Today, we are facing a change in paradigm in the field of Architecture. Information Era Technologies and their impacts on architecture are drastically changing, and their relationship calls for new or adapted concepts, where physical space seamlessly intertwines with digital content, and where the language of electronic connections tie in with that of physical connections.

We are consequently moving towards a different form of “habitats”, where architecture is not merely inhabited, but becomes technologically integrated, interactive and evolutional. If computers were once the size of buildings, buildings are now becoming computers, both in a performative sense, on I/O Communication protocols, and  in a programmable sense, at material-molecule nanoscale; even  becoming operational thanks to self-learning genetic algorithms.

Should we continue constructing rigid and fixed structures?

Or can buildings begin to think?

The Digital Matter research line wishes to explores how Intelligent Construction goes beyond assigning material properties into rigid construction components. The group works with digital content, information and fabrication for the generation of new techniques generating the production of non-rigid, responsive and multi-functional material and construction systems. Hence generating an architecture that is not just mimicking the living but is roaring into life. The method of investigation follows a rigorously experimental approach and progresses in complexity from small scale material sampling to the production of 1:1 scale architectural components and prototypes.