Antoine Picon Bücher

Digital tools have propelled architecture into a transformative era, blending traditional materials like wood, stone, and metal with pixels and code. An eminent thinker examines the significance of architectural materials over the centuries and the impact of technology on our perceptions of them. Antoine Picon argues that materiality transcends mere matter; the silence and inscrutability of raw materials often clash with humanity's quest for meaning. He explores how individuals shape their identities through their physical interactions with architectural materials and spaces. Picon posits that the essence of architecture lies in its ability to make matter expressive to humans. By reviewing key moments in Western European architecture, he provides a fresh perspective on the evolution of materiality and how experiences of the physical world have shifted alongside human subjectivity. Ultimately, Picon asserts that computer-based design methods are not a radical break from architectural traditions but rather a new means for architects to harness material resources. This evolution enhances the inherently humanistic nature of architecture, offering greater design freedom and liberation from material constraints in the digital age.

A fascinating exploration of how the growth of digital mapping, spurred by sensing technologies, is affecting cities and daily lives

"Even more than authorship, ownership is challenged by the rise of digital and computational methods of design and production. These challenges are simultaneously legal, ethical and economic. How are new methods of fabrication and manufacture going to irreversibly change not only ways of working, but also designers ethics and their stance on ownership? In his 2013 second-term State of the Union address, President Obama stated that 3D printing has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything. Nowhere will the impact of 3D printing be felt greater than in the architectural and design communities. When anyone can print out an object or structure from a digital file, will designers still exert the same creative rights or will they need to develop new practice and payment models? As architecture becomes more collaborative with open-source processes, will the emphasis on signature as the basis of ownership remain relevant? How will wider teams working globally be accredited and compensated? This issue of AD explores this subject; it features the work of designers who are developing wholly new approaches to practice by exploring means of commercialising process-based products rather than objects."--Back cover

digitalSTRUCTURES: Data and Urban Strategies of the Civic Future provokes a larger body of work that engages with digital property and data infrastructures.

Après avoir été comparé par Adolf Loos à un "crime" et quasi abandonné par l'architecture moderne, l'ornement architectural a fait un retour spectaculaire ces dernières années, souvent en relation avec la montée en puissance des outils numériques. Quel sens donner à ce phénomène ? En même temps qu'il semble renouer avec une tradition pluriséculaire, l'ornement architectural contemporain diffère de ses prédécesseurs sur un certain nombre de points clés. Ce livre commence par explorer ces différences avant de proposer deux fils conducteurs permettant de relier passé et présent, ornement traditionnel et ornement contemporain. L'ornement présente tout d'abord des liens étroits avec la question du ou plutôt des sujets de l'architecture : concepteurs, artisans, clients, spectateurs qui tous contribuent à la production et à la réception de l'architecture. La portée politique de l'ornementation constitue un second fil conducteur. L'une des fonctions de l'ornement consistait autrefois à inscrire l'architecture dans un réseau de significations politiques et sociales. Subjectivité et politique : où en sommes-nous concernant ces deux aspects aujourd'hui ? La question de l'ornement permet en réalité de poser plus généralement celle du sens de l'architecture au sein du monde contemporain.