Aspects of digital technology in architecture

1. Aspects of digital technology in architecture Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

2. Digital Pedagogy • Digital pedagogy is defined as the required changes in design education to accommodate the evolution of design knowledge in architectural theory supported by the advanced technologies and its implications; these required changes can be classified as the following: Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

3. Digital Pedagogy •  Students need to use digital techniques throughout the curriculum to understand how computing can support architecture's diverse endeavours and thinking modes. Students must be able to explore and communicate design ideas fluidly using digital and traditional media suitable to specific queries, and they need to understand conceptual frameworks and strategies for approaching new technology. Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

4. Digital Pedagogy •  Schools must provide networking and output devices such as printers, plotters and projectors and training on their use. Opinions are divided, however, on the provision of computers; some schools recommend that students provide their own computers and software. Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

5. Digital Pedagogy •  Faculty with broad knowledge are needed as well as instructors experienced in specific software applications. Peer tutors and small teacher can make training exercises work for individuals of differing abilities. A positive learning community is needed to make the computer effective in the architectural education. Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

6. Digital Representation • Over the past century, extreme conceptual and spatial transformations in our representation have come about in relation to the introduction of mechanical reproduction, computer graphics and systems. Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

7. Digital Representation • Drawing: Whether handcrafted, computer-translated or computer-generated, drawing provides us with abstraction capable of communicating architectural design ideas. With the increase in digital media and availability of computer graphics applications and hardware, the medium of the drawing is changing. Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

8. Digital Representation • Modeling + fabrication: Digital media is providing an opportunity to return a sense of materiality to an immaterial realm. The relationship between architectural design and production are brought closer together given the fluidity and accuracy of digital tools. Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

9. Digital Representation • Presentation graphics + new media: Relationships between architect/client may be facilitated by the use of popular or experimental media such as television, computer games, and the web. • Architects might look to popular media for techniques of communication to the general public. Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

10. Digital Production/Fabrication • The digital age has radically reconfigured the relationship between conception and production, creating a direct digital link between what can be conceived and what can be built through ―file-to factory‖ processes of computer numerically controlled (CNC) fabrication. Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

11. Digital Production/Fabrication Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

12. Digital Production/Fabrication • It was the complexity of ―blobby‖ forms that drew architects, back into being closely involved with the production of buildings. In the process, they discovered they have the digital information that could be used in fabrication and construction to directly drive the computer- controlled machinery, making the time-consuming production of drawings unnecessary. Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

13. Digital Production/Fabrication • CNC cutting, or 2D fabrication, is the most commonly used fabrication technique. Various cutting technologies, such as plasma-arc, laser-beam, or water-jet, involve two-axis motion of the sheet material relative to the cutting head. • The movement of a ‎machine tool using a set of coded instructions. To produce the formwork (molds) for the off- site and on-site casting of concrete elements with double curved geometry, as in Gehry‘s office buildings in Dusseldorf, Germany. Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

14. Digital Production/Fabrication • Structural frames in Frank Gehry’s Experience Music Project in Seattle, produced by contouring. (In the right) Milling of Styrofoam molds for the casting of reinforced concrete panels for Gehry’sZollhof Towers in Dusseldorf, Germany. (Kolarevic, Architecture in the Digital Age Design and Manufacturing, 2005) Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

15. Digital Production/Fabrication • The digital fabrication also enabled architects to produce scale models of their designs using processes and techniques identical to those used in the industry. Thus, a valuable feedback mechanism between conception and production was established. Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

16. Digital Production/Fabrication • For examples: In the process of design development for some designers such as Frank Gehry in order to develop a deconstruction design models, he translates his idea into sketches, Then translate it into 2D "Flat" digital manipulation of surfaces on a computer screen and convert it into 3D digital model, then he fabricate 3D study model with complex curvilinear geometries in a material form by using the 3D printer, as shown in Figure 1–9, This process is considered the beginning of the digital fabrication on the design level. Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

17. Digital Production/Fabrication • The information data of the digital model is translated by CAM computer aided manufacturing software that generates the CNC computer numerically controlled instructions which are transmitted to the fabrication equipment like 3D printer (milling machine). The architect makes some development on the study model and through 3D scanner he can produce 3D digital model again. (A. Ali, 2006) Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

18. Digital Production/Fabrication • The concept of 3D scanner depending on a pattern of points, called the "point cloud" which created from the physical model through scanning, and is then translated by the conversion software to produce a close approximation of the model's geometry . While the concept of 3D printer depending on the CNC software which makes a sequence of instructions for the fabrication machine, first slice up the digital model into thin, horizontal layers. Then, for each of these layers, it must develop a scanning sequence for deposition of tiny pellets of plastic to create the layer. Eventually, the complete design is fabricated in layer-by-Layer fashion. Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

19. Digital projects • Using digital technologies in the representation and fabrication process doesn‘t necessarily constitute creating digital architecture because the ideas are still emerged by the author, whereas there is a difference between building and architecture, there is also a distinct difference between digitally generated projects and digital architecture. Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

20. Digital projects Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

21. Digital projects • However Digital architecture requires proficiency with a specific foundation set of digital representation skills, it will not sacrifice the development of this skill set at the expense of a critical problem solving dimension. Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

22. Digital projects • So new principles must be considered, that use digital problem solving dimension or digital thinking to innovate completely digital projects or digital architecture, basically without these principles the projects will remain only exercise in software. Thus, we must carefully consider the guidelines for what truly constitutes a digital ―architecture‖ project. Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

23. Digital Visualization • Digital Visualization addresses representational challenges from within and without Architecture. Digital Visualization is used to explore and communicate architectural information associated with the production of buildings, 3D modelling, rendering, animation and virtual reality (VR) as well as the power of digital media to permit the seamless integration of various data types are unleashing completely new ways to display architecture. Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

24. Digital Visualization • This demands a more efficient research/pedagogies aimed at developing new representation conventions further more This type of work has already generated quite a number of new jobs, educational programs and research projects in many industries, schools and universities. Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

25. Digital Design Tools • The research demonstrated in the previous section the concept of digital architecture as a new tool and the definition of the digital tool, according to this investigation the research will demonstrate the classification of the digital and conventional tools in the following analysis: Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

26. Digital Design Tools • Conventional representation tools Drawing and writing, dating back to 725 B.C., are considered as the earliest modes of architectural representation, which support and enhance the interpretation of design ideas. Moreover, architectural drawings are said to guide and generate the architectural designprocess.Inthis sense, architectural drawings always had a significant role in the embodiment of design ideas and in the critical relation between thought and expression, drawing is the natural language of architecture rather than a mere medium of expression in harmony with the ideas it represents. Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

27. Digital Design Tools • Recent representation tools Is the digital design tool which produce after The engagement of computer technology and architects this engagement was enhanced the practice of architecture and The scope of the engagement was captured in the phrase ‗computer-aided architectural design` CAAD . Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

28. Digital Design Tools • The computer aided architectural design Will no longer be merely a production, engineering or facilitation tool under the command of the architect but a generating entity with its own virtual intelligence or "knowledge" of the design process, essentially the computer will function as a partner. Computer aided design and manufacturing tools, together with computational design approaches such as parametric design, associative geometry, algorithmic procedures and scripting considered digital tools is an innovation design tool, which is imposed not only a change from the analogue to the digital medium, but also a change in the definition of the architectural representation process. Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-

29. Digital Design Tools • Passive digital design tools • The Passive design tools assist in developing architectural drawing and collaboration, Every architect and architecture firm are used the implementation of computer aided design (CAD) to present their ideas by the drawings and presentation, It considered a passive tool cause it doesn‘t influence the design thinking, furthermore it generates the cad models Digital Architecture AE 461 course -2013-