Inhabitat » BLOBWALL: Modern Modular Building System

July 7, 2008

BLOBWALL: Modern Modular Building System

by Evelyn Lee

BlobWall Pavilion, Greg Lynn, SciArc Los Angeles, Sustainable Building Materials, BlobWall Pavilion, modern computer technology, recycled plastic building materials, Time magazine 100, impact-resistant polymer, modular building systems, Southern California Institute of Architecture, Venice Biennale, Venice Biennale Blobwall

What do you get when you cross a century old building material, with lightweight recycled plastic, modern computer technology, and the mind of one of Time Magazine’s 100 most innovative people for the 21st century? You get Greg Lynn’s BlobWall Pavilion. The freestanding indoor/outdoor wall system that looks to redefine the common brick as a modular building system.

While the form may not be for everyone, here at Inhabitat we find the exploration not only fun, but also sustainable. Each of the modules are robotically cut and formed out of low-density, recyclable, impact-resistant polymer.

Those of you lucky enough to be in the Los Angeles area have a little over a week to view the pavilion in the gallery at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), before it is shipped off to the 11th installation of the Venice Biennale. This year’s theme for the Biennale is titled, Out there: Architecture Beyond Building, fitting for a building experiment looking to redefine one of the century’s oldest building materials.

+ BlobWall Pavilion Blog
+ SciArc Gallery

5 Responses to “BLOBWALL: Modern Modular Building System”

earthsmile Says:

July 8th, 2008 at 2:38 am

As an ‘Art’ project.. fine. Nice work. As a practical building material… this is a joke. Quite frankly, outside the realm of ‘Art’, this is a totally ridiculous product… and really beneath the standards of inhabitat.

eriknbrooklyn Says:

July 8th, 2008 at 9:37 am

Oh christ. Not again. Seriously, human beings think in terms of Cartesian coordination (rectangles and prisms). Whats the point of your “module” requires abstraction to understand? My mind should be able to immediately apprehend its orientation and location in a mass plane or line. This is a kitschy masturbation of bored minds. While I can never condemn trying something new, I can condemn parading it about as something it’s not. Keep it in the children’s museum where it belongs or try to actually use it for its “intended purpose” (as a unit of construction). Build a place for DWELLING and you might have something…

manifold Says:

July 8th, 2008 at 11:02 am

a little kooky but creative. just because it is not easy to ‘immediately apprehend’ does not mean that it is without merit. it’s necessary to push the boundaries in order to move forward.

jdiewald Says:

July 8th, 2008 at 3:37 pm

The problem with this project is that it ignores the fundamental merits - even the point - of ‘modular’ construction. If you read into the process of how the wall was created in the blog, you will find that EVERY ONE of those ‘modules’ is a unique shape, tediously custom cut to create the form of the wall in the exhibition. The project is by no means modular and certianly not sustainable. Is is an interesting exercise in how to produce the most labor intensive type of ‘modular construction’ known to man and a sophomoric attempt at novelty.

dogsix.com Says:

July 11th, 2008 at 3:33 pm

I couldn’t agree more with the previous posts. While I too was once drawn to the allure of ‘Blobitecture’, once I saw Greg Lynn speak, I lost all respect for the ‘happy accident’ that this thoughtless, unrealistic, un-important slice of architectural history if offering us. A previous Inhabitat article said it better than I could. here’s an excerpt from the full article here: http://inhabitat.com/2006/12/29/greening-the-ivory-tower

“Green Architecture vs. Blobitecture”

Green architecture is thoughtful architecture, and thoughtfulness is crucial to good architecture. Good architecture is born out of vision, passion and social conscience. It is not about producing fancy algorithms or random blobby shapes in Maya. Blobitecture is all surface and no substance, and architecture is ultimately not about surface; it’s about the experience and impact of three-dimensional space. If one’s work deals primarily in surface, aesthetics and symbolism, then one is an artist instead of an architect. Sustainable design – at its best – comes from thinking deeply and rigorously about how humans use, occupy and function in a space over time, and in turn how spaces impact urban fabric, society and culture. To approach architecture in a more superficial way is lazy and shortsighted.

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

Please note that gratuitous links to your site are viewed as spam and may result in removed comments.