Softspace: From a Representation of Form to a Simulation of Space

SOFTSPACE explores how once elusive conditionings of space are now opening entirely new possibilities for our understanding, creation and experience of architecture. In the past, advancements in the visualization and simulation of energies and material qualities - such as air, gas, fire, sound, scent and electricity - have been used simply to refine preconceived spatial, organizational and formal conditions. More recently, the appropriation of digital tools into architectural design has been focused on innovative form, structure and geometries while neglecting the vast range of materials and energies previously dismissed as simply atmospheric, qualitative or residual to the design process.
Today, through the development and dissemination of technologies, these energies and intensities can become architectural materials visualized and operated upon as systematically and accurately as the forces that guide structure and geometry. SOFTSPACE explores the spatial and organizational potential of these advancements, and their relation to historical and ideological trajectories. Through contributions by emerging architectural practices and essayists, SOFTSPACE takes stock of current advancements in design and research and examines the potentials of such "energy matters" to act as catalysts for design innovation today.

Sean Lally is Caudill Visiting Assistant Professor at the Rice School of Architecture, Texas, USA

Jessica Young is Director of Publications at the Rice School of Architecture, Texas, USA.