Putting The Architect In Arch Tech

The digital revolution is changing the world as we know it. How can Architecture keep up with the shift?

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Earlier this year, Dutch architectural practice UNStudio launched a start-up to develop technologies that make buildings greener and cities smarter.

UNSense, as it is named, aims to integrate sensorial adaptive design into architectural output.  Through that, it will explore new sensor-based technologies across three levels: city, building and indoor environments.

It also hopes to find ways for the architecture and construction industries to catch up with technology. 

UNSense will attempt to do this by getting data scientists and programmers to collaborate with a wider pool of professions, including neuroscientists, sociologists and economists.

Ben van Berkel, UNStudio’s founder and principal architect, hailed the new practice as a step towards the future of architecture in a digital age.

“I see a great opportunity as an architect to create buildings and cities that are sensible and sensitive to human beings.  The digital revolution is driving change in every part of our lives,” he says.

CHANGE HAS COME

Architecture has definitely been at the receiving end of those winds of change. Its reaction though, can afford to be more dynamic.

“Both [the] architectural and digital industries are pushing each other to the next level of efficiency and for better and faster communication,” says José Silva, Executive Principal at Aedas.

“Everyone is reacting in different ways to the digital revolution. There is a constant progress and launch of different tools to assist architects in designing, developing shapes and forms, details, etc.”

But it’s not just the work process that’s changed, the designs and aim of architecture itself are also shifting.