The Architecture Co Laboratory

Publicatie n.a.v. de conferentie gehouden op 1 april 2006 op de faculteit Bouwkunde van de TU Delft over de huidige en toekomstige veranderingen rond de digitaal ontworpen architectuur- en designpraktijk.

This book presents the recent computational developments inspired by swarms in art known as swarm art and discusses applying swarm intelligence concepts in architecture. Non-human art is a great leap in the evolution of contemporary art, removing the requirement of an artist’s production from the creative process. Furthermore, it is a critical declaration in opposition to the anthropomorphic vision which is so destructive for all other life forms and the planet’s ecology. When accepted and integrated into human culture, non-human art done by artificial systems or machines boosts creativity and stimulates innovative fusions. We analyze 120 swarm systems with unique and diverse conceptual contexts, agent design, and audience engagement that can be utilized as inspiration for future projects or to design new swarm algorithms by artists, architects, or computer scientists.

Monograph questioning What if research, science and architecture were merged? LAVA is an architecture studio founded by Tobias Wallisser, Chris Bosse, and Alexander Rieck with offices in Germany, Vietnam, and Australia. The German Pavilion for Expo 20 is an example of the eloquence with which LAVA responds to issues of the day. The three core themes of the book – Cities of the Future, Biodiversity, as well as Energy and Sustainability – are complemented by the subjects “Connecting Minds,” meaning social and political architecture, “Digital Processes and Technologies,” and “New Work” and explored together throughout the six chapters of this book. In addition to projects and their derivation, architectural and sociological thinkers elaborate on their ideas on these topics – creatively, speculatively, and thoughtfully. Themes: City – Energy – Biodiversity – Connecting – Work – Digital Processes Selected projects as case studies With contributions by Amy Frearson, Georg Vrachliotis, Giovanna Carnevali, Maria Aiolova, Gilles Retsin, André Wilkens, Marjan Colletti, and Raoul Bunschoten

Fractal analysis is a method for measuring, analysing and comparing the formal or geometric properties of complex objects. In this book it is used to investigate eighty-five buildings that have been designed by some of the twentieth-century’s most respected and celebrated architects. Including designs by Le Corbusier, Eileen Gray, Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Venturi, Frank Gehry, Peter Eisenman, Richard Meier and Kazuyo Sejima amongst others, this book uses mathematics to analyse arguments and theories about some of the world’s most famous designs. Starting with 625 reconstructed architectural plans and elevations, and including more than 200 specially prepared views of famous buildings, this book presents the results of the largest mathematical study ever undertaken into architectural design and the largest single application of fractal analysis presented in any field. The data derived from this study is used to test three overarching hypotheses about social, stylistic and personal trends in design, along with five celebrated arguments about twentieth-century architecture. Through this process the book offers a unique mathematical insight into the history and theory of design.

“This book is not for you. It is not for architectural academic elites. It is not for those who have gentrified our neighborhoods, overly intellectualized the profession, and ignored all contemporary Black theory within the discipline. You have made architecture a symbol of exclusion, oppression, and domination rather than expression, aspiration, and inspiration. This book is not for conformists-Black, White, or other.” As architecture grapples with its own racist legacy, Hip-Hop Architecture outlines a powerful new manifesto-the voice of the underrepresented, marginalized, and voiceless within the discipline. Exploring the production of spaces, buildings, and urban environments that embody the creative energies in hip-hop, it is a newly expanding design philosophy which sees architecture as a distinct part of hip-hop's cultural expression, and which uses hip-hop as a lens through which to provoke new architectural ideas. Examining the present and the future of Hip-Hop Architecture, the book also explores its historical antecedents and its theory, placing it in a wider context both within architecture and within Black and African American movements. Throughout, the work is illustrated with inspirational case studies of architectural projects and creative practices, and interspersed with interludes and interviews with key architects, designers, and academics in the field. This is a vital and provocative work that will appeal to architects, designers, students, theorists, and anyone interested in a fresh view of architecture, design, race and culture. Includes Foreword by Michael Eric Dyson.

The experience of movement, of moving through buildings, cities, landscapes and in everyday life, is the only involvement most individuals have with the built environment on a daily basis. User experience is so often neglected in architectural study and practice. Architecture and Movement tackles this complex subject for the first time, providing the wide range of perspectives needed to tackle this multi-disciplinary topic. Organised in four parts it: documents the architect’s, planner’s, or designer’s approach, looking at how they have sought to deploy buildings as a promenade and how they have thought or written about it. concentrates on the individual’s experience, and particularly on the primacy of walking, which engages other senses besides the visual. engages with society and social rituals, and how mutually we define the spaces through which we move, both by laying out routes and boundaries and by celebrating thresholds. analyses how we deal with promenades which are not experienced directly but via other mediums such as computer models, drawings, film and television. The wide selection of contributors include academics and practitioners and discuss cases from across the US, UK, Europe and Asia. By mingling such disparate voices in a carefully curated selection of chapters, the book enlarges the understanding of architects, architectural students, designers and planners, alerting them to the many and complex issues involved in the experience of movement.