11/03/2017

Some thoughts about digital technologies _ Sigen Chen

As more and more advanced digital technology has been used, the architecture is experiencing a rapid revolution in recent decades. The constantly emerging curvy forms and complicated shapes have been built at various parts of the world, which were fascinating and astounding at their first appearance. It was the time I was in my undergraduate program, almost all of a sudden, conceptions like the fractal geometry, calculus automata, L system, and so on was spread out from the Western world to Eastern world and broader area around the world. Computer integrated in architecture design has reshape the construction and the experience of a space.

Though architects are designing so-called digital architecture in rhino and grasshopper, or Revit, the architecture built eventually has turned out to be more and more homogenous, at least in my perspective. Several successful examples using grasshopper to create some non-Cartesian space and skins with intensive changing holes now has far more followers than expected, which contribute little to the new form and feeling of spaces afterward. As Jasanoff suggested in his article about leverage points, the paradigm is the important leverage point to change the whole system. New digital technology tools and design ways has offered us an opportunity to jump out of the paradigm of the Cartesian system, but it seems now we are gradually walking into another paradigm, in which the ornamental parametric skins get more attention than the feeling of space. The deformation of non-linear space has become less exciting than it first showed up from my point of view.

One of the most popular word recently is AI, which represents the ability and potential of machine simulating and learning. Actually, I think the development of AI will be a critical factor in the evolving process of architecture toward the future. The interaction that created between people and space will be a revolution. In my imagination, the future digital technology would let architecture be able to response to the changing surroundings. The self-adaptation architecture would modify itself due to not only different weather conditions, but also human behaviors, which build more tight connection between people and space.

  There has been some trial projects to explore in this direction, using different sensors to collect the data of surrounding environment and program to respond to it, or using Arduino to explore some interaction between people and space and objects. These are some primary exploration on creating more intuitive connection for people and space, which attract my interest a lot. I hope to learning more things about creating this kind of interactive architecture that really meet various needs flexibly, not only some non-linear forms generated by grasshopper. I think this is another way in digital technology incorporated in architecture, and also, a more overturning way. Imagine when you walk in a space, the wall can change their shapes to response to your footprint, all even the wall can be penetrable if you want. This might seem like some science fiction movie scene, which is far from reality now. But as no one would imagine that computer can be an indispensable part in our life even 30 years ago, we could not deny any possibility of the future development of architecture and digital technology. I believe the interaction between space and human beings will become increasingly interesting and useful as time moves forward.

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