La mano e il computer negli spazi dell’architettura: un patto forte come l’acciaio

The computer in the 80s was just a tool and when it began to be used, the masters of the time showed skepticism in the face of what they considered to be an electronic drafting machine, complete with a built-in compass, surface calculator, three-dimensional image builder and more still. After that, hardware and software have become increasingly sophisticated, to the point that today we are no longer just talking about an instrument but about a prosthesis that allows a significant increase in the design and construction skills of the architect and engineer in designing architectures and large structures. This means that the instrument has become so powerful as to far surpass human capacity in many tasks, giving the possibility to implement unthinkable virtuosity at its inception. The admirers of amanuensis drawing have had to come to terms with it, even though almost everyone today lacks the originality of the hand-made project, a skill that unfortunately our young students are more or less losing. If on the one hand the architectural drawing, coming out of a printer, has lost its manual authorship, on the other the project has gained in many ways, because it can be shared, it results to be much more controlled in all its parts, and it is managed capillary manner during the construction phase. The evolution of culture, and with it of science and technology, is also valid for the computer, without however having to lose contact with hand made drawing, with modeling, or rather with a world rich and full of teachings which, let us not forget, are the foundation of today’s progress. In the presentation at the AiDA conference of 14/15 February 2023 I will aim to demonstrate that the best results are achieved by using, in addition to the mind, both the hand and the computer together.