Architecture and Digital Culture
Theory of Architecture and Digital Culture critically explores the technological conditions under which architecture in the age of global digital infrastructures emerges. Data has operationalised our knowledge about space and time, people, materials, buildings and cities, and has become a medium of integration, converging models, media, and methods from different disciplines and scales. What does it mean to design in a society that seeks its balance between the datafication of all areas of life, and urgent environmental issues?
Image: Neural Net, foveated, retina-like sensor, IMEC and University of Pennsylvania, 1989, Information Art Publication, MoMA http://www.moma.org.
Focus and approach
Our studios focus on the scale of the building, with the aim of rethinking the building from the digital perspective. People and buildings, but also buildings and buildings are interconnected, creating new types of architectural information networks. Beyond the scales of cities and interiors, architects today must also consider how buildings connect to the scales of global networks and personal devices. These connections are not only technological, but also spatial, perceptual, aesthetic and emotional. Our studios therefore encourage students to critically reflect on the design fundamentals, and explore alternative realities in which architectural elements, spaces and ideas cross the disciplinary boundaries. Students will gain insight into AI technologies and learn how to contextualise these technologies within the broader historical and theoretical context. Students will conduct research, form hypotheses and develop architectural narratives through interdisciplinary and multimedia approaches.
Programme
MSc 2 Studio
The MSc 2 design and research studio explores a specific theme and its impact on the built environment, with the aim of positioning the architectural project into a broader social, cultural, political and economic context. First, students conduct research by collecting and analysing different types of data (visual, numerical, historical, spatial) for a specific topic of global relevance. Students are then asked to form a hypothesis and translate the outcomes of research into an architectural design proposal tackling several different scales in parallel: network, city, building and the interface. The aim of the studio is to reflect on the contemporary societal changes, and to imagine and visualise spatial implications of those changes on global cities in the near future. Students are encouraged to present their work in a creative, experimental and original manner, from audio and video recordings to axonometric line drawings and conceptual mixed-media collages.
Programme MSc 2 spring semester 2023 (pdf)
Staff
Prof. dr. Georg Vrachliotis, dr. Dennis Pohl, dr. Seyran Khademi, ir. Marija Mateljan
Additional information
Additional information about the projects and student work can be found here.