Cybernetic Architectures Informational Thinking and Digital Design Routledge Research in Architecture Series

For the past 50 years, the advancements of technology have equipped architects with unique tools that have enabled the development of new computer-mediated design methods, fabrication techniques, and architectural expressions. Simultaneously, in contemporary architecture new frameworks emerged that have radically redefined the traditional conceptions of design, of the built environment, and of the role of architects.

Cybernetic Architectures argues that such frameworks have been constructed in direct reference to cybernetic thinking, a thought model that emerged concurrently with the origins of informatics and that embodies the main assumptions, values, and ideals underlying the development of computer science. The book explains how the evolution of the computational perspective in architecture has been parallel to the construction of design issues in reference to the central ideas fostered by the cybernetic model. It unpacks and explains this crucial relationship, in the work of digital architects, between the use of information technology in design and the conception of architectural problems around an informational ontology.

This book will appeal to architecture students and scholars interested in understanding the recent transformations in the architectural landscape related to the advent of computer-based design paradigms.

Preface Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. Cybernetics and the architecture of performance 3. Architectural Systems 4. Genetic Mechanisms 5. Complex Phenomena 6. The Platonic Backhand and Forehand of Cybernetic Architecture Index

Camilo Andrés Cifuentes Quin is an Architect experienced in architectural design. He is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Habitat Sciences at La Salle University, Bogotá. His research focuses on the impact of information technology in the recent transformations of the architectural landscape and the exploration of computer-based design paradigms in design practice. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Los Andes University, Bogotá, a Postgraduate Diploma in Computational Design from ELISAVA (Barcelona School of Design and Engineering), a Masters of Architecture from ENSAG (École Nationale Supériere d’Architecture de Grenoble), and a Ph.D. in Architecture from UPC-Barcelona Tech.