Practice vs Project: 1:
Materials and Techniques
Antoine Picon “A Different Materiality”, “Material by
Design” start off by discussing about the time before the industrial era. An
era of material that appears to be more complex, comparing to this era, we are
more focus on solution of material design rather than structural design. Material
properties meanings, what does it mean to be hard, waterproof or durable? Each
of these term went through a processes, an example of this process it’s a
reinforce concrete, the appearance are seen as a structural system, than
gradually in time it became a material. Picon strongly believe that materiality
are like nature, it’s about the way we see, touch, hear, smell and taste. Picon
also discuss about the way technologies and machines provide the means to
transform the environment and change our perspective view in society. He gave
an example of an automobile, a richness of walking and absorbing the
surrounding environment to the simplified feel during a car ride, illustrating
a loss of materiality in a car ride. This theory was also discussed in the
article “Architecture and the Virtual” also by Antoine Picon, where he compared
the approach of hand and computer draft design and how that correlates with the
contrast between walking and a car ride. Fundamental notion of digital
architecture are not only meant to close the gap between subject and object,
but it supposed to bring together the absorption of characteristics in
computing and the materiality of architectural experience. Digital architecture
expresses broader trends to architectural practice.
