Yale University, School of Architecture

Digital de l'Orme
Author(s): Bernard Cache, Patrick Beauc and Jorge Zapata
Source: Perspecta, Vol. 33, Mining Autonomy (2002), pp. 88-89
Published by: MIT Press on behalf of Perspecta.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1567301
Accessed: 10-01-2016 18:45 UTC

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88 f CACHE

AND

BEAUCE

BERNARD CACHE AND PATRICK BEAUCE

Translation fromSpanish by JORGE ZAPATA

The de l'Orme Pavilion iA the product of a deAign and fabrication studio

taught by Bernard Cache and Patrick Beauce at the L'EAcola Superior
d'Arquitectura of the UniverAitatInternacional de Catalunya in Barcelona,
Spain. The Atudio wa" an exercise in utilizing the basic operation. of a
numerically controlled machine for full-s cale production of an architectural
object a" well a" an attempt to push the limitAof the new Auite of Aoftware
and machinery that have become increaAingly available to architectA.

Di ital d-eIlIOrme.

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MINING

In 1999,Objectile presented the Semper Pavilion in two international

expositions,Batimat99 and Archilab99. The Semper Pavilionrevealed
how digitaltextureselaborated on simple flatpanels could be molded
into an architecturalensemble. At the same time,this technological
object strived to reach a dialogue with GottfriedSemper's principal
thesis asserting that interlacingconstitutes a fundamentalarchitecturalmotifin the sense thatthe art of constructionis derivedfromthe
artofsewing,ortextiles.
Recently,Objectile has attempted to benefitfrom the consequences ofa new generationofcad-cam softwarethat has established
a truly
reciprocal relationshipbetween conception and digital production- the de I'OrmePavilionis an applicationofadvanced technologies
inthisfield.All documentsand research inthe projectare combined in

AUTONOMY

/ 89

Top
CAD CAM image of de l'Orme pavilion.

or

-w

;-

Left
andbelow

De I'Orme pavilionin production.

Opposite
Interlacingpatternforde I'Orme pavilion.

the architecturalobject insuch a way thatthe firstdrawinghypotheses

maybe modifiedbyevents inthe laterstages of production.Thechanges
inthese hypotheseswill,inturn,haveconsequences throughout
thechain
ofproduction,up to and includingthe actual mechanizedfabrication.
PHILIBERT DE L'ORME
AND THE CONCEPT-OFTRANSPOSITION
The step fromSemper to de I'Orme bringsto lighta question on the surprisingabsence ofanymentionofthe Frencharchitectinthetextsofthe
OGermanarchitect.As I have writtenelsewhere,thereis no more"semperian"architecturethan the architectureof de I'Orme,who makes such
intenseuse ofthe interlacingmotif.There are plentyof instances ofthe
interlacingmotifin Philibertde I'Orme'sworkthatdemonstratehis masNteryoftranspositionfromtextileto stone. De I'Orme's inventionof the
carpentrytechnique a petitbois is anotherexample of his use of trans,position inthiscase fromstone to wood.Thus, Philibertde I'Orme proevides us withillustriousexamples of the main concept of the Semper's
treatise,Der Stil.
In a sense, Semper did nothingexcept augmentthe nucleus ofVitruviantheory.Instead of delimitingarchitectureto the transpositionof
*the stone templeto the wooden hut,Semper broadened the concept of
transpositionto the fullrangeofmaterialsforeach methodofconstrucand stone. Correspondingly,
Semper
tion: textile,ceramics, carpentry,
an
relation
to
proposed
interesting
history,wherethe oldest motifsare
capable oftranspositionto the newest materialsand procedures.Interthefundamentaladvantage ofthe de I'Ormetrompe
over
estingly,
I'oeils
Gothic
cut
de
was
that
the
could
afford
to
interthe
lampes
trompeI'oeils
vene in ancient buildings,changingthe distributionwithoutchanging
the structure.Today's digitalprocedures permitus to take the interlacing motifand methodsof transpositionto levels of complexitydifficult
to attain without-thepossibilitiesof constructionpresented to us by
,,,computercontrolledmachines.We are betterable to consider a fieldof
,research in whichitis notclear ifwe are constructingthe new withthe
"'"old,or the old withthe new.

PHILIBERT DE L'ORME
AND THE CONSTRUCTIVE ORIGIN
OF PROJECTIVE GEOMETRY
The drawingof the pavilionis based upon theconcepts of projective
geometry,ofwhichPhilibertde I'Ormewas a pioneer.The pavilionis circumscribed in a cube whose edges, instead of being parallel,converge
in a vanishingpointin finitespace. This use of a pointof convergence
as a pointof constructioninstead of as a vanishingpointof representationremindsus thatperspectiveis merelyone ofthe resultsofprojective
geometry.Philibertde I'Orme had previouslyused this concept forthe
drawingof trompeI'oeils, such as the Tromped'Aneth. In the developmentof this drawingtechnique,de I'Orme perfectedstereotomytechniques originatingfromthe South of France (Provence and Languedoc)
and the Northof Spain (see the trompeI'oeil of the Catalonia Library
in Barcelona). This developmentparallels the contemporaryfocus on
geometryinthe fieldofmathematicscatalyzed bycomputers- allowing
the constructionof ever morecomplexforms.Today's architecturewill
benefltfromdigitaltechnologyas the disciplineevolves itsown internal
notionsof geometry.

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