MAA02 23/24 Design Behaviours Thesis Cluster

Photo Credit: RE.Print by Pragati Vasant Patilkul, Design Behaviours Thesis Cluster MAA02 22/23

Intro Description & Structure

Undoubtedly, the building industry accounts for an overwhelming part of the dire effects that 

produce climate change and the current global warming crisis. In practice much of this effect is due to anachronic design strategies which range from designing with unsustainable materials to the massification of building components that are one-use only. Contributing to this effect is a lack of information and accountability in the design process: Architects often make design decisions without being fully informed about the impact of their choices. 

In contrast, as put into evidence by the recent covid crisis, buildings nowadays must have an adaptable capacity to change use, scope and even form, disrupting previous conceptions of the time-span of constructions and provoking daring challenges for adaptive architecture, design for disassembly and providing a smart repurpose of one-life materials that would otherwise go to waste. 

As a response to this, the Design Behaviors Thesis Cluster focuses to tackle this challenge through the use of advanced digital technologies including Computational Design, Material Computing, Human-Computer Interaction, and Artificial Intelligence coupled with the latest tools in Digital and Robotic Fabrication, introducing a model of materially Responsive & Circular Architecture that presents unique possibilities for designing novel performances and dynamic metabolisms in the building industry.

Keywords: circular design, circular/upcycling materials, circular economy, computed matter, smart buildings, adaptive structures, performative architecture, responsive architecture.