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SUMMARY:ENAC Seminar Series by Mr G. Retsin
DTSTART:20201203T154500
DTEND:20201203T163000
DTSTAMP:20260512T233942Z
UID:768f20965c837409a0e879e6fa22aea971d178206c071f038ecf20b4
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Gilles Retsin\n15:45 – 16:30 – Mr Gilles Retsin\nLecturer 
 at The Bartlett School of Architecture\, University College London\, UK\n\
 nTalk title:\nHousing of Bits and Pieces: Automation and The Possibility o
 f a Discrete Architecture\n\nAbstract:\nThe past few decades\, digital tec
 hnologies have reconfigured our lives and world in the most far-reaching m
 anner possible. However\, in our build environment\, little has changed. D
 espite years of digital research and experimentation\, building remains a 
 largely analog practice\, characterised by a long\, disconnected\, unequal
  and wasteful production chain. While the world is facing a series of incr
 easingly radical challenges\, from climate change to the global housing cr
 isis and rising inequality\, the digital in architecture remained predomin
 antly invested in an isolated project of complex form\, curvilinearity and
  style. At the same time\, following the emergence of the digital economy\
 , new venture-capital backed tech-platforms are shaping up to fill in the 
 gap left behind by the parametric avant-garde:  the global supply of home
 s.\nOperating in the post-2008 climate\, the so-called Discrete proposes a
 n alternative approach to the digital in architecture\, based on an unders
 tanding of digital technologies as a form of Automation - with a social\, 
 political and economic premise. The discrete advances a computational unde
 rstanding of architectural parts as versatile\, generic and autonomous uni
 ts\, capable of fundamentally re-writing the way we procure\, build\, desi
 gn and inhabit housing. This discrete approach to automation combines the 
 efficiency and scalability of modular prefabrication with the complexity\,
  open-endedness\, and adaptability of the digital. From an architectural p
 erspective\, these automated processes result in a new architectural synta
 x defined only by part-part relations\, stripped down to its raw and primi
 tive state - its primordial core.\nThis lecture will explore the possibili
 ty and consequences of a discrete architecture\, as a radical proposition 
 for the digital in architecture. By resetting the entirety of housing thro
 ugh a fundamentally digital approach\, architecture itself has the potenti
 al to contribute to a more just\, equal\, sustainable and inspiring way of
  inhabiting our planet.\n\n\nShort bio:\nOriginally from Belgium\, Gilles 
 Retsin is a London based architect and designer whose work is interested i
 n the impact of computation on the core principles of architecture – the
  bones rather than the skin. He studied architecture in Belgium\, Chile an
 d the UK\, where he graduated from the Architectural Association. His desi
 gn work\, research and critical discourse has been internationally recogni
 sed through awards\, lectures and exhibitions at major cultural institutio
 ns such as the Museum of Art and Design in New York\, the Royal Academy of
  Arts in London\, Tallinn Architecture Biennale and the Centre Pompidou in
  Paris. Gilles Retsin works on a range of scales and has qualified with hi
 s proposals for the Budapest New National Gallery and a concert hall in Nu
 remberg. He recently edited an issue of Architectural Design (AD) on the D
 iscrete and has co-edited Robotic Building: Architecture in the Age of Aut
 omation\, with Detail Verlag. Gilles Retsin is Programme Director of the B
 -Pro M.Arch Architectural Design at UCL\, the Bartlett School of Architect
 ure. He is also co-founder of UCL Design Computation Lab\, which does high
  profile research into new design and fabrication technologies\, and its s
 pin-off AUAR ltd ( Automated Architecture) a design-tech consultancy based
  in London. Before founding Gilles Retsin Architecture\, Gilles worked as 
 a project architect with Christian Kerez in Zurich.\n\n\n 
LOCATION:Zoom https://epfl.zoom.us/j/89433693089
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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