Youtopia A Passion for the Dark celebrates architecture at the intersection of Digital Processes and Theatrical Performance. 'Youtopia' pursues dreams: of other spaces and times; of outrageous and fascinating experiences; of the glamour and lights of the Sydney Festival. The book reviews design conversations between architectural practice, architectural theory, audio and acoustics, digital fabrication, interaction and mediation, structural engineering, theatre and performance studies, and cultural research. It parallels an exhibition that showcases ephemeral and captivating interactive landscapes, theatre installations, iconographic architectural objects, heterotopias and performative spaces. These speculative projects are developed by advanced design processes in 3D modelling and scripting environments, and by the production of prototypes through structural analysis and digital fabrication. Edited by Dagmar Reinhardt, with interviews and essays by Dirk Anderson, Eduardo Barata, Joseph Buch, Densil Cabrera, Bill Harris, Lindy Hume, Alexander Jung, Sandra Kaji-O'Grady, William L Martens, Luis Miranda, Patrick Nolan, Harry Partridge, Dagmar Reinhardt, Chris L Smith, Michael Scott-Mitchell, and Simon Weir.
This interdisciplinary book presents new research from international scholars that explores questions of belief, faith, and religion. Focusing on theoretically informed cultural, geographical and historical analyses of faith, belief, religion, society and space, the book presents new and revised theoretical approaches and methodologies, grounded in rigorous empirical research both contemporary and historical. The volume takes a deliberately eclectic approach, reflecting the complex interactions of the political and poetic dimensions of sacredness in contemporary societies. Taking this research agenda forward, this book explores how religious beliefs inform and construct social identities, public knowledge and modes of governance. In particular, the book meets an urgent need for a critical understanding of how terms such as “religion,” “faith,” “fundamentalism” and “secularism,” for example, inform public debates and foster constructive engagements both between faith groups and between people of faith and people of no faith. The essays in Emerging Geographies of Belief also show that religion cannot be mapped neatly onto faith or belief. We attempt to tease out the different circumstances in which—for example—belief can operate without religious adherence or faith can inspire social action in geographies of hope. The geography of the title relates to an overarching concern with space and spatiality rather than describing a single disciplinary approach. Our concern with belief, faith and religion operates at different temporal and spatial scales in different localities, from the contemporary appeal to a more global sense of responsibility to a historically situated account of faith-led educational practices. This reflects, more generally, the so-called spatial turn in the social sciences and humanities. But despite this wide historical and geographical sweep, the authors share some key concerns. This collection is unique in combining theoretical, conceptual and discursive approaches to the emerging geographies of belief with substantive examples of the intersection of belief, faith and religion with aspects of everyday life. Discussions of the potential subversive and prophetic capacities of faith, belief and religion sit alongside consideration of how these have become implicated in the spaces and performances of hope. It provides a critique of the situationist and substantive approaches to religion along with insights into the role of faith in education, community and social work. It considers the practices of remembrance, representation and pilgrimage and the place of religion in contemporary identity politics. In sum, the book problematises the seemingly simple categories of faith, religion, and belief, calling attention to how these are mobilised and implicated differently in different circumstances. In addressing these themes, the book provides a key theoretical resource, but crucially, goes on to show how multiple perspectives on belief, however defined, can be applied in practice. Whilst there has been much contemporary work on the individual areas covered by the book, they have not been bought together before to provide a dynamic insight into issues of the most pressing relevance.
Architecture for the Commons dives into an analysis of how the tectonics of a building is fundamentally linked to the economic organizations that allow them to exist. By tracing the origins and promises of current technological practices in design, the book provides an alternative path, one that reconsiders the means of achieving complexity through combinatorial strategies. This move requires reconsidering serial production with crowdsourcing and user content in mind. The ideas presented will be explored through the design research developed within Plethora Project, a design practice that explores the use of video game interfaces as a mechanism for participation and user design. The research work presented throughout the book seeks to align with a larger project that is currently taking place in many different fields: The Construction of the Commons. By developing both the ideological and physical infrastructure, the project of the Commons has become an antidote to current economic practices that perpetuate inequality. The mechanisms of the production and governance of the Commons are discussed, inviting the reader to get involved and participate in the discussion. The current political and economic landscape calls for a reformulation of our current economic practices and alternative value systems that challenge the current market monopolies. This book will be of great interest not only to architects and designers studying the impact of digital technologies in the field of design but also to researchers studying novel techniques for social participation and cooperating of communities through digital networks. The book connects principles of architecture, economics and social sciences to provide alternatives to the current production trends.
The critical concern of the book “Utopia Computer” is the euphoria, expectation and hope inspired by the introduction of computers within architecture in the early digital age. With the advent of the personal computer and the launch of the Internet in the 1990s, utopian ideals found in architectural discourse from the 1960s were revisited and adjusted to the specific characteristics of digital media. Taking the 1990s discourse on computation as a starting point, the contributions of this book grapple with the utopian promises associated with topics such as participation, self-organization, and non-standard architecture. By placing these topics in a historical framework, the book offers perspectives for the future role computation might play within architecture and society. Die Publikation „Utopie Computer“ thematisiert die Euphorie und die Erwartungen, die mit der Einführung des Computers in der Architektur im frühen digitalen Zeitalter verbunden sind. Mit dem Aufkommen des Personal Computers und der kommerziellen Nutzung des Internets in den 1990er Jahren werden utopische Ideen, die bereits den Architekturdiskurs der 1960er Jahre prägten, aufgegriffen und an die spezifischen Möglichkeiten der digitalen Medien angepasst. Ausgehend vom Diskurs eines computer-basierten Entwerfens der 1990er Jahre setzen sich die Beiträge dieses Buches mit Entwurfskonzepten der Nachkriegszeit auseinander. Es werden Themen wie Partizipation, Selbstorganisation oder Non-Standard-Architektur in einen historischen Kontext gesetzt und Perspektiven für die zukünftige Rolle des Computers in der Architektur und Gesellschaft entwickelt.
Visual computing and descriptive geometry are multidisciplinary fields addressing the handling of images, 3D models, and other computer graphics. These ideas are experiencing a revival due to emergent technologies and applications available to developers. Based in traditional forms of design and architecture, these fields are currently experiencing a bounty of new research based on old principles. The Handbook of Research on Visual Computing and Emerging Geometrical Design Tools seeks to add to this knowledge base by considering these technologies from a designer’s perspective rather than reiterating the principles of computer science. It combines aspects of geometry and representation with emerging tools for CAD, generation, and visualization while addressing the digital heritage of such fields. This book is an invaluable resource for developers, students of both graphic and computer-generated design, researchers, and designers.
Operative Mapping investigates the use of maps as a design tool, providing insight with the potential to benefit education and practice in the design disciplines. The book’s fundamental aim is to offer a methodological contribution to the design disciplines, both in conceptual and instrumental terms. When added to the resources of contemporary design, operative mapping overcomes the analytical and strictly instrumental approaches of maps, opening up the possibility of working both pragmatically and critically by acknowledging the need for an effective transformation of the milieu based on an understanding of pre-existing conditions. The approach is pragmatic, not only discussing the present but, above all, generating a toolbox to help expand on the objectives, methodologies and formats of design in the immediate future. The book joins together a review of the theoretical body of work on mapping from the social sciences with case studies from the past 30 years in architecture, planning and landscape design in the interest of linking past practices with future ones.
The book contains the papers developed from the presentations at the Distributed Intelligence in Design Symposium, held in Salford in May 2009. In this context, Distributed Intelligence refers to the interdisciplinary knowledge of a range of different individuals in different organisations, with different backgrounds and experience, and the symposium discussed the media, technologies and behaviours required to support their successful collaboration. The book focusses on: how parametric and generative design media can be coupled with and managed alongside Building Information Modelling tools and systems how the cross-disciplinary knowledge is distributed and coordinated across different software, participants and organizations the characteristics of the evolving creative and collaborative practices how built environment education should be adapted to this digitally-networked practice and highly distributed intelligence in design The chapters address a range of innovative developments, methodologies, applications, research work and theoretical arguments, to present current experience and expectations as collaborative practice becomes critical in the design of future built environments.
This book contains 24 technical papers presented at the fourth edition of the Advances in Architectural Geometry conference, AAG 2014, held in London, England, September 2014. It offers engineers, mathematicians, designers, and contractors insight into the efficient design, analysis, and manufacture of complex shapes, which will help open up new horizons for architecture. The book examines geometric aspects involved in architectural design, ranging from initial conception to final fabrication. It focuses on four key topics: applied geometry, architecture, computational design, and also practice in the form of case studies. In addition, the book also features algorithms, proposed implementation, experimental results, and illustrations. Overall, the book presents both theoretical and practical work linked to new geometrical developments in architecture. It gathers the diverse components of the contemporary architectural tendencies that push the building envelope towards free form in order to respond to multiple current design challenges. With its introduction of novel computational algorithms and tools, this book will prove an ideal resource to both newcomers to the field as well as advanced practitioners.
The rise of manufacturing intelligence is fuelling innovation in processes and products concerning a low environmental impact over the product’s lifecycle. Sustainable intelligent manufacturing is regarded as a manufacturing paradigm for the 21st century, in the move towards the next generation of manufacturing and processing technologies. The manufacturing industry has reached a turning point in its evolution and new business opportunities are emerging. With sustainable development arises the immense challenge of combining innovative ideas regarding design, materials and products with non-polluting processes and technologies, conserving energy and other natural resources. On the other hand, sustainability has become a key concern for government policies, businesses and the general public. Model cities are embracing novel ecosystems, combining environmental, social and economic issues in more inclusive and integrated frameworks. Green Design, Materials and Manufacturing Processes includes essential research in the field of sustainable intelligent manufacturing and related topics, making a significant contribution to further development of these fields. The volume contains reviewed papers presented at the 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Intelligent Manufacturing, conjointly organized by the Centre for Rapid and Sustainable Product Development, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, and the Faculty of Architecture, Technical University of Lisbon, both in Portugal. This event was held at the facilities of the Faculty of Architecture, Lisbon, from June 26 to June 29, 2013. A wide range of topics is covered, such as Eco Design and Innovation, Energy Efficiency, Green and Smart Manufacturing, Green Transportation, Life-Cycle Engineering, Renewable Energy Technologies, Reuse and Recycling Techniques, Smart Design, Smart Materials, Sustainable Business Models and Sustainable Construction. Green Design, Materials and Manufacturing Processes is intended for engineers, architects, designers, economists and manufacturers who are actively engaged in the advancement of science and technology regarding key sustainability issues, leading to more suitable, efficient and sustainable products, materials and processes.
