ALL LECTURES ARE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AND WILL BE HELD IN THE OOSTSERRE OF THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE TU DELFT
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FRIDAY29MAY
REVOLUTION 3|4
10:30 – 11:00 ANDREJA ANDREJEVIC
11:00 – 11:30 PETER RUSSELL
11:30 – 12:00 HERMAN HERTZBERGER
14:00 – 14:45 PETER TROXLER
15:00 – 15:45 MARTA RELATS
16:00 – 16:45 ROBERT AISH
17:00 – 17:45 PHILIPPE MOREL
As introduction to the relevancy of InDeSem’s theme, the first lectures series focuses on the socioeconomic consequences of the emergence of digital fabrication techniques. Central to this enquiry will be the shifting position of the architectural designer in this imminent producer society. To lay a foundation for further debate, the first lecture introduces the concept of the Third Industrial Revolution. This concept is then related and made specific to the position of the architect through a lecture on open source design and the maker movement.
A consequent second panel of speakers deliberates on the dawning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution; Industry 4.0. We look ahead on how this age of simulation and intelligent machines, which communicate through cyber-physical systems, propagated over the Internet of Things will change the scape of design and architecture. A panel discussion concludes on newly arising opportunities for, and positions to be taken by the architectural design practice.
SATURDAY30MAY
SPECIAL SESSION
AT RDM DOCK ROTTERDAM
10:30 – 11:15 JELLE FERINGA
11:15 – 12:00 MARIO CARPO
MONDAY01JUNE
CRAFTING EXISTENTIALS
12:00 – 12:45 PAULINE VAN DONGEN
13:00 – 13:45 LEONEL MOURA
18:00 – 18:45 BEN VAN BERKEL
18:45 – 19:30 WIEL ARETS
This series challenges the core concept of craft, and emphasizes the balancing act of design development in between traditional and emerging fabrication techniques, through a focus on the shifts in the process of conception. As we regard the position of the designer in relation to her or his environment, we intend to explore whether the craft of design is a projective occupation, or is to be seen as a bidirectional context aware process. The series explores how related design practices, such as the arts, the fashion and the industrial design industry, have come to embrace these new techniques and technologies. Through a subsequent conversation we question what the architectural practice can learn from these fields in its own adoption of these new methodologies. As such we emphasize the universal anthropological aspects of craft in relation to the designers formalistic intentions and the practice of making. The architect is theoretically positioned in relation to his environment in terms of conception. Through this exploration of the designer-environment relation, we debate on a universal humanist understanding of the existential essence of craft. In order to build this understanding, we question whether designed form is in essence a projection of preconceived thoughts, or the result of the making process itself.
TUESDAY02JUNE
ROBOTIC BUILDING
17:00 – 17:40 HENRIETTE BIER & SINA MOSTAFAVI
17:40 – 18:30 XAVIER DE KESTELIER
18:30 – 19:10 KATHRIN DÖRFLER
19:10 – 19:50 MORITZ DÖRSTELMANN
What consequences do the emergence of robotic design languages and their physical manifestations have on the built environment? This enquiry is examined through two interrelated components. First we explore how, and to what extent design processes are changed when one has to conform to the ways of the robot. This enquiry covers aspects of both human and machine learning and experience, from a technological as well as an artistic perspective. Second we examine how these changing design processes will translate into the social and physical workings of the newly and being built. Is the robotic building environment to be understood as merely a construction site, or an integral longlasting actor within our surroundings? We question what it would mean for architectures underlying interactions, both in their traditional as contemporary understanding, when the tool finds its explicit translation into the made.
WEDNESDAY03JUNE
NEW AESTHETIC MATTERS
17:00 – 17:20 ANDREJ RADMAN
17:20 – 18:05 TOBIAS WALLISSER
18:05 – 18:50 GREG LYNN
18:50 – 19:20 PETER RUSSELL
This lecture series examines the formalistic and (a)semiotic possibilities of the new materialities compelled by digital fabrication techniques. As these new methodologies allow and induce a new mediation of signification through matter, architects are destined to rethink their operational language, and redefine their translation of intention and knowledge into our common ontological and epistemological being. To further explore these matters the first lecture intends to elaborate on a philosophical framework for new materialism. Consequently seeking to apply this thinking to the concept of the informed material and ornament. Is the notion of beauty to be understood as something not thoughtfully crafted but rather emerges through an experimental and ecological process?
THURSDAY04JUNE
PHYSICAL|DIGITAL
17:00 – 17:45 BOB SHEIL
17:45 – 18:30 PHILIP BEESLEY
18:30 – 19:15 THEO JANSEN
We approach this conversation with the assumption that the digital revolution is concluded, and its driving arguments have been commonly accepted. The digital is no longer a forefront, but has become the domain of the mainstream. However despite its wide acclimatization into the practice, architecture still remains realms untouched by the digital. Not only do purely pragmatic constraints prohibit a fair portion of the industry to embark on a quest for the paperless office, but it also seems that through the digital the tactile and manual is evermore revived. These hybrid modes of operation unfold as digital interfaces for traditional tools, as well as in the haptic operation of digital tools. We question how this merger of the analogue and digital will ignite new forms of creativity and allow for a renewed material relation between the (digital) craftsman, or architect for that matter and his intended designed form.
FRIDAY05JUNE
STATUS QUEST
16:00 – 16:45 HERMAN HERTZBERGER
17:00 – 17:30 THIJS ASSELBERGS
17:30 – 18:00 KAS OOSTERHUIS
18:00 – 18:30 MICHIEL RIEDIJK
Re.Craft will reach its conclusion in a lecture series and debate that tries to challenge the position of the practicing architect in the age of digital fabrication. Herman Hertzberger will give an introductory lecture, providing a historical perspective on the craft of architecture. Consequently prominent practicing TU Delft professors are challenged to lecture on their unique vision through concise mission statements. The architects reflect on how the possible changes reposition the architect and the designer. The extended consequent debate tries to redefine the faculty’s perspective through commons and contrast, through questioning on whether this revolution will contribute to making synergetic designs based on a better understanding of the available materials, technologies and tools prior to making the digital input or if this will cause the architect to distance itself even more from the physical outcome.
ABOUT
InDeSem (International Design Seminar) is organized every two years by students of the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment of Delft University of Technology. InDeSem is week full of lectures and a workshop were students of the faculty and international students work on a design project with a specific guiding theme. The seminar provides an environment where students, architects, theorists and teachers can engage in conversation with each other about the current and future position of the architect. The purpose of the seminar is to raise awareness of the consequences of the changing society within the architectural world.
In previous editions the frictions between the different scales in architecture (InDeSem 2013 – Scale Matters), the reduced influence of the built environment as a platform for human interaction (InDeSem 2011 – Losing Ground), the perception of architecture senses other than purely visual (InDeSem 2009 – Point of View), the role of the architect and his legacy (InDeSem 2007 – The Legacy) and the responsibility of the architect in geopolitics: territorial, social, ethnic and religious conflicts and the production and consolidation of power (InDeSem 2005 – A Political Act) was discussed.
InDeSem includes a workshop for 80 students (40 enrolled at the Faculty of Architecture in Delft and 40 external / international), a public lecture series, multiple debates and several exhibitions. In the past InDeSem has already met many famous architects to TU Delft, including Winy Maas, Aldo van Eyck, Adriaan Geuze, Jean Nouvel, Herman Hertzberger, Rem Koolhaas, Ben van Berkel and Renzo Piano as well as theorists Saskia Sassen, Bruno Latour, Anthony Vidler and Michael Speaks.
The InDeSem board, which consists of 6 full time and 5 part time students for this edition, is guided and supported by renowned professors of the faculty. Earlier editions of the seminar were organized under the supervision of Herman Hertzberger, Wick Roling, Michiel Riedijk and Winy Maas. For several editions the head of the Environmental Design department Machiel van Dorst operates as a connecting factor between the different editions.
THEME
We live in an era of rapid technological change. With the emergence of interactive environments, adaptive architecture, data-driven design and new manufacturing techniques society as we know it can change dramatically. As a result, the role of the architect will be redefined inevitably.
The transition from the first to the second Industrial Revolution has had a large impact on the development of our buildings and cities, as well as on how these were created. Ever since the Industrial Revolution the design and making has been separated. The architect was placed far away from the actual production process and therefore separated from the development and innovation of production. Makers became the executers of the ideas produced on the drawing board. However, the last decade has seen a change. We stand at the start of the third Industrial Revolution, which is catalysed by technology and digital production. Digital fabrication techniques and innovation have the potential to rapidly change the shape of our living environment. It is time to investigate its impact on our society, on the scale of products and rooms, to buildings and cities.
The growing possibilities of new technologies generate new ways of creating, making, distribution, personalization and sharing. Digital fabrication not only offers great new technical possibilities, it may also bring the designer closer to the actual process of making again. The relation between the skill of the making and the quality on the final product is applicable to architecture. The design quality should continuously be tested by means of thinking and doing. New fabrication techniques can give the designer new insights in the design process as models can be tested and made easily. Designers and architects have always communicated through sketches, models, diagrams and charts. These means have, in addition to communicating with others, a role in the design process. One could say the architect comes closer to the design again, as the architect of the past. Or does the distance between the architect and his design become bigger with the decrease of hand drawings?
The process may change, but the outcome may certainly differ as well. Architecture may acquire a greater extent of sophistication and uniqueness in design when using these technical developments, as society’s response to the serial production of the past century. Technological innovation can create a richer and unique architecture. By making the architect is placed in a position to investigate the abilities and limitations of the material. When creating and making becomes one the designer may become the executor of buildings without the interference of a constructor or contractor. By means of 1:1 prototyping research is executed to investigate the possibilities of using digital fabrication techniques in the building industry. It may enable more and more on-site production, on scale and at an appropriate time.
With the theme ‘re.craft’ InDeSem 2015 will discuss and reflect on the way emerging technologies may have an impact on the architecture practice. It is about being critical on the available tools, technologies and materials. Looking at the advantages and disadvantages to determine what can be used best to manufacture the wanted form and architecture. By asking critical questions and discuss the changes and opportunities we can develop more insight in our field, but also in the creative sector as a larger whole. Through lectures and a hands-on approach in the form of a workshop ideas will be exchanged and deepened.
