GILLES RETSIN
on his practice:
‘BUILDING BLOCKS’
“MY PROJECTS FOLLOW THE LOGIC OF ‘PARTS’ OR ‘BUILDING-BLOCKS’, AS OPPOSED TO SUPER-FORMS OR CONTINUES SURFACES. FOR EXAMPLE, AN EXISTING BUILDING-BLOCKS SYSTEM THAT IS COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE IS LEGO BLOCKS”
“I AM THE PRODUCT OF THE DIGITAL AGE. WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT THE ‘DIGITAL’, YOU THINK ABOUT DATA THAT CONSISTS OF DISCRETE ELEMENTS OR PARTS.”
“WHILE DISCRETENESS & PARTS HAVE BEEN AROUND IN ARCHITECTURE FOR A LONG TIME, AS WELL AS THE CONVERSATION ON MODULARITY, WE HAVE NOT EVER REALLY THOUGHT ABOUT ARCHITECTURAL PARTS IN A DIGITAL WAY, AS ‘DIGITAL PARTS’. THIS IS AN EXCITING DISCOVERY, IT’S A CREATIVE QUESTION.’
“THE PREMISE OF THE DIGITAL DISCRETE PART, IS THAT THE PART HAS NO PRESCRIBED FUNCTION, THAT IT ALWAYS REMAINS AUTONOMOUS AND IT NEVER DERIVES ITS POSITION FROM A SUPER WHOLE, BUT ALWAYS JUST LOCALLY. SO THE PROJECT IS THE RESULT OF AN AGGREGATION OF PARTS AND WE DON’T SPEAK ANY MORE OF FLOOR, CEILING, COLUMNS, ETC.”
“THE DISCRETE PROJECT TAKES ON BOARD IDEAS OF SUBJECTIVITY, AS IT ALLOWS TO ASSEMBLY THE PARTS TOGETHER DIFFERENTLY ON EVERY INSTANCE, BECAUSE WE HAVE DISCONNECTED FORM FROM FUNCTION”
“IN A DISCRETE WORLD YOU HAVE TO CREATE A DIFFERENT RELATIONSHIP TO CONTEXT. IF YOU WORK WITH DISCRETENESS YOUR PARTS EXISTS BEFORE YOUR CONTEXT IS THERE”
“THE DISCRETE IS SCALE AGNOSTIC, YOU CAN DO A PROJECT IN VERY DIFFERENT RESOLUTIONS. IT IS ALSO NON-GEOMETRICAL, IT IS NOT DEFINED BY A SURFACE OR A GEOMETRY”
“AUTOMATION IS AT THE CORE OF MY WORK. WE PROGRAM ROBOTS TO ASSEMBLY THESE BUILDING PARTS IN A FULLY AUTOMATED WAY. AUTOMATION ALLOW US TO CREATE HIGHER QUALITY HOUSING IN SHORTER TIME, BYPASSING THE ENTIRE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY. ULTIMATELY THE PREMISE OF THE WORK IS THAT WE HAVE A SHORT PRODUCTION CHAIN, WHERE WE CAN PRODUCE EXTREMELY EFFICIENTLY, EXTREMELY ECONOMICALLY, AND WE ARE ABLE TO CREATE ENVIRONMENTS WHERE WE CAN ESCAPE THE RATIONAL, NON-INSPIRING, BORING ARCHITECTURE THAT WE ASSOCIATE WITH MODULARITY. WHERE WE CAN PUSH THE EFFICIENCY OF MODULARITY IN A MAUCH MORE INSPIRING WAY.”
“WE WANT TO DO ALL THIS NOT FOR THE FUNKY CONCERT HALL, BUT FOR THE 99%. WE NEED TO USE THIS FOR THE MANY, NOT FOR THE FEW”
