1-What is Theory? The Digital Turn in Architecture: a History of the Recent Past

Le Corbusier's text, Toward an Architecture, conveys his thoughts and concerns with the introduction of machines in industry in the early 20th century and the phasing out of manual labour. He states that families have changed: "the father no longer teaches his son the myriad secrets of his craft" (Le Corbusier, 1924 pg.295). Machines have revolutionised many industries, with architecture still yet to be impacted. Le Corbusier's view was a negative one, where he believed the dominance of machines in society would reduce human creativity and flair, leaving humans almost redundant.

Philippe Morel's text, Computation or Revolution, takes a more positive angle. At the time of writing (2014), machines were a fully accepted part of society and industry. The next "revolution" is robotics. He discusses how robotics has benefited many industries, for example, "drones used in precision agriculture" (Morel, 2014 pg.84). He wants the architecture industry to embrace new technologies and predicts that "the time will come when architectural design and construction will only be taken seriously if entirely automated and checked by a computer." (Morel, 2014 pg.86) Morel acknowledges that architects were slow to embrace machines in Le Corbusier's time and doesn't want the same thing to happen with the proliferation of robotics.

Mario Carpo's introduction to The Digital Turn in Architecture 1992-2012 discusses the use of computers in architecture. He explores how computers allow designers to design and build like never before. He refers to Charles Jencks' term "nonlinearity" (Carpo, 2013), essentially the randomness of nature. Carpo states that science cannot predict nonlinearity, yet computers can simulate it. He suggests that this has revolutionised architecture.

References

Carpo, M (2013) “introduction,” The Digital Turn in Architecture 1992-2012 : 8-14.

Le Corbusier  (1924/1928/2007) “Architecture or Revolution?” Toward an Architecture, pp.291-307.

Morel, P (2014) "Competition or Revolution?", Architectural Design, Special Issue: Made by Robots: Challenging Architecture at a Large Scale, Volume 84, Issue 3 (May/June 2014), 67-87.