Lecture: Marshall Prado

Equilibrium: Finding Balance in Design, Technology and Making

Digital technology is constantly evolving. Advancements in tools, materials and practices affect how we design and construct our built environment. Computational tools and digital fabrication processes offer innovative potential for architectural design applications. Using these technologies, we can consider states of equilibrium where the various, often conflicting design drivers, are negotiated to find balanced design and production solutions. These research methods push the boundaries of conventional design and construction towards discussions of performance, efficiency, sustainability, and adaptability. This research exists in the convergence of design, engineering, and various branches of formal, natural, and applied sciences. The work presented showcases this design methodology applied across scales and applications, from micro- scale material constructs to urban-scale spatial analysis.

This lecture, Assistant Professor Marshall Prado highlights ideas of integrative computational design as an ethos and design methodology. Beyond the aesthetic or formal considerations, all explorations challenge norms of performance, resourcefulness, and industrialization. The research goal is to create informed design solutions that balance the complexity of interrelated systems across scales resulting in comprehensive and efficient outcomes that exhibit novel design expression.

This lecture is funded by the Robert B. Church III Memorial Lecture Fund.

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