Enric Ruiz-Geli

elbulli foundation . cap de creus

Enric Ruiz-Geli . photos: © Débora Mesa . + spain lab

Particle Architecture Thesis
1. The architecture of Cloud 9 is articulated transversally by particle theory,

from the visualization of landscape —as a global concept, the sum of space plus social relationships— to the design and construction of the architectural project.
2. This theory interprets reality at the level of the particles which provide it with information, designing strategies over time for the interpretation both of the tectonic or material (territory, buildings, people) and of the climatic or incorporeal (light, temperature, relative humidity, rain, wind, salt, CO2, photosynthesis).
3. Using 3D laser scanning technologies (Tecmolde), capable of recording 120,000 points per second at a distance of 75 m, point cloud files that can be managed by 3D software, and sensors installed in the location (Tecnalia), together with those that gather information about climatic characteristics, the landscape is recorded as particles, and not as geometric locations or simply as numerical data.
4. These particles reproduce, in an abstract manner over time, a given condition of a given landscape. So this reproduction, even though abstract —an indispensable condition for the architectural project— maintains a direct link with the territory which in turn enables the project to be understood not as a graft from outside, but, rather, as an internal emergency.
5. The natural environment for working with particles surpasses proprietary software, and introduces environments that are more generic. They are managed by the use of free programming environments (Processing) through intelligent behaviour over time, thus progressing from the exterior morphology of the project to the performance of its parts or internal composition.
6. Work with particles, being connected with the technological development of manufacturing methods (Materialise) through techniques of rapid prototyping and numerical control, allows not only formal development but also direct transposition from the plan to the construction.
7. In this way, Cloud 9’s Particles Architecture becomes part of a discourse that makes no distinction between objects and products, buildings and landscape, sea and mountain, but which understands reality, and therefore the architectural project, as performing particles, thus entering into an empathetic understanding of a society in which human beings and Nature speak a common language, that of Particles Architecture.