Philippe Rahm – författare

At the crossroads of architecture, aesthetics and engineering sciences, this book aims to shed light on the unthought-of return of utilitarian decorative arts in the fight against global warming, and to constitute an encyclopaedic catalogue of decorative elements with ancient typologies (carpets, tapestries, curtains, mirrors, etc. ) updated according to today's scientific knowledge: thermal effusivity, emissivity, conduction, reflectance, etc. Until the beginning of the 20th century, interior decoration in the West had a practical role: to fight the cold, to amplify the light or to block cold draughts. A carpet was used to prevent cold feet, a tapestry to thermally insulate the walls; the crystals in chandeliers, like mirrors or gilding, were there to amplify the weak, solitary light of candles andsmall windows; a folding screen served to block the wind, curtains to block draughts. The arrival of central heating, air conditioning and electric lighting at the turn of the 20th century made this primary utilitarian and climatic raison d'être of interior design obsolete – thanks to the massive use of fossil fuels. Old decorative devices were therefore discarded in favour of the clean, minimalist, empty white interiors characteristic of 20th century modernity – an aesthetic underpinned by the CO2 emissions of oil-fired boilers and coal-fired power stations. Today, with the need to reduce buildings’ carbon footprints and fight against heat waves, new thermal and energy reduction requirements are appearing, including the call for 20cm of thermal insulation in walls. One may wonder if this thermal insulation is not in fact a new form of tapestry in all but name – one that would unconsciously mark a return to interior decoration. If the modern style of the 20th century stemmed from carbon energies, wasting without limit resources and energy to heat and light, the decarbonisation of the building is inducing, withoutus realising it, a new decorative style specific to the 21st century, where thermal performance, carbon footprint and ecology redefine the interior’s formal and material choices, and finally their aesthetic, cultural,and social value. The challenge for interior architecture is to reactivate interior design’s practical sense as it existed before the 20th century, going beyond its apparently futile character to invent new modes of laying out – new spatial, formal and material configurations, available to interior designers and architects: a decorative aesthetic specific to the 21st century, which we propose to call ‘anthropocene style’.

¿Es posible que la necesidad de mantener nuestro cuerpo a 37 ºC sea la razón del nacimiento de la arquitectura?En esta brillante historia de la arquitectura, Philippe Rahm analiza las causas naturales de la evolución arquitectónica, esto es, los factores físicos, biológicos y climáticos que, a lo largo de la historia, y en estrecha relación con los avances científicos y tecnológicos, han influido en su desarrollo y conformado sus fundamentos, desde la prehistoria hastala actualidad.De la mano del arquitecto suizo, releer la evolución de la arquitectura y el urbanismo desde sus causas materiales nos permite no solo comprender de qué modo se han ido adaptando a las necesidades y acontecimientos de cada momento, también afrontar los retos medioambientales presentes y futuros.

This book aims at finding some answers to the questions: What is the influence of humans in controlling CAD and how much is human in control of its surroundings? How far does our reach as humans really go? Do the complex algorithms that we use for city planning nowadays live up to their expectations and do they offer enough quality? How much data do we have and can we control? Are today’s inventions reversing the humanly controlled algorithms into a space where humans are controlled by the algorithms? Are processing power, robots for the digital environment and construction in particular not only there to rediscover what we already knew and know or do they really bring us further into the fields of constructing and architecture?The chapter authors were invited speakers at the 6th Symposium "Design Modelling Symposium: Humanizing Digital Reality", which took place in  Ensa-Versailles, France from 16 - 20 September 2017.

This book aims at finding some answers to the questions: What is the influence of humans in controlling CAD and how much is human in control of its surroundings? How far does our reach as humans really go? Do the complex algorithms that we use for city planning nowadays live up to their expectations and do they offer enough quality? How much data do we have and can we control? Are today’s inventions reversing the humanly controlled algorithms into a space where humans are controlled by the algorithms? Are processing power, robots for the digital environment and construction in particular not only there to rediscover what we already knew and know or do they really bring us further into the fields of constructing and architecture?

The chapter authors were invited speakers at the 6th Symposium "Design Modelling Symposium: Humanizing Digital Reality", which took place in  Ensa-Versailles, France from 16 - 20 September 2017.