Manifestations of Pure Inspiration

Paper architects such as Etienne-Louis Boullee and Claude-Nicolas Ledoux to this day inspire and influence modern architecture through their radical imagery of fantasy style futuristic monuments.  Their anti-Baroque tendencies within neoclassicism through elimination of all camouflage and décor were only understandable through graphic representation, not three dimensional generations.  Although these architects designed their fair share of inhabitable spaces, their most famous pieces were those of which could never (in their time) be dreamt of possible construction.  Boullee’s ideals behind the perfections in the cosmos were above and beyond his time, yet have enough validation behind them to make them collegiate precedents as far as science fiction and videogame atmospheric designs are concerned.  “…his cenotaph for Sir Isaac Newton, a grandiose gesture of mourning, was seen to embody not only Newton’s universal science but the perfection of the cosmos, eternity and infinity.” 

These fantasy structures inspired not by constructed material, but rather by spatial experimentation.  The effect was so great on the world of architecture that even still modern architecture is influenced by these masterworks.  If a few drawings of unrealistic structure changed the perspective of modernism to a level which they did, imagine what fantasy works of today’s artists and designers could achieve.  In my opinion, virtual reality design is the new paper architect.  These select designers create structures and atmospheres to exist in parallel with concept bases and storyline, but only to a purely experiential level.  The game levels set a reality for players to explore and visualize without worldly limitations to hinder construction, such as gravity or weather behaviors.  If the field of architecture could accept this realm as a sandbox for constructive inspiration and truly free creation, I believe (as stated in several earlier blog posts) new eras of architectural manifestation could be achieved. 

Jakov Chernikov commented to Stalin in 1938 that, “He objected to the fact that he, a man who had devoted his life to architectural research and design in the service of the glorious Stalinist Era, had been prohibited to work, and merely because he possessed a highly developed imagination.”  In today’s academic methodologies of architectural design, the same frustrations of choked creative freedom seem to be revealed.  With projects being based in real world scenarios, students crave to break away from rigid limitations of construction and coding.  Why not offer virtual reality courses in order to ease creative tensions within studios?  The result may be beautiful.  Perhaps a practical new Babylon may come about through one of these processes.  “…in New Babylon the disorientation that furthers adventure, play and creative change is privileged.  The space of New Babylon has all the characteristics of a labyrinthine space, within which movement no longer submits to the constraints of given spatial or temporal organization.”