Technology and Architecture

Toolkit for an Integrated Growth

Technology and the student

What role does drawing play in architecture today? A simple question that has stirred a hornet's nest of responses from academicians and professionals alike. Drawing is known to be a skill that requires hand, eye and brain coordination. Schools of architecture have either been influenced by art or engineering disciplines depending on the establishment history and management parameters. The difference in the two is that the former urges students to develop stylised results while the latter prefers following pre-set principles to govern design. Into this maelstrom of differing styles was introduced computer software in the late 1980s and 1990s that seduced the students with visualisation options far beyond human capability within the same set of parameters. The jury is still out on whether architecture is better learnt as an art or should be aided by technology.

The good that has evolved from these divergent methodologies is that students equipped with skills sets to use a drawing board as well as a computer realise that they develop more flexibility in the way ideas coalesce into a concept that finally firms into a design. Since the workplace used digital media, students that have knowledge of CAD, 3D modelling and rendering as well as perspective generation and a host of other applications find it easier to move up the career ladder.

 Computer tools help students that may not be too skilled at drawing give sophisticated presentations and realistic simulations of proposals.

Camille Pissarro a renowned Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter had this to say about the necessity of practising one’s art whether it was painting or architecture, "It is only by drawing often, drawing everything, drawing incessantly, that one fine day you discover to your surprise that you have rendered something in its true character." No matter which school of thought emerges as the final tool for students of architecture there is a lot to be said about the dramatic lines in a conceptual design sketch, the evocative strokes in a watercolour perspective and the bold statement of a pencilled rendered elevation. Renowned Architect Shirish Beri notes, in his book 'Spaces inspired by Nature' that "The computer with its graphic design software is an important necessary drawing tool. But when it comes to sketching, designing, I am most comfortable using my hand. To me, our hands are the natural extensions of our thought processes."

Technology and the professional

While there is a definite plurality of approaches at the students' level, professionals have embraced computer software in the workplace out of necessity more than design. Technology produces options faster, calculates complex alternatives, makes changes quicker and can showcase a design form in all its dimensions and perspectives. The days of architectural interns slaving over the drawing board to produce all of the above are fading. The process of design which begins with the germ of an idea in the architect’s brain may still be produced on paper, the imagination running riot and hand eye coordination giving shape to a vision. This then is adapted to the drawing format through relevant technology. 2D drawings are followed by 3D modelling so that a client can visualise what the designer wants to say. Perspectives and walk throughs make a project come alive and high resolution rendering of all drawings makes for realism out of the conjunction of lines and shapes based on mathematical computation.

Technology and the habitat

Having glimpsed at technological effects on Architectural education and the profession it is natural to move on to review its role in the built environment. Smart buildings have evolved as a natural progression of innovative applications of technology to make daily and mundane tasks easier, but they also help eco-warriors in their fight to save the environment. Also termed as Building Automation Systems these programs control lighting, HVAC, ventilation, fire safety and other mechanical requirements that makes a structure 'intelligent'. Since these buildings optimise energy requirement, monitor 12CO2'> emissions and allow for innovations in design, they also function as green buildings that raises their sustainability quotient. Use of wind turbines, geo thermal energy, photovoltaics, solar power and recycling ensures their commitment to the cause of caring for our fast-depleting biodiversity.

The Smart Building Conference, organised by Integrated Systems Europe is slated for 3rd February 2014 in Amsterdam. Its website states that the event will make "the Smart Building dream a reality by encouraging different industries to work together, integrating the various technologies that make buildings smart." Such activities promise further inroads in a field where covenants between nations can address issues like the tenable link between conservation and the environment.  With climate changes causing upheavals, cities are finding it increasingly difficult to combat unusual weather patterns. 

The United Nations Environment Programme states “There is alarming evidence that important tipping points, leading to irreversible changes in major ecosystems and the planetary climate system, may already have been reached or passed.”Some inclement aspects can be predicted like hurricane Sandy, due to technology that monitors data. Architects, infrastructure and city planners can use this for climate adaptation. It means modifying built structures for future changes without major alterations to buildings or areas of human habitation resulting in buoyant communities and resilient structures which will count for future rating of sustainable buildings.

A success story is one of Rotterdam, Netherlands - one of the nominations of being a Resilient City awarded by the Rockefeller Foundation whose website states "Rotterdam's Resilience Challenge - With nearly 80% of the city below sea level and one of the largest ports in the world, Rotterdam has built up centuries of experience when it comes to resilience, particularly on the topics of integrated water management and innovative climate adaptation. In 2007, this Dutch city announced its ambition to become 100% climate-proof by 2025  able to continue functioning economically and socially with minimal disturbance under any extreme weather situation." 

Sketchup View

Model View

In other parts of the developing world like Nigeria, Technology and Nature work hand in hand to produce not only smart buildings but smart cities. One such is planned in Ajuba based on bio mimicry where natural resources are used as a model on which to base designs so that a legacy of an abundant ecosystem is left for following generations.

Homes also try to contribute the 'net-zero' parameter which means that they use only as much energy as they can produce. In this effort technology aids users by innovative gadgets like sensors that monitor the amount of moisture in the garden to control water usage, smart appliances that calculate energy required for usage cycles and sensor activated lighting and air conditioning among a host of other things. Though rare today, the future home can be a pre-fabricated zero house that can be delivered and put together on location and is comfortable and efficient.  An interesting pre-fabricated dwelling is one designed by famous and much awarded Karim Rashid known as the Komb House. Apart from its many interesting aesthetics it sports a 'kinetic art sculpture rotating to capture wind power and distribute energy throughout the home.'

New age technology has allowed designers to re-visit an age old building material for construction – wood. While images of depleted forests immediately come to mind, the facts are that computer software couple with production capabilities can make it possible to use wood derived from ‘responsibly managed’ tree growing regions to produce fairly large scale buildings having unique shapes. Add the fact that forests absorb 12CO2'> as they grow; the pros of this process are laudable.

Technology and the future

Technologies have emerged that can 'print' a house! For architects, this means that they not only create scaled models of their spaces but the structure in totality. By a process called 'additive manufacturing' a printer head spews out thin layers of instantly firming material to copy what is fed to it from the computer. While the picture on the screen is in 2D the finished product is in 3D of materials like plastic or metal. With the click of a mouse objects like chairs are already being produced.

At the University of Southern California, Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis  a professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering and Director of Manufacturing Engineering Graduate Program  and active in CAD/CAM, robotics and mechatronics related research projects has developed a layered fabrication technology. The website states, "Contour Crafting technology has great potential for automating the construction of whole structures as well as sub-components. Using this process, a single house or a colony of houses, each with possibly a different design, may be automatically constructed in a single run, embedded in each house all the conduits for electrical, plumbing and air-conditioning. Our research also addresses the application of Contour Crafting in building habitats on other planets."

Finally, the future even consists of 4D printing. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology architect and computer scientist Skylar Tibbits,a TED Fellow artist and computational architect is working on "smart" components that can assemble themselves; the production of materials that transform themselves into pre-programmed shapes." MIT has also submitted a proposal to NASA to provide 4D printing for space systems in orbit.

Lunar housing may soon be just a click away! 

-Swathi Kiran, Architect

 References:

1. ted.com ,
2. greensource.construction.com
3. unep.org
4. 100resilientcities.rockefellerfoundation.org
5. Architectural Print Resources

QUOTES

It is only by drawing often, drawing everything, drawing incessantly, that one fine day you discover to your surprise that you have rendered something in its true character- Camille Pissarro

The computer with its graphic design software is an important necessary drawing tool. But when it comes to sketching, designing, I am most comfortable using my hand. To me, our hands are the natural extensions of our thought processes- Architect Shirish Beri

By a process called 'additive manufacturing' a printer head spews out thin layers of instantly firming material to copy what is fed to it from the computer. While the picture on the screen is in 2D the finished product is in 3D of materials like plastic or metal.