The new Robot Annex for the Platform and Automation Lab will allow SCI-Arc students and faculty to advance new architectural thinking through automated production and material exploration. Made possible through grants from the Parson’s and Ahmanson foundations, the Annex and its ABB IRB 6700 robot provides infrastructure and opportunity for both faculty lead, funded projects, and student lead independent research in the MS Architectural Technology program into novel sustainable construction methods. Current projects include a funded project from USFS on optimized laminated timber construction and student lead research into bio-polymer 3D printing.

L.A. Bestia is the third iteration of a series of exhibitions exploring the role of automation and artificial intelligence in the collection and generation of architectural aesthetics.  The project is featured in the CITY X virtual exhibition in the Italian Pavillion of the 2021 Venice Biennale. Through artificial intelligence, the work featured will be exposed to a perpetual state of transformation and mutation. The exhibition gathers a key set of practices, primarily from architecture, but also from art and fashion, to reveal facets of the strange beast that the tumultuous paradigm shifts of recent decades have left behind.

A conversation on mixing realities in art and architecture with Daniel Birnbaum [Director of Acute Art, London], Ulrika Karlsson [Professor KTH, Stockholm/Guest Professor SAC Städelschule Architecture Class, Frankfurt] and Marcelyn Gow [Design Theory & Pedagogy program coordinator SCI-Arc, Los Angeles] Birnbaum, Karlsson and Gow consider the role of contemporary technologies in transforming curation and the ways in which we experience art and architecture.  

The way we construct things and how we use digital information to build buildings today is undergoing a dramatic change. AR and AI will be playing a key role of how we design, develop, and build things in the future.

This feature highlights the careers of three SCI-Arc EDGE – Architectural Technologies graduates: Daniela Atencio [Faculty - Universidad de Los Andes, Bogota Columbia / SCI-Arc - MS. Architectural Technologies ’15], Pedro Ferrazini [Associate Professor - Rosario National University, Rosario Argentina / SCI-Arc - MS. Architectural Technologies ’19] Marcos Dana [Faculty - Rosario National University, Rosario Argentina / SCI-Arc - MS. Architectural Technologies ’18]. Daniela Atencio shares her thoughts on developing a new curriculum focused on computational thinking. Atencio’s research “Programmed Materialism” involves translations between images, objects and machines, speculating on the role of digital ontologies and representations in architecture. Atencio also discusses the “Non_Fictional City” international workshop that focused on addressing contemporary urban problems and imagining alternative future scenarios.    

Pedro Ferrazini reflects on how the tools used in design processes lead to new ways of defining architecture; specifically utilizing artificial intelligence to co-produce architecture that works responsibly with landscape. Ferrazini also speaks about accessibility in relation to working with artificial intelligence and how these tools redefine the role of architects and architects as educators. Marcos Dana considers the relevant connections between practice and academic research in pursuing transformed urban realities. Dana and Ferrazini’s work focuses on the ethical, political, and economic entanglements of technology. 

Proposing a new armature for stage design, this project by SCI-Arc EDGE student Maxime Lefebvre in Marcelo Spina and Casey Rehm’s Architectural Technologies Postgraduate Program develops and utilizes an A.I model which collects, samples and reimagines stage imagery while tracking and mapping a panel system in motion.