Digital Culture

Theory of Architecture and Digital Culture critically explores the technological conditions under which architecture in the age of global digital infrastructures emerges, from small to large scale and from everyday practice to the very big picture. What does it mean to design in a society that seeks its balance between Artificial intelligence and the datafication of all areas of life, increasingly rapid global migration, and urgent environmental issues?

One of the key tasks is to initiate epistemological cycles between education, design, and research. This starts from three perspectives: 

• Contextualizing digital technologies from a historical and theoretical perspective
• Exploring the impact of new digital technologies on architecture and society
• Reflecting the evolving relationship between AI and architecture 

Goals for the coming years are: 

• Developing a historical and theoretical framework for digital technologies
• Bridging the gap between design and technology by linking research to education
• Increasing the visibility for topics in AI in architecture
• Conceptualizing a cross-sectional and cross-departmental digital culture program, which would represent a strong USP for the TU Delft

At the intersection of design and society

Theory of Architecture and Digital Culture unfolds its intellectual liveliness and methodical originality at the intersection of design and society. There is no contradiction between theory, history, and design. Rather, they form a creative thought collective for the built environment. In this sense, Theory of Architecture and Digital Culture contributes to the scientific and social relevance of architecture as a professional field.

A research-oriented, interdisciplinary and cross-sectional approach

In education, we pursue a research-oriented, interdisciplinary, and cross-sectional approach. Depending on the context, it supports students in understanding that architectural design is not only about solving the problem at hand, but also about the ability to identify underlying problems. In this way, a contemporary phenomenon or a complex situation can be analyzed and evaluated within a broader spectrum of solutions and meanings.