Engineering the Library of Babel

Robert Parkinson

Two balls ran down a hill.
One landed on its side,
The other, upside down.
Ivor Cutler.#

Despite living in an age where the quest for a �single, unifying theory of everything� is generally seen to be misguided, there remains nevertheless the fact that there is a unique pleasure to be derived from discovering a secret code, detecting a pattern, a set of rules, a concept which permits disparate elements to be marshalled, analysed and understood. In the same way as Cecil Balmond, in his book �Number 9- the search for the sigma code�, used that number as the key to unlock hidden properties and relations in numbers, so perhaps can his work, his singular engineering talent, be viewed as the common denominator which unifies so much contemporary architecture. A list of his architectural collaborators- from Koolhaas and Libeskind to Norman Foster, Philip Johnston, Foreign Office Architects and Ben van Berkel- bears this out.

His Peter Rice Memorial Lecture given recently to the AAI/IEI, entitled "Structure as informal network", was thus a significant event for anyone concerned with current architectural thinking. In the course of the talk, Balmond gave a lucid overview of the ideas which have shaped and informed his thoughts, illustrated using examples of some recent buildings and projects.

At the heart of this concept of the �informal network� lies his belief that traditional thinking about structure has largely run its course. This he characterises as an essentially linear, hierarchical, cause-and-effect mode of thought, in contrast to the freer, more experimental, non-linear and even chaotic approach which he has devised. The features which he cites as being characteristic of this new mode are the element of surprise, juxtaposition, fluidity, and complex, hybrid thinking; where �informal� refers to a looseness, allowing a latitude for slippage, and �network� refers to "a mobile sense of pattern". However, rather than viewing these two approaches as binary opposites, Balmond suggests that classical order is but one possibility of the infinite number available, just as the square is a peculiar instance of the rectangle and the circle is a special ellipse#.

Experimentation has always been vital in engineering but, whereas in the past limits were set and tested by trial and error, as with Gothic cathedrals and the reduction of the wall mass, Balmond has had the crucial aid of computers in his investigations. This has allowed him to take greater risks in a shorter space of time and, most importantly, has permitted the introduction of those complex elements to the design process, without ever losing sight of the role of the computer as a facilitating tool in that process. It is the ability to surrender a little to certain unknown forces, this liberation from goal-oriented thinking and the consequent focus on means rather than ends, which really sets Balmond apart from conventional engineering experimentation.

This can be seen in such works as Chemnitz stadium with Peter Kulka and Ulrich Konig, where the apparently random arrangement of the roof is in fact generated by a pattern of overlapping cycloids, also giving the desired effect of an organic arrangement of columns, and the V & A Museum Boilerhouse extension with Daniel Libeskind, the form of which derives partly from a chaotic spiral with a continuously shifting centre representing, apparently, the fragmentary spiral of history.

Though he speaks of chaos and chance as factors in this process, it is interesting to note how Balmond seizes upon the occurrences of pattern when they emerge. Something as apparently chaotic as a DNA strand is shown to possess a certain radial symmetry, and the knight�s move repeated around a chess board eventually leads to a pattern of sorts. In both cases, though, the series is slightly skewed, indicating an open rather than closed system in operation.

It seems, therefore, that there is more to this method than simply the introduction of chance as another ingredient. There is a willingness, a desire, to treat numbers as though they possess some divine or mystical quality which is evidence of a deeper structure, a hidden meaning. Paradoxically, this attitude places Balmond squarely in a tradition as old as counting itself, and this is perhaps the key to his work. Through this method, he wishes to liberate structure from its conventional role of enclosing space- the raw material of architecture for much of the last two centuries- and invest it with meaning, with a significance of its own, where it is an equal rather than subservient part of the overall conception.

There are many more questions arising from the lecture which this brief review cannot hope to cover. For example, is there a danger, when unknown forces act on a design process, of those forces usurping the role of the architect and engineer? To what extent are the �discoveries� of this system used as a cloak of science, as with much functionalist, programmatic architecture?# Where in this method is the moment of aesthetic choice?# Has meaning taken over from beauty and utility as the goal of contemporary architecture? Is an engineer working in the vanguard of contemporary architecture the logical (if ironic) consequence of almost a century of that functionalist tendency in architecture?

The career and work of Cecil Balmond, more than most, shows that traditional professional distinctions have become increasingly blurred, but at the same time point towards a very real option for the future. It is for this reason that we should be grateful to have had the opportunity to hear first hand from a thinker of this calibre.

Further reading:

Cecil Balmond,
Number 9- the search for the sigma code, Prestel, Munich, 1998.
�New structure and the informal,� in New science = new architecture?, Academy Editions, London, 1997.
The informal, Prestel, Munich, forthcoming January (?) 2002.

With Daniel Libeskind,
Unfolding, NAI, Rotterdam, 1997.

# Maxwell, Robert, the two-way stretch- modernism, tradition and innovation, Academy Editions, London, 1997, p. 31 ff.
# "Every possibility is available if you take away the tunes, but only some are valid under the circumstances. It is only our sensitivity to the flux that determines whether the music succeeds or fails." Keith Jarrett, liner notes to Inside Out, ECM Records (ECMCD 1780), Munich, 2001.

Robert Parkinson is a freelance architectural historian and artist with a particular interest in the intersection between art and mathematics. He currently works as the jazz buyer in Tower Records.