Digital Cities: Architectural Design: 38 - Tapa blanda

Guest-edited by Neil Leach What is the impact of digital technologies on the design and analysis of cities? For the last 15 years, the profound impact of computer-aided techniques on architecture has been well charted. From the use of standard drafting packages to the more experimental use of generative design tools and parametric modelling, digital technologies have come to play a major role in architectural production. But how are they helping architects and designers to operate at the urban scale? And how might they be changing the way in which we perceive and understand our cities? Features some of the world's leading experimental practices, such as Zaha Hadid Architects, R&Sie(n), Biothing and Xefirotarch. Takes in exciting emerging practices, such as moh architects, kokkugia and THEVERYMANY, and work by students at some of the most progressive schools, such as the AA, Dessau Institute of Architecture and RMIT. Contributors include: Michael Batty, Benjamin Bratton, Alain Chiaradia, Manuel DeLanda, Vicente Guallart and Peter Trummer.

Neil Leach is Professor of Architectural Theory at the University of Brighton, and visiting professor at the University of Southern California. He has also taught at the Architectural Association, Columbia GSAPP, Cornell University, Dessau Institute of Architecture and SCI-Arc. He is the author, editor and translator of many books, including Rethinking Architecture (Routledge 1997), The Anaesthetics of Architecture (MIT Press, 1999), Designing for a Digital World (John Wiley & Sons, 2002) and Digital Tectonics (John Wiley & Sons, 2004), and was co-curator of the '(Im)material Processes: New Digital Techniques for Architecture' exhibition at the Architecture Biennial Beijing in 2008.