Architectural Objectiles – Architecture, form, meaning and experience in the digital era

Paper i proceeding, 2007

The ongoing change of technological paradigm has great consequences for the production of architecture. We are moving from the mechanical to the digital, and also from “mass-production” to “mass-customisation”. New technology make long series of identical elements obsolete, industrially produced components can be unique, optimal in the construction. Other possibilities for different architectural expressions open, and for the tectonic aspects of architecture. Digitally governed production could foster new modes of meaning creation. New conceptions and definitions of objects are emerging with parametric design. Non-standard production and culture could change our perception to more of an organic extension of human intelligence. This paper discusses, with architectural examples from Kas Oosterhuis and Lars Spuybroek, the consequences of these technological and conceptual changes for architecture. Will the new technological paradigm foster a closer relation to human experience? Are there new possible relations to “body” and perception for architecture?