Paradigms in Computing: Making, Machines, and Models for Design Agency in Architecture

Paradigms in Computing: Making, Machines, and Models for Design Agency in Architecture brings together critical, theoretical, and practical research and design that illustrates the plurality of computing approaches within the broad spectrum of design and mediated practices. It is an interrogation of our primary field of architecture through the lens of computing, and yet one that realizes a productive expanding of our métier’s definition and boundaries. It is a compilation that purposefully promotes architecture’s disciplinary reach and incorporations beyond the design and construction of buildings and cities.

The book offers a glimpse into the wide range of positions and experiences that are
shaping practice and discourse today. The work included in Paradigms in Computing
is evidence that models for enquiry are many and proliferating. As digitalization and computation continue to infuse our processes with new tools and new design environments, some of the trends collected in this book will continue to be central to the
production and speculation of architecture, and others will, in retrospect, be recognized
as the seeds of new, or perhaps multiple, paradigms.

In 2009 Dr. Gerber was appointed Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Southern California. He has since been awarded a courtesy joint appointment at USC's Viterbi School of engineering. Upon joining the USC faculty he developed and taught primarily as a design studio and design technology professor in architecture for both undergraduate and graduate core and electives and curriculum in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Graduate sequence. Prior to joining the USC faculty Dr. Gerber was full time faculty at the Southern California Institute of Architecture from 2006-2009. Dr. Gerber has also taught at UCLA's school of architecture and urban design, the AA's DRL graduate program as a technical tutor, the Laboratory for Design Media at the EPFL in Lausanne Switzerland, Stanford University's CEE department as a guest instructor, and the Tecnologico de Monterrey School of Architecture, Mexico. He is a frequent instructor at Tsinghua University in Beijing and lectures globally on architecture, digital practice, and design technology. Professionally, Dr. Gerber has worked in architectural practice in the United States, Europe, India and Asia including for Zaha Hadid Architects in London, England; for Gehry Technologies in Los Angeles; for Moshe Safdie Architects in Massachusetts, and The Steinberg Group Architects in California. Dr. Gerber has been a board level advisor, and an executive officer for a number of design technology startup companies. As Vice President of Innovation he has lead teams in consulting for architecture, engineering, and construction firms on global digital practice, Building Information Modeling, simulation, advanced uses of design computation and technology integration, and was subsequently a Vice President for Gehry Technologies. Dr. Gerber's research focus is on architectural design and computation and the development of innovative systems, tools, methods, and theories at that intersection. He currently advises, and co advises PhD students from Architecture and Engineering on topics including, domain integration, interactivity and system intelligence, digital media and fabrication, multi-objective design optimization and design agency. David Gerber received his undergraduate architectural education at the University of California Berkeley (Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, 1996). He completed his first professional degree at the Design Research Laboratory of the Architectural Association in London (Master of Architecture, 2000), his post professional research degree (Master of Design Studies, 2003) and his Doctoral studies (Doctor of Design, June 2007) at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Mariana Ibañez is Associate Professor of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She teaches in the architecture core design studio sequence. Ibanez is an Argentinean architect and designer. Before attending the Architectural Association in London for her Master of Architecture, she was one of the principals of FIV Architectura, a firm that focused on the design and construction of ephemeral structures for performance spaces. Her thesis work at the AA focuses on the issue of responsive environments through the implementation of adaptive structures and interphases. The project has been exhibited at the Delft Institute of Technology, the Institute of Contemporary Art in London and the International Biennale of Architecture in Beijing. Reference to this work can be found in publications like AD, Archicreation and Icon magazine. Ibñnez has been a guest critic at the AA, MIT, RISD and other institutions since 2004 and previously taught Design Studio from 1999 to 2002 at the University of Buenos Aires where she had received her Bachelor of Architecture. In 2005 she co-founded I/K Studio with Simon Kim, a research and design practice with projects in London and Buenos Aires. After her graduate studies, she joined the Advanced Geometry Unit at ARUP before going to the office of Zaha Hadid where she developed several projects as well as leading the design for the London Aquatic Centre for the 2012 Olympic Games.