Digital Hinterlands features a diverse range of work by some of the best recent architecture graduates from London’s Architectural Association, Bartlett, Royal College of Art, and University of Westminster. Organised by Ruairi Glynn and curated in consultation with Arup, this exhibition reveals how the latest computational design and rapid manufacturing processes are providing new ways of understanding and designing space. From built models, 1:1 fragments, material experiments and installations, to interactive devices, virtual worlds and robotics, this exhibition presents the ideas of a wave of young designers, operating on the speculative hinterlands of architectural design.

To celebrate London as a centre of design and innovation, the ‘Digital Architecture London’ Conference held at the Building Centre on 21st September 2009 presented a selection of London’s leading architects, artists, designers and engineers, examing how London is shaping the digital future of the built environment.

Introducing the latest developments in digital design practice, the conference explored new spaces, social interactions, design and fabrication processes, and speculated on architecture’s post-digital futures. DAL09 was directed by Ruairi Glynn with the support of London Digital Week, The Building Centre, Arup & The Bartlett School of Architecture.

Speakers included

Patrik Schumacher, Director and Partner, Zaha Hadid Architects and Co-Founder, Design Research Laboratory, Architectural Association.

Neil Spiller, author of Digital Architecture Now [2008], Visionary Architecture [2007] and many more; Professor of Architecture and Digital Theory; and Director of AVATAR at the Bartlett School of Architecture.

Brett Steele, Director of the Architectural Association School of Architecture and AA Publications; and Co-founder and former Director of the AADRL.

Tony Dunne, Professor and Head of the Design Interactions Department at the Royal College of Art; and Co-founder of Dunne & Raby.

Geoff Manaugh, Author of the popular website BLDGBLOG and recently of The BLDGBLOG Book, Chronicle Books [2009].

Usman Haque, Director of Haque Design; Research and founder of Pachube.com; and recent recipient of the 2009 World Technology Award (Art), Design Museum, 2008 (Interactive) Design of the Year Award and Wellcome Trust Sciart Award.

Daniel Bosia, Director of the Advanced Geometry Unit, Arup

As well as Murray Fraser, Hanif Kara, Rachel Armstrong, Bob Sheil, Charles Walker, Tobi Schneidler, Marcos Cruz, Alvin Huang, Matt Webb, Stephen Gage, Ruairi Glynn, Alan Penn, Marjan Colletti

On the Marionette Theatre, 1810, Heinrich von Kleist

Heinrich von Kleist’s essay in 1810 describes the Marionette in surprisingly similar ways to how we might start describe (or build) a Marionette in code. “Gravity, Pendulums, & Collisions” was a collection of works exploring Kleists test on the ‘BIX’ Media Facade of Peter Cook & Colin Fournier’s Kunsthaus, Graz, in Austria. A series of acts were broadcast out over the city of Graz and internet in November 2008.

Organised at the Lighthouse Gallery, In partnership with RIBA, and the Architecture Center Network Brighton, Slow Furl is the making of a room size textile installation that acts and reacts on its inhabitation. The installation exists as a soft and pliable skin that lines the Lighthouse space. The skin shifts. As guests enter and move within the foyer, the skin moves imperceptibly at deep timeframes, creating new cavities and spaces, revealing slits and apertures.

The project explores the notion of flow. Rather than fixing the digital in a responsive relationship to the user, where every call defines a reply, Slow Furl finds its temporality outside the immediately animate. The thick skin envelops the space in a deep furl. Like a glacier, this robotic membrane, is formed by its slow action, reacting imperceptibly to its inhabitation.

Organised with the support of Eyebeam, The Bartlett School of Architecture, & Parsons The New School for Design.

My special thanks to Eyebeam for hosting us,  Phil Ayres, Carmen Trudell and Jennifer Broutin,  Marek Walczak, David Benjamin and Soo-in Yang for their  talks and Stephen Gage for chairing the night.