The Architectural Imagination at the Digital Turn

Description

The Architectural Imagination at the Digital Turn asks what it means to speak of a "digital turn" in architecture. It examines how architects at the time engaged with the digital and imagined future modes of practice, and looks at the technological, conceptual, and economic phenomena behind this engagement. It argues that the adoption of digital technology in architecture was far from linear but depended on complex factors, from the operative logic of the technology itself to the context in which it was used and the people who interacted with it. Creating a mosaic-like account, the book presents debates, projects, and publications that changed how architecture was visualized, fabricated, and experienced using digital technology. Spanning the university, cultural institutes, ecologies, architectural bodies, fabrication, and the city, it re-evaluates familiar narratives that emphasized formal explorations; instead, the book aims to complicate the "myth" of the digital by presenting a nuanced analysis of the material and social context behind each case study. During the 1990s, architects repurposed software and technological concepts from other disciplines and tested them in a design environment. Some architects were fascinated by its effects, others were more critical. Through its discussion on case studies, places, and themes that fundamentally influenced discourse formation in the era, this book offers scholars, researchers and students fresh insights into how architecture can engage with the digital realm today. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Architectural imaginaries Locating the digital turn Discussions on the digital turn Topics and sites Notes Chapter 1: University: The “paperless studio” and beyond Computational tools and architecture schools Columbia’s approach Paperless studios Dynamic processes of form generation Media interfaces Logics of workflows Network thinking in space Iterative, serial and abstract operations Notations and knowledge forms Discourse at Columbia: beyond the paperless studio “The Computer School”? Challenging Columbia’s brand Notes Chapter 2: New media art institutes: Avenues for multimedia practice Embracing the digital turn Surveillance and control: spatial and visual practices Information society and communication networks Digital territories and urban space Intelligent environments: changing perceptions through digital culture Notes Chapter 3: Ecologies: Feedback and interaction Marcos Novak: cognition and liquid architecture NOX: direction and flexibility Interaction within the media environment Proprioception in the media environment Intermedia processes and interaction in the wetGRID installation Environmentalism and the Eco-Tec conferences Notes Chapter 4: Architectural bodies and visualization techniques Architectural bodies and technology Animating form Propagating form: metaphor and technology Topology: theoretical experiments and visualizations Bodies in flux Bodily matter Serial production and the post-mechanical Branding and the non-standard Notes Chapter 5: Fabrication: The object in the age of the network Networks and logics of production Theoretical background and the conception of the object Architectural history and computational design Production methodologies and the economy The Objectile panels The pavilions (Semper and Desargues) Architecture and global networks Economies of fabrication Notes Chapter 6: City: Iconic buildings and architectural craft in the digital era Gehry’s modus operandi Material interests: the private house in Santa Monica (1977–1979) The move into digital practice Case studies Case study #1: The Fish (1992) Case study #2: The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1992–1997) Case study #3: The Walt Disney Concert Hall (1989–2003) Digital models and building: Gehry Technologies The interface between local practices and global culture Notes Epilogue Notes Selected bibliography Index