eCAADe 2023 Digital Design Reconsidered - Volume 1

The conference logo is a bird’s eye view of spiral stairs that join and separate – an homage to the famous double spiral staircase in Graz, a tourist attraction of this city and a must-see for any architecturally minded visitor. Carved out of limestone, the medieval construction of the original is a daring feat of masonry as well as a symbolic gesture. The design speaks of separation and reconciliation: The paths of two people that climb the double spiral stairs separate and then meet again at each platform. The relationship between architectural design and the growing digital repertoire of tools and possibilities seems to undergo similar cycles of attraction and rejection: enthusiasm about digital innovations – whether in Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Energy Design, Robotic Fabrication, the many Dimensions of BIM or, as right now, in AI and Machine Learning – is typically followed by a certain disillusionment and a realization that the promises were somewhat overblown. But a turn away from these digital innovations can only be temporary. In our call for papers we refer to the first and second ‘digital turns’, a term Mario Carpo coined. Yes, it’s a bit of a pun, but you could indeed see these digital turns in our logo as well. Carpo would probably agree that design and the digital have become inseparably intertwined. While they may be circling in different directions, an innovative rejoinder is always just around the corner. The theme of the conference asked participants to re-consider the relationship between Design and the Digital. The notion of a cycle is already present in the syllable “re”. Indeed, 20 years earlier, in 2003, we held an ECAADE conference in Graz simply under the title “Digital Design” and our re-using – or is it re-cycling? – the theme can be seen as the completion of one of those cycles described above: One level up, we meet again, we’ve come full circle. The question of the relationship between Design and the Digital is still in flux, still worthy of renewed consideration. There is a historical notion implicit in the theme. To reconsider something, one needs to take a step back, to look into the past as well as into the future. Indeed, at this conference we wanted to take a longer view, something not done often enough in the fast-paced world of digital technology. Carefully considering one’s past can be a source of inspiration. In fact, the double spiral stair that inspired our conference logo also inspired many architects through the ages. Konrad Wachsmann, for example, is said to have come up with his famous Grapevine assembly system based on this double spiral stair and its intricate joinery. More recently, Rem Koolhaas deemed the double spiral staircase in Graz important enough to include a detailed model of it in his “elements of architecture” exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2014. Our interpretation of the stair is a typically digital one, you might say. First of all: it’s a rendering of a virtual model; it only exists inside a computer. Secondly, this virtual model isn’t true to the original. Instead, it does what the digital has made so easy to do: it exaggerates. Where the original has just two spiral stairs that separate and join, our model consists of countless stairs that are joined in this way. We see only a part of the model, but the stairs appear to continue in all directions. The implication is of an endless field of spiral stairs. As the 3D model was generated with a parametric script, it would be very easy to change all parameters of it – including the number of stairs that make it up. Everyone at this conference is familiar with the concept of parametric design: it makes generating models of seemingly endless amounts of connected spiral stairs really easy. Although, of course, if we’re too literal about the term ‘endless’, generating our stair model will eventually crash even the most advanced computers. We know that, too. – That's another truth about the Digital: it makes a promise of infinity, which, in the end, it can’t keep. And even if it could: what’s the point of just adding more of the same: more variations, more options, more possible ways to get lost? Doesn’t the original double spiral staircase contain all those derivatives already? Don’t we know that ‘more’ isn’t necessarily better? In the original double spiral stair the happy end is guaranteed: the lovers’ paths meet at the top as well as when they exit the building. Therefore, the stair is also colloquially known as the Busserlstiege (the kissing stair) or the Versöhnungsstiege (reconciliation stair). In our digitally enhanced version, this outcome is no longer clear: we can choose between multiple directions at each level and we risk losing sight of the one we were with. This is also emblematic of our field of research. eCAADe was founded to promote “good practice and sharing information in relation to the use of computers in research and education in architecture and related professions” (see ecaade.org). That may have seemed a straightforward proposition forty years ago, when the association was founded. A look at the breadth and depth of research topics presented and discussed at this conference (and as a consequence in this book, for which you’re reading the editorial) shows how the field has developed over these forty years. There are sessions on Digital Design Education, on Digital Fabrication, on Virtual Reality, on Virtual Heritage, on Generative Design and Machine Learning, on Digital Cities, on Simulation and Digital Twins, on BIM, on Sustainability, on Circular Design, on Design Theory and on Digital Design Experimentations. We hope you will find what you’re looking for in this book and at the conference – and maybe even more than that: surprising turns and happy encounters between Design and the Digital.

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