Parametric Architecture and Representation, the Experiments of Luigi Moretti

Abstract

The theme of this study investigates the contribution that traditional and digital representation instruments provided in creating and configuring complex forms. The research goal is to analyze in which measure the evolution of graphic imprints have influenced designing, especially in the parametric area. For this reason it’s interesting to understand, examining concrete case studies, how much graphic procedures have conditioned the project’s results. Parametric modeling, nowadays supported by software capable of generating complex, dynamic and multiform non-euclidean geometries via algorithmic processes, allows to establish the feasible relations between parameters and components. The adhesion to this kind of design is linked to the preference of architectural forms which are far from static schemes in favor of organic and evolved shapes, according to dynamic functions and fluxes hosted in spaces. Flexible shells to manage with mathematical and computational techniques which allow to plan complexity and potential transformation introduced during the designing process. The evolution of architectural languages and contemporary lifestyles have favored the diffusion of parametric software which, not requiring deep programming skills, allow to interact with a fluid three-dimensional model updated according to the parameters. The question that arises is the growth of technologies in the creative design, in reality while running this risk is demonstrable that the architects of the past managed to obtain parametric forms using conventional means. In this sense the theories elaborated by Luigi Moretti are researching the way to define the scientific foundations of design by parameters. The contribution investigates the phenomenon from the point of view of representation, making comparisons between analog and digital applied specifically to the prototype of the “M” stadium of Moretti.