Responsive Environments: developing concepts for sustainable architectures

INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL WITH PHILIP BEESLEY, WATERLOO AND CITA Responsive Environments: developing concepts for sustainable architectures From August 10 – 24, 2009 CITA (Centre for Information Technology and Architecture) at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture wil hold a conjoint summerschoil with Philip Beesley, Waterloo. The summer school has a wide international call for students and other interested parties and will bring together an international team of practitioners and students from all over the world. Summary The summer school investigates how concepts of interactivity and responsiveness can suggest new ways of thinking the relationship between the building and its environment. The contemporary societal context necessitates the thinking of sustainable solutions for our built environment. But how do these challenge the way we think and design space? How do we challenge our understanding of sustainability from being a set of posterior technological implementations to become part of the intellectual thinking and culture of architecture? Where formalist design traditions uphold the autonomy of the architectural artefact, we ask how ideas of interfacing and actuated behaviour can allow a re-conceptualisation of core architectural terms such as context, shelter, programme and extension. The summer school asks: - If interactivity presents us with an inherent openness towards the exterior, how can new models of permeability and exchange challenge the way we think site and enclosure? - If embedded actuation allows for adaptable structures, how does this challenge the primacy of permanence in architectural design? - What are the technologies and materials that can enable the realisation of this new architecture of responsiveness: what is energy, how can we harvest it and how do we exploit it? More infos as well on the related blog http://responsiveenvironments.wordpress.com/ and on http://cita.karch.dk