Master Degree in Advanced Design and Digital Architecture, ELISAVA Barcelona School of Design and Engineering

Since the Modernist Movement phased out, architecture theory has shown a strong interest in positivist project methodologies. On the one hand, the study of complexity and dynamic systems has restored interest in the study of networks, "bottom-up” methods, adaptive systems, genetics and the automatic creation of form as the pillars of a new generation of design techniques. The relentless emergence of digital innovations in the world of design has made it possible for us to adopt these new patterns of thought and planning.

Mired as we are in a period of substantial economic restructuring, we have learned that building is a huge responsibility due to the high energy cost involved and its impact on the environment. As architects, we should pay close attention to this phenomenon since the speculative market fails to do so. In addition, we should also be interested in designs which propose highly efficient (not optimal) multifunction-based models.

New technologies also bring us closer to new production processes (digital production) leading to formalisations of non-standard architecture. Mass production processes no longer depend on repetition, but on a system of ongoing mechanical-computational reconfiguration.

Perhaps all this leads us to reflect on the issues to be addressed by contemporary architecture. Should a building be a static object - rigid and airtight - with various gadgets for controlling light, sound and temperature? Or should it rather be an articulated system, capable of constantly interacting with its environment and somehow receiving information which it then reprocesses to respond to this stimulus in a process of self-adjustment? In other words, should a building be an open, dynamic, “living” system instead?

We will plunge into all these issues to learn, develop and innovate in a new way of doing architecture.