The School of
Architecture of The Cooper Union
Arch 482B Master
Program Technology Seminar
Undergraduate Arch 177 Computer Design Seminar Elective
Multidimensional
Space: Machines to "Draw and Build"
Spring 2016
Professor Pablo Lorenzo-Eiroa
This course researched cognitive problems specific to
architecture. Architects incorporate geometry, mathematics and
physics, among other disciplinary knowledge to explore novel
ideas of space, while architecture did not provide yet any novel
material to these disciplines that are investigating
multidimensional space. Since the second half of the last
century, a new tectonic for architecture related to the
criticism of modern universality, which demanded a
reconsideration of place. From this disciplinary expansion
architecture incorporated the ground surface as part of its
syntax. Continuing this expansion, the mathematical
parameterization of the now canonical topological surface
provoked a return to the architectural object, therefore
informing the architectural envelope, inducing an apparently
multidimensional space. Yet the autonomy of the topological
surface promptly assumed a different type of space, a
"topological" space based on bi-continuous deformation and non
linear spatial relationships. Topology reacted by negating
Cartesian order, substituting it but not displacing it.
Topological space does not serve as a system of measurement and
reference as non Euclidean geometry is contained within a range
constructed, regulated, parameterized and measured against a
Cartesian coordinate system. Topology deals with self
intersecting form that cannot be projected bi-dimensionally,
resisting representation, while topological surfaces can only be
represented in a dynamic three dimensional plot.
This advanced content-oriented workshop critically
related formal autonomy to problems of representation, studying
the constitution of space through multiple dimensions of spatial
representation and reference, from 1D to 2D, to 3D to 4D to nD.
Concepts of information, information transferring, information
actualization, interfaces, surface scripting, parametric design,
algorithms structures and processing will rely on digital
strategies between different media and certain software
interfaces but also critical relationships between analog
techniques and digital fabrication. Time-based sequential
diagrams indexing the constitution of the design will be studied
with animated topological constructions and virtual navigations.
Students/Groups: Gabriel Munnich, Yaoyi Fan;
Jemuel Joseph, Luis Figallo; Alberto Martinez Garcia, Kevin
Savillon, Natalia Oliveri; Bing Dai, James Seung Hwan, Jin Lee;
Zachary Hall, Rain Yu Kiu Chan, Mireya Fabregas, Julia Di Pietro
