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Experts take part in forum on digital architecture

By Wang Siyi (chinadaily.com.cn)

Updated: 2013-11-15

A forum on digital architecture was held on Nov 12 at the School of Economics and Management in Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, Hubei province.

Digital architecture professor Steven Ma, who is based in Vienna, Hu Biao of Hunan University, Huang Yuxin of Tsinghua University and Michael Hansmeyer, of Princeton University, shared their experiences and showed some of their designs.

Professor Ma said that digital sculptures are “sensitive and emotional”, and he stressed the link between digital architecture and sustainable development and also ecological systems theory and showed some of his designs that embody these values.

He said that his works on items such as chairs and glass tableware represent the past, and his work on a tower in Taiwan, and a castle for Disney are examples of his work that adheres to the concept of sustainable development.

Professor Hu talked about topics including the importance of digital building, technology and computers as related to architectural design. He also showed a design created together with ZHA CODE Workshop, a platform that promotes collaboration among professionals, researchers and architectural academics interested in the use of contemporary techniques and design methods to solve local problems.

Professor Huang gave a talk focused on the relationship between the virtual world and the real world. He said, "Our world is rich, but the development of the virtual world is fast, much faster than the growth rate of our GDP." He also said that, as the processing speed of computers has increased more than one million times compared to 30 years ago, “the virtual world is changing the real one."

The event is one of the international forums of the second session of Wuhan Design Biennale, a one-month exhibition from Nov 8 to 30 which has attracted experts in the field who are involved in lectures, forums and academic conferences.

Edited by Niva Whyman