Papers by Mohammed AKAZAF
Technic, Technology, and Architectural Design: Genealogy and Epistemology of their Involvement, 2024
The essence of technology and its relationship to professional practices and human activities is ... more The essence of technology and its relationship to professional practices and human activities is a troubling question in the age of our algorithmic civilization. The close and systematic relationship between technology, architecture, and culture has mutated to levels of dependence not seen in human history. This article attempts to reveal the nature of the multiple relationships that link technique to architecture, design, and the didactics of the architectural project. We can only draw up a historical balance sheet of architecture, which is becoming more and more spectacular and difficult to include in a current with recognizable stylistic features if we grasp its intimate relationship with technical and technological effervescences. Architectural discourse can only be erected as a theory if it aspires to universality, and in this, it can only stand on the solid and lasting foundations of technology. Currently, the question of the use of Digital technologies and the involvement of artificial intelligence in architecture brings back the debate on theories and dogmas that have always marked its history and theory, such as style, proportion, ornament or skin, and double skin. It even calls into question the future of this profession. It becomes surprising to grasp the extent to which architecture has revolved for centuries around the wall, the roof, and the supporting posts, making it seem that architecture can only proclaim itself as such through these elements. The paradigm shifts of project design that becomes parametric combined with changes in CNC manufacturing modes all this to reconfigure historically the modes of development and realization of the architectural project. This essay attempts to conceptualize this historic breakthrough to measure its impact on the entire ecosystem of the construction sector.
The Ambiguity of Ornament in Architecture: Is It a Substantive or Surface Issue ?, 2024
This article deals with the ambiguity of ornament in architecture, the historical tensions that h... more This article deals with the ambiguity of ornament in architecture, the historical tensions that have characterized its use, and the factors that have led to its return today. In an architectural panorama marked today by the excessive use of parametric and kinetic patterns, many architects, historians and theorists are trying to find a theoretical basis justifying a tendency to an obsession with the patterns. The systematic link between what today adorns the envelopes of parametric architecture projects is made without reference to this history full of tensions. The Grasshopper and Dynamo plug-ins operate excessively in a total break with the thinking of William Morris, John Ruskin, Gottfried Semper, Alois Riegl or Alberti. Modernist architecture has made a break that has generated a collective amnesia about the essence and purpose of certain architectural practices, particularly those relating to ornament. The reflection, therefore, engages in a genealogical investigation to trace the intimate relationships that have linked ornament to architecture. It reveals how these positions of rejection and admission have been motivated more by the technical and technological implications and the capitalist desires that carry them than by artistic impulses.
This work studies the obstacles and difficulties that stand up in front of the teaching of the ar... more This work studies the obstacles and difficulties that stand up in front of the teaching of the architectural project and in front of creativity under the aegis of digital technology. It questions the closing of the algorithm field in front of most architects and designers. It sheds light on cerebral functioning, which underlies creativity in its relationship with novelty in the era of digital disruption. Different insights on the technological inflection points reconfiguring our daily lives and our productivity for good or worse are called upon. We will highlight the intergenerational gap that currently characterizes the relationships linking students from a netocratic society to teachers with knowledge of practices deemed historical or even dated. Based on discoveries in neuropsychology, we then attempt to demonstrate how this discrepancy is at the center of the framework of any didactic approach focused on creativity. The essay conceptualizes the digital practice to include it under axioms able to contain its diversity and richness to become transmissible and teachable. Novelty is undeniably linked to creativity. Understanding the brain function that gives rise to novelty is a step toward understanding human creativity. Founding a conclusive pedagogy for a didactic architectural project cannot be established in a misunderstanding of the cognitive processes behind any creative act. Let's give an overview of how it works in the eyes of some neuropsychologists.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Feb 14, 2019
At the dawn of the 21st century we saw the appearance of a new type of housing "The economic vill... more At the dawn of the 21st century we saw the appearance of a new type of housing "The economic villa" in closed residences in the suburban areas of the axis Rabat-Skhirat. This new way of living adopted by average social categories was initially the result of public policies in housing. These closed residences are sometimes in the image of gated communities, without having all the characteristics. Our objective is to share our observations and our analysis of this new phenomenon, which Is the economic villa in closed residences, as a new housing model, which has become a recurrent in the suburban areas of major Moroccan urban agglomerations. Mots clés : Maroc, le périurbain, la villa économique, Résidences fermées, Gated communities, Rabat-Skhirat.
L'architecture a toujours été caractérisée par des relations fortes et systématiques avec les inv... more L'architecture a toujours été caractérisée par des relations fortes et systématiques avec les inventions technologiques. Son histoire est bien documentée sur cette oscillation entre art et technique, deux polarités ayant chacune ses préoccupations et ses fondements philosophiques et fonctionnels. Nous sommes actuellement saisis par la diversité et l'originalité de l'architecture contemporaine à travers le monde, une architecture souvent caractérisée par des formes fluides et par des processus de réalisation non-standard. Le but de cet article est de jeter un éclairage sur les relations qui relient l'architecture aux technologies du numérique ; nous allons essayer d'expliquer comment cette mutation, générée par la révolution numérique, a été « co-pilotée » à l'origine par d'autres sciences telles que les mathématiques et la philosophie. Les signes de cette mutation remontent à la fin des années 60, années de l'avènement du microprocesseur et de la découverte en mathématiques d'autres types de géométries non euclidiennes. Il a fallu une vingtaine d'années, qui étaient nécessaires au développement des machines, pour qu'une poignée d'architectes américains adoptent ce qu'ils ont convenue comme la french theory de certains philosophes français pour définir de nouvelles écritures formelles pour l'architecture. L'esthétique architecturale du numérique design est désormais soumise à l'hégémonie de l'algorithme. La nature de celui-ci confère à l'approche conceptuelle de multiples appellations telles que : Morphogenesis, Architecture Génétique, Géométrie Fractale, Design Paramétrique etc. Bien que l'architecture du numérique s'est bien libérée avec la découverte de nouveaux outils de design, mais le chemin pour découvrir de nouveaux outils et procédés de constructions, aux regards de la lenteur d'évolution en CNC appliquée à l'architecture, semble encore long.
Journal of Advanced Research in Dynamical and Control Systems, Feb 20, 2019
We are currently seized by the diversity and originality of contemporary architecture throughout ... more We are currently seized by the diversity and originality of contemporary architecture throughout the world, an architecture often characterized by fluid forms and non-standard realization processes. The purpose of this article is to throw light on the mathematical and philosophical foundations that have opened architecture to the hegemony of digital technologies. We will try to explain how, originally, this mutation was co-driven, essentially, by mathematics and philosophy. Signs of this mutation date back to the late 1960s, years of the advent of the microprocessor and the discovery in mathematics of other types of non-Euclidean geometry. It took about twenty years, which were necessary for the development of machines, for a handful of American architects to adopt what they agreed to as French theory of certain French philosophers to define new architectural forms. The architectural aesthetics of digital design, whose transcendental meaning is linked to its generative logic, is now subject to the hegemony of the algorithm. The nature of this one confers to the conceptual approach of multiple appellations such as: Morphogenesis, Genetic Architecture, Tectonics, fractal geometry.
African and Mediterranean Journal of Architecture and Urbanism, 2023
Ce travail traite la thématique de l'ornement en architecture. La réflexion tente de fournir des ... more Ce travail traite la thématique de l'ornement en architecture. La réflexion tente de fournir des éclairages différents sur les implications historiques de l'ornement ainsi que sur l'usage qui en est fait dans les pratiques conceptuelles paramétriques contemporaines. Le but de cet essai est de questionner les fameuses théories antagonistes autour de l'usage et de la classification de l'ornement afin de vérifier leurs cohérences et leur universalité par rapport aux argumentaires et objectifs qu'elles sous-tendent. La réflexion tente de parvenir à une définition du statut de l'usage massif des motifs paramétriques ; un usage à outrance qui est perçu par certains architectes, historiens et théoriciens comme un retour tant attendu de l'ornement en architecture après son bannissement par le modernisme. Un regard rétrospectif a été opéré afin de saisir la dialectique historique qui tente d'inscrire le recours aux nouvelles écritures algorithmiques donnant naissance à des motifs paramétriques dans une continuité historique. Les incidences de la pensée d'Adolf Loose sur le modernisme et sur les écrits machinistes de Le Corbusier nous ont permis de révéler ce qui a justifié le bannissement historique de l'ornement et ce qui tente aujourd'hui de justifier son « retour ».
AMJAU, 2022
The dematerialization of analog media is the most significant element of the digital transition c... more The dematerialization of analog media is the most significant element of the digital transition caused by this wave of technological change. The relationship of man with his environment through the mediation of technology is beginning to navigate a universe whose implications and limits are still unknown. This paper is interested in the dimension of movement that digital technologies give to architecture and the perception of historic buildings. A movement that manifests itself in curved forms, in skin and patterns, in a new architectonics, or even in 3D mapping projection shows, where digital plays the role of the main actor and where classical facades constitute the theater of this staging. We will deal with certain effects of this paradigmatic transition which turns out to be inseparable from the understanding of the trades and the societies in which they operate. We will also try to reposition the historic monument as well as the role assigned to it by memory in this new technological environment marked by the production of the image. Virtuality brought by dematerialization operates on several registers. Using 3D Mapping projection, virtuality goes even further than reconstructing the image of a past; this technology is able to deconstruct reality.
AMJAU, 2020
L'architecture a toujours été caractérisée par des relations fortes et systématiques avec les inv... more L'architecture a toujours été caractérisée par des relations fortes et systématiques avec les inventions technologiques. Son histoire est bien documentée sur cette oscillation entre art et technique, deux polarités ayant chacune ses préoccupations et ses fondements philosophiques et fonctionnels. Nous sommes actuellement saisis par la diversité et l’originalité de l’architecture contemporaine à travers le monde, une architecture souvent caractérisée par des formes fluides et par des processus de réalisation non-standard. Le but de cet article est de jeter un éclairage sur les relations qui relient l’architecture aux technologies du numérique ; Nous allons essayer d'expliquer comment cette mutation, générée par la révolution numérique, a été « co-pilotée » à l'origine par d'autres sciences telles que les mathématiques et la philosophie. Les signes de cette mutation remontent à la fin des années 60, années de l'avènement du microprocesseur et de la découverte en mathématiques d’autres types de géométries non euclidiennes. Il a fallu une vingtaine d’années, qui étaient nécessaires au développement des machines, pour qu'une poignée d'architectes américains adoptent ce qu’ils ont convenu comme la french theory de certains philosophes français pour définir de nouvelles écritures formelles pour l'architecture. L’esthétique architecturale du numérique design, dont le sens transcendantal est lié à sa logique générative, est désormais soumise à l'hégémonie de l'algorithme. La nature de celui-ci confère à l'approche conceptuelle de multiples appellations telles que : Morphogenesis, Architecture Génétique, Géométrie Fractales, Design Paramétrique etc. Bien que l'architecture du numérique s'est bien libérée avec la découverte de nouveaux outils de design, mais le chemin pour découvrir de nouveaux outils et procédés de constructions, aux regards de la lenteur d’évolution en CNC appliquée à l’architecture, semble encore long.
At the dawn of the 21st century we saw the appearance of a new type of housing "The economic... more At the dawn of the 21st century we saw the appearance of a new type of housing "The economic villa" in closed residences in the suburban areas of the axis Rabat-Skhirat. This new way of living adopted by average social categories was initially the result of public policies in housing. These closed residences are sometimes in the image of gated communities, without having all the characteristics. Our objective is to share our observations and our analysis of this new phenomenon, which Is the economic villa in closed residences, as a new housing model, which has become a recurrent in the suburban areas of major Moroccan urban agglomerations. Mots clés : Maroc, le périurbain, la villa économique, Résidences fermées, Gated communities, Rabat – Skhirat.
Journal of Advanced Research in Dynamical and Control Systems - JARDCS, 2019
We are currently seized by the diversity and originality of contemporary architecture throughout ... more We are currently seized by the diversity and originality of contemporary architecture throughout the world, an architecture often characterized by fluid forms and non-standard realization processes. The purpose of this article is to throw light on the mathematical and philosophical foundations that have opened architecture to the hegemony of digital technologies. We will try to explain how, originally, this mutation was co-driven, essentially, by mathematics and philosophy. Signs of this mutation date back to the late 1960s, years of the advent of the microprocessor and the discovery in mathematics of other types of non-Euclidean geometry. It took about twenty years, which were necessary for the development of machines, for a handful of American architects to adopt what they agreed to as French theory of certain French philosophers to define new architectural forms. The architectural aesthetics of digital design, whose transcendental meaning is linked to its generative logic, is now subject to the hegemony of the algorithm. The nature of this one confers to the conceptual approach of multiple appellations such as: Morphogenesis, Genetic Architecture, Tectonics, fractal geometry.
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Papers by Mohammed AKAZAF