IDEAS Seminar | 14 April 2014

The axis Integrated Design, Architecture and Sustainability (IDEAS) is a joint initiative of both the Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Performance-Integrated Design (LIPID) and Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) of the ENAC School at EPFL. It aims to address an increased integration of the various issues related to sustainable architecture within the framework of the Master Cycle in Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, as well as the Doctoral program Architecture & Science of the city (EDAR).

Design and building performance cognition are inseparably linked in the practice of energy-conscious architecture. The increasing occurrence of academic and professional integration of design and building science thus exposes new horizons to investigate how their interface is mediated and understood by individual participants, who are now often asked to work across traditional boundaries. Yet different disciplines have unique traditions in manipulating their individual cognitive models, be it through mathematical representations in engineering or spatially encoded models in architecture. Experiments in simulation-integrated design studios performed at the TU Berlin hence led to the early development of spatial representation techniques that facilitate the understanding of thermal simulation data and are adaptively usable in fluid design contexts; case studies show how these methods lead to improvements in projected energy use and increased integrated process satisfaction by enabling both professional domains to gain additional understanding of building performance through enhanced pattern recognition.

Max is a visiting researcher at the TU Berlin's Institute of Architecture, where he teaches design-integrated building simulation and researches process and representation methodologies at the interface of performance and design cognition. He previously served at the TU as assistant professor in an EU-funded digital media literacy research project that investigated the effects of simulation and rapid prototyping technologies on architectural design. Max graduated from the TU Berlin in 2011 with a diploma in Architecture; prior to joining its academic staff, he volunteered as an urban and architectural designer for the Humane Society of the United States and India's Keystone Foundation, leading to a specialization in sustainable design strategies.

A light lunch will be served during the presentation. For logistic aspects, please let Martine Tiercy know of your participation before Thursday 10 April.