Medieval MonsterslRobots

Digital fabrication in the popular culture of architectural theory and practice promises to return the designer to the traditional role of builder. As a result, architects have postulated a digital form of building-craft. Unfortunately, the promise of computation in architecture is based on a misrepresentation of history. Architects do not craft buildings. Architects make drawings and models. Architectural craft, whether digital or analog, exists in the embodied relationship between the architect and the tool she employs. Despite appearances, computational techniques maintain the traditional separation between architect and building.

Through the digital design and fabrication of monstrous, robotic drawing equipment, the Medieval MonsterslRobots Studies Unit will critique the place of digital design and fabrication within the history and theory of architectural practice. Over the course of the Unit, students will examine and analyze the rhetoric of monstrosity in architectural theory, reevaluate the role of computational practices within architecture, and demonstrate corollary digital architecture theories.

Work in the Studies Unit will be carried out through weekly reading discussions, digital design and fabrication tutorials, and the manufacture of a monstrous, robotic drawing tool. Reading discussions and digital tutorials will develop analytical and technical skills. Creation of the robotic device will provide experience in critical use of manufacturing technologies for invention. On completion of the unit students will be able to interpret the role of monstrosity as a cultural tool, elaborate on the relevance of monstrosity to contemporary architectural discourse, ingeniously employ manufacturing workflows, and reinvent the relationship between equipment, drawing, and building.

Tuesdays, 2:00 to 5:00pm