Complexity vs Simplicity: The Contrasts of Architectural Language in the Past and in the Present

The architecture, the landscape, the urban planning, the information technology and the other disciplines merge and move towards extreme evolution. In search of extreme and unusual shapes and heights to overcome a fictitious challenge between power and ability, it is opposed to the need to simplify the representation and make it elementary. The design of the city is an action that humankind has always done and that the various cultures and populations have developed by creating different rules: orthogonal grids, main axes, concentric patterns and the most varied forms. The development of new settlements is determined by the design of new infrastructures, new axes and the creation of new blocks and buildings. A peculiar phenomenon of recent years, which inspires and goes beyond experiences of the past (ideal cities), is represented by the creation of new cities in the United Arab Emirates where the limits do not exist, the territory is designed with artificial forms, the coastline is remodeled with figures and elementary representations, ever higher and bizarre skyscrapers rise with extreme rapidity requiring considerable economic resources and technological capabilities. This search for complex forms of buildings is observed all over the world; it is now a challenge among the greatest architectural firms to use parametric design to create new buildings. This technology allows us to overcome the limits of the past and the design of intrepid shapes that release from simple geometric shapes, creating a new contemporary language. It is clear that without a proper cultural and intellectual background it is only a game with shapes. This new way of designing the city and its parts must be in some way understandable by everyone, therefore the need to find clear and elementary methods of representation. The general agreement and the acceptance of new forms are essential for identification in the new language. Actually, even if the design process is represented in a schematic way, very complex design software is used.