Book Description

"The Architectural Imagination at the Digital Turn critically examines the long-held belief that the curvilinear styles and spectacular forms of architecture in the 1990s was an aesthetic shaped and enabled by newly available digital technologies. It takes a closer look at what was happening behind the scenes, examining the economic, social, and material context behind some of the 1990s' key architectural projects. It demonstrates that the digital turn in architecture was not a break, but a shift involving an amalgamation of digital and analog techniques, which were not only used in concert but also in the context of pre-existing theoretical debates. Creating a mosaic-like account, the book presents debates, projects, and publications that examined how technology changed the ways architecture was visualized, fabricated, and experienced. Using selected case studies, drawn primarily from the United States and Europe, the book dispels some of the mystique that has accrued around these projects. In addition to universities and cultural institutes, the book considers the work of architects Bernard Cache (Objectile), Greg Lynn (Greg Lynn Form) and Lars Spuybroek (NOX), all of whom enlisted digital technologies on a theoretical as well as practical level to create new media systems through, respectively, fabrication infrastructures, the concept of the architectural body, and interactive buildings. Finally, it frames the work of Gehry Partners in a new light, analyzing the office known for its spectacular projects by honing in on the local practices, international partnerships, and processes of knowledge exchange that enabled Gehry's iconic architecture. Through its discussion on case studies, places, and themes that fundamentally influenced discourse formation in the era, this book offers scholars, researchers and students fresh insights into how architecture can engage with the digital realm today"--