Week 10 - Digital Fabrication and Robotics

The digital world of architecture evolved due to many factors, one of which according to Mark Wigley presented a discourse that prosthetics played a significant role in developing.

Wigley explores the prosthetic as a tool used to expand the ‘human ecosystem’ into the digital framework. Specifically, the computer mouse was this prosthetic that connected the user in a digital realm allowing the exploration of new spaces. This effectively works through the graphic interface as the user can see the transitioning movement within the virtual space. Close engagement with the tool provides a portal as though they are embedded into this reality, a connection is created between the body and the computer. To which there is no boundary defined and the simulated is believed as reality.

Douglas Engelbart created the mouse in 1946 as he claimed that it was inevitable that humans required the act of communicating with each other in real time in order for human intelligence to drastically increase. This idea grew into a concept that involved the growth between computers and humans to become submerged within each other so that the human would metaphorically become the prosthetic. Which therefore led to the development of the mouse as an initial attempt at ‘co-evolving’ into this futuristic concept.

To further progress this idea, in 1968 Engelbart used an example of a piece of paper which represented the screen interface of a computer. As a mouse moved across the screen through the human’s arm movement, the user gains power to draw in this space of information. This demonstration evidently allowed him to express his vision that in the future, architects will have the ability to design amongst these interfaces and ultimately progress into manipulating such structures of information embedded within the computer. The realisation that there was an ability to access and reshape multidimensional structures, re-created this connection of architecture between the body and the brain as such a tool as the mouse radicated the impossible to become possible.

Wigley, M. (2010). "The Architecture of the Mouse." Architectural Design: EcoRedux: Design Remedies for an Ailing Planet 80(6): 50-57.

Week 9 - Materiality

Architectural design and construction is progressing into using advanced technology due to its improvement of being more accessible from the growth in the economy (Hyde 2012). Due to this accessibility, the experience for the modern day designers and architects have been transformed dramatically as they explore materiality as a way to facilitate the design through its own properties, rather than have the design be facilitated by the materials in order to become a reality in the physical world. As a result, just as Kolarevic states, “the effective digital exchange of information is vital to the realization of the new integrative capacity of architecture” (Kolarevic 2008). Designing and manufacturing have realised a new potential in architecture, reiterating the traditional relationship that also determined the way in which architecture was designed and developed; where the architect previously pre-determined the design prior to acknowledging the material in the process.

It is this combination of the material properties that emerge new design opportunities, which ultimately redefine the relationship between the material and digital technology. Such processes as rapid manufacturing make it “possible to materially realize complex geometric organizational ideas that were previously unattainable” (Kolarevic 2008).

This was only made possible through digital modelling, coding and visual scripting, as designers and architects are able to collaborate with other professions in order to understand material composition and simulation accuracy. Thus an integrative process is required to enable “design innovation as well as driving better outcomes” (Kolarevic 2008). Which in turn repositioned the notion of materials within the process to be as significant as the primary structure of a building as it in fact plays a massive role in the performance of the building.

It is therefore that we must first understand the importance of materials as a significant driver of the early stages in architecture. It’s aesthetic values and psychological notions may be what traditional architecture defined its value, however, it is only through exploring the possibilities emerging from within the material properties can architecture be pushed to its greatest potential.

Menges, A. (2011). Intergral Formation and Materialisation: Computational Form and Material Gesault. Computational design thinking AD reader. A. Menges and S. Ahlquist. Chichester, UK, John Wiley & Sons: 198-210.

Trummer, P. (2011). Associative Design: From Type to Population. Computational design thinking AD reader. A. Menges and S. Ahlquist. Chichester, UK, John Wiley & Sons: 179-197.

Kolarevic, B. and K. R. Klinger (2008). Manufacturing/ Material/ Effects. Manufacturing material effects : rethinking design and making in architecture. B. Kolarevic and K. R. Klinger. New York, Routledge: 5-24.

Bernstein, P. G., A. Inc and Y. University (2008). Thinking versus Making: Remediating Design Practice in the Age of Digital Representation. Manufacturing material effects : rethinking design and making in architecture. B. Kolarevic and K. R. Klinger. New York, Routledge: 61-66.

Week 8 - Visualisation and the Image

In  Walter Benjamin’s reading “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, he explores the shift of perception in 20th Century film and photography. This was discussed through the introduction of lithography which was surpassed by photography. He defined photography as a process to reproduce aspects of the original capture that weren’t attainable to the naked eye. However, technical reproduction also positions the copy of the original out of place and therefore denotes that even the most perfect reproductions of a work of art lacks in one thing: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be. The aura which Benjamin represents tells us that the originality and authenticity of a work can never be reproduced.

Architectural conception and realization usually assume a one-to-one correspondence between the represented idea and the final building (Perez-Gomez 2007). This idea is further extended in Peter Eisenman’s reading ‘Architecture After the Age of Printing’, as he discusses digital mass customization as an effective process in small scale, but not on a full scale construction. Even though BIM is a family software developed to exchange information among others, it is limiting in the amount of standard geometric notations and thus inspiration. As a result, architecture has traditionally envisioned the concept of a space within four walls, a limited way of organizing space and the relationship between the elements within the space.

But through the introduction of advanced softwares such as BIM, objects in the 3D world environment has progressed into the integrated approaches of streamlined highly photo-realistic renderings that are published straight into the cloud. This process successfully saves time and money with the beneficial ability to accurately present high quality images. Detailing, lighting, materiality and daylighting are very important factors to consider when producing graphics for clients, but also for the designer or architect who require constant feedback on details such as solar access into the building via simulations and diagrams. We begin to become aware of this ability to reassess and change the design which therefore also progress into simultaneously streamline a traditionally tedious process.

Ultimately, the future of visualisation and the image will become more immersive as we turn towards realistically rendered 3D environments. Game rendering softwares such as Unreal Engine, Cryengine and Lumion are a few of the many tools which are continuously being updated for realistic reproductions that allow for real-time interaction between the spaces and thus bridge the gap between a concept to a reality.