Blobitecture (fromblob architecture),blobism andblobismus are terms for a movement inarchitecture in which buildings have an organic,amoeba-shaped building form.[1] Though the termblob architecture was already in vogue in the mid-1990s, the wordblobitecture first appeared in print in 2002, inWilliam Safire's "On Language" column in theNew York Times Magazine.[2] Though intended in the Safire article to have a derogatory meaning, the word stuck and is often used to describe buildings with curved and rounded shapes.
The term "blob" was used by the Czech-British architectJan Kaplický for the first time for the "Blob Office Building" in London in 1986. The building was characterized by an organic, aerodynamic shape and was touted for being energy-saving. 'Blob architecture' was coined by architectGreg Lynn in 1995 in his experiments in digital design withmetaball graphical software.[3] Soon a range of architects and furniture designers began to experiment with this "blobby" software to create new and unusual forms.
The word "blobitecture" itself is aportmanteau of the words "blob" and "architecture".
Despite its seeming organicism, blob architecture is not possible withoutcomputer-aided design programs. Architects derive the forms by manipulating algorithms on computer modeling platforms. Other computer-aided design functions used are thenonuniform rational B-spline or NURBS,freeform surfaces, and digitizing of sculpted forms similar tocomputed tomography.[4]
One precedent isArchigram, a group of English architects working in the 1960s, to whichPeter Cook belonged. They were interested in inflatable architecture as well as in the shapes that could be generated from plastic.Ron Herron, also a member of Archigram, created blob-like architecture in his projects from the 1960s, such asWalking Cities andInstant City, as did Michael Webb withSin Centre.[5]
Buckminster Fuller's work withgeodesic domes provided both stylistic and structural precedents. Geodesic domes form the building blocks forThe Eden Project.[6]
Niemeyer'sEdificio Copan built in 1957 undulates asymmetrically, invoking the irregular non-linearity often seen in blobitecture.[7] There was an air of psychedelia in the 1970s that these experimental architecture projects were a part of.
The Flintstone House by William Nicholson in 1976 was built over large inflated balloons.Frederick Kiesler's unbuiltEndless House is another instance of early blob-like architecture, although it is symmetrical in plan and designed before computers; his design for theShrine of the Book (construction begun 1965) which has the characteristic droplet form of fluid also anticipates forms that interest architects today. Similarly, the work of Vittorio Giorgini (Casa Saldarini), Pascal Haüsermann, and especially that ofAntti Lovag are examples of successfully built blobs. The latter built the famousPalais Bulles[8] close to Cannes on the French Côte d'Azur, owned by fashion designerPierre Cardin.
On the basis of form rather than technology, the organic designs ofAntoni Gaudi in Barcelona and of theExpressionists likeBruno Taut andHermann Finsterlin are considered to be blob architecture.[9] The emergence of new aesthetic-oriented architectural theories likeOOO have led contemporary architects to explicitly examine the formal-technological-theoretical implications of blobitecture, including digital-physicalaugmented reality works of architects like iheartblob.[10]
The term, especially in popular parlance, has come to be associated with odd-looking buildings includingFrank Gehry'sGuggenheim Museum Bilbao (1997) and theExperience Music Project (2000).[11] These, in the narrower sense, are not blob buildings, even though they were designed by advanced computer-aided design tools,CATIA in particular.[12] The reason for this is that they were designed from physical models rather than from computer manipulations. The first full blob building was built in the Netherlands byLars Spuybroek (NOX) andKas Oosterhuis. Called the Water Pavilion (1993–1997), it has a fully computer-based shape manufactured with computer-aided design tools and an electronic interactive interior where sound and light can be transformed by the visitor.
A building that also can be considered an example of a blob isPeter Cook andColin Fournier'sKunsthaus (2003) inGraz, Austria. Other instances areRoy Mason'sXanadu House (1979), and a rare excursion into the field byHerzog & de Meuron in theirAllianz Arena (2005).
By 2005, Norman Foster had involved himself in blobitecture to some extent as well with his brain-shaped design for thePhilological Library at theFree University of Berlin andThe Glasshouse, Gateshead. French-born architectEphraim Henry Pavie [fr] built the free-shaped Biomorphic House (2012) in Israel.[13]
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