The Sources of Innovatory Ideas: Evolution or Revolution in Building Technology

This paper deals with a long-lasting question that challenges the philosophy oftechnology: evolution versus revolution. At the first part of current study, a brief reviewof the schools that interpret the advent and growth of technology are introduced. Byexplaining the challenges that face scholars who interpret the philosophy of technicalprocesses, this paper aims at throwing light on the sources of innovatory ideas in design.Therefore, with the help of historical research, one of the most novel contemporarybuilding technologies (tensile membrane structure) is investigated and the origins ofinnovatory ideas of the designer, as well as the driving forces that gave birth to the adventof such structures are addressed. This study argues the pivotal role of ‘development’, andthe new methods of understanding and problem solving (matrix thinking), that beyond theprocess of accumulating the knowledge, or putting effort in solving the scientificanomalies opened up new vistas in design.

Keywords:

Building Technology , Innovation , Tensile Membrane Structures , Frei Otto