ANIMATE

 FORM  
Greg  Lynn,  1999  
DESCRIPTION  
•  Greg  Lynn  (b.  1964)  is  owner  of  the  Greg  Lynn  
FORM  office,  a  Univ.  Professor  of  architecture  at  
University  of  Applied  Arts  Vienna,  and  a  studio  
professor  at  the  UCLA  School  of  the  Arts  and  
Architecture.    In  the  1990s  Lynn  established  himself  
as  the  central  figure  in  the  synthesis  of  compuOng,  
architecture,  design,  and  philosophy.  

•  Animate  Form  is  a  book  he  published  in  1999.  A  

year  earlier  he  had  published  Folds,  Bodies,  and  
Blobs:  Collected  Essays.  

•  Animate  Form  argues  that  architecture  has  been    

concerned  with  stasis  and  verOcal  forces.    

•  Based  on  his  experimentaOon  with  animaOon  

soSware,  he  proposed  that  architecture  be  
concerned  with  dynamic  forces,  both  in  developing  
a  form,  and  allowing  field  condiOons  other  than  
gravity  to  influence  its  shape.  

•  This  led  to  the  explosion  of  organic  blobs  we  have  
seen  in  architecture  since.  
 POLITICALLY  
•  Lynn  studied  with  Peter  Eisenman  and  his  
work  could  be  seen  as  a  conOnuaOon  of  the  
Eisenman  project,  which  was  to  quesOon  and  
dislocate  the  assumpOons  of  western  
metaphysics  in  architecture.  Eisenman  is  
most  famous  for  his  architectural  
interpretaOon  of  deconstrucOon  and  Derrida.  

•  This  project  is  fundamentally  poliOcal,  as  it   Architectural  Deleuzanism  

upends  the  foundaOons  on  which  our  society  
is  based.  

•  In  architecture  this  means  quesOoning  the  

ideas  of  stasis,  permanence,  usefulness,  
typology,  procession,  and  verOcality.  These  
were  the  values  of  classical  architecture.  

•  Lynn  proposes  a  new  way  of  thinking  about  

architecture  that  reorients  to  process  within  
a  Deleuzian  framework  of  thought.  
 ECONOMICALLY  
•  Lynn  acknowledges  he  received  a  generous  
grant  from  The  Graham  FoundaOon  for  this  
project.  

•  The  Graham  FoundaOon  was  created  in  1956  by  

a  bequest  from  Ernest  R.  Graham  (1866–1936),  
a  prominent  Chicago  architect  and  protégé  of  
Daniel  Burnham.  Graham  was  Burnham’s  
principal  assistant  in  overseeing  construcOon  of  
the  World’s  Columbian  ExposiOon  of  1893.  
Following  Burnham’s  death  in  1912,  Graham  
carried  on  Burnham’s  architectural  pracOce.  

•  Lynn  was  provided  with  high-­‐end  computer  

animaOon  soSware  from  Hollywood’s  
animaOon  and  moOon  industry  for  his  
experiments.  The  book  includes  a  free  
interacOve  CD-­‐ROM  of  recent  architectural  
projects  designed  by  Form,  the  office  of  Greg  
Lynn.  

•  Lynn  collaborates  with  corporate  designers  

such  as  BMW  chief  designer  Chris  Bangle,  
Hollywood  producOon  designer  Alex  McDowell,  
branding  guru  Peter  Arnell,  starchitect  Frank  
Gehry,  Italian  kitchenware  enterprise  Alessi,  
and  the  high-­‐end  Swiss  furniture  makers  Vitra.  
 SOCIALLY  
•  Lynn  built  a  project  based  on  his  ideas  in  
this  book,  the  Korean  Presbyterian  Church  
in  Sunnyside,  Queens,  New  York  City,  
1999.  
   
•  This  was  a  1500  seat  sanctuary  on  the  roof  
of  a  renovated  laundry  factory.  

•  A  series  of  angular,  metal  scallops  give  the  

church  its  most  striking  feature.  These  
arOculate  an  entry  canopy.  The  scallops  
evolve  in  form  from  one  end  to  the  other  
much  like  the  frames  in  a  film  animaOon.  

•  These  do  not  relate  to  the  surrounding  

context  in  an  affiliaOve  way  but  rather  
dominate  the  area  with  alien  forms.  They  
are  also  large  in  scale.  

“Lynn’s  use  of  shaping  the  building  envelope  by  means  of  
natural  site  forces  seems  selecAve  and  lacking  in  non-­‐vector  
forces:  urban,  aestheAc  or  cultural,  at  each  site.  A  phase  
portrait  used  at  the  Port  Authority  Gateway  CompeAAon  
creates  a  sterile  representaAon  of  a  rich  urban  hub.”  
-­‐  Book  review  by  Mimi  Zeiger  
 
 TECHNOLOGICALLY  
•  In  his  books  he  establishes  the  theories  
about  how  animaOon  soSware  could  give  
architects  the  sculptural  freedom  to  
develop  designs  unconstrained  by  staOc  
Euclidian  forms  and  move  them  toward  
topological  surfaces.  
 
•  Technologically  this  relies  on  the  modelling  
soSware  tools  of  subdivision  surfaces,  
NURBS,  verOces,  splines  and  keyframe  
animaOon.    
 
•  The  animaOon  is  not  meant  to  show  the  
historical  developmental  process  of  the  
project  but  are  generaOve  and  proliferaOve:  
the  architect  incorporates  informaOon  from  
external  and  dynamic  vectors  (moOon  and  
force)  in  the  field,  then  lets  the  soSware  
unfold  the  forms  in  all  their  complexity.  

•  Lynn  akempted  to  develop  the  

architectural  use  of  the  computer  beyond  
pragmaOc  instrumentalism,  dreamy  cyber-­‐
escapism,  or  for    formal  organic  
expressionism.
 ENVIRONMENTALLY  
•  Lynn  was  concerned  more  with  architectural  
theory  and  form  than  sustainability.  His  own  
firm  is  named  FORM.  

•  His  idea  that  you  could  shape  a  building  by  the  

local  lateral  wind  force  (as  one  of  the  forces  in  a  
field)  has  led  to  many  skyscrapers  (such  as  30  
St.  Mary’s  Axe  in  London)  being  shaped  to  
deflect  wind  and  keep  vorOces  from  forming.  

•  He  is  co-­‐founder  and  Chief  ExecuOve  Officer  of  

Piaggio  Fast  Forward,  a  company  whose  mission  
is  to  build  technology  products  that  has  a  vision  
of  a  “sustainable  mobility  ecology  with  healthy  
lifestyles  and  social  connecOvity  available  to  all,  
regardless  of  age  or  abiliOes.”  

•  From  1992–1999  he  taught  at  GSAPP  in  New  

York,  developing  the  ‘Paperless  Studios’  under  
dean  Tschumi,  exploring  the  use  of  the  digital  
technology  for  building  design  and  construcOon.  
REFERENCES  
hkp://martucci670umd.blogspot.com/2008/02/greg-­‐lynn-­‐animate-­‐form.html  
hkps://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:1KkivSubwEgJ:hkps://032c.com/2008/greg-­‐lynn-­‐
curve-­‐your-­‐enthusiasm/+&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-­‐b-­‐1  
hkp://architourist.pbworks.com/w/page/13599672/Korean%20Presbyterian%20Church  
hkp://loudpapermag.com/arOcles/animate-­‐form  
hkp://ka-­‐au.net/animate-­‐form-­‐by-­‐greg-­‐lynn/