The Total Designer

The Total Designer is a reflection on the relationship between technology and creation. In a field like architecture, where the temporal dimension is intrinsic to its reason for being, this text adds its contribution to an essay format that is relatively unusual in architectural historiography, but which has had a huge impact on contemporary architecture: how the historical thematization of postindustrial technology has been one of the key issues in capturing a contemporary condition and in the connection between theoretical-critical activity and professional practice. What is unique here is that Ortega’s interest is focused on the repercussions of a highly technical instrumental context for architects, beyond the conventional fascination with formal prolificacy or the productive efficiency of digital tools. What’s more, its main focus could be defined as an answer to the question of how we should interpret this context in order to help author and time paint together in synchronicity, to help them be more creative and critical, especially in the context of a particular period: in our present, which is already postdigital to some extent. [from the foreword by Iñaki Ábalos]

THe total DESIGNER

Authorship in Architecture in the Post-Digital Age

Lluís Ortega

Lluís Ortega (Barcelona, 1972) ​​ earned his degree in architecture from the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB). He holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University and a PhD from ETSAB. He is cofounder of the architecture firm Sio2Arch (formerly f451) with partners Santiago Ibarra, Xavier Osarte and Esther Segura. He has taught at Harvard University, ETSAB, the University of Alicante, and the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna and is currently an associate professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and a visiting professor at Torcuato di Tella University in Buenos Aires.

He was editor in chief of Quaderns d’Arquitectura i Urbanisme (2003-2005). He is also the editor of a collection of texts by Josep Llinàs, Saques de esquina (2002, with Moisés Puente), GSD Platform (2008) and La digitalización toma el mando (2009) and he is the author of Suprarural (2016, with Ciro Najle). In 2014 he acted as associate curator and designed the installations for the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale.

T HE T OT A L DE SI G NE R Authorship in Architecture in the Post-Digital Age

Published by Actar Publishers, New York / Barcelona www.actar.com

Ll uĂ­s Ort ega

T HE T OT A L DE SI G NE R Authorship in Architecture in the Post-Digital Age

Published by Actar Publishers, New York / Barcelona www.actar.com

Ll uĂ­s Ort ega

6

— Foreward Assaulting the Senses

Iñaki Ábalos

11

Serendipity

21

From Mechanical to Speculative Production

36

The Aesthetics of Play

47

The Author as Total Designer

71

— Epilogue Twenty Considerations on Total Designers

75

— Acknowledgements

P.

5

6

— Foreward Assaulting the Senses

Iñaki Ábalos

11

Serendipity

21

From Mechanical to Speculative Production

36

The Aesthetics of Play

47

The Author as Total Designer

71

— Epilogue Twenty Considerations on Total Designers

75

— Acknowledgements

P.

5

practice. What is unique here is that Ortega’s interest is focused on the repercussions of a highly technical instrumental context for architects, beyond the conventional fascination with formal prolificity or the productive efficiency of digital tools. What’s more, the focus of The Total Designer could be defined as an answer to the question of how we should interpret this context in order to help author and time paint together in synchronicity, to help them be more creative and critical, especially in the context of a particular time: in our present, which is already postdigital to some extent.

I would like to call the reader’s attention to the subtle way in which, in addition to focusing on the problem of digital authorship, Ortega brilliantly lays out a genealogy of places, dates, authors, projects and essays. Their compilation in itself would justify this text, composing an accurate and well-formed historical structure that has an enormous educational value because it generates a context for itself, so to speak. Reading the book would be worthwhile for this contribution alone. However, the text is also a radical and optimistic statement about the future of authorship and architects, who will be able to read this new context as a unique opportunity for expanding and intensifying the problematizing characteristic of architecture and architects. Ortega posits that this evolution stretches out toward a so-called “total designer” who has the ability to work with space while drawing on a profound awareness of its relationship with time in its many dimensions, without relying on pragmatic efficiency, but on the problematization of ideas and scenarios, “assaulting the senses,” as referenced in the text, to paraphrase Antonin Artaud.

— Foreward Assaulting the Senses

Iñaki

Time is also a painter, said Francisco de Goya, referring to how pigments, brush strokes, chromatic harmonies and canvas—and with them authorship—not only depend on the author, but also on technique, on the passage of time, and ultimately on history, both past and future.

Lluís Ortega is one of the few architects with a background in mathematics and an intense academic and professional activity who, from the beginning of his career, has been equally interested in the technological impact of the digitalization of the discipline and its historical contextualization. In that sense, The Total Designer, presented as a necessary reflection on the relationship between technology and creativity, should be received enthusiastically in a field like architecture, where the temporal dimension is intrinsic to its reason for being. This text adds its contribution to an essay format that is relatively unusual in architectural historiography, but which has had a huge impact on contemporary architecture. It is enough to cite the brief and concise essays by Reyner Banham, Luis Fernández-Galiano or Mario Carpo,1 for example, to demonstrate how the historical thematization of postindustrial technology has been one of the key issues in capturing a contemporary condition and in the connection between theoretical-critical activity and professional

THE TOTAL DESIGNER — Lluís Ortega

Ábalos

1 — See, for example: Banham, Reyner, The Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment, London: The Architectural Press, 1969; Fernández-Galiano, Luis, El fuego y la memoria: sobre arquitectura y energía, Madrid: Alianza, 1991 (English version: Fire and Memory: On Architecture and Energy, Cambridge [Mass.]: The MIT Press, 2000); and Carpo, Mario, Architecture in the Age of Printing, Cambridge (Mass.): The MIT Press, 2001 [Editor’s note].

P.

7

practice. What is unique here is that Ortega’s interest is focused on the repercussions of a highly technical instrumental context for architects, beyond the conventional fascination with formal prolificity or the productive efficiency of digital tools. What’s more, the focus of The Total Designer could be defined as an answer to the question of how we should interpret this context in order to help author and time paint together in synchronicity, to help them be more creative and critical, especially in the context of a particular time: in our present, which is already postdigital to some extent.

I would like to call the reader’s attention to the subtle way in which, in addition to focusing on the problem of digital authorship, Ortega brilliantly lays out a genealogy of places, dates, authors, projects and essays. Their compilation in itself would justify this text, composing an accurate and well-formed historical structure that has an enormous educational value because it generates a context for itself, so to speak. Reading the book would be worthwhile for this contribution alone. However, the text is also a radical and optimistic statement about the future of authorship and architects, who will be able to read this new context as a unique opportunity for expanding and intensifying the problematizing characteristic of architecture and architects. Ortega posits that this evolution stretches out toward a so-called “total designer” who has the ability to work with space while drawing on a profound awareness of its relationship with time in its many dimensions, without relying on pragmatic efficiency, but on the problematization of ideas and scenarios, “assaulting the senses,” as referenced in the text, to paraphrase Antonin Artaud.

— Foreward Assaulting the Senses

Iñaki

Time is also a painter, said Francisco de Goya, referring to how pigments, brush strokes, chromatic harmonies and canvas—and with them authorship—not only depend on the author, but also on technique, on the passage of time, and ultimately on history, both past and future.

Lluís Ortega is one of the few architects with a background in mathematics and an intense academic and professional activity who, from the beginning of his career, has been equally interested in the technological impact of the digitalization of the discipline and its historical contextualization. In that sense, The Total Designer, presented as a necessary reflection on the relationship between technology and creativity, should be received enthusiastically in a field like architecture, where the temporal dimension is intrinsic to its reason for being. This text adds its contribution to an essay format that is relatively unusual in architectural historiography, but which has had a huge impact on contemporary architecture. It is enough to cite the brief and concise essays by Reyner Banham, Luis Fernández-Galiano or Mario Carpo,1 for example, to demonstrate how the historical thematization of postindustrial technology has been one of the key issues in capturing a contemporary condition and in the connection between theoretical-critical activity and professional

THE TOTAL DESIGNER — Lluís Ortega

Ábalos

1 — See, for example: Banham, Reyner, The Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment, London: The Architectural Press, 1969; Fernández-Galiano, Luis, El fuego y la memoria: sobre arquitectura y energía, Madrid: Alianza, 1991 (English version: Fire and Memory: On Architecture and Energy, Cambridge [Mass.]: The MIT Press, 2000); and Carpo, Mario, Architecture in the Age of Printing, Cambridge (Mass.): The MIT Press, 2001 [Editor’s note].

P.

7

THE TOTAL DESIGNER — Lluís Ortega

When it comes to describing their work, many emerging architects define their practice as parametric. Or if they don’t explicitly do so themselves, critics classify them as such. However, there are substantial instrumental and conceptual differences among these practices. Within the “parametric” approach, three variants should be distinguished: those that focus on optimization, those that experiment with form, and those that use parametric logic as a type of performative mediation. The latter is the most productive, because it harnesses the potential of parametrics to constitute a platform for the development of sensibilities, problems, and games.

In various studies, forums and publications, attempts have been made to outline and define parametric design. Again and again, the same polemic emerges about whether architecture has always been parametric or whether the introduction of digital technologies has represented a substantive change in that regard.1 This is a false dichotomy. If we limit the definition of parametric to that which depends on a series of parameters, we are misinterpreting a term that was coined to describe a category of work developed digitally or based on computational logic. This restrictive interpretation is clearly calculated and promotes a reductionist view of the potential of digital tools to expand the discipline and provide it with a new operative and conceptual toolkit. On the other hand, the voices that tend to oppose this vision ascribe a redemptive role to parametric design, highlighting a rebirth of the discipline which is, no doubt, disproportionate and impoverishing if it is understood in a way that excludes other predigital values. An appropriate definition of the projects that can be included in the category of parametric design should recognize the three avenues of development laid out above. It follows that parametric design should encompass those projects designed digitally, or based on a computational logic, where the predominant feature is a relational definition of the elements and the systems that make it up.

This list of constitutive protocols has different aims–in

The Aesthetics of Play

P.

37

1 — See, for example, the round table on parametric architecture held at Harvard GSD in December of 2008 and published in: Platform 2, Harvard University/Actar: Cambridge (Mass.)/Barcelona, 2009, pp. 54-57.

THE TOTAL DESIGNER — Lluís Ortega

When it comes to describing their work, many emerging architects define their practice as parametric. Or if they don’t explicitly do so themselves, critics classify them as such. However, there are substantial instrumental and conceptual differences among these practices. Within the “parametric” approach, three variants should be distinguished: those that focus on optimization, those that experiment with form, and those that use parametric logic as a type of performative mediation. The latter is the most productive, because it harnesses the potential of parametrics to constitute a platform for the development of sensibilities, problems, and games.

In various studies, forums and publications, attempts have been made to outline and define parametric design. Again and again, the same polemic emerges about whether architecture has always been parametric or whether the introduction of digital technologies has represented a substantive change in that regard.1 This is a false dichotomy. If we limit the definition of parametric to that which depends on a series of parameters, we are misinterpreting a term that was coined to describe a category of work developed digitally or based on computational logic. This restrictive interpretation is clearly calculated and promotes a reductionist view of the potential of digital tools to expand the discipline and provide it with a new operative and conceptual toolkit. On the other hand, the voices that tend to oppose this vision ascribe a redemptive role to parametric design, highlighting a rebirth of the discipline which is, no doubt, disproportionate and impoverishing if it is understood in a way that excludes other predigital values. An appropriate definition of the projects that can be included in the category of parametric design should recognize the three avenues of development laid out above. It follows that parametric design should encompass those projects designed digitally, or based on a computational logic, where the predominant feature is a relational definition of the elements and the systems that make it up.

This list of constitutive protocols has different aims–in

The Aesthetics of Play

P.

37

1 — See, for example, the round table on parametric architecture held at Harvard GSD in December of 2008 and published in: Platform 2, Harvard University/Actar: Cambridge (Mass.)/Barcelona, 2009, pp. 54-57.

to ensure that the construction was executed according to his instructions, and so he would be recognized as the author, which included providing information in limited doses to make sure he would not be excluded from the process. In an era when the author was not a recognized figure, managing a construction site entailed a whole series of operations directly related to the author’s control and recognition, which necessarily implied managing information. In contrast, Alberti put all his efforts into systems of notation and representation with the aim of guaranteeing that the construction documents would allow for a faithful reproduction of the design as it was conceived by its author. All of Alberti’s efforts and ingenuity were dedicated to representing his designs so that they could be reproduced at a time before the printing press had been invented. Aware of the shortcomings in the process of creating a precise reproduction of an image by hand, Alberti came up with a number of inventions to codify his drawings alphanumerically.

The efforts of pre-typographical culture to describe or codify alphanumerically were immediately surpassed by the visual culture established by Sebastiano Serlio in his treatise accompanied by graphic reproductions of the classical orders. With the advent of the printing press, typographical architecture reached its height due to a new technology that concentrated all the narrative power of the old theories, for the first time, in the transmission of images. The attempts at descriptive precision sparked by Alberti’s experiments to guarantee a precise repetition of his originals were abruptly interrupted by the appearance of a new technology that was much more suitable and effective: typographical reproduction. This shift toward the identical served as the framework for the development of architecture over the next 500 years. During this long period, other technologies appeared that had an important impact, for example, photography. In his fundamental text “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,”3 Walter Benja-

Two episodes are generally recognized as the most significant in terms of the constitution of the idea of the author in architecture: on the one hand, the construction of the dome of the cathedral of Santa Maria dei Fiore in Florence by Filippo Brunelleschi and, on the other, the theory laid out by Leon Battista Alberti—developed in the first, second and ninth books of his De re aedificatoria—on the identification of the design as the main object in the architect’s production and its differentiation from the built work, which is a reproduction of the model defined by the documentary representation.1 Brunelleschi represents the autographic model, in which the built work results directly from the author, whereas for Alberti the true designed object is the project, and the built work is its copy.2 This difference has significant implications. The first is purely disciplinary.

Whereas in Brunelleschi’s model the author is established through authority—information is reserved and then transmitted directly using models that represent the object to be built—in Alberti’s model a mediator appears between the author and the built work: representation systems. For Alberti, the drawing as a documentary representation of the object is the architect’s true work, since someone else will execute the construction.

This aversion to construction is the result of various factors, some of which are social. It is worth recalling Alberti’s aristocratic origins. He belonged to a social class that looked down on manual labor at a time when construction was not associated with the qualities of the liberal arts. There were also other logistic factors, such as the difficulty of travel for the purpose of construction, and political factors, such as power relationships with clients and benefactors, for whom it was not always desirable for a work to be directly associated with its author. Brunelleschi, however, needed to be present on site 1 — See: Carpo, Mario, The Alphabet and the Algorithm, Cambridge (Mass.)/London: The MIT Press, 2011.

2 — “In Alberti’s theory, a building is the identical copy of the architect’s design; with Alberti’s separation in principle between design and making came the modern definition of the architect as an author in the humanistic sense of the term.” Ibid., p. IX.

THE TOTAL DESIGNER — Lluís Ortega

— The shift from Alberti’s subjectivity to parametric subjectivity

P.

51

3 — Benjamin, Walter, “Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierarbeit” [1935], in Tiedemann, Rolf and Schweppenhäuser, Hermann (eds.), Walter Benjamin. Gesammelte Schriften (vols. 1-2), Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1989 (English version: Arendt, Hannah [ed.], “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” in Illuminations, London: Cape, 1970).

to ensure that the construction was executed according to his instructions, and so he would be recognized as the author, which included providing information in limited doses to make sure he would not be excluded from the process. In an era when the author was not a recognized figure, managing a construction site entailed a whole series of operations directly related to the author’s control and recognition, which necessarily implied managing information. In contrast, Alberti put all his efforts into systems of notation and representation with the aim of guaranteeing that the construction documents would allow for a faithful reproduction of the design as it was conceived by its author. All of Alberti’s efforts and ingenuity were dedicated to representing his designs so that they could be reproduced at a time before the printing press had been invented. Aware of the shortcomings in the process of creating a precise reproduction of an image by hand, Alberti came up with a number of inventions to codify his drawings alphanumerically.

The efforts of pre-typographical culture to describe or codify alphanumerically were immediately surpassed by the visual culture established by Sebastiano Serlio in his treatise accompanied by graphic reproductions of the classical orders. With the advent of the printing press, typographical architecture reached its height due to a new technology that concentrated all the narrative power of the old theories, for the first time, in the transmission of images. The attempts at descriptive precision sparked by Alberti’s experiments to guarantee a precise repetition of his originals were abruptly interrupted by the appearance of a new technology that was much more suitable and effective: typographical reproduction. This shift toward the identical served as the framework for the development of architecture over the next 500 years. During this long period, other technologies appeared that had an important impact, for example, photography. In his fundamental text “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,”3 Walter Benja-

Two episodes are generally recognized as the most significant in terms of the constitution of the idea of the author in architecture: on the one hand, the construction of the dome of the cathedral of Santa Maria dei Fiore in Florence by Filippo Brunelleschi and, on the other, the theory laid out by Leon Battista Alberti—developed in the first, second and ninth books of his De re aedificatoria—on the identification of the design as the main object in the architect’s production and its differentiation from the built work, which is a reproduction of the model defined by the documentary representation.1 Brunelleschi represents the autographic model, in which the built work results directly from the author, whereas for Alberti the true designed object is the project, and the built work is its copy.2 This difference has significant implications. The first is purely disciplinary.

Whereas in Brunelleschi’s model the author is established through authority—information is reserved and then transmitted directly using models that represent the object to be built—in Alberti’s model a mediator appears between the author and the built work: representation systems. For Alberti, the drawing as a documentary representation of the object is the architect’s true work, since someone else will execute the construction.

This aversion to construction is the result of various factors, some of which are social. It is worth recalling Alberti’s aristocratic origins. He belonged to a social class that looked down on manual labor at a time when construction was not associated with the qualities of the liberal arts. There were also other logistic factors, such as the difficulty of travel for the purpose of construction, and political factors, such as power relationships with clients and benefactors, for whom it was not always desirable for a work to be directly associated with its author. Brunelleschi, however, needed to be present on site 1 — See: Carpo, Mario, The Alphabet and the Algorithm, Cambridge (Mass.)/London: The MIT Press, 2011.

2 — “In Alberti’s theory, a building is the identical copy of the architect’s design; with Alberti’s separation in principle between design and making came the modern definition of the architect as an author in the humanistic sense of the term.” Ibid., p. IX.

THE TOTAL DESIGNER — Lluís Ortega

— The shift from Alberti’s subjectivity to parametric subjectivity

P.

51

3 — Benjamin, Walter, “Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierarbeit” [1935], in Tiedemann, Rolf and Schweppenhäuser, Hermann (eds.), Walter Benjamin. Gesammelte Schriften (vols. 1-2), Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1989 (English version: Arendt, Hannah [ed.], “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” in Illuminations, London: Cape, 1970).

— Epilogue

—Twenty Considerations on Total Designers Manifesto on the expanded designer or the total designer

The first version of this manifesto was written as an introduction to Ciro Najle’s lecture “Mother House,” given at the Graduate School of Design (GSD) of Harvard University in 2009.

P.

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— Epilogue

—Twenty Considerations on Total Designers Manifesto on the expanded designer or the total designer

The first version of this manifesto was written as an introduction to Ciro Najle’s lecture “Mother House,” given at the Graduate School of Design (GSD) of Harvard University in 2009.

P.

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/

Designers think and talk about design as a language and a convention, and practicing in the discipline consists of belonging to the group that shares that language; total designers work with a material logic, and practicing in the discipline consists of skillfully manipulating historical material.

/

Designers realize diagrams through the use of figuration; total designers realize their diagrams performatively, as opposed to translating them.

/

Designers tend toward singularity; total designers tend toward multiplicity.

/

Designers try to be economical; total designers love excess.

/

Designers hate repetition; total designers love iterations.

/

Designers love novelty; total designers love invention.

/

Designers love the extremes; total designers love the in-between.

/

Designers are tempered by limitations; total designers are radical through constraints.

/

Designers solve problems; total designers generate questions.

/

Designers don’t call their work finished until they feel it is detailed enough; total designers don’t have a sense of finalization.

/

Designers think about their next project; total designers always work as though the current project were their last.

10

Manifiesto sobre el diseñador expandido o diseñador total

11

/

1

Designers tend to limit their projects to certain scales; total designers develop their skills with the intention of learning how to generalize.

12

/

2

Designers teach by transmitting information; total designers teach by creating states of mind.

/

Designers are politically correct; total designers are political.

/

Designers write about design; total designers design texts on design.

/

Designers care for their designs; total designers are obsessive about their projects.

4

5

/

6

Designers are victims of professionalism; total designers are victims of vitality.

THE TOTAL DESIGNER — Lluís Ortega

13 3

14

15

16

17

/

Designers design with materials; total designers are material organizers.

/

Designers try to communicate their projects in a commercial format, generally by using images; total designers share their experiences and their work through public exhibition, generally by using drawings.

7

18 8

/

9

19

Designers hope for good reviews and approval; total designers are interested in action, not approval.

20

P.

73

/

Designers think and talk about design as a language and a convention, and practicing in the discipline consists of belonging to the group that shares that language; total designers work with a material logic, and practicing in the discipline consists of skillfully manipulating historical material.

/

Designers realize diagrams through the use of figuration; total designers realize their diagrams performatively, as opposed to translating them.

/

Designers tend toward singularity; total designers tend toward multiplicity.

/

Designers try to be economical; total designers love excess.

/

Designers hate repetition; total designers love iterations.

/

Designers love novelty; total designers love invention.

/

Designers love the extremes; total designers love the in-between.

/

Designers are tempered by limitations; total designers are radical through constraints.

/

Designers solve problems; total designers generate questions.

/

Designers don’t call their work finished until they feel it is detailed enough; total designers don’t have a sense of finalization.

/

Designers think about their next project; total designers always work as though the current project were their last.

10

Manifiesto sobre el diseñador expandido o diseñador total

11

/

1

Designers tend to limit their projects to certain scales; total designers develop their skills with the intention of learning how to generalize.

12

/

2

Designers teach by transmitting information; total designers teach by creating states of mind.

/

Designers are politically correct; total designers are political.

/

Designers write about design; total designers design texts on design.

/

Designers care for their designs; total designers are obsessive about their projects.

4

5

/

6

Designers are victims of professionalism; total designers are victims of vitality.

THE TOTAL DESIGNER — Lluís Ortega

13 3

14

15

16

17

/

Designers design with materials; total designers are material organizers.

/

Designers try to communicate their projects in a commercial format, generally by using images; total designers share their experiences and their work through public exhibition, generally by using drawings.

7

18 8

/

9

19

Designers hope for good reviews and approval; total designers are interested in action, not approval.

20

P.

73

Published by Actar Publishers, New York/Barcelona www.actar.com Author Lluís Ortega Editorial coordination Moisés Puente Graphic design Roger Adam Translation Angela Kay Bunning Proofreading Paul Hammond

ISBN: 9781945150456 PCN: 2017931244 A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., USA All rights reserved © Lluís Ortega, 2017 © of the edition, Actar Publishers, 2017 Distribution Actar D, Inc. New York 440 Park Avenue, 17th Floor New York, NY 10016 Phone +1 2129662207 salesnewyork@actar-d.com

THE TOTAL DESIGNER — Lluís Ortega

Printing XXXX

Barcelona Roca i Batlle 2-4 08023 Barcelona, SP T +34 933 282 183 eurosales@actar-d.com

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in other ways, and storage in data banks. For any king of use, permission of the copyright owner must be obtained.

A simultaneous edition in Spanish is published by Puente editores, Barcelona.

P.

77

Published by Actar Publishers, New York/Barcelona www.actar.com Author Lluís Ortega Editorial coordination Moisés Puente Graphic design Roger Adam Translation Angela Kay Bunning Proofreading Paul Hammond

ISBN: 9781945150456 PCN: 2017931244 A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., USA All rights reserved © Lluís Ortega, 2017 © of the edition, Actar Publishers, 2017 Distribution Actar D, Inc. New York 440 Park Avenue, 17th Floor New York, NY 10016 Phone +1 2129662207 salesnewyork@actar-d.com

THE TOTAL DESIGNER — Lluís Ortega

Printing XXXX

Barcelona Roca i Batlle 2-4 08023 Barcelona, SP T +34 933 282 183 eurosales@actar-d.com

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in other ways, and storage in data banks. For any king of use, permission of the copyright owner must be obtained.

A simultaneous edition in Spanish is published by Puente editores, Barcelona.

P.

77

The Total Designer is a reflection on the relationship between technology and creation. In a field like architecture, where the temporal dimension is intrinsic to its reason for being, this text adds its contribution to an essay format that is relatively unusual in architectural historiography, but which has had a huge impact on contemporary architecture: how the historical thematization of postindustrial technology has been one of the key issues in capturing a contemporary condition and in the connection between theoretical-critical activity and professional practice. What is unique here is that Ortega’s interest is focused on the repercussions of a highly technical instrumental context for architects, beyond the conventional fascination with formal prolificacy or the productive efficiency of digital tools. What’s more, its main focus could be defined as an answer to the question of how we should interpret this context in order to help author and time paint together in synchronicity, to help them be more creative and critical, especially in the context of a particular period: in our present, which is already postdigital to some extent.

[from the foreword by Iñaki Ábalos]

THe total DESIGNER

Authorship in Architecture in the Post-Digital Age

Lluís Ortega

Lluís Ortega (Barcelona, 1972) ​​ earned his degree in architecture from the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB). He holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University and a PhD from ETSAB. He is cofounder of the architecture firm Sio2Arch (formerly f451) with partners Santiago Ibarra, Xavier Osarte and Esther Segura. He has taught at Harvard University, ETSAB, the University of Alicante, and the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna and is currently an associate professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and a visiting professor at Torcuato di Tella University in Buenos Aires.

He was editor in chief of Quaderns d’Arquitectura i Urbanisme (2003-2005). He is also the editor of a collection of texts by Josep Llinàs, Saques de esquina (2002, with Moisés Puente), GSD Platform (2008) and La digitalización toma el mando (2009) and he is the author of Suprarural (2016, with Ciro Najle). In 2014 he acted as associate curator and designed the installations for the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale.