Cyberphysical Architecture

UCLA IDEAS Technology Studio Fall 2017

Research Lead: Guvenc Ozel 

Instructors: Guvenc Ozel, Benjamin Ennemoser

Technologies: XR, computational design, gaming engines, transforming architectures, projection mapping, telepresence, robotic fabrication, novel materials

Students: Dhwani Gogri, Hui Li, Jeremy Nguyen, Karan Pashine, Roxana Perez-Antonio, Yi Qian, Qian Qian Song, Yevhenia Terzi, Lingjie Wu, Yibing Wu, Shiyi Xin, Hengzhi Ye, Ruodi Yufang, Lu Zhang, Peitong Zhang, Yu Zhang, Ning Zhu

Architecture is currently at the cusp of a paradigm shift, where the environments we occupy become exceedingly virtual and mobile. Considered as an ecosystem of technologies rather than tectonic assemblage of materials, architecture is shifting toward a non-static and non-physical form of experience, opening up potentials for it to be considered as a transdisciplinary medium that merges the worlds of fabrication, gaming and media design. Considered from this perspective, the studio will explore environmental applications of media in the form of virtual and augmented reality, sensor interaction with environments, and real time control and transformation of architectural spaces. The studio will research these ideas through a re-thinking of architectural typologies that are primarily concerned with display and representation of objects and consumption of media, such as virtual collaborative work environments, museums, exhibition halls, movie theaters and other spaces of public display and exchange of information, images and sounds.

Telepresence and the New Representation of Self:

From this perception of architecture as enhanced by and built with media, the studio will investigate scenarios where occupants of such architecture have the ability to travel between the digital and physical worlds. Through the proliferation of social media, virtual avatars, sensory simulations and holograms, current and future forms of technological communications have the ability to simulate experiences with precision and without relying on the physical presence of their subjects. In these radically different new social environments, architecture is conceived as a cyberphysical system, designed not only for the use of people but also for the digital occupancy of avatars as the new subjects of architecture. Through questioning the role of representation in the process of constructing realities and environments, the studio will focus on the potentials of such virtual tools to formulate a reformed agenda for the role of the digital in the contemporary practice of architecture.