Taubman College Associate Professor Geoffrey Thün and Assistant Professor Kathy Velikov’s article “Soft Goes Hard” appears in the new critical architecture, environment, and digital culture publication Bracket – Almanac 2 – [goes soft], edited by Neeraj Bhatia and Lola Sheppard.
“Soft Goes Hard,” co-authored with their partner in RVTR Colin Ripley, considers the design of spatial envelopes as soft systems, in constant interplay with informational, sensing and energetic envelopes and spheres. An approach to taking advantage of hard technologies and forms in service of the soft is explored through The Stratus Project, a recent project for a light and air based architectural environment realized by the authors. The work on The Stratus Project was originally funded by a 2011 Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning Research Through Making Grant, and has subsequently received support via a U-M OVPR Special Projects Grant and a major projects Research Creation Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada (SSHRC).
“The collection of juried articles collected in Bracket 2 engage the following topics:
From soft politics, soft power and soft spaces to fluid territories, software and soft programming, Bracket 2 unpacks the use and role of responsive, indeterminate, flexible, and immaterial systems in design. In an era of declared crises – economic, ecological and climatic, among others – the notion of soft systems has gained increasing traction as a counterpoint to permanent, static and hard systems. Acknowledging fluid and indeterminate situations with complex feedback loops that allow for reaction and adaption, the possibility of soft systems has reentered the domain of design.” (from the Bracket website)
To purchase a copy of Bracket 2, please click here.
