Architecture & Technology

The introduction of new technology is often a complex process that retains strong ties with the cultural context into which the technology is introduced. We live in the computer age, yet the process of its unfolding is far from permitting us the ability to understand the full potential of its impact. This is particularly true due to the rapid-paced, innovative, and continually changing nature of technology development. With respect to architecture, the computer as a medium for long-distance design collaboration, visualizing negative space as a problem-solving strategy, requiring code compliance software, and as a graphic grammar system that generates designs for human interpretation has become a great inspiration and practical tool for architects and other artists. Recent technologies have caused a shift in the perspective of computer technology and design from an architectural perspective. As Chesher (27) maintains, "Virtual reality�proposed a paradigm shift: that computers can be �reality generators,' not just symbol processes."

Hegel believed that the transition of art history represents a dialectic development from the "physical" to the "mental." He used examples of Egyptian architecture, Grecian sculpture, and modern painting to prove his theory. Afterwards, Italian philosopher Beneditto Croce proposed an even more radical notion, that art lay only in the "mental." Though conventional art of Croce's era could not be liberated from physical constrain

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this space remains wholly artificial. However, during the design process, cyberspace and virtual reality technologies offer the architect great enhancements in visualization, sensualization, and physical experience of virtual rooms. All of this is achieved at a fraction of the cost and speed of achieving such outcomes in physical space. In this way, virtual reality designs offer architects in small firms the tools to compete economically with larger firms. As architect Mike Rosen of Mike Rosen & Associates declares, "Virtual reality levels the playing field between big firms and small firms by allowing clients to experiences spaces as architects develop designs" (Mays 162). New hyper- and multi-media technologies offer architects the ability to introduce cyberspace simulations into designs with enhanced and more numerous options for artistic quality. For example, immersion and non-immersion virtual reality technologies offer the architectural designers a better perception of space and the opportunity to explore simulated buildings physically. Details are easier to see and minor flaws are more readily detected. Likewise, higher resolution is possible and model complexity is broadened. It is easier and quicker to manipulate the

Category: Science - A