Who is Karl Chu

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Who is Karl Chu?
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Karl Chu
With the convergence of computation and
genetics, he believes that we are at the
threshold of a brave new world that is unfolding
before us and we have yet to develop an adequate
theory of architecture that engages with the deep
and profound ideas inherent in these issues,
which is destined to transform the world unlike
anything we have seen in the history of human
civilization. - Columbia University - School of
Architecture Website
B.Arch., University of Houston, 1978 M.Arch.,
Cranbrook Academy of Art, 1984
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X Phylum
Karl Chu is noted for basing his Computer
Renderings on an algorithmic conception of the
world.
algorithm (al'g?-rith'?m) n. A
step-by-step problem-solving procedure,
especially an established, recursive
computational procedure for solving a problem in
a finite number of steps. The American Heritage
Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth
Edition
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X Phylum
Architectural design, in general, has been the
outcome of a creative process designed by an
architect who invariable puts his signature into
the design of buildings.
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X Phylum
At the present, computers are utilized mostly as
a computer aided design instrument and not as a
medium that has its own intrinsic dynamics and
mode of information processing.
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X Phylum
X Phylum calls into question traditional
methods of architectural design and proposes a
design process in which the architect becomes an
inventor or constructor of formal systems as well
as takes on the role of navigator of the systems
behavior over time.
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Built Work
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Theoretical Work
The Recursive Library The Library of Turing
Dimension
Technological advancement would require us to
re-conceptualize architecture from one that
depends predominantly on the construction of
hardware as containers and modulators of
artifacts, events and human activities to that of
intelligent network systems which carry as well
as engender bionic information recursively. In
this regard, the conventional notion of library
as a physical repository of books is called into
question.
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Theoretical Work
The Recursive Library The Library of Turing
Dimension
Madonna, the material girl, long after she has
departed from this material world, and after
having her body and DNA patented, encrypted and
transcribed into binary codes and sorted into the
digital archives of the Recursive Library, will
continue to sing and dance with all her
provocative passion and seductive gestures
augmented, no doubt, by her perpetually renewed
sense of immortality.
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Theoretical Work
The Recursive Library The Library of Turing
Dimension

Digital Monad
To design a new model of library that is an
expression of a digital monad a web of
interconnections or an inconsistent multiplicity
which grows and self-organizes itself out of
random mutation of codes. As such, it will bypass
conventional models of global classification
systems by allowing it to develop, grow and
mutate based on neighborhood relationships as
well as on virtual correlations.
monad (mo'nad') n. An indivisible,
impenetrable unit of substance viewed as the
basic constituent element of physical reality The
American Heritage Dictionary of the English
Language, Fourth Edition
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Theoretical Work
The Recursive Library The Library of Turing
Dimension

Recursion and Computation
The studio will deploy cellular automata as a
recursive engine to engender autocatalytic
reactions which will be mapped to form the
configuration space of the library.
autocatalysis (ô'to-k?-tal'i-sis) n. 
Catalysis of a chemical reaction by one of the
products of the reaction. The American Heritage
Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
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Theoretical Work
The Recursive Library The Library of Turing
Dimension

Ghost of the Neuter
As we move into the Post-human era, the library
will address the digital Ghost of the Neuter, the
obscure spirit of universal information
processing lurking deep within the phenomenon of
computation by transgressing humanist conceptions
of space and thereby dive into the abyss of
freedom.
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Theoretical Work
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Works Cited
Biography http//www.arch.columbia.edu/index.php?p
ageData8882/23/4/1632/ X_Phylum http//www.azw.at
/otherprojects/soft_structures/karl_Chu/xphylum.ht
m http//www.archilab.org/public/2000/catalog/xkav
ya/xkavyaen.htm http//www.azw.at/otherprojects/so
ft_structures/allgemein/genetic.htm Recursive
Library http//www.arch.columbia.edu/index.php?pag
eData28630 Definitions The American Heritage
Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth
Edition