The Internet, and its near-ubiquitous presence in our daily lives, has blurred the lines between the digital and the physical, and architecture is scrambling to catch up. The industry's need to respond to, adapt to, and interact with emergent technologies such as networked collaboration, open-source information, 3D printers, and other digital means of production will only continue to increase as these worlds become more entwined. That's what makes speculative robotic research so vital to the field: It not only brings the traditionally physical practice further into the digital realm; it also takes the possibilities presented by emergent interactive technologies to form a grassroots, bottom-up approach to architecture. One such operation is being run at the California College of the Arts by Jason Kelly Johnson and Michael Shiloh. As part of the CCA Hybrid Lab, where computers are taught in a scrappy, DIY, hackerish way, "Creative Architecture Machines" aims to integrate computer programming into the design-build process with machines the students have created directly for architecture. "We treat the machine, code, and material exploration as equals," Johnson said. The research utilizes Arduino, an open-source microcontroller meant to provide easy-to-use interaction between software (inputs) and physical components such ...
The Internet, and its near-ubiquitous presence in our daily lives, has blurred the lines between the digital and the physical, and architecture is scrambling to catch up. The industry's need to respond to, adapt to, and interact with emergent technologies such as networked collaboration, open-source information, 3D printers, and other digital means of production will only continue to increase as these worlds become more entwined. That's what makes speculative robotic research so vital to the field: It not only brings the traditionally physical practice further into the digital realm; it also takes the possibilities presented by emergent interactive technologies to form a grassroots, bottom-up approach to architecture. One such operation is being run at the California College of the Arts by Jason Kelly Johnson and Michael Shiloh. As part of the CCA Hybrid Lab, where computers are taught in a scrappy, DIY, hackerish way, "Creative Architecture Machines" aims to integrate computer programming into the design-build process with machines the students have created directly for architecture. "We treat the machine, code, and material exploration as equals," Johnson said. The research utilizes Arduino, an open-source microcontroller meant to provide easy-to-use interaction between software (inputs) and physical components such ...