Architecture's New Media: Principles, Theories, and Methods of Computer-Aided Design [Hardcover]

Yehuda E. Kalay (Author), William J. Mitchell (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0262112841 | ISBN-13: 978-0262112840 | Publication Date: May 7, 2004

Computer-aided design (CAD) technology has already changed the practice of architecture, and it has the potential to change it even more radically. With Architecture's New Media, Yehuda Kalay offers a comprehensive exposition of the principles, methods, and practices that underlie architectural computing. He discusses the aspects of information technology that are pertinent to architectural design, analyzes the benefits and drawbacks of particular computational methods, and looks at the potential of emerging computational techniques to affect the future of architectural design.CAD technology, introduced in the postwar era and adopted in everyday architectural practice beginning in the 1970s, is now so indispensable that, as William Mitchell observes in his foreword, architectural practice without it is "as unimaginable as writing without a word processor." Yet, Kalay argues, it has had little qualitative effect. This book provides a detailed introduction for practitioners, educators, students, and researchers to aspects of CAD that go beyond the improvements in drafting, modeling, and rendering for which it is commonly used. Computer-aided architectural design (CAAD) is capable of modeling and manipulating objects (not merely their graphical representations), reasoning about and predicting performance of design solutions, generating new design solutions through algorithmic and other methods, managing vast amounts of information, and taking advantage of opportunities offered by the Internet for collaboration across time and space and for design of the virtual "space" of the Internet itself.Architecture's New Media covers five main topics: design methods and computer technology and the relationship between computers and design; the principles of communication and representation; generative design methods; the advantages of computational methods for predicting and evaluating the performance of design solutions; and current and future developments in technology, including collaborative design, intelligent design assistants, construction automation, and virtual design environments.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Carême threw down the gauntlet when he declared architecture the most noble of the arts and pastry the highest form of architecture. A century and half later, Eating Architecture picks up the gauntlet and runs to imaginative lengths in its exploration of the architectural aspects of food and the gastronomic aspects of architecture. An important and original contribution, full of delightful surprises." Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, University Professor and Professor of Performance Studies, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, author of Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage

"*Architecture's New Media* is a very ambitious endeavor to look more deeply into the basic tenets underlying the application of information technology to architecture, and the impacts these developments have had on architectural practice and its products during the last few decades. It will serve as both an excellent introduction to the field and a catalyst for further creativity."--Per Christiansson, IT in Civil Engineering, Aalborg University, Denmark

From the Inside Flap

"Yehuda Kalay masterfully charts the accelerating transformation of the practice of architecture under the relentless onslaught of information technology. His comprehensive new introduction to design computing is an indispensable navigational tool for those trying to understand the past, present, and future of the digital in architecture." --Branko Kolarevic, Department of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania

"Yehuda Kalay chronicles the innovations that have made CAD so pervasive in architectural practice today, and shows why that practice is poised to address a much wider range of issues than it has previously. He does this by portraying, in simple language, the principles, theories, and methods that he believes, will be the foundation of the next wave forward -- architecture's new media." --Thomas Seebohm, University of Waterloo, Canada

"This book is an excellent introduction to media and information technology for architecture and related disciplines. It provides an up-to-date history of these fields and introduces a wide variety of digital technologies to students of design and construction." --Charles Eastman, Professor of Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology

"*Architecture's New Media* is a very ambitious endeavor to look more deeply into the basic tenets underlying the application of information technology to architecture, and the impacts these developments have had on architectural practice and its products during the last few decades. It will serve as both an excellent introduction to the field and a catalyst for further creativity." --Per Christiansson, IT in Civil Engineering, Aalborg University, Denmark

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 536 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (May 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262112841
• ISBN-13: 978-0262112840
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 8.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,578,146 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.