Stacking spatial information: Some reflections about layering and its origins

Abstract

Understood as a conceptual tool for the manage­ment of information, layers are ubiquitous in our days. In computer graphics, they are a standard, basic feature: image editors for still or motion pic­tures, computer­assisted drawing (CAD) pro­grams, and of course geospatial information sys­tems (GIS) – as well as most of their user­oriented applications –, all of them use layers in one way or another, often in so essential a manner that they constitute their very raison d’être. As a conse­quence, the catchy word layering that so much pervades current architectural practice seems to designate something that everyone knows, a procedure that is practically taken for granted and yet has given rise to comparatively little research. In relation to architectural design, this may be par­ticularly baffling, considering that layering has provided the backbone for singular projects that have become a methodological breakthrough and an inexhaustible source of inspiration for subse­quent practice – one needs only to think of Kool­haas’ influential proposal for Parc de la Villette, Eisenman’s recurrent lucubrations, or the recent Serpentine pavilion by Herzog de Meuron and Ai Weiwei.