Data, Matter, Design: Strategies in Computational Design

Data, Matter, Design presents a comprehensive overview of current design processes that rely on the input of data and use of computational design strategies, and their relationship to an array of outputs.

Technological changes, through the use of computational tools and processes, have radically altered and influenced our relationship to cities and the methods by which we design architecture, urban, and landscape systems. This book presents a wide range of curated projects and contributed texts by leading architects, urbanists, and designers that transform data as an abstraction, into spatial, experiential, and performative configurations within urban ecologies, emerging materials, robotic agents, adaptive fields, and virtual constructs.

Richly illustrated with over 200 images, Data, Matter, Design is an essential read for students, academics, and professionals to evaluate and discuss how data in design methodologies and theoretical discourses have evolved in the last two decades and why processes of data collection, measurement, quantification, simulation, algorithmic control, and their integration into methods of reading and producing spatial conditions, are becoming vital in academic and industry practices.

Frank Melendez is an architectural designer, educator, and researcher. He is a partner at Augmented Architectures and bioMATTERS, LLC, based in New York City and London, and teaches at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture, City College of New York. His practice, teaching, and research focus on the advancement of architectural design through the integration of emerging digital technologies within the built environment. This work engages topics pertaining to architectural drawing, computation, ecology, digital fabrication, bio and synthetic materials, physical computing, and robotics. Frank is the author of Drawing from the Model (Wiley, 2019). He has held academic appointments at Carnegie Mellon University and Louisiana State University, and his work has been supported through grants, fellowships, and memberships including the New York State Council of the Arts/Van Alen Institute, the MacDowell Colony, and NEW INC.

Nancy Diniz is an architect and educator. She is the Course Director of the MA in Biodesign at Central Saint Martins UAL and co-founder of Augmented Architectures and bioMATTERS, LLC, based in New York City and London. Her research and practice engage in topics pertaining to biomaterials and computational design. Her work has been exhibited internationally at various venues including MAAT Lisbon, Lisbon Architecture Triennale, London Design Festival, Istanbul Design Biennale, EYEBEAM, The Today Art Museum, and GAA Foundation. She is the recipient of several grants and fellowships namely from New York State Council on the Arts/Storefront, MacDowell Colony, EYEBEAM, Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, and The Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal. Nancy is a member of the Design and Living Systems Lab at Central Saint Martins UAL.

Marcella Del Signore is an architect, urbanist, educator, scholar, and the principal of X-Topia, a design-research practice that explores the intersection of architecture and urbanism with computational technologies and socio-technical systems. She is an Associate Professor and the Director of the MS. in Architecture, Urban & Regional Design at the New York Institute of Technology, School of Architecture & Design. Her research focuses on interscalar design approaches that explore technologies in the public/social/cultural realm through prototyping, material and fabricated systems, data-driven protocols, and adaptive environments. She is the co-author of Urban Machines: Public Space in a Digital Culture that explores how Information and Communication Technologies have radically changed the way we inhabit and operate in the urban space, and the co-editor of Recalibration: On Imprecision and Infidelity paper and project proceedings published during the 2018 ACADIA Conference where she served as Technical Co-Chair and on the Board of Directors. She has received several awards, lectured, published, and exhibited widely.