Expressive Form: A Conceptual Approach to Computational Design

Front Cover
Spon Press, 2003 - Architecture - 90 pages
The mode of utilizing computers in architecture today is vague, inexplicit, and, often, arbitrary. Designers tend to conceptualize entities or processes and then enter, manipulate and print using computer systems. Often, theories of design and form are "translated" into computational ones, merely to participate in the digital fashion. This situation creates confusion, misunderstanding, and inconsistency to both students and practitioners over the appropriate use of computers in architecture and design. Challenging these assumptions, this book offers an appropriate theoretical context for computer-based experimentations, explorations, and form-making. By employing computational and formal theories, the author offers a theoretical bridge between the establishment of the past and the potential of the future. With the increased use of computers, architecture has found itself in the midst of a plethora of possible uses. The book offers some alternative directions, which combine theoretical inquiry with practical implementation. Notions of exaggeration, hybrid, kinetic, algorithmic, fold and warp are examined from different points of view: historical, mathematical, philosophical or critical. Expressive Form offers a unique perspective on the use of computers related to aesthetics and specifically to architectural form and design. As an architect, professor and computer scientist, Kostas Terzidis is able to discern the unique and worthwhile features of computation as they apply to the idiosyncratic world of architectural design. He provides a source of inspiration for students and professionals.

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About the author (2003)

Kostas Terzidis is an Assistant Professor in UCLA's Department of Architecture. His work focuses on creative experimentation within the threshold between arts, architecture, music, and computer science. He has studied extensively the implications of virtual reality for the representation of space and spatiality in art and architecture. He is the author of many computer applications on form-making, morphing, filtering, and network mapping. His most recent work is the development of a visualization system in Java, called zhapes and a 3D-morphing system called morphZhapes. He has presented papers and lectured widely on both virtual reality and algorithmic design systems at conferences ranging from design methods to engineering applications.