When Is the Digital in Architecture?
A Conversation with Greg Lynn, Wolf Prix, Peter Testa, and Devyn Weiser
Join us for a conversation with Greg Lynn, Wolf Prix, Peter Testa, and Devyn Weiser, moderated by Andrew Goodhouse (Editor, CCA Publications).
When is the digital in architecture? What are the conditions that led architects to integrate digital tools into their practices? Since 2011, the CCA and Greg Lynn have been carrying out an archaeology of the digital, a close look at selected projects that give insight into the way digital technology was used in architecture in the late 1980s through the early 2000s. There was a sense of urgency in trying to capture this period, because digital materials produced as part of the projects were becoming increasingly difficult to access as older forms of software became incompatible with new machines.
Over the course of the Archaeology of the Digital research program, the CCA has collected the archival records of twenty-five projects. As a way to give more direct access to digital archival materials, the CCA has been publishing a series of digital publications, edited by Greg Lynn, that address each of the projects. This afternoon, we’ll have a look at the epubs produced for Neil Denari’s Interrupted Projections and Testa & Weiser’s Carbon Tower, and we’ll discuss Coop Himmelb(l)au’s BMW Welt, the subject of a forthcoming epub. We’ll also give a preview of When Is the Digital in Architecture?, a print book to be published next month, which is like the capstone of Archaeology of the Digital, and an opening up of the issue to new directions for further research.
Image caption: Neil M. Denari Architects. Interrupted Projections, Tokyo, installation view showing the NaviCam, 1996. Photographic slide, 5x5cm. Neil Denari Interrupted Projections project records (AP168), CCA. Gifts of Neil Denari and Mr. Koz. © Neil Denari
