Technology? Of course
In the Postman reading, he addressed many of the negative side effects of technology. Trust me, I agree that technology doesn't always have good impacts on society. However, I would argue that architecture can avoid many of the potential side effects of technology. Technology has always been closely related to architecture, and I believe that this is mostly a good thing for architecture. Technology has allowed us to have modern conveniences, skyscrapers, bridges, and even more energy efficient solutions to design. Also, I think that it is wrong to argue that technology has made us more disconnected to our architecture. If architecture has made us more disconnected, I think the blame should be placed on the architects-or the education system not embracing technology and learning how to INTEGRATE it, rather than let it take over. I think architects can still maintain a great amount of control of their designs through technology. Also, technology allows architects to participate in the design of more buildings. So many of our architecture professors complain that such a tiny percentage of buildings are designed by actual architects-saying that this is a huge problem. I agree that this is a problem, and I believe integrating technology into the design process would be a great way to fix it-because architects will be able to complete many more projects in a given year because technology speeds up the design process significantly. For example, at Charles R. Stinson Architects, a firm I interned at last year, recently integrated new 3-d CAD technology into their firm. Although initially the technology took a while to learn and become proficient at, in time it will allow the firm to work on many more projects. The software also allows them to see their plans in 3-d, and also show these to clients so they can get a clearer picture early in the design process. I think good architects will still be able to maintain enough control on the details of a building, a potential problem mentioned by Newton.
Overall, i think technology has GREAT opportunity for architecture. The key will be to educate architects to use technology responsibly, to integrate it into their practice. Also, technology has to be recognized as a tool, not a cure to all our problems. Also, they need to be aware of when technology can be abused-so they can avoid this.
Is this building not awesome (I think it is a computer rendered image too-it's pretty amazing)