Asymptote; Flux

In mathematical terms, the word "asymptote" is defined as a line that a given curve gets closer and closer to, but never touches, as it gets further from the origin towards infinity.

In architectural terms, Asymptote is the Manhattan-based architectural design and research practice established by Lisa Anne Couture abd Hani Rashid in 1989.

Rashid and Couture's work is intriguing because it draws inspiration from a wide variety of sources not traditionally associated with architecture - among them the design of airline interiors, sporting equipment and organic systems like seashells and honeycombs; and various means of communicating and disseminating information.

Their projects are concerned as much with light, speed and traversing virtual boundaries as with "real-world" geometires and building systems.

Rashid is one of the founding instructors in the "paperless studio" curriculum at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, a programme of study that emphasizes designing directly via computers and communications networks and encourages students to pursue investigations into the evolving possibilies of digital design and "placeless" environments. Echoing Asymptote's approach, this text presents a seamless trajectory of projects organized in a non-linear fashion and illustrated with installation photographs, collaged photographs and computer-generated diagrams and environments, all in colour.

Photographs of an installation might be followed by a spread of Asymptote's "scapes" - computer diagrams morphed into a variety of potential body forms or structures - followed in turn by images of a virtual environment.

The projects follow one another in a panoramic, filmstrip fashion and are interspersed with descriptive text and the speculative writing that Asymptote is known for.

This text is intended to be explored at random, without strict beginning or end.