Material provided to T.A. long ago

PART 1

Gonçalo Furtado, "Cedric Price’s Generator and the Frazers’ System Research #1".

"1 - Introduction: The Rise of Generator
Cedric Price’s Generator project arose in 1976 in response to a commission by Howard Gilman - the co-chief executive of the American Gilman Paper Company - for its White Oak Plantation located on the Florida/Georgia border. A synthesis of the Generator project figured in the 1984 publication Cedric Price Works II; visual material related to the project figures in MoMA’s (2002) The Changing of the Avant-garde: Visionary Architectural Drawings from the Howard Gilman Collection, while its computational programmes are described in Spiller’s (2002) Cyber Reader: Critical Writing for the Digital Era. Generator’s project material can be found today in the Cedric Price Archives held by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal-Canada, where I conducted primary research in 2005. An analysis of this material shows that Price conceived of it as a “generator” both for the site and the client’s company which could take the form of distinct architectural complexes in order to absorb diverse activities and shifting desires. ... At a later stage of the project, Price invited the Frazers to join the Generator’s team effort ... . This text focuses on their exchanges during the original project version, and the Frazer’s computational research and systems contribution to the Generator project which envisioned enabling and stimulating the regeneration of the complex. Price’s conception of Generator as a reconfigurable, modular complex, made possible its absorption within the technological framework of computation and artificial intelligence and, through the application of the Frazers’ research, the project ended up being acknowledged as the first intelligent building." Gonçalo Furtado, "Cedric Price’s Generator and the Frazers’ System Research #1" (to T.A.).

See also Part 2: Gonçalo Furtado, "Cedric Price’s Generator and the Frazers’ System Research #2" (to Rev. Vasco da Gama)