este: George Wu Ach Bs Verice ional, INTELLIGENCE AFTER THEORY MICHAEL SPEAKS. Hone were to write a history of architecture since May 68, noting in particular the role the events that summer played in shaping contemporary practice, it would begin by recounting the passing of philosophy and the rise of ‘theory’. By theory | mean that set of mostly French, German and Italian phi US in the late 1970s through departments of comparative literature and were dis- ‘Sominated to the American university system as a wonderful new mode of contem- porary thought. Theory was detached from its continental origins and replanted in ‘the US where it took on a lighter, more oceasional existence. Theory was portable = it could be attached to almost any field of study, film, iterature, anthropology and leven architecture. Theory carried all the punch of philosophy without the windy Ger ‘man preambles and recondite French qualifications, without, that is, years of study, politcal affiliation or deep knowledge. Theory was @ weapon of the young, the post- 668 generation, wearied by the morality and slowness of their elders who seemed so Luntheoretical whether they embraced or philosophy and it made its way through various sectors of the US academia in the 1970s and 1900s and arrived to architeeture, late, a8 Mark Wigley has go famously and so fre quently pointed out. The shift rom philosophy to theory was especially important for the vanguard ssophical tracts that arrived in the. ted theory. Theory was ft architects whose work and writing dominated scholarly journals, school curricula ‘and indeed much of what passed for intellectual discourse and debate in architec- ture from the 19708 until the late 19908, Whethor articulated in the form of Tafurian discourse or Frankfurt Schoo! analysis or Derridean deconstruction, these theory- inspired vanguards asserted the impossibility of affirmatively intervening in a world dominated by capitalistic and/or metaphysical oppressors. Continuous critique and resistance instead guided their resolutely negative practices. But asthe 1990s drew to a close, theory-vanguardism began to wither as new architecture practices better ‘Suited to moet the challenges issued by globalization arose to claim the mantle of ‘experimentation that the vanguard, whether in philosophical or theoretical guise, had £0 long held. Identified as post-eritical, fresh, and ideologically smooth, these prac tices embraced much of the market-driven world their theory-hamstrung pede 20r8 held in contempt. ‘Two features, in particular, distinguish these new practices. The first is their pursuit of innovation. Management thinker Poter Drucker has drawn an important distinction between problem solving and innovation that many of these pos ‘Quard practices have taken to hear, and that architects in gener better understand. Problem solving, Drucker argues, simply accepts the parameters cof a problem given, in the case of by the client. The designer is then +o work within those parameters until a solution to the problem is reached, a final design. Innovation, Drucker tells us, works by a different, more entrepreneurial logic whereby rigorous analysis leads to the discovery of opportunities that can be ex- ploited and transformed into innovation. While problem-solving works within a given paradigm to create new solutions to known problems, the existent but unknown in order to discover opportunities for unpredictable design would do well to chitectur novation risks working with solutions.re i yeah, it's the inside of your house. So. th dorat at. / 1 reatly k everyone in ny office for running enormous over hours it was going to be. / And then quickly ching in ovr hands which was slightly heavier than we thous EESTI TY An the National Building Museum George Yu Architects, Venice Biennale Similarly to their vanguard predecessors, post: vanguard practices evaluate knowledge based on it /alue rather than its truth content. Drucker argues that the global status of modern capitalism ‘was enabled by a fundamental change whereby knowledge was no longer concerned with philosophi- cal or religious truth, but with doing and action. After the Second World War this transformation ushered in the management revolution and signaled the emer ‘gence of what Drucker calls “the knowledge secioty” ~a post-capitalist paradigm enabled by globaliza- tion. Taking a more pessimistic view of what they prefer to call the “society of control,” Michael Hardt ‘and Antonio Negri, authors of Empire (2000), the highly acclaimed neo-Marxist study of globalization ‘and politics, agree with Drucker’s assertion that the new economic order ushered in by globalization is, knowledge-based. Though states stil exist as filters of power and control, Hardt and Negri argue that ri command and control is now in the hands of mobile and constantly evolving global organizations free from national obligation to roam the planet in longer stored in banks of metaphysical truths, today knowledge is manifest as intelligence that is used to manage these global organizations in @ world wher remaining competitive is often a matter of life and death. As Hardt, Negt 1nd Drucker suggest, philoso- phy and theory have given way to the “chatter” of intelligence. Philosophical, politcal, and scientific truth have fragmented into prolifera “little” truths appearing and disappearing go fast that ascertaining whether they are really true is impracti- George Yu Architects, Sony Design Center calif not altogether impossi le. No longer dictated by ideas or ideologies nor dependent on whether something is really true, everything now depends on’ Credible intelligence, on whether something might be tue, philosophy was the intellectual dominant of rly 20” century vanguards and theory the intel- lectual dominant of late 20” century vanguards, then ielligence has become the intellectual dominant of early 21% century post-vanguards. While vanguard 0 raliant om i practices leas, theories and concepts given in advance, intelligence-based practices are instead entrepreneurial in seeking opportunities for Innovation that cannot be predicted by any idea, theory or concept. Indeed, its their unique design in- tolligence that enables them to innovate by k ening. from and adapting to instability. The most innov: tive of these now practices are thus more concerned: with ‘plausible truths’ generated through prototyping than with received ‘truths’ of theory or philosophy. Plausible truths offer a way to quickly test ideas by realizing them, and therefore they are the engines for Innovation rather than its final product. George Yu gave the following response to a ques- tion about how his office, George Yu Architects, in Los Angeles, conducts research: doing mt hin poi. For ronan isnt someting the bigpe @vstion i: Why do esau nthe iat Is shaped by an atempt to underatend and acceptough 20198 W Architects, Eu eBusiness Te undertand ha el parameter he roam many ot ur rec clets were ooking for omeaee Interactive prototyping, especi sted with 3 mod: ly hose associ ing, have transformed the way buildings are designed and built. Commenting on the 1s@ of such modeling techniques in the design and abrication of the Greenwich Street Project in Lowor Manhattan, completed this year, Winka Dubbeldam, srincipal of Archi-Tectonics in New York, noted the ollowing about the building's folded facade: nates porte, Oring te Gain pane teagan fabrication earthing wa conte by maha, b ny eso! to way of bing: When te pices ave heya ‘etrc ln M overyona wos by them ana Prototypes create ‘design intelligence’ by gene! 1ng plausible solutions that become part of an oi sverall design intelligence. Rapid prototyping and the 180 of scenarios enable mass production of unique: ness in which the ‘final’ produet is both the design and the array of specialized techniques that are invented and deployed this design, Commenting on the kind of design intelligence generated through the use of scenarios and rapid prototyping, Oliver Sa Sect Poet Lang, of LWPAC in Vancouver, had the following ob- servations about an extremely fast-pace project then ‘underway in China: ling and it ality t adapt. Wi goth jo in fc cnn of Ou appconch to phasing and tine Data ttoect of th proac Athe reeerch and intone 1 like Rotterdam based Max.1 and " Similarly, off Crimson focus on the development of what they “orgwvare,” the organizational design intelligence that negotiates between tha software of policy directives, zoning and legal codes, and building or infrastruc~ tural hardware, nthe mid-1990s Max.1 was offered ‘2 commission to develop @ master plan for Leidsche Rijn, a new town extension for the city of Utrecht. (One of the first large turban planning projects in the Netherlands that reflected a turn away from subsidized to market rate housing, Leidsche Rijn, required an innovative urban planning approach flex- ible enough to accommodate the dramatic social and economic changes then occurring in the Nethertands, bbut strong enough to create a new town with its own Unique urban eharseter. Working with Crimson, a sch and planning office also from Rotterdam, ‘Max.1 developed a master plan guided by what Crim- son called “orgware,” the organizational inin the installation and sound tubes are cut straight through the Fequencies: actually stert ‘to teenaty id and creating differant round affects which becene ultras (SSIS Cay Ly an extreme sound space right in the middle between the two units. So rather than building a paviiioa) al. So.what you seo here is the sound tubes c ah Bridge Drawing LWPAC, Dongl poss, Phase 1 LWWPAC, Dong piers, Phase 2 option LWPAC, Dongl Main Steet LWPAC, Dong pers, Phase? res ‘option & used to transform the ‘software’ of public and private policy into the ‘hardware" of bul infrastructure. Rather than focusing their efforts on an) igned, inftexible master plan, Max.1 i lings and designed a plan of negotiation that required cert things to be built whi lowing, through builtin re- sments in the plan to be sacri is same approach of engendering flexibility through enforced inflexibility, guided Max.1's innova- tive Logica plan for Hoogviiet, @ suburb of Rotterdam, ‘also developed in conjunction with Crimson. Logica, ‘an exemplary form of design int stakeholders to make definitive choices about how the city will develop. The choices were designed by Max.1 after a period of rigorous analysis and were issued as a challenge to politicians and stakeholders jonce, requires to take immediate action. Once made, these choices become the planning infrastructure that allows oth ‘made over time as the city is rebuilt. Rients Dijkstr principal of Max.1 had the following remarks at the conclusion of the process: Loca has now teen accopted ty te ety athe a Lach Rn. Tat, they ae inte ot They ae what lw hinge oats got doe, They rte at. necessary sap hat must be taken. Now holees oe implomentnd by the cy ot Hoogviet.The wor oF ing in hose choles begin. | sot bier ace practices cannot be categorized under any existing classification system, Some design boxes, some ‘and are by disposition willing to learn, Accustorned in ways that their vanguard predecessors can never, be to open source intelligence: gathered from the litle {truths publistied on the web, found in popular oul ture, and gleaned from other professions and design disciplines, these practic 0 adaptable to almost ‘any circumstance and almost anywhere, ‘Though we live in uncertain times, one thing is certain: experimental architecture practices are no longer driven by grand! ideas or theories realized in visionary form. Instead, the most influential architec- ture practices: are today compelled by the need to in- ovate, to create solutions to problems whose larger Implications have not yet been formulated. | argue that this can only be accomplished with intelligence. siven problem without adding anything new. Architecture should be more ambitious than to Settle for that. Each of the offices mentioned above {and there are many more) have not settled on practices focused on what Drucker calls problem solving; they ha instead developed unique design intelligences that enable them to innovate by adding something not given in the formulation of any kind of problem they have been asked to solve, They are the first wave of a remarkable change in architecture ind | intend to keep track of them even if practice, ‘others are content to continue debating style, form, shape, polities and fashion, ‘Opposite: George Yu Arh tects, Sensoium,