Travail de recherche/Working paper
| Résumé : | The current thesis research aims at developing a design methodology for architecture students/ researchers/ educators and architects in practice in the context of the recent technological developments.It will explore emerging processes and new means of responding to the increasing complexity involved into the fields of architecture, engineering and digital fabrication.Over the past 10 years, the coincident interference of biomaterials, nanotechnologies, computational, software and digital fabrication processes developments radically transformed our way of designing, producing and experiencing architecture.The increasing presence and almost unavoidable use of computational and algorithmic processes, added to the democratization of digital fabrication technologies, operated a change of paradigm in way we conceive, we fabricate, and we teach architecture.Other than the unprecedented impact these transformations operated on the complexity and the scale of the projects undertaken today, this technology revolution, impacts on the design and architecture sector in a transversal and structural way, on a global scale.This impact translates in different ways, on the one hand, through an increasing convergence of the design and fabrication tools (i.e. CAD, CAE, CAM, 3D and generative modelling, Immersive environment (AR/ VR/ XR), Digital Fabrication software and hardware tools…), and on the other hand through a convergence of the creative and scientific/ engineering disciplines, but also through the emergence of new forms of education, research and production infrastructures throughout STEAM disciplines (Blended learning, VR learning, Moocs, gaming, tech bootcamp, hackerspaces, FabLabs. Makerspaces, Techshops…). As far as architecture is concerned, I argue this transformation opens architects to new opportunities, allowing them to transcend the strict scope of their activities, and that it demands a complete rethink/ redefining of the way we teach, research, design, produce and experience architecture and design, in order to cease the best of this change.Whether through biomaterials, nanotechnologies, rapid prototyping, 3D printing, file-to-factory production, robotics, IOT or algorithmic and AI late developments, these emerging practices reposition materials and media processes as the raw material for architectural design and reshape the new landscape of research.But these developments also raise a series of new questions regarding the role/ place architects currently occupy within the construction industry. Computational design, digital fabrication machines, CNC, 3D printing, laser cutting, industrial robotics, and the Open source, have definitively changed our way of thinking and fabricate architecture. The democratization, the resourceless possibilities and innovations offered by these new tools, fostered fast and new communities of artist, designers, architects, engineers, scientists, and allowed to overcome barriers between disciplines and practices.It is in this context and particularly within the one of the digital fabrication laboratories that I intend to conduct a research by design about emerging methods of teaching/ learning, researching and practicing/ producing architecture. |
