“Greg Lynn, Blobwall”, taken from web “<

http://www.tba21.org/collection/artist/681/artwork/560>

accessed on 22/11/2013″

“Greg Lynn, Blobwall”, taken from web “<

http://glform.com/environments/blobwall/>

accessed on 22/11/2013″

A thousant Plateaus, Plateau 1; Rhizome, Gilles Deleuze – Felix Guattari, 1987

In this plateau, “Rhizome”, Deleuze and Guattari discuss about different ways of thinking and conception of knowledge in philosophical terms. The authors oppose two fundamental systems of thought; the arborescent and the rhizomatic.

Vertical hierarchies, binary logics, linear connections and biunivocal relations are formed from antiquity and all disciplines (biology, literature, politics, phycology etc.) have been based on these. Nonetheless, world has changed radically through the past decades and what we use to take for granted should be questioned. How can we continue thinking like our ancestors when connections in our society have become non-linear, multiple and complex?

And here comes the rhizomatic perception, which Deleuze and Guattari introduce as an intermezzo depicted by the mathematical function (n-1). They argue that a Rhizome is not a multiple derived from the One (1Xn) in contradistinction with the arborescent theory. It exists only when One belongs to multiple. Rhizomes are self-consistent aggregates. They are self-generated creating heterogeneous links on their own map. The term of “Rhizome” has a big effect on art and architecture since 90’s.

Nowadays, the flow of information is nonhierarchical. It does not follow rules of organization. Multiple networks have been introduced in our everyday life changing our “neighbors” in a non-topological approach.

In terms of form generation, nature follows the rhizomatic behavior, being created by itself. Conventional structures are based on points and their topological relations. Rhizomatic structures are made of lines that deterritorialize, changing the overall form. Thereby, a bottom up procedure is taking place. Units contribute to a transformable structure as individual interactions contribute to city, creating complexity by simple rules.

The questioning is how architectural forms should be created and what is the design procedure that the architect should follow? Taking into consideration the rapid flow of technology and materials and reconceptualizing the whole history of architecture.