Archinect - Features

Discussing Technology and 'Architecture as Transient Media' With Güvenç Özel and Benjamin Ennemoser of UCLA's IDEAS Technology Studio

2021-02-19T13:39:00-05:00

Architecture is currently at the cusp of a paradigm shift, where the environments we occupy are becoming increasingly virtual and mobile. Considered as an ecosystem of technologies rather than a tectonic assemblage of materials, architecture is shifting toward a non-static and non-physical form of experience. This opens up the potential for it to be considered as a transdisciplinary medium that merges the worlds of fabrication, gaming, and media design.

The IDEAS Technology Studio, one of four studios offered as part of UCLA Architecture and Urban Design’s Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design (M.S.AUD) program, investigates the design of new media in digital and physical forms and its potential to radically transform the human experience. Recognized as a leading research institution UCLA Architecture and Urban Design is also a part of the UCLA School of Arts and Architecture. This unique blend and integration of departments allow both students and faculty "to connect ...

Post-Screen: Ebrahim Poustinchi In Conversation with James Kerestes

2020-07-14T09:00:00-04:00

Post-Screen seeks possibilities for design mediums outside or inside digital screens—just not on digital screens! It is about possible ways of deepening digitality, physicality, or cyber-physicality, as not only platforms for representation, but also as mediums for direct design and experience.

In conversation with James Kerestes, Post-Screen's Ebrahim Poustinchi discusses the possibilities of robots—among other things—as possible mediums for design and as cyber-physical creatures that think digitally and act/perform physically.

“Move! – Good Robot!” or Why I Think Robots are Meant to Be Post-Screen Mediums

2019-04-26T12:03:00-04:00

A note to the reader

This text is more of a curated/comprehensive overall picture, to question the role of robot—precisely what is known as “industrial” robot arm, in our current days as possibly a medium, instead of—just, a tool. The text, however, does not look at this issue from a purely historical or theoretical point of view. Instead, it borrows facts from history, theory, and technology to illustrate the issue and question the possibilities.

To be a true comprehensive scientific article in any of the disciplines mentioned above, and to tackle such issues in depth it would take a lot more than one article. This text is a speculative projection and an invitation to think about/question the possibility of using robots—robot arms, beyond our biased readings of them as tools, order-takers, and service providers.

The Architecture of Artificial Intelligence

2017-03-08T12:09:00-05:00

“Let us consider an augmented architect at work. He sits at a working station that has a visual display screen some three feet on a side, this is his working surface, controlled by a computer with which he can communicate by means of small keyboards and various other devices.” – Douglas Engelbart

The Deans List: David Gissen of California College of the Arts

2013-11-21T13:27:00-05:00

The Deans List is an interview series with the leaders of architecture schools, worldwide. The series profiles the school’s programming, as defined by the head honcho – giving an invaluable perspective into the institution’s unique curriculum, faculty and academic environment.

For our first installment, we spoke with David Gissen, the Director of Architecture at California College of the Arts in San Francisco.