Proceedings of the 37th International Conference on Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe (eCAADe) & 23rd Conference of the Iberoamerican Society Digital Graphics [Volume 1]

Abstract

Going back in history, the 1st Industrial Revolution occurred between the 18th and 19th centuries, when water and steam power led to the mechanization period. By then, social changes radically transformed cities and, together with manufactured materials like steel and glass, promoted the emergence of new building design typologies like the railway station. In the end of the 19th century, the advent of electrical power triggered mass production systems. This 2nd Revolution affected the building construction industry in many ways, inspiring the birth to the modern movement. For some, standardization emerged as an enemy of arts and crafts, while, for others, it was an opportunity to embrace new design agendas, where construction economy and quality could be controlled in novel ways. More recently, electronics and information technology fostered the 3rd Revolution with the production automation. In architecture, the progressive use of digital design, analysis and fabrication processes started to replace the traditional means of analogical representation. This opened the door for the exploration of a higher degree of design freedom, complexity and customization. The rise of the Internet also changed the way architects communicated and promoted the emergence of global architectural practices in the planet. Today, in the beginning of the 21th century, we are in a moment of profound and accelerated changes in the way we perceive and interact with(in) the world, which many authors, like Klaus Schwab, do not hesitate to call as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Extraordinary advancements in areas like mobile communication, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, blockchain, nanotechnology, biotechnology, facial recognition, robotics or additive manufacturing are fusing the physical, biological and digital systems of production. Such technological context has triggered a series of disruptive concepts and innovations, like the smart-phone, social networks, online gaming, internet of things, smart materials, interactive environments, personal fabrication, 3D printing, virtual and augmented realities, drones, selfdriving cars or the smart cities, which, all together, are drawing a radically new world.