Greg Lynn_Anexact forms_Blobs

Greg Lynn_Probable Geometries_Blob Tectonics

Lynn's essays lie in blatent contrast with the general population of architectural enthusists that wallow in the stagnant shadow of Vitruvius. Lynn's introduction to the idea of "Anexact Yet Rigorous " forms (Blobs), provides yet another opportunity for architecture to add to it's vocabulary thus strengthening its foundation. Lynn describes "Anexact yet Rigorous" forms as a form that "can be described with local precision yet can not be wholly reduced". This can be understood as the equivalent of comparing a drop of water to the ocean. Or as Lynn states, "a complex relationship irreducible either to the contradiction of the many or the holistic unity of the one". Lynn's concepts have the creative potential that architecture needs but is muddled by the same static langauge that is held in the "writing" in architecture that Lynn condemns in his essays. Lynn's theories should not be thought of as neither valid nor invalid. They should be assimilated into the whole of the architectural language. Lynn's definition only comes into existence when coexisting with the notion of the complete and pure forms of exact geometries.
Lynn's essay can be understood as a call for the reevaluation of what it means to be an "Architect" and what "Architecture" can redefine itself as. Lynn states that "architecture prefers to begin with ideal forms whereas material science, food science, geology, astronomy, and the life sciences begin with the amorphous". This leaves us with the capacity to shift the role of the architect to that of a scientist, giving way to the exploration of many other new forms, spaces and concepts. then can be viewed as explorers in a field of endless possibilities instead of disciples in a cult.
Lynn's concept of the "BLOBs" provides a conceptual model of flexibility and fluidity when dealing with the subject of image, morphology, and behavior. But the blob's physical appearance can be incorporated onto any rigid geometry that has the same shape and volume. This leaves me to question, how "blobby" do you have to be to get the same general effect of the blob.