Spaces & Flows: Ninth International Conference on Urban and ExtraUrban Studies

Abstract

Invented in 2008 by Patrik Schumacher the so-called style of Parametricism provides the most explicit example of how spectacles of complex form disguise processes of conceptual exclusion. The visual appeal of such forms depends on self-referential cohesion, which covers up what such a practice eliminates from considerations. Initially promoted as a design technique associated with digital fabrication this attitude has resonated with the neoliberal economy the most when applied to urban issues. The kaleidoscopic form manipulation has produced competition-winning planning proposals and spectacular architectural complexes, which all imply the possibility of total control of conceptual issues. The key problem resides, however, in the false assumption that all cultural, social, and political aspects of lived reality are reducible to quantitative data, which in turn seem convertible to design parameters. It is this quintessentially neoliberal disconnect between visual spectacles and the crypto-reductive statistical methods that supports architectural opportunism and the coercion of critical theories.