ARCH 309/509: Technology II: Processes: Form, Material, Force

Continuing with the objective of establishing a foundation to the technology sequence and following the philosophy and methodologies introduced in Technology I, this course puts the focus on the relation form, material and force in architecture and on the corresponding processes that integrate these parameters in the definition of a holistic design model.

 

Therefore, the course will concentrate on the understanding of self-forming processes and form-finding methods and on the structural and geometric principles that are implicit in them. These principles will be unfolded through the work of figures such as Frei Otto, Heinz Isler, Antoni Gaudí, Pierluigi Nervi, Felix Candela, or Eduardo Torroja among others but, also, through contemporary references and ongoing research projects on the field developed in our global and multicultural context. Building on the philosophy and methodology introduced in Technology I, the method of graphic statics will be used to analyze and describe the behavior of structural forms (vaults, shells, membranes, domes ...) and, in parallel to the theoretical sessions, the students will develop experimental explorations in the form of physical models in order to understand structural and construction logics, and how to translate them into material constructs.