Hybrid Space: New Forms In Digital Architecture

Architectural Review, The, Nov, 2000 by Raymund Ryan

Peter Zellner London: Thames & Hudson. 1999. [pound]24.95

If Mercator could be reincarnated as some groovy contemporary architect, boy might he relish the complex curved volumes offered -- albeit in static form -- in Hybrid Space. He would surely be enthralled by the new worlds (webs, wombs, and wavescapes) envisaged by this post-High-Tech, post-Deconstructivist crowd pushing (or should that be hawking?) computer capabilities. This is a hip overview of one of current architecture's hottest topics.

In an economical introduction, Peter Zellner objects to any lazy dichotomy between the real and virtual. The virtual, he writes, 'is not an ideal ... but a bundle of dormant forces awaiting actualization'. For Zellner, the built or service environment of today is already a blend of orthodox reality and the cybervisionary. Hence 'hybrid'. Hence the infusion of, for instance, ATM machines into everyday life. And hence a 'new architecture [that] organizes the world by arranging the spaces between things rather than perpetuating the myth of ideal form'.

Most of the dozen presented firms have addresses (electronic and physical) in New York or the Netherlands. All except Morphosis and possibly UN Studio (van Berkel & Bos) are at the beginning of their careers, i.e. have not yet built very much. These architects are nevertheless not bashful with words. Lars Spuybroek writes about neurology, Marcus Novak of 'liquid architectures', and Kas Oosterhuis of 'sentient technologies'. The short texts and often beguiling images suggest not only rational innovation but sexy, ambient pleasures for the near future.