Digital Tectonics: Structural Patterning of Surface Morphology

Abstract

The computer in architectural design has shifted from its role as a merely representational device to that of a tool for instrumentalized simulation and fabrication. The desire to make buildings look like a rendering, or to produce photo-realistic images and walkthroughs has given way to an opening of the potentials of software to assist the designer with managing complex geometries, parametric organizational diagrams, structural analysis, and integrated building systems. Simulation has become the means by which virtual space becomes more than just a mirror of reality. It becomes the space within which different potential realities can be tested and evaluated before they are materially implemented. In architecture, information derived from material constraints to site conditions can be constantly fed into the computer models to provide an accurate update, which in turn introduces feedback into the overall design, and change can then be registered in the detail.