Techno Architecture

Techno Architecture examines the recent practice in architecture that has its roots in the early twentieth-century technological preoccupation with "machines for living". Elizabeth Smith suggests the ways in which four very different American practices use technology to bring structural expression to new heights, in some cases to invoke an almost nostalgic image of the machine (in contrast to today's slick digital imagery).Jones, Partners: Architecture (Los Angeles), RoTo (Los Angeles), TEN Arquitectos (Mexico City), and Smith-Miller + Hawkinson (New York) each approach the question of the machine and the application of technology with radically varying sensibilities. From Wes Jones's overt celebration of the mechanistic to Michael Rotondi and Clark Stevens's experimentation with Native American building traditions, from Enrique Norten's technological regionalism to Laurie Hawkinson and Henry Smith-Miller's sophisticated use of components from the aerospace industry, each architect's interpretation of technology results in unexpected and entirely novel buildings.As digital technologies begin to play an increasingly important role in architecture, Techno Architecture addresses the fundamental and timeless art and craft of building in the postmachine age.