New Territories: Digital Materiality from Natural systems to Environmental Impact

Abstract

Digital fabrication, between advancements in software, simulation, and machinery, is pushing practice today towards more complexity in design, allowing for unparalleled explorations. Yet at no time have questions of material knowledge become more relevant and crucial, as technological advancements approach a radical re-invention of the design process. As more designers look towards tactile crafts for material know-how, a parallel interest in natural behaviors has emerged trying to embed environmental performance into the designed objects. New Territories, a yearly architecture and design course on digital design and materiality, allows students to explore processes of digital fabrication in intersection with environmental behaviors and hands-on material experiments. The aim throughout the course is to explore the design of building systems, such as modular facades, intelligent cladding, or adaptable seating, by embedding current digital technologies with an understanding of the environment and physical material behavior. This paper will highlight the importance of learning from nature and physical material explorations to design these active and sustainable systems. It will detail the work done over the course of three years, on themes of building behaviors, environmental responsiveness, concrete plasticity, and material composites. Through the work, the paper will elaborate on the design process, describing the different material experimentations, digital and analog methodologies, and the final results. It will shed light on the persisting importance of material knowledge in intersection with advanced digital fabrication, and the significance of learning from natural systems and bio-properties to embed an active performance in today’s design process.