Toni Kotnik

(ETH Zurich / Architectural Association / OCEAN)

The Formal in Architecture

Over the past decade, the integration of the computer into architecture has fostered a renewed interest in science as a source of inspiration in the production of designs and constructions. Especially formal descriptions of natural systems have attracted attention resulting in a diffusion of scientific concepts into architectural discourse. The emphasis on applying natural processes in architectural design, however, limits our understanding of the computer as a formal system and the implication of its use for architecture as a discipline.

Therefore, a more general approach towards digital design is suggested based on Gödel’s description of the set of computational functions and modern concepts from category theory. This abstraction enables a rethinking of the design process from its formal limits and, furthermore, allows a grounding of architecture in ta mathematica, in what is learnable.

Toni Kotnik

(ETH Zurich / Architectural Association / OCEAN)

Toni Kotnik is a partner of DOCT.archForm, a Zurich-based architectural office, and principal researcher in OCEAN. He studied architecture and mathematics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, the University of Tübingen, and the University of Utah and received his doctoral degree from the University of Zurich.

He was research fellow at Center for the Representation of Multi-Dimensional Information (CROMDI), postdoctoral researcher at the ETH Zurich and assistant professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Lucerne.

Currently, he teaches at the Architectural Association and works as senior researcher at the ETH Zurich with focus on the interplay of architectural design, geometry, and construction.