Futuristic Architecture

Futuristic Architecture swept up in an age of digitization and computing.

Architecture has been deeply affected in the past decade by what some critics are calling “The Third Industrial Revolution.” With questions of craft and ethics being heavily present in the current architectural discourse, projects taking advantage of these new technologies are often criticized for their frivolous or indulgent nature. On the other hand, there has been an emergence of work that exemplifies the most optimistic of this “Third Industrial Revolution” – an architecture that appropriates new technology and computation for the collective good of our cities and people.

We’ve collected 7 of these projects, ranging from exemplars of engineering to craft and artistry; projects that 80 years after Le Corbusier’s modernist handbook hint at a further horizon – towards a newer architecture.

The winner of MoMA PS1’s annual Young Architects’ Program contest, Hy-Fi by The Living is a structure built from bricks of fungus. Though the technology for the bricks had been in use previously at smaller scales, such as in product packaging by by Ecovative, The Living saw the potential for applications in architecture and with the help of engineers at Arup, produced the bricks for this installation. The form was generated using a parametric software to minimize materials for maximum structural integrity as well.

Testing the limits of form finding in parametric design and digital fabrication, the Arabesque Wall is a 3-meter-tall ornamented wall with over 200 million individual surfaces. Devised through algorithmic design and 3D-printed, the project demonstrates the extreme capabilities of computational design, creating a piece that – though not necessarily functional – maintains a quality and level of detail that exceeds human craftsmanship. Although a highly experimental project on its own, the Arabesque Wall seems to exemplify the growing trend of high customization.