Digital technology and architecture have become inseparable, with new approaches and methodologies not just affecting the workflows and practice of architects, but shaping the very character of architecture.
In this compendious work, two dozen university professors and lecturers share their vast range of expertise with a professional writer who assembles this into an array of engaging, episodic chapters.
Structured into six parts, the Atlas offers an orientation to the myriad ways in which computers are used in architecture today, such as: 3D Modelling and CAD; Rendering and Visualisation; Scripting, Typography, Text & Code; Digital Manufacturing and Model Making; GIS, BIM, Simulation, and Big Data & Machine Learning, to name but these.
Throughout, the Atlas provides both a historical perspective and a conceptual outlook to convey a sense of continuity between past, present, and future; and going beyond the confines of the traditional textbook, it also postulates a theoretical framework for architecture in the 21st century.
The Atlas of Digital Architecture then understands itself as an invitation to the rich feast of possibilities and professional profiles that digital technology puts on the table today, and hopes to whet the reader’s appetite for exploring and sampling their great potential.
Contributing Editors:
Ludger Hovestadt, Urs Hirschberg, Oliver Fritz
Contributors:
Diana Alvarez-Marin, Jakob Beetz, André Borrmann, Petra von Both, Harald Gatermann, Marco Hemmerling, Ursula Kirschner, Reinhard König, Dominik Lengyel, Bob Martens, Frank Petzold, Sven Pfeiffer, Miro Roman, Kay Römer, Hans Sachs, Philipp Schaerer, Sven Schneider, Odilo Schoch, Milena Stavric, Peter Zeile, Nikolaus Zieske
Writer:
Sebastian Michael
Design and Layout:
Onlab (Vanja Golubovic, Matthieu Huegi, Thibaud Tissot)
Category: Text, Typography & Layout
P. 327–349
Early computers could only handle numbers, but soon it became clear that you don’t get far without text. This chapter looks further into the origins of data processing and explores the specifics of working with words, not just in terms of computing, but also to the end of creatively deploying text, be that for a book, a presentation, a set of plans, or as part of the architecture itself.