Week 7 Topic: Practice vs Project: I: Materials and Techniques

The concept of materiality forces society to develop an interpretation of materials and at the same time, cause it to perceive, “objects as stable persistent realities” [1]. It is for this reason that materials are “culturally and socially constructed” [2] – for example, through this development of interpretation process amongst individuals, a material such as “reinforced concrete, at first seen as a structural system, became gradually a material” [3]. Thus, these reasons emphasise the way in which “material is dependent on cultural factors” [4]. A connection is evident between materiality and digital technology, as to achieve a desired material, the computer can be used to “alter the perceptions of objects” [5], hence extending, “the realm of our sensations” [6] as individuals when we encounter a material. This then leads into flexibility of the process of making where, “practice can no longer depend on stable rules and conventions” [7], due to the understanding that a ‘desired materiality’, sensible materials in nature may not be readily available or cater for the intentional effect. To take into account the way in which material practices are, “tethered to a fast-moving reality” [8], it is important that this exercise is one that is, “agile and responsive” [9], to cater for the fast paced world. Therefore through effect, “a fundamental notion of digital architecture, is not only meant to bridge the gap between subject and object… it is also supposed to bring together the abstraction inherent to computing and the concreteness of architectural experience” [10], as “when dealing with issues of materiality, digital architecture expresses broader trends at work in the architectural discipline” [11].

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r e f e r e n c e s

• [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [10] [11] Picon, Antoine, “A Different Materiality”, “Material by Design”, in Digital Culture in Architecture: an introduction for the Design Profession (2010): Pp. 144, 145, 146, 157, 158.
• [7] [8] [9] Allen, Stan, “Introduction: Practice vs. Project”, in Practice: Architecture, Technique and Representation, (2009): Pp. XV.