EGO-GYRO suggests to give up the distinction between body,
architecture and technology for good. Could there be a plasma
of concrete, flesh and electrons which can react dynamically
to events, in which the events are nothing other than mutual
animations of architecture, body and technology? At present
we only know the relation between these three in the form
of comfort, in which technology seems to strive irrepressibly
to take over all activities of the human body - "comfort
is the technique of softening things up until the distinction
between the body and the prosthesis vanishes. It is a lubricant
that in the long run makes it possible for us to slide through
the world without resistance: a technical anaesthetic..."
But while the surrounding appliances automate the movements
of the body to a degree that it becomes completely paralysed,
the body itself will, by means of its motor system and its
suppleness, try to automate each activity in order to meet
with as little resistance from the outside world as possible.
EGO-GYRO implies the notion that a soft architecture
can only consist of a direct relation with the mobility
of the human body (and cannot be based on use, function
and form). Imagine an architecture that has been swallowed
up by technology so completely that it has become able to
speed up the body instead of calming it down, an architecture
which is able completely to absorb and enhance the plasticity
and the suppleness of the human body. Soft architecture
can never be sure of its form, its form is always something
dynamic - and it should be evident that this cannot be achieved
by classical architectural means.
