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Digital Builders

By Candace Pearson

Photographs by Noé Montes

Meet seven USC architecture professors who are reshaping our urban spaces – one keystroke at a time.

The days when a building simply provided shelter are past. Today’s smarter buildings – some still imagined, some already here – can collect and save energy, reduce waste and monitor their own carbon footprints.

Smart buildings require smart architects, and at the USC School of Architecture, tech-ingenious faculty members are advancing the latest digital technologies to rethink and reshape our urban spaces.

These scholars are exploring fresh spatial possibilities, materials that react to temperature and light, better ways to build in seismic sustainability, handheld devices that let you “converse” with a room and boost energy efficiency, planning tools for multi-layered analysis, and digital fabrication processes.

The latest technologies take computer-aided drafting to a whole new level. They enable architects and engineers to visualize an infinite set of possibilities and analyze tradeoffs (such as aesthetics, cost, safety, structural performance and environmental issues) with greater velocity than the human mind. Likewise, algorithmic design processes can generate intricate forms that defy our notions of what can be built.

“Digital tools and sustainability are two ends of our mission,” says Qingyun Ma, dean of the School of Architecture. “What inspires me most is the possibility for life-altering architecture.”

To prepare students for an industry that prizes digital know-how, the school offers cutting-edge coursework, including a research lab on robotic fabrication, and is planning an iconic digital media instructional center called DataSHOP. It will link the latest design and fabrication technologies into one central learning laboratory supporting experimentation and creativity among students and faculty.

How will buildings help people live better lives? These inspired digital innovators are determined to find out.