Digital Materiality : Conception, Fabrication, Perception
Résumé
New technology is dramatically changing our approach to design. The digital dimension affects the way designers work within the new mode of discerning, conceiving and imagining space. The use of computers in the architectural field started early during the sixties with the work of Negroponte, and later with famous players such as Alexander, John Frazer, Paul Coates and Kostas Terzidis. More recently we can mark the increasing development of parametric modelling and digital fabrication; generative modelling and exploration processes; hybridization of digital and analogical tool all in used in order to assist the designer at each phase of the architectural conception. The expansion of scripting and the new characteristics of creativity in the informational age have both paved the way of algorithmic design and modelling.
This new paradigm is transforming the architectural practices and three main features could be defined. The digital thinking, the digital manufacturing and the digital perception are representing three conceptual levels that reveal new modalities of conception, of fabrication and perception. Starting with the theoretical definition of these notions, we will provide illustrations of works achieved during our educational or research programmes. Revealing new knowledge and new skills these examples could be used to define new educational objectives, methods and issues.