A Language of Contemporary Architecture: An Index of Topology and Typology

Author: Rafael Luna and Dongwoo Yim (PRAUD)
Year: 2023
Source type: book
Raw file: raw/books/luna-yim-2023-language-of-contemporary-architecture.md

Summary

A methodological proposal for understanding contemporary architecture beyond stylistic classification. The authors argue that "Contemporary Architecture" should be understood not as a temporal category but as a method — a holistic integration of topology (form) and typology (systems and elements). The book presents an indexed catalog of architectural concepts illustrated through precedent projects, organized into three sections: (1) Topology — dealing with form, contextualization, ground relations, and spatial configurations; (2) Typology — dealing with architectural elements (columns, walls, slabs, cores, façades) and systems; (3) Methodology — demonstrating integrated TO/TY approaches. Includes contributions from Toyo Ito, Anthony Vidler, Ben van Berkel, Greg Lynn, and Christian Kerez. The central thesis: contemporary architecture must move beyond the modernist Dom-ino system and postmodern stylistic battles toward a non-stylistic, topological/typological method.

Key Claims

• Contemporary Architecture should be defined not by when it was built but by how it was built — as a method, not a temporal category (Introduction)
• The ongoing struggle to move beyond modernism has been trapped in stylistic battles (postmodernism, brutalism, high-tech, parametricism) rather than developing a comparative structural language (Introduction)
• Three typologies structure architectural production: (1) First Typology = elements (Laugier's Primitive Hut); (2) Second Typology = systems (Le Corbusier's Dom-ino); (3) Third Typology = form/city relations (Rossi, Krier) — now reconceived as topology (Introduction, Vidler)
• The Dom-ino system has become an unquestioned standard for 100+ years despite massive changes in technology, climate, and socio-economic conditions (Introduction)
• "Facadism" — the separation of envelope from spatial logic — characterizes much contemporary practice; if the Dom-ino system lives inside the envelope, it's still modern regardless of façade treatment (Introduction)
• Topology (from mathematical topology) offers a language for formal deformation and contextual relationship beyond stylistic classification (Topology section)
• Typology is not style but an inherent structural logic — Quatremère de Quincy's distinction: type as rule vs. model as copy (Introduction)
• Contemporary projects should integrate topology and typology holistically — composing a topology first, then assessing what elements and systems relate best (Introduction)
• Toyo Ito's "emerging grid" — transforming uniform Cartesian grids into complex, organic spatial continuums through algorithmic manipulation — exemplifies the topological turn beyond modernism (Prologue)
• Digital technologies liberate architecture from Euclidean geometries, enabling "fluid body architectures" based on nonlinear mathematics and dynamic stress flows (Ito Prologue)
• The "new real" in materiality beyond Modernism requires reclaiming structure as dynamic flow rather than static geometric order (Ito Prologue)

Connections

Concepts: parametricism, discrete, critical architecture, ideology, spectacle, junkspace, dwelling, atmosphere
Authors: anthony vidler, Toyo Ito, Greg Lynn, rem koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, Aldo Rossi, Leon Krier, Alan Colquhoun, Rafael Moneo, Giulio Carlo Argan, Quatremère de Quincy, Marc-Antoine Laugier, Le Corbusier, Bernard Tschumi, peter eisenman
Debates: critical vs projective, genius vs bureaucracy
Related source notes: schumacher 2008 parametricism as style, spencer 2016 architecture of neoliberalism, spencer 2026 architecture capitalism parametricism, hopkins 2026 parametricism neoliberalism, claypool discrete turn, vidler 2000 warped space, vidler troubles in theory 6 from utopia to heterotopia, koolhaas 2002 logan airport junkspace

Direct Quotes

"The contemporary project has been trying to answer the post-modern question of how to move beyond modernism through a thread of architectural styles that tried to respond to deficiencies from the modern promise and contextual changes. Yet, the question remains, should this ongoing struggle to move beyond modernism be a stylistic battle?" (Introduction, p. 20)

"Has the present architectural practice ever left the modernist tendencies, and is there a structure for a contemporary language in architecture?" (Introduction, p. 20)

"Just as Modernism can be dissected through its elements and systems, should there be a comparative approach for understanding Contemporarism?" (Introduction, p. 21)

"If contemporary is to be understood as a condition of time, then yes, they would both be considered Contemporary Architecture in a temporal sense. Yet, even if these two buildings were built at the same time, it is evident that they do not follow the same logic of assemblage, as they are bound to different stylistic parameters." (Introduction, p. 28)

"If style has such intrinsic properties of time, then Contemporary Architecture cannot be purely assessed by when it was built, but rather how it was built." (Introduction, p. 28)

"Type is theorized in the eighteenth century by Antoine-Chrysostome Quatremère de Quincy in his Dictionnaire historique d'architecture... Quatremère de Quincy would begin to explain its etymology from a Greek origin, τωλος, used to describe the mold for producing a sculpture or work of art. He theorized that type represented more the rule rather than the image to be copied." (Introduction, p. 30)

"Vidler classifies the existence of a first Typology based on elements of architecture (Laugier's Primitive Hut), a second Typology deriving from the systems of fabrication (Le Corbusier's Maison Domino), and the third Typology as an emergent relationship between city and form (Aldo Rossi and Leon Krier)." (Introduction, p. 31)

"Due to a new mathematical understanding of our world as topological, this third Typology could be renamed as topology, while elements and systems can remain as Typology. The method of composing a topology and then assessing what elements and systems relate best to the topology is a potential method for Contemporary Architecture, beyond a modern framework, beyond style." (Introduction, p. 31)

"For architecture, despite the level of detailed design and fabrication achieved in the façade, if the modernist Domino system is still alive inside of those envelopes, then it is a modern building." (Introduction, p. 32, on Facadism)

"I wanted to transform Mies' flat floor and soften the rigid near-perfection of his grid system... Not to destroy Mies' space or oppose it, but simply to try to shift it into a different orientation – a nudge toward what I now call the 'emerging grid.'" (Toyo Ito Prologue, p. 10)

"The architecture I now seek pushes Euclidean geometry in the direction of nonlinear geometries based on nature, because I feel that people are losing their sensitivity and vitality within such pervasive grid-form urban environments and architectural spaces." (Toyo Ito Prologue, p. 10)

"Computer technologies are now liberating architecture from Euclidean geometries, they are enabling the realization of the unstable fluidity of the moving body and the complex balance of growing plant life in architectural space." (Toyo Ito Prologue, p. 12)

"Whereas computer technologies are now liberating architecture from Euclidean geometries, they are enabling the realization of the unstable fluidity of the moving body and the complex balance of growing plant life in architectural space." (Toyo Ito Prologue, p. 12)

Open Questions

• Can a non-stylistic language for contemporary architecture actually be developed, or is all architectural language inevitably stylistic?
• How does the TO/TY (topology/typology) method relate to or differ from parametricism's computational logic of form-making?
• Is the "Third Typology" (city-form relations) adequately reconceived as "topology," or does this conflate distinct conceptual frameworks?
• What is the political dimension of the topological/typological method — does it risk formalism divorced from social content?
• How does contemporism's rejection of stylistic battles relate to the critical/projective debate in architecture?
• Can the Dom-ino system truly be overcome, or has it become so sedimented in construction practice that it's structurally unavoidable?