Blobitecture is a term for buildings with organic, rounded, amoeba like curving forms that became achievable at architectural scale only with the computer aided design and modeling software that spread through architecture practice in the 1990s. The word itself is a playful blend of blob and architecture, reflecting the style's origin as informal design world slang for the new, computer generated curvilinear forms rather than a movement with a founding manifesto. The architect Greg Lynn was among the style's most influential early theorists and practitioners, developing digital blob modeling techniques that treated a building's form as a continuous, deformable surface rather than a set of flat planes and straight edges. Built examples include the Selfridges department store in Birmingham, England, designed by the firm Future Systems and completed in 2003 with its distinctive silver disc clad curving facade, and the Kunsthaus Graz in Austria, designed by Peter Cook and Colin Fournier and also completed in 2003, its bulging biomorphic exterior nicknamed the Friendly Alien by residents of the city.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Influenced By
Blobitecture digitally-generated curvilinear forms emerged from Deconstructivism earlier experiments with unconventional geometry.
Notable Examples
Future Systems 2003 department store, clad in 15,000 aluminium discs, a defining Blobitecture landmark.
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