The Science of Architecture

The second event in the monthly series “Log’rithms: Six Exponential Conversations in Architecture” featured design research presentations by faculty members of the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. Log'rithms is a collaboration of Log and CityX Venice for the Italian Virtual Pavilion at the Biennale (which you can visit online here).

Introducing the event, Log Executive Director Cynthia Davidson clarified the terms of the discussion: “By science, we don’t mean biology or chemistry, or anything you automatically associate with the sciences.” She continued, “Rather, science here means knowledge—knowledge built from research and from experience.”

Working to address planetary challenges like the climate crisis, these architect-researchers are designing at new scales and reevaluating the fundamental stuff of building. “Today, for the first time in architecture, we can design materials to the molecule,” said Assistant Professor Laia Mogas-Soldevila, “All to take control of the matter of architecture.”

Penn’s Chair of Architecture, Winka Dubbeldam, detected a pro…