Selected Topics in Architecture, Technology and Ecology

An in-depth treatment of a selected topic in the technological and ecological aspects of architecture. Combines historical and contemporary perspectives. Prerequisite: ARC 2043F; for students outside the program, permission of instructor. 

Information Places

Information is everywhere. Information changes everything, even how we get lost. Most people are more likely to check their gps-capable mobile phones than the sun in the sky for orientation. More than ever, we experience our world though sensor enabled gadgets.

While substantial efforts have been applied to information mapping and visualization, less research by designers and architects has been performed into data sources themselves. One can expect this to change soon. Just as ambient and environmental concerns earlier, information access, flow, analysis, interpretation, storage and removal are slated to become integral to design practice.

The challenge posed in this seminar is to view information and the art of information processing as a socio-technical design opportunity. We will ask: Can new qualities  be harnessed by re-arranging quantitative data sources? How do we have to think about data in order to create within a data driven world new urban qualities? Which sources of inspiration should we turn to? After all, it took more than steel and glass to create the Barcelona pavilion – what will it take to generate new qualities from the endless flow of quantitative data? This seminar, in short, attempts to map out a trajectory from information spaces to information places.

This opens many new lines of inquiry and invites several new questions, for example: How does one negotiate the shifting line between private and public information spheres? What are the consequences for the public realm?

Seminar participants will be asked to present a topic within the seminar framework, write a paper and create a design sketch. Seminar participants should expect a challenging course that requires serious commitment. Interest in venturing into other fields is important and aptitude for writing an asset. Curiosity is, above all, a requirement.