100 Un(a)like Identities [3D] 

The real voyage to discovery consists not in seeking new lands but in seeing with new eyes. _ Marcel Proust 

Peter Eisenman relates architecture to linguistics, citing Noam Chomsky’s Cartesian Linguistics [1966] in his essay: “…the ‘deep structure’ of language allowed speakers to generate an infinite number of new sentences out of a finite vocabulary by means of a set of rules [Noam Chomsky] called ‘transformational-generative’ grammar.” Grammar, or syntax, is a set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of phrases and sentences. Unlike vocabulary, or semantics, which is defined permanently, it can generate itself and evolve self-referentially, allowing even a primitive group of words to turn into an ever-expanding list of elaborate messages. In architecture, it is also still relevant to explore its generative syntax, on which the existing architectural semantics would present infinite design possibilities. Rather than inventing individual iterations, an abstract formal system can be established, re-explored, and discovered, with which to serialize and exhaust variations according to the contingencies of each project. 

In this exercise, the five blocks of the atelier’s logo — r, z, l, b, and d — are assembled in one hundred different ways. Each variation is a spatial and perceptual peculiarity that evokes purely mental constructs, and the individual application of the system is still dependent on the operator’s own subjectivities. But perceived altogether in a ten-by-ten interchangeable matrix, they permeate each other and represent a system, an order, a genealogy, which implies infinite variations beyond one hundred. 

The philosophy behind this serial work insists on a universe which is at odds with the current architectural codes, doctrine, and norms. Yet, contrary to many misconceptions, this design process is profoundly creative and articulates distinct iterations with coherence. By organizing a body of works around the method that originates them, designing does not end with a single project but continues through all projects to testify to one big idea. While each project is specific to its context and requirements, this generative design method allows architecture to surpass its intended service and embody a socio-cultural and intellectual purpose. _RZLBD 

Excerpted from rzlbdPOST Vol 10, No 01, 2018

100 Un(a)like Identities [2D] 

The classical author who wrote his tragedy observing a certain number of known rules is freer than the poet who writes down whatever comes into his head and is slave to other rules of which he knows nothing. _ Italo Calvino 

By moving to the new atelier we decided to revisit the rzlbd’s old logotype which is a modular typeface based on a square, which forms all the five letters (r,z,l,b, and d) with twenty modules. And since iteration is one of the key obsessions at the atelier and the very philosophy behind our designs, it just makes sense or rather is normal that our very identity somehow represents this idea. We submitted ourselves to the lego-playing exercise of making different logos out of the five available blocks of our existing logo. This implied a methodical generation of a series of new objects. The result is a family of 100 distinct identities that work to ensure a somehow consistent visual identity; each might be appropriate for a different context to address a different propose while it has a sense of belonging to a larger set and its very origin. 

Of course, we could push this exercise and go beyond 100 iterations to the point that it exhausts its main purpose and becomes redundant. We believe that the number 100 is a figure that is large enough to prove its capacity beyond accidents but small enough to protect itself against exhaustion. As in a Hindu Mythology, Dhritarashtra had 100 sons known as Kauravas, each distinct but alike because descended from the same father. These 100 un(a)like identities offer a series of comparable figures that are larger than a mere collection of logos. Despite the fact that this essentially abstract exercise was exempt from architectural intentions and had no interest in producing architectural representation, each figure is charged with the visual qualities inherited from rzlbd language both in vocabulary and grammar. _RZLBD 

Excerpted from rzlbdPOST Vol 09, No 01, 2017