Bernard Cache (Paris): Instruments of Thought

Gastvortrag des Research-Fellow-Programms »Werkzeuge des Entwerfens« in Kooperation mit horizonte.
05. Juli, 19:00, Oberlichtsaal, Geschwister-Scholl-Str. 8, Weimar

Parametric design and mechanics are not new in architecture: they were actually there from the very beginning of the written sources of architecture. To understand this, we must return to classics such as works by Euclid, Plato, and Vitruvius. A renewed reading of those classics has the potential to bring contemporary architecture back into a historical tradition. In order to demonstrate this, I will mainly rely on an intermediary character between our time and antiquity: Albrecht Dürer.
Instead of discussing his paintings, however, I will mainly focus on his treatise of geometry, Underweysung der Messung or Instruction in Measurement. It is a rather unique case in the history of mathematics, since it is written by a non-mathematician for non-mathematicians. Rather than showing geometrical figures, Dürer often shows mechanical instruments that are intended to be used to draw curves. These instruments take on so much importance that sometimes the curves themselves are not even represented. Thus, in order to read this classical text, we can use CAD/CAM software, which enables us to establish parametric relations between elements in the figures, model the mechanical instruments, and simulate their movements in order to generate their trajectory.

Bernard Cache is an independent theorist and architect based in Paris and developed the concept of 'non-standard architecture' in his book Earth Moves. This concept was given the name 'Objectile' by Gilles Deleuze in his book on Leibniz, The Fold. Bernard Cache founded the company Objectile together with his partner Patrick Beaucé in 1996 to conceive and manufacture non-standard architecture components. His current research is focused on the reading of classical texts (such as Vitruvius’ De Architectura, or Dürer’s Underweysung der Messung) with the help of CAD/CAM software. Cache holds an Architect EPFL and a PhD in Architecture Theory and he taught at several universities and institutions worldwide, most recently as a Visiting Associate Professor at Cornell University. His numerous publications include Earth Moves: The Furnishing of Territories (MIT Press, 1995) and Projectiles (AA Publications, 2011).