THE HOPEFUL VISION OF PARAMETRICISM

The recent hoo-ha about parametricism seems to want to both explain, promote, and justify the concept as the new style for today, with our lives being so intertwined with computers. The rationale for parametricism seems to be infantile, simplistic at best, with the argument looking as fundamentally obvious as: because we use computers for nearly everything today, and parametric design uses computers, then this style is 'of its time.' There seems to be not much more depth to this proposition, which is self-evident as an ordinary matter of course; but still it is used the highlight this new wonder as though it held some essential, enlightening revelation for our era.

As a part of this hype, we are starting to see attempts to grab historical references, labelling them as the precursors of parametricism, apparently hoping that some of the kudos might rub off into today's perceptions, to give them some credibility and depth which they currently lack. So we see Gaudi's work being labelled ‘parametric’ as if this might give some substance to what looks like a fancy-free approach to creativity, the more morphing into the bizarre, the better: see - https://www.dezeen.com/2026/06/16/colonia-guell-hanging-models-gaudi-centenary/ - and Gaudi's work fits the bill nicely in this regard, or so the glimpsing eye might assume.

This is an unfortunate twist in the understanding of both Gaudi's work and parametricism as it is considered and practised today. What we are seeing in projects labelled ‘parametric,’ looks like the result of a whimsical searching for stylishly different forms – see: https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2026/05/parametric-parameters.html and

https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2026/06/paraplay-parametric-game.html - where melded shapes are generated by computers for their suave appearances and are fabricated willy-nilly using anyhow to achieve these slick visual outcomes. Patrik Schumacher has acknowledged this stylish clumsiness without embarrassment - see: https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2026/05/parametric-parameters.html.

Trying to locate Gaudi's work into this genre completely distorts his intentions, techniques, and ambitions. Gaudi was an intensely religious man, working for God. He understood the integrity of form and structure in nature, in God's work, that he sought to adopt and adapt in his projects. He began with forces, with 'natural'  funicular geometry shaping his ideas, transforming these patterns of weighted stresses into built compressive forces using materials selected and shaped precisely to accommodate these loads, giving us the structures we see today.

His was a total, cohesive, symbolic vision, cleverly creating curves with straight lines not only so that models could be readily fabricated in timber for masons to match, but also because light, God's revelation, travels in straight lines, with the surrounds of openings and adjacent surfaces both facilitating and enhancing these beams, all of which was done for the glory of God – see: https://www.archdaily.com/1042229/contemplative-drama-how-gaudi-shaped-light-and-color-at-sagrada-familia.

This is all a far cry from parametricism that seems to work in a void supervised by the eye searching for visual interest and the dramatic spectacle. Gaudi's work might provide the latter, but it is arrived at by a route that stands in stark contrast to what we see today as parametric process - the mysterious work of AI engaging a nothingness supervised by an 'operator.'

All one can say is that the Gaudi link is merely a hopeful vision:  that the parametric process seems to see it as a hopeful piece of propaganda, while others might see it as a challenge for parametricism, hoping that this concept of styling might gain some inner integrity and necessity to add some substance, some depth, to what currently looks like the random, ad hoc outcomes of morphing. Sadly this hope that things parametric might become more meaningful, seems to have a problem, with our parametric world being totally engaged in surface appearances alone. There is a lot more to be done if it is to catch up with the richness and integrity embodied in Gaudi's work, both personally, emblematically, and pragmatically.

Parametricism's gasping at a similitude in quirky appearances to give it some stature, is as infantile and simplistic as the original argument for the relevance of parametricism itself.