Archaeology of the Digital: Complexity and Convention curated by Greg Lynn will be exhibited at Yale School of Architecture in New Haven, CT between January 12-May 7, 2017. This exhibition, curated by Greg Lynn, marks the third phase of the research project by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) initiated with the 2013 exhibition "Archaeology of the Digital." 

Through the lens of five curatorial themes (high-fidelity 3D, structure/cladding, data, photorealism, and topography/topology) fifteen exemplary projects, both built and unbuilt by international firms in the 1990s through the 2000s, are dissected and reassembled to provide a reading of innovative design strategies from the recent past that have now become convention.

OCEAN North, Jyväskylä Music and Arts Center: Rendered cloud of particle motion paths, 1997. Image: Original file: peel_blue_comp.jpg, 92 KB, last modified 19 August 1997. AP194 OCEAN North records, CCA. Gift of Johan Bettum and Kivi Sotamaa. © OCEAN North

In this exhibition the inverse is true; there is a vast quantity of digital material for many projects and the hardware and software used more than a decade ago is often still operational. The material shows how a digital approach to design proved that buildings could be delivered in a functional, timely and fiscally responsible way while allowing for more complexity, ingenuity and innovation than would have previously been possible. 

Preston Scott Cohen, Eyebeam Atelier Museum: Screen capture of the aggregated structure that combines conical and cylindrical intersections and floor plates through a mutable tensegrity system, 2001. Image: Original file: Front.jpg, 334 KB, last modified 22 February 2001. AP190 Preston Scott Cohen records, CCA. Gift of Preston Scott Cohen. © Preston Scott Cohen

Indicating a diversity of practices and developed at a wide range of scales, the fifteen projects included in this exhibition represent the period during which digital technology moved from experiment to acceptance.

CCA had also launched new LIVE talk-show series with Greg Lynn starting in May 2016 in Montreal. It was a special talk-show series that hosted conversations with many architects and of their seminal digital projects included in the exhibition Archaeology of the Digital: Complexity and Convention. 

Coop Himmelb(l)au, BMW Welt: Wireframe rendering of space frame, 2003. Image: Original file: 030213_dachtragwerk_p4.jpg, 1.83 MB, last modified 17 February 2003. AP181 COOP Himmelb(l)au records, CCA. Gift of Coop Himmelb(l)au. © Bollinger + Grohmann

The guests are Johan Bettum and Kivi Sotamaa, Preston Scott Cohen, Neil Denari, Enric Ruiz Geli, Sulan Kolatan and Bill MacDonald, Ulrich Königs, Wolf Prix, Jesse Reiser, François Roche, Patrik Schumacher, Nader Tehrani, Peter Testa and Devyn Weiser and Alejandro Zaera-Polo. 

Watch Neil Denari, Johan Bettum and Kivi Sotamaa and Enric Ruiz Geli and Patrick Schumacher's talk-show videos on World Architecture Community. 

Neil M. Denari Architects, Interrupted Projections: Architectural space rendered as a flat CMYK surface, 1996. Image: Original file: MaFin.1000.tif, 80.8 MB, last modified 11 October 2013. AP168 Neil Denari records. Gift of Neil Denari. © Neil Denari

For the exhibition, the projects featured in Complexity and Convention include Erasmus Bridge (Rotterdam, The Netherlands; 1990–96) by Van Berkel & Bos Architects; Chemnitz Stadium (Chemnitz, Germany; 1995) by Peter Kulka with Ulrich Königs; O/K Apartment (New York; 1995–97) by Kolatan/Mac Donald Studio; Yokohama International Port Terminal (Yokohama, Japan; 1995–2002) by Foreign Office Architects; Interrupted Projections (Tokyo; 1996) by Neil M. Denari Architects; Kansai National Diet Library (Kyoto; 1996) by Reiser + Umemoto; Hypo Alpe-Adria Center (Klagenfurt, Austria; 1996–2002) by Morphosis; Jyväskylä Music and Arts Center (Jyväskylä, Finland; 1997) by OCEAN North; Witte Arts Center (Green Bay, USA; 2000) by Office dA;  Phaeno Science Centre (Wolfsburg, Germany; 2000–05) by Zaha Hadid Architects; Eyebeam Atelier Museum (New York; 2001) by Preston Scott Cohen; Carbon Tower (prototype, 2001) by Testa & Weiser; BMW Welt (Munich, Germany; 2001–2007) by COOP HIMMELB(L)AU; Villa Nurbs (Empuriabrava, Spain; 2000–15) by Cloud 9; and Water Flux (Évolène, Switzerland; 2002–10) by R&Sie(n).

Image courtesy of Yale School of Architecture

Top image: Morphosis, Hypo Alpe-Adria Center: Diagram of deforming building mass, 1997. Image: Original file: hypo final4.tif, 3.13 MB, last modified ‎29 June 1997. AP192 Morphosis records, CCA. Gift of Morphosis. © Morphosis.

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