Week 3 summary 

Picon’s introduction starts out by showing just how far computers have come from being used as simple word processing tools, to being able to take advantage of numerous amounts of software which allows architects to create and manipulate complex geometry forms. While this is obviously a good thing, Picon sets out to ask not if the computer has had a positive or negative impact but rather the direction architecture takes under its influence. 

Frank Gehry is an architect known for his utilisation of these computational methods to help create and shape his work. Gehry offers insight about this digital influence  in his interview where he goes on to mention how the technicality of  the software allowed for projects such as his fish sculpture and the Lewis Residence with there unique geometry to reach fruition. Showing how through the use of this technology conceptual ideas and forms can be realised.

Picon also goes on to highlight three main themes that will serve as main threads of the present state of digital architecture which are; the intimate link between the digital technologies and reshaping  our physical world, the question of the individual and thirdly the importance taken by occurrences, events and scenarios. 

To summarise the intimate link can be seen in how ideas like materiality surround us which then effect our experience with the physical world, while at the same time how the development of digital technologies also evoke this feeling.  Individuality then focuses on peoples individual preferences and choices, and how these ideal shape architecture. While events and scenarios can be seen as a certain point in time that is brief but what follows carry great influence for example how Gehry’s Guggenheim building was very successful and went on to influence future projects. 

Within the article itself there is an overwhelming idea about how digital technology will cause a massive change and how architectural practices and ideas will change with it.

WEEK 2 Writing task

Synopsis  (The digital turn in architecture 1992 - 2012, Le Corbusier’s, Architecture or revolution)

This weeks topic introduces the theory's and ideas behind the use of digital technologies in architecture. We primarily focus on the digital turn, where people start to take advantage of the technology of the time and use it to bring forth a new era of technical process. From an architectural stance, it is natural to see that as these new digital tools developed and changed the physical buildings would change with them. 

The revolutions of the digital turn mimic Le Corbusier’s acknowledgment of the advancement that concrete and iron brought to modern construction, labelling them as “the index to great power.” Both of these developments led, through an improvement in efficiency and an array of new mediums and specialised systems, to a better standard of living for all socioeconomic classes. With innumerable new possibilities these revolutions brought changes into the built environments of residents who benefited from the efficient, modern and more accessible constructions. 

New technologies made available at the digital turn allowed for the easy conceptualisation and manipulation of building designs. Particularly, “the general availability of cheap processing power allowed for manipulation of curved lines directly on the screen,” giving more flexibility into modern designing. This allowed for the simpler development of more natural looking and aesthetically pleasing constructions that could blend into the landscape on which they were built.

The benefits of a well designed environment made possible by the digital turn becomes more evident in our own society as we see more investment into innovative designs for houses and workspaces, proof that the value of a well-built environment is openly recognised. Even in our own university, we see an incredible effort to build collaborative, well designed learning spaces, as seen in the business study centre “The Place” and the new medical building opening this year.