Week 8 Reading - “The Surface as Architecture,” in Digital Culture in Architecture: an Introduction for the Design Profession, Picon Antoine

In terms of architecture, there is an ever growing importance of electronic media, and the way a surface or skin of a building is constantly evolving [1].  Stephen Perrella coined the term hyper surface, to name the convergence between cyberspace envisaged as hypermedia [2]. Surface in today's society tends to look for ways to improve and create better areas, such as energy requirements in sustainability, with things like double vented facades which look to drastically improve the performance of buildings [3]. The importance of a surface involves complexity, instability and flexibility of architectural programs [4]. Today, many people see the evolving building facades as 'dressing the future'[5]. Digital architecture tends to be leading in the way of building facades, with one argument stating that it has to do with the fact that surfaces challenge the traditional mode of presence of architecture as well as some of the fundamental binary structures that have characterised the discipline for a long time [6]. This includes the way surfaces may not necessarily define space, the distinction between the architectural object and its surroundings, between architecture and ground, and between architecture and landscape [7]. Things like striated, inscribed, ornamented and architectural skin tend to speak directly to the senses, really leaving the subject unclear about where his sensitive body ends and from where exterior reality truly takes over [8]. In the future the growing use of digital design and programs will continue to evolve these complex innovative surfaces, hoping to create a more persuasive affect in alternative geometries which have never been explored before.  

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[1] Picon, Antoine, “The surface as Architecture,” in Digital Culture in Architecture: an Introduction for the   Design Profession (2010): Page 84

[2] Picon, Antoine, “The surface as Architecture,” in Digital Culture in Architecture: an Introduction for the   Design Profession (2010): Page 84

[3] Picon, Antoine, “The surface as Architecture,” in Digital Culture in Architecture: an Introduction for the   Design Profession (2010): Page 85

[4] Picon, Antoine, “The surface as Architecture,” in Digital Culture in Architecture: an Introduction for the   Design Profession (2010): Page 86

[5] Picon, Antoine, “The surface as Architecture,” in Digital Culture in Architecture: an Introduction for the   Design Profession (2010): Page 89

[6] Picon, Antoine, “The surface as Architecture,” in Digital Culture in Architecture: an Introduction for the   Design Profession (2010): Page 89

[7] Picon, Antoine, “The surface as Architecture,” in Digital Culture in Architecture: an Introduction for the   Design Profession (2010): Page 90

[8] Picon, Antoine, “The surface as Architecture,” in Digital Culture in Architecture: an Introduction for the   Design Profession (2010): Page 91

     

Week 7 Reading - Practice VS Project (Introduction) – Stan Allen

Architecture is a discipline which involves work across a large range of constantly changing factors, from clients, to builders, to budgets. It works within an open environment where every job is different, needing the ability to quickly adapt and respond to many variables on and off the site.  The theory of Architecture has long stood to unite many things within a framework. It brings us to see how over time things change, like the approach taken in discursive practice and material practice. “Discursive practices look critically at what already exists, while material practices bring new things into being: ‘things in the making’”[1].  In today’s society the question is what architecture can do, rather than what it is or what it means[2]. Material practices tend to be ‘agile and responsive[3]’ and ‘tethered to a fast moving reality[4]’. The history of architecture and the many theories that are still relevant today stand as a starting point, however the immense amount of work undertaken ‘simply bypasses outmoded working strategies, leaving the discipline open to new techniques[5]’. Material practices evolve overtime still keeping in mind the traditional architectural strategy, however ‘under the pragmatics of material practice, the fixed structure of the discipline is neither rejected nor affirmed[6]’. These material practices can revolutionize the way architecture is viewed to the world. ‘A material practice is marked by the uncertainty of an ever-shifting reference in the world itself[7]’.

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[1] Allen. Stan, ‘Introduction: Practice vs. Project’, in Practice: Architecture, Technique and Representation, (2009) Page 13.

[2] Allen. Stan, ‘Introduction: Practice vs. Project’, in Practice: Architecture, Technique and Representation, (2009) Page 14.

[3] Allen. Stan, ‘Introduction: Practice vs. Project’, in Practice: Architecture, Technique and Representation, (2009) Page 15.

[4] Allen. Stan, ‘Introduction: Practice vs. Project’, in Practice: Architecture, Technique and Representation, (2009) Page 15.

[5] Allen. Stan, ‘Introduction: Practice vs. Project’, in Practice: Architecture, Technique and Representation, (2009) Page 15.

[6] Allen. Stan, ‘Introduction: Practice vs. Project’, in Practice: Architecture, Technique and Representation, (2009) Page 15.

[7] Allen. Stan, ‘Introduction: Practice vs. Project’, in Practice: Architecture, Technique and Representation, (2009) Page 15.