Versioning| SHoP

Versioning: Evolutionary Techniques in Architecture by SHoP

In this reading we look at SHoP’s opinion on technology and how architecture is evolving, specifically looking at Versioning. It is defined as:

“Versioning: an operative term meant to describe a recent significant shift in the way architects and designers are using technology to expand in time as well as in territory the potential effects of design on our world”

As architects move towards versioning, there becomes an emphasis on using technology not for the creation of images but open practice promoting technique as well as trying to turn architectural practice away from consumption and towards better production. An interesting statement made by SHoP states: “Versioning implies the shifting of design away from a system of horizontal integration [designers as simply the generators of representational form] towards a system of vertical integration [designers driving how space is conceived and constructed and what its effects are culturally]”

Furthermore with versioning no original form or model exists to expand variations of, but instead uses characteristics and conditions as parameters governing the design. “Vector-based information allows immediate results to be transformed and refined as the previous tests feed additional data through the framework of intentionality. Both the desired design objectives and methodology thereby become simultaneously accelerated and adaptive.”