product of the previous steps. When we finally get it so that this is happening all along, we then have a nice sequence of differentiations, and as a result, then, we get a nice form.
Now this is completely surprising. What it means is that the form itself, the form of the result, is nice or not nice, according as the sequence of differentiations which led to it is nice or not nice.
And this means that when we see a form and consider it harmonious, it is because it has unfolded from a nice set of differentiations, and that we are subliminally aware of this, even if not conscious of it.
Thus the idea of a generated structure contains a third thing, over and above the step-by-step adaptations, and over and above the raw fact of the differentiations and the structure they have introduced. It contains the third thing, that a structure is truly generated, and perceived as such, and perceived as having life, only when it has unfolded from a nice, beautiful, sequence of differentiations — and this is perhaps the most important point of all.
We now know that the form itself and the way it has been generated are part and parcel of the same thing, and are an indissoluble entity.
This casts new light on the depth and importance of the generative process, in the creation of living form in buildings.
#book/The Nature of Order/2 The process of creating life/11 The sequence of unfolding#