In the pragmatic arena of architecture, where the foundation is laid in the tangible and the functional, a profound shift is underway—a shift that beckons architects to transcend the boundaries of practicality and engage with the ephemeral, speculative, and culturally resonant facets of their craft. In an era dominated by instant gratification, fleeting trends, and the constant flux of digital imagery, architecture finds itself at a crossroads. Traditionally anchored in permanence, architects have been steadfast in their commitment to designing tangible spaces that cater to human needs. Yet, in their pursuit of practicality, the discipline has inadvertently distanced itself from the nuanced realms of imagination, experimentation, and cultural discourse. As architects ardently focus on the physicality of their creations, the discipline witnesses a gradual erosion of its once vibrant and visionary dimensions. The pace of architectural innovation seems to lag behind the relentless evolution of societal values, aesthetic preferences, and cultural dynamics. The dichotomy between the practical and the theoretical persists, with the former often overshadowing the latter in an environment increasingly defined by rigidity and tradition. Amidst this tension, the need for a revival of discussions surrounding the aesthetic and cultural relevance of architecture becomes apparent. The relentless march of pop culture, marked by the ephemeral nature of Instagram reels and Tik- Tok trends, demands a recalibration of architectural discourse. It is imperative to acknowledge that innovation in architecture transcends the merely practical; it must also navigate the realms of beauty, culture, and the human experience within the built environment. In this context, ArchPOP emerges as a beacon—a platform that seeks to bridge the chasm between the pragmatic and the speculative, the tangible and the ephemeral. By drawing inspiration from the world of fashion, where the interplay of theory and practice is seamlessly woven into the fabric of creativity, ArchPOP aims to reintroduce the cultural relevance of architecture in an age dominated by disposable images and ever-shifting trends. As we navigate through the following exploration, we delve into the symbiotic relationship between architecture and fashion, examining how the latter navigates the cultural zeitgeist with unparalleled agility and applying the same treatment to the architecture realm. It is an invitation to architects to reevaluate their roles, to recognise that the discipline is not a solitary endeavour but a collective activity. ArchPOP reclaims the tradition of radical architecture magazines that embodied the spirit of the 60s and 70s. This issue aims to re-contextualise the progressive and bold positions animating these publications, delving into contemporary topics and engaging with the digital ages. The physicality and the immediateness of the magazine format allows architecture to be part of the everyday, easing the dissemination of information and drawing inspiration form to the variety of fashion editorials that to this day play an essential role in the industry, experimenting with aesthetic and fostering collaborations. Join us in this manifesto for change—a call to architects to embrace the dynamic interplay between the practical and the theoretical, the tangible and the speculative. In the relentless stream of information and the transient currents of pop culture, ArchPOP seeks to rekindle the flame of innovation in architecture, fostering a holistic approach that resonates with the ever-evolving desires of a society living in the whirlwind of the digital age.

This article explores stories of the first digital tools in architectural design, with a focus on the Cybernetics movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Through an examination of pioneering technologies, their initial promises, and the subsequent reasons for their failure or abandonment, the text aims to shed light on the historical development of digital tools in architecture and design. By questioning prevailing definitions of success and failure within the context of architecture technology history, the study encourages critical reflections on alternative paths that may have shaped current digital toolsets. Additionally, the analysis includes an exploration of the sentiments of professionals, users, and the broader public during this transformative period, revealing the significant influence of community voices on the trajectory of digital architectural toolkits. Drawing upon extensive literature reviews, archival document analysis, and case studies including the “Lightpen”, “Sketchpad”, or the “Lincoln Wand”, this article contributes to filling the gaps in existing knowledge regarding the lesser known, often peculiar from modern perspective, cybernetic tools in the context of architectural design.

At the EU Parliament in Brussels, deliberation and decision-making processes are stuck in an ever-turning hamster wheel designed to reach unanimous compromises. The architecture of the so-called Consensusland provides spatial settings exclusively designed for the purpose of reaching compromises and not offering room where discussions and conflicts can be discussed open-endedly. What is supposed to be a building for exchange and deliberation rather nourishes an atmosphere of complete consensus.
The Line of Dissent offers both, an urbanistic and architectural approach to institutionalize a citizen's assembly integrated into the existing parliament's complex. By exploring different spatial settings and sequences, a myriad of assembly and information spaces is being created. Here, the participants of the citizen’s assembly are enabled to come up with thoughts and ideas on the future of the EU where an architecture characterised by transparency and openness nourishes an atmosphere of dissent. The design seeks to blur the borders between the public and the political realm to enhance the permeability of both spheres and to eventually lower the threshold for citizens willing to engage in the decision-making processes on an European level.

Our world is going through several transitions at the time of writing. One of them is the digital transition. The digital transition changes the way we interact with each other, it gives us new ways to learn, new ways to work. It changes how society functions on a global scale. The digital transition makes people more individualised. It means lack of consensus and uncertainty. This will inevitably also change the role of the urban designer and architect. How we can design for such an individualised ever-changing society? This thesis explores how the digital transition affects both the design process and the design itself. Approaching the changes brought forth by the digital transition from the perspective of the individual. It uses storytelling to give shape to individuals that all have very different needs, but are able to design together through the use of pattern language. It shows how co-design must play a much larger role within our design process. As for the design itself, it breaks the notion of having an end product as design. Design becomes a perpetual cycle that gets adapted by its different individual users over time. Within this cycle, the urban designer, or architect, has the role of mediator, a person who is able to bring forth creative solutions and someone who speculates on future changes that might occur in the design.

As artificial intelligence (AI) technology progressively integrates into daily life and domestic environments, it instigates a pressing inquiry: What new spatial implications can arise from the integration of artificially intelligent technologies within homes, and what role can these AI technologies play in reinforcing social interaction among humans and between humans and machines? This paper does not predict the future but instead imagines a fictitious trajectory of the possible development of selected technologies and their spatial impacts on domestic environments through design. The aim is to incite a discussion that tests and explores core values that can be adopted or avoided in the future. This process allows for the contemplation and discourse around these novel technologies, thereby increasing the chances of their positive societal impact.

The paper further expands on the underutilised potential of technology within the architectural field compared to other disciplines more adeptly adjusted to the digital age. Utilising the 'Futurecraft' method, it frames a vision of potential futures, thereby encouraging robust discussion about the role of technology, who should design them, and the ideal ways of implementation. Amid the second wave of AI development, the urgency of examining the human-machine relationship is emphasized, especially given the rise and impact of Large Language Models (LLMs), including models like Chat GPT.

The paper posits the need for a 'Living Lab' - a controlled environment where new technologies can be deployed and tested to understand their broader societal impact. It addresses the ethical dilemmas tied to AI's rapid development and the potential adverse effects of these technologies, shedding light on the possible disconnect between humans and their environments brought about by automation. The discussion aims to develop narratives and spaces where individuals can explore their relationship with technology while ensuring safe and ethical implementation.

The study ultimately aspires to create a stronger narrative that will bring about democratic architecture and consider the rise of LLMs within the field of architecture, underscoring their potential impact and significance.

Since 2020, when remote working became standard practice worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries, including the Caribbean Island Curaçao, have introduced remote working visas targeting digital nomads to boost their local economy. As a result, the phenomenon of digital nomadism has seen a rapid increase in the last few years. Digital nomads are mobile professionals who use digital technologies and leverage workplace flexibility to perform their work remotely, while travelling on a (semi-)permanent basis living a nomadic life. Two years after the introduction of these visas, local communities of popular digital nomad destinations are protesting the negative consequences in the socio-spatial context resulting from the unrestricted access given to digital nomads. Since the economy of Curaçao is partly dependent on tourism, this thesis aims to investigate what spatial interventions in Curaçao can facilitate mutually beneficial co-existence between digital nomads and local communities beyond the potential economic benefits.
Henri Lefebvre’s spatial triad theory was used to systematically investigate the social, economic, and spatial practices of digital nomads in juxtaposition with the social and material infrastructures of Curaçao. The analysis followed the structure of the model for planetary-scale computation The Stack by Benjamin Bratton. The results include an overview of the full spectrum of spatial externalities of digital nomadism as well as an evaluation of the affordances of the island’s infrastructures to support a multiplicity of mobilities. Furthermore, the juxtaposition uncovered ‘pursuit of knowledge’ as common ground between digital nomad and settled communities. The material expression of this common ground was then imagined as a civil (knowledge) campus. The civil campus as a concept is a vision for the conscious and active involvement of all citizens and visitors to adaptively shape social spaces together based on shared values of collaboration, purpose, and a mindset of continuous learning. As a material place, the civil campus is an inclusive and porous knowledge-focused hub. It is formed through bottom-up adaptive processes that serve both the locals and the digital nomads, thereby enabling local communities to benefit from knowledge exchange with this global community. The public library acts as central knowledge node and meeting place, and spatial interventions in the public realm on the micro (furniture), mezzo (architecture), and macro (neighbourhood) level activate and support social interaction and active knowledge exchange between digital nomads and settled locals.

The realm of architectural design and conceptualization, despite witnessing advancements in design complexity facilitated by technological tools and fabrication techniques, appears to have experienced limited transformative change over time in the way we begin our design process. But is there an alternative way to look at architecture ? Perhaps a completely different way to begin a project ? Can the age of data abundance cause a shift in the way we look at architectural design ?

Boden – a German term that can refer to soil and land, ground and floor, territory and habitat. Overhearing Boden in Berlin’s streets these days will, however, oftentimes result in tuning into a conversation about land ownership, the soaring cost of living and the city in transition. People, it seems, are worried. They are increasingly affected by effects of market processes, speculation, a marginalising financial approach* towards the city. They are not alone: Also Berlin's diverse ecological actors are threatened by such profit-oriented practices. Therefore, the term “Boden“ in Berlin has been conceptualised for discussing processes originating in and revolving around land tenure. In turn, its tangible qualities and positive notions are covered up, buried by a merely technical and somewhat pessimistic discussion. The inherent ambivalence is leaving Berlin’s Boden, stripping it off its multiple social and ecological facets: Boden has become a bare quantifiable medium.
This overheard finding is the spark of this thesis. While unsuccessfully searching for a singular translation of Boden, I started to discover more and more dimensions, relations, associations with the term. Thus, the question arose: Can we solve the multi-dimensional issues Boden faces in Berlin by exploring its stratified character, its layers of meaning? How can Boden in the city become tangible, meaningful, a resource - Bodenschatz - again? Can Boden itself become an ally for the city’s human and non-human inhabitants to solve the Bodenfrage issues?
The resulting proposal, Bodenschatz, is a multi-layered exploration of dimensions comprised in Berlin’s Boden. This is approached by science fiction: taking into account the status quo of science and research, it is reimagining urban futures as a fictional prototype of cyber-socio-ecological cohabitation on Berlin’s Boden. Its main vector is not analysis but action towards re-taking socio-ecological urban agency in Berlin. Architecture becomes a vehicle to spatialise this, the missing link to fill in the gaps between science and fiction. Without romanticism or fatalism, the project is a comment on the current state of affairs - and how the city of the future could be imagined by the means of today.

Facing the neo-liberalisation of the city, "the furtive monument" is a path across the city, combining programs of the body, the mind and the politics, in order to reach a state of empowerment. Based on a situationist drift, architectural interventions transform the way the city of Rotterdam is experienced, not based on profit but based on programmatic activations. If the city is a generic cadaver, the project has the ambition to revive its soul from its carcass, extracting its qualities, disrupting the systems in place and re-assembling its components. The city, seen as programmatic intensities, states that architecture doesn’t have to be built.

The goal of this thesis is to propose a design for an orbital space station that incubates the future space civilization and is the base for space regulations and governance. A place that is democratizing access to space and resources, and allows for any interested individual to join and contribute to the world at large and their personal wellbeing. The goal is to design a place where a closely knitted community of makers, scientists, and artists is cultivated. They will be the decision-makers and the actors in space exploration.
To learn how to do that, initially, the thesis embarks on the research of some community aspects on Earth and the way public space contributes to their cultivation in our cities. Specifically, the focus of the study is to observe and analyze the function that Het Park in Rotterdam serves to people. It is a look into the congenital and human side of living in an industrialized world and the values this brings to the community. In space, that natural side will inevitably be different or non-existing and to maintain the values that nature and the park bring to our lives we need to develop a translated alternative. The goal is to add a playful and authentic element to a potentially very machine and virtual future in space.
After an introduction to the direction in which we have been heading since the industrial revolution, the research examines 4 major values taken from the park- social value, health, freedom, and engagement, to understand the importance of addressing the natural and human qualities. Those values are analyzed through park visits and sketches of people utilizing their environment and adapting it with simple means. Conclusively, the research highlights the importance of the presence of the public park in people’s lives even if we forget it or do not notice it on a daily basis and it shows how such a place can strengthen the community and make people more caring and more respectful (Cohen, et. all 2006). It identifies which are the key elements that play a role in the value that the park brings to the citizens. Thus they can be taken and appropriated to the space environment and the space station design. This research is a continuation of a previous essay by the author - “Cohousing in ‘Space’ and Time”.

Current discourses within the built environment increasingly underline the need for a shift in perception, thinking and values as a prerequisite to moving from sustainability to regeneration. Within architecture, regeneration is defined as an act of building with an active contribution toward the local ecosystem rather than simply minimizing environmental impact.

While the theory of regenerative design offers a precise understanding of what architecture should achieve within the ecologies of a place to be regenerative, it does not provide an understanding of how this different perspective can be applied to the design process, nor how precisely the building can enter an active partnership with an ecosystem. To explore the complexity of this question, this joined master thesis draws upon two bodies of research as a prerequisite to the design question.

The first one explores how biodiversity can be addressed through architecture and the building itself, while the second one investigates how the relationship between people and a local ecosystem shapes their architecture and determines its potential for regeneration.

The following design project explores the role of ecology in the design process by experimenting with design decision-making focused on architecture’s impacts and potential to interact with the local ecosystem, ultimately fostering the co-evolution of both.

Finally, this thesis stresses the importance of seeking contradictions, dynamic balance and contextual innovation as a way to foster an active architecture-ecosystems relationship. A thorough understanding of the ecologies of a place and so building from a more-than-human perspective opens the potential of architecture to move beyond sustainability on the way to regeneration.

INDESEM has always been an explosion of one week of learning without education. Students themselves are responsible for everything and it is them who make sure that the technical and academic staff warm to the idea of breaking plenty of rules for a week. And you should see what happens when you do! Work continues into the early hours and the building is turned inside out to get at its hidden qualities. The daily routine is disrupted and the cleaners are made aware of their importance. Each time a group of students comes together to perform the task of getting this event off the ground, their own regular studies are largely ignored for the duration. It is only much later that they realize just what they have received in return when, after their studies, it transpires that designing and realizing a building demands a comparable attitude where it is again all down to anticipating, deliberating, seeking out conditions, making (and keeping) appointments.Those taking part come from all over the world, perhaps initially attracted by names and by the Netherlands, but also by the thrill of actually being able to meet and talk with so many others who are in the same boat. The task is no more than a pretext and catalyst for getting into contact with others and discussing with them. The results are merely conceptual models of thinking. The performance that needs generating is to get a group of complete strangers to formulate and present an idea and go on to defend it against all others. In this way, the idea of INDESEM is inciting glimpses of an alternative way of learning, directed to thinking instead of just cultivating external attractiveness. And it deserves to be continued in some way to point at what might be a lesson for the regular education.@en

From Mine to Mine is a research and design project that confronts the concept of the house and the domestic with its emerging context of data transmission and resource extraction. In the middle of the Atacama desert in Chile, the house of the miner is confronted with the physical outgrowth of our global data industry: Copper, the material underlying any kind of digital connection, is extracted in the world‘s biggest open-pit mine, while the mining industry is destructing and contaminating a whole territory.

Thinking towards a time of copper depletion, From Mine to Mine, envisions in three chapters transitions for these copper landscapes - turning them from destructive into productive ones while giving agency to the house of the miner itself. From there, the miner of the future enters remotely through screens the three chapters - “The Toxic Forest“, “The Baquedano Oasis“ and “The London Mine“ - all mines in their on right, that materially and programmatically feed into the house. This way, the house becomes both consumer and constructor of a context in trans-ition, a context that is being “mined“ trans-territorially, trans-temporally and trans-disciplinarily.