Bøger udgivet af Birkhauser

In The Digital, a Continent?, the author argues in favor of a way of thinking about digital technology that draws on the new materialism. She uses photosynthesis and nuclear fission as examples of processes that are as artificial as they are natural to explain how digital technology can be viewed within the paradigm of a "communicative physics" in which poetics interacts with mathematical thinking. The author concludes that we can better understand ourselves and digital technology by developing notions of the multifaceted ways energy, form, and intellect interact in global architectonics. Theoretical consideration of digital technology Visual language and science New volume in the Applied Virtuality Book Series

In his 1979 essay The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge philosopher Jean-François Lyotard noted that the advent of the computer opened up a stage of progress in which knowledge has become a commodity. Modernity and postmodernity appear as two stages of a process resulting from the conflict of science and narrative. As science attempts to distance itself from narrative, it must create its own legitimacy. This paper takes up this challenge with a focus on the question of imagery. The image is precisely what modern science seeks to free itself from in its quest for absolute transparency. This transparency is examined from the perspective of architecture, drawing on arguments from philosophy, quantum mechanics, theology and information theory. Natural science in the context of postmodernism Quantum mechanics and information theory New volume in the Applied Virtuality Book Series

In this book, the editors focus on architecture and communication from various different perspectives - taking into account that the term "architecture" is used for buildings as well as in the context of computer software. Data and software also impact on our cities; raw data, however, do not convey any information - in order to generate information and communication they have to be organized and must make sense to the reader. The contributions avoid clear separation of the various communication spheres of their disciplines. Instead, they use the wide range of approaches to explore meanings - an ambitious aim that leaves the destination wide open; the reader is invited to share in this adventure.

Free thinking, unconstrained by facts The book is based on the thesis that we live in a world of abundance, full of natural riches and cultural artifacts, full of human intellect and powerful technologies. Our thinking, however, is dominated by the opposite, the notion of scarcity. The limits of nature act as an inevitable necessity. In his book, David Schildberger adopts a novel approach to the subject of resources, with the help of intelligent instruments that introduce new foods, such as chocolate made from cocoa cell cultures, and even a fruit-bearing vine raised far from a vineyard. With his imagined scenarios, the author invites the reader to dare stretch their intellectual imaginations and ultimately presents nature as a contingent. Conceptual models on the subject of nature and alternative ways of producing food Recommended reading for architectural IT specialists New volume in the Applied Virtuality Book Series

Auf welche Art wirkt und überzeugt Design? Was wissen GestalterInnen von den Regeln, die sie, teilweise unbewusst, anwenden? Die zeitgenössische Designforschung entwickelt zunehmend ein Interesse an den rhetorischenMechanismen der Design-Praxis. Der vorliegende Sammelband stelltdie klassische Kommunikationslehre der Rhetorik als eine neue und umfassende Metatheorie des Designs vor. Sie betrifftprinzipiell alle Bereiche heutigen Designs ¿ vom Grafik-Design über die Architektur bis zur Interfacegestaltung. "Design als Rhetorik" führt drei Bereiche zusammen: Das Buch stellt die historisch relevanten Texte vor und bildet als Positionsbestimmung die kontroverse zeitgenössische Diskussion ab. Zudem versammelt es in Fallstudien Beiträge zu den wichtigsten Forschungsfeldern wie etwa ¿Interaktive Rhetorik", ¿Rhetorik Design und Gender", ¿Rhetorik des World Wide Web".

Recent developments in computer science, particularly ”data-driven procedures" have opened a new level of design and engineering. This has also affected architecture. The publication collects contributions on Coding as Literacy by computer scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, cultural theorists, and architects. The main focus in the book is the observation of computer-based methods that go beyond strictly case-based or problem-solution-oriented paradigms. This invites readers to understand Computational Procedures as being embedded in an overarching ”media literacy" that can be revealed through, and acquired by, ”computational literacy", and to consider the data processed in the above-mentioned methods as being beneficial in terms of quantum physics. ”Self-Organizing Maps" (SOM), which were first introduced over 30 years ago, will serve as the concrete reference point for all further discussions.

While 20th century architecture learned to control the climate of a building, the architecture of the 21st century needs to learn to cope with the climate of cities. Problems such as urban heat and air pollution need to be included in planning and design. Based on empirical realities in Cairo, Chongqing, Geneva and Santiago de Chile, the book underlines that the materiality and social practices attached to room heating, compound greening, street alignment or climate policies together form the tissue for contemporary urban climates. It interweaves socio-cultural with meteorological data and pioneers the new concept of "thermal governance" by linking architectural and technological as well as legal and economic dimensions of climate control in urban environments.

Design beinhaltet immer, aus sich heraus, den Anstoß zur Theorie. Theorien wiederum sind regelmäßig Faktoren in einem dynamischen Feld der poetisch-praktischen Setzungen und Gegensetzungen, die einen Widerstreit von Objekten, Auffassungen, Szenarien ermöglichen. Design-Entwerfen ist also auch implizite Theoretisierung der Gestaltungsprozesse. Was kontrovers bleibt, muss stets neu artikuliert werden. Das Exemplarische situiert sich in der jeweiligen Zeit, aber die Folge der Präsenzen geht nicht auf in einem Drehbuch linearer Fortschritte. Die beiden Bände bieten Texte zur kulturgeschichtlichen, soziologischen, ästhetischen und theoretischen Begründung von Design - von den Kontroversen um Moderne vs. Postmoderne der 1980er-Jahre bis zu den medialen Ausweitungen und Neusituierungen der Kulturkämpfe in der Gegenwart.

Architecture and freehand drawing are inextricably linked. Even in the Gothic period, the principle applied: what you can't build, you at least draw. The same applies to the sketches of Wolf dPrix, co-founder and CEO of Coop Himmelb(l)au. Over the 53 years of their creation, Prix's sketches formed the first stage of every design - despite rapid developments in digital architecture. Whereas his freehand drawings were proxies for completed projects in the 1960s and 1970s, today they serve as strategic guides to the firm's complex buildings. From 2,800 archival drawings, 1,300 examples were selected for publication to represent developmental dynamics in an archive-like format. As invaluable documents of architectural history, they illustrate some 320 selected projects.

Around 1800, one of the most influential architectural concepts of the last 250 years emerged-that of built spaces as technical devices. Climate, morality, and comfort are the three main themes of this study, and each is vividly examined in separate chapters through synchronous comparison and with the help of examples. The emergence of corresponding metaphors, knowledge, and construction forms is traced over a period of about 70 years. The author focuses particularly on the operative dimension of architecture. Thus, the book provides a historical perspective on a key topic for the future of architecture. The book is aimed at readers interested in architecture, technology or the cultural history of building and living. The Exploring Architecture series makes architectural scholarship accessible, introduces the latest research methods, and covers a wide range of periods, regions, and topics.