The Architectural Imagination at the Digital Turn

The Architectural Imagination at the Digital Turn asks what it means to speak of a digital turn in architecture. It examines how architects at the time engaged with the digital and imagined future modes of practice, and looks at the technological, conceptual, and economic phenomena behind this engagement. It argues that the adoption of digital technology in architecture was far from linear but depended on complex factors, from the operative logic of the technology itself to the context in which it was used and the people who interacted with it. Creating a mosaic-like account, the book presents debates, projects, and publications that changed how architecture was visualized, fabricated, and experienced using digital technology. Spanning the university, cultural institutes, ecologies, architectural bodies, fabrication, and the city, it re-evaluates familiar narratives that emphasized formal explorations; instead, the book aims to complicate the myth of the digital by presenting a nuanced analysis of the material and social context behind each case study. During the 1990s, architects repurposed software and technological concepts from other disciplines and tested them in a design environment. Some architects were fascinated by its effects, others were more critical. Through its discussion on case studies, places, and themes that fundamentally influenced discourse formation in the era, this book offers scholars, researchers and students fresh insights into how architecture can engage with the digital realm today.