Papers by Aristofanis Soulikias
In the field of architecture, new technologies are enabling us to promptly simulate, quantify, an... more In the field of architecture, new technologies are enabling us to promptly simulate, quantify, and compare multitudes of design alternatives and consider an ever more expanding list of environmental and economic parameters within the early design phases of projects. However, architecture today veers further towards non-neutral technologies, changing our culture, introducing new values, and (re)shaping our social ideals. The change of media, from the manual to the digital, has deeply transformed architecture and city design. There is undoubtedly progress, but what are we losing in this automation, virtualization and over-digitalization? Are architects-creators of space, human experience, and cultural capital-starting to occupy the role of technicians? Sustainable architecture is a field that is already experiencing tensions between the quantitative and the qualitative, the optimum and the ethical, and the parametric and haptic methods. Yet the rapidly evolving CAAD technologies overlook many of the nonquantifiable values of these binaries. Gains in speed and efficiency in the design process with the help of parametric design may be challenging the designer's reflection-inaction process required for critical architecture while ethical, cultural, and human dimensions can hardly be modelled algorithmically. Similarly, computational thinking and digitalization in architectural education, have yet to come to terms brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by Concordia University Research Repository 2 A. SOULIKIAS, C. CUCUZZELLA, F. NIZAR, M. HAZBEI, & S. GOUBRAN with the loss of analogue ways of learning that favour a more diverse and inclusive classroom environment. Instead of keeping the analogue and the haptic practices away from the immaculate realm of CAAD, this paper argues for hybrid technologies that recognize these practices and their value in sustainable design and incorporate them. Film animation, as a branch of architecture's most expressive means, film, can serve as a paradigm of a feasible disruptive technology, but most importantly, as an indicator of the hybridity between the handmade and the digital and its effectiveness in expressing vital elements of sustainability that are otherwise dismissed.
Architecture
The architectural façade has been a site of intensive experimentation and innovation throughout t... more The architectural façade has been a site of intensive experimentation and innovation throughout the 20th century, something that continues to this day, resulting in a vast range of architectural imagery, often incohesive in the post-modern reality. This research explores contemporary façade types and classifies the character of exterior building surfaces. In this paper, we aim to explore how the façade has been designed and has affected its surroundings. How and why has the façade evolved in the ways that it has? Is it the material innovation, structural novelty, the new design techniques or new aesthetics? We adopt a method of analytical induction to extract the most prevalent façade themes from relevant contemporary literature, characterize their meanings and categorize them in order to better explain the many sides of the façade. We set out to define the principles of façade design to then develop a general categorization, which can be applied to most building façades in recent h...
Open House International
PurposeHighly sophisticated digital technologies have distanced architects and designers from int... more PurposeHighly sophisticated digital technologies have distanced architects and designers from intimate and immediate hand-drawing practices. Meanwhile the changes they rapidly bring come with undetected changes in cultural and social norms regarding the built environment. The growing dependence on computers calls for a more holistic, socially inclusive and place-responsive design practice. This paper aims to shed light on what we are losing in the design process as we rapidly transition to communicate architecture using digital media. The authors contemplate the paradigms in which the human body and physical objects still play an important role in today's design environment.Design/methodology/approachThe paper looks at current trends in developing and establishing “computer imaging” within architectural education, and the architectural profession through parametric design and the area of sustainability. In order to reveal novel and hybrid ways of architectural image-making, it a...
Open House International
PurposeHighly sophisticated digital technologies have distanced architects and designers from int... more PurposeHighly sophisticated digital technologies have distanced architects and designers from intimate and immediate hand-drawing practices. Meanwhile the changes they rapidly bring come with undetected changes in cultural and social norms regarding the built environment. The growing dependence on computers calls for a more holistic, socially inclusive and place-responsive design practice. This paper aims to shed light on what we are losing in the design process as we rapidly transition to communicate architecture using digital media. The authors contemplate the paradigms in which the human body and physical objects still play an important role in today's design environment.Design/methodology/approachThe paper looks at current trends in developing and establishing “computer imaging” within architectural education, and the architectural profession through parametric design and the area of sustainability. In order to reveal novel and hybrid ways of architectural image-making, it a...
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Papers by Aristofanis Soulikias