Guest lecture: Architecture Model in The Age of AI – The Art of Embracing the Abstract | Univerzitet u Beogradu

14th of April, 2022, 7 PM -9 PM

Amphitheatre

The first part of the lecture will introduce ETH Zurich and showcase the research of its Institute of Technology in Architecture (ITA). ITA comprises six renowned professorships whose work assimilates many diverse aspects of employing science, technology and engineering in architecture. Their work includes computational design of buildings and structures, building processes and systems, digital and robotic construction and fabrication, and many other technology-driven topics.

In the second part, Dr Nikola Marincic—ITA’s doctoral programme coordinator and the lecturer at the chair of Digital Architectonics—will showcase his monograph “Computational Models in Architecture.” In it, he developed the notion of spectral architectonics, a technological paradigm suitable for rethinking the digital modelling of architecture in the context of (big) data streams and artificial intelligence. He will use it to reflect on the changing nature of the architectural profession and an architecture model in the digital age.

Lecturer’s Biography

Nikola Marinčić works at ETH Zurich as a lecturer at the chair of Digital Architectonics and the doctoral programme coordinator at the Institute of Technology in Architecture (ITA). He graduated as an architect in Serbia and later obtained a Master of Advanced Studies degree at ETH Zurich, where he studied the philosophy of technology and computer-aided architectural design. During his postgraduate studies, Nikola worked for one year as a guest researcher at the Future Cities Laboratory, an interdisciplinary research program of the Singapore ETH Centre for Global Environmental Sustainability. In 2017, he was awarded the ETH Medal of distinction for an outstanding doctoral dissertation on computational models in architecture.

Nikola investigates the relationship between Architecture and Information Technology, especially the challenges Artificial Intelligence poses to the field. He strives to illuminate the exceptional relevance of digital literacy today. He recognises its applicability as universal—beyond disciplines, different practices and topical expertise. His monograph “Computational Models in Architecture,” published by Birkhäuser/De Gruyter in 2019, celebrates abstract, spectral model-thinking and opens up multiple perspectives on how digitally literate architects could reinvent their field in the digital age.