4507902: Emerging Technologies in Architecture (Lecture)

Description

The module “Emerging Technologies in Architecture” introduces state-of-the-art technologies emerging from research or industries, from within and outside architecture, to be applied in architecture in the near future. It assesses aims at building awareness and critical appraisal of these technologies and identifies how they might transform architectural practice and thus the role of the architect.

Lecture Goals

Architects and students today have to be acutely aware of the radical shifts in technology and its impact on the practice of architectural design. By the time students become architects most of the technological paradigms they believed in at the beginning of their studies will be outdated.

Learning Outcomes

Professional competence

• Identify the potential of emerging technologies
• Critically assess their impact on architectural design, manufacturing and construction
• Show confidence in analyzing case studies and the ability to infer principles and motivations
• Explain competently, discuss and critique own design production and its theoretical contexts

• Differentiation between digital modelling/ prototyping technology and technological feasibility of architectural designs

• Discuss how state-of-the-art technologies and emerging technologies take influence on the practice of architectural design
• Discuss how technology informs the idea of architectural practice
• Demonstrate the ability to work with peer students in the context of interactive lectures and design sessions

• Assess own work absorbs/ responds to technological developments

Literature

Braham, William W. and Hale, Jonathan (ed.) 2007. Rethinking technology: a reader in architectural theory. London: Routledge.

Ginsberg, Alexandra Daisy et.al. 2014. Synthetic Aesthetics. Investigating Synthetic Biology’s Designs on Nature. Cambridge, Mass; London: MIT Press.

Heatherwick; Thomas and Rowe, Maisie. 2013. Thomas Heatherwick - Making. London: Thames & Hudson.

Hensel, Michael; Menges, Achim. and Weinstock, Michael. 2010. Emergent Technologies and Design: Towards a Biological Paradigm for Architecture. London: Routledge.

Howes, Phil and Laughlin, Zoe. 2012. Material Matters: New Materials in Design. London: Black Dog Publishing.

Salter, Chris. 2010. Entangled: technology and the transformation of performance. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.