Obviously we know architecture is a cybernetic system that must adapt to continually changing environments, wants and needs. One thing about this, however is concerning. High modernism sought to take on this problem, and what came out of it? A generic grid where any activity could happen. I myself have stumbled into this paradox, and even so has Rem Koolhaus, most notably since modernism. But is that it? Like is that it?  A grid?

Mies used the generic grid ad nauseum, and his buildings worked very well; in fact they still work well to this very day. Proof of concept. But if that’s all architects do (which, I’m not arguing-we design the emotive qualities of space as well), are we necessary? Surely an engineer can lay out an efficient grid much better than we can at a much lower cost. This is proven to work in plan, but what about the section? There isn’t an easy way to do a grid like system in section. And thus, there has to be something more than the grid. Like I said, it works great in plan, but if a building is looked at as a cybernetic feedback loop there’s certainly a disconnect between levels of a building. The grid very literally stratifies the organism, thus making many sub-organisms inside. So the grid can’t be the solution. Hence where technology and architects come into play. If the building is to act as a single cybernetic organism, the grid per floor can’t be the solution. This is something that has bothered me since my somewhat failed exploration into flexibility of the building. “Where’s the architecture?” was the overwhelming criticism, though the answer was staring me directly in the face; in the section.

It’s this argument that brings the architect in. But how is sectional flexibility achievable; finishing off feedback loops in our structures? It is here where hope lies-that we still have not found a good solution to this problem (nor am I arguing that there is any one solution, as was the failing of modernism). It is in the section where we need technological, adaptable, responsive architecture. The grid works well in plan because it is on the same plane, but how do we put sectional pieces of buildings on the same plane? We have to get things moving, to destroy the stratification we’ve so obediently succumbed to in our buildings.