"Introduction to Computer Revolution in Architecture" by Prof. Antonino Saggio , excellent text to reflect and begin to understand the changes, or rather, perhaps, the revolutions that are going through our age.
The book lends itself to a sequential reading is that "jump" on the network, like a web page, the topics covered and the author's considerations are interconnected, according to a story that crosses the entire writing, bringing catapulting the reader step by step or suddenly in the information revolution taking place.
The concept of the centrality of the role of information is attached to the change of vision in the design, from a linear scheme "if .. then" to a non-linear "what .. if ", made possible by the use of computer and its potential that allow the calculation of thousands of interconnected information. Shift from an intuitive model, functional, in which " parts of a project they worked when they were in an optimal sequence and in proper sizing each other" to a deductive process in a "top-down ".
The potential application of information technology are in my opinion as well as in architectural design, even in that structural, where the possibility of generating a large number of "models" of the real structure, allows the simulation of the same when subjected to stresses of various nature (wind, earthquake, thermal effects, accidental ...). In this area the computer was unbeatable in terms of power and speed of calculation, allowing the structural design, (which in a first phase should coincide with the figure of the architect), from the outset to demonstrate the consistency of the project and its feasibility. The possibility of combining the various information, allows for testing in "real time" solutions and design decisions taken, their time (the famous fourth dimension), assumes a new centrality and a new meaning, like the space. It is almost impossible, in the new vision, to speak of space and time separately.
work of architecture is conceived, designed, built and lived in its temporal and spatial dimension simultaneously, giving rise to different scenarios depending on the location or time of the observer. Interesting parallel space-time in Flatland and informed comment on the figures in the plan: while the color may not be strictly necessary for the identification of the figure, but rather the "circumnavigate" (in a space-time), I must add that this circumnavigation must be strictly constant distance from the object, not being able to distinguish in a plane points or cusp of change of curvature at a distance is not constant, as is the three-dimensional world where perspective distortion comes to our aid. Another observation could be made on intuition or, better awareness of the existence of a space with one more dimension than we are considering. While the expansion and contraction of the circumference would suggest the existence of a sphere that moves and moves perpendicular to the floor, the same phenomenon could simply be caused by an expansion or contraction of the circumference of other causes. From here I look at the difficulty of imagining or model multi-dimensional space if we hold fast to the view of the world in which we live.
The search for new dimensions has its own reason for being, its parallel in the search for new forms of contemporary architecture in the design process, where information plays a dominant role and where the network and interconnections, have replaced the sequential design scheme, now relegated to the past millennium. Of course, the concepts of space and time, are perhaps the most difficult with which mankind has had to confront, the very definition in modern theories of space (I speak of Galilean space-time), took the definition of "bundle", in which there is no identification between a fiber tip and the next, even if the fibers are all connected one, because each point space can not be the same selected point in a moment before. Actually give a connection between the bundles is a very strong condition, and the definition is different when we move in a dynamic space Galilei-Newton, where the inertial motion of a particle is described by the line of the universe in terms of space-time and space becomes similar, but this is outside the present discussion.
I can only share the meaning the word takes on inside information of the architecture, supported by new technologies of automation or BMS, where the computer reigns supreme nell'esaudire's desires and dare I say, in creating new and diverse, ranging from the perception of room for the multi-sensory, until you reach the full integration of communications within and externally, interfacing devices and systems in the past that were completely unrelated to each other.
The information thus assumes a central and fundamental role in the design and evolution of architecture, from a challenge stemming from the "crisis" which This is the first part of the book, leading to new design methodologies and managing the entire creative process, compositional, structural and economic, with applications until a few years ago were unthinkable.
