The Disruptors

Technology-driven disruption and entrepreneurial response have become profound drivers of change in modern culture. Wholly new organisations have rapidly emerged in many fields including retail, print media and transportation, often dramatically altering both the products and processes that define these industries. Architecture has until now been minimally impacted by this technologically driven upheaval. But there are many signs that this period of tranquillity is ending. Startups are proliferating, targeting diverse innovations from environmental performance to large-scale 3D printing. Traditional architecture and engineering firms are creating incubators and spin-offs to capitalise on their innovations. Large and innovative organisations from outside the professions are becoming interested in the built environment as the next platform for technological and economic disruption.

These new directions for the discipline will potentially create radically new types of practice, new building typologies, and new ways for both design professionals and societies to engage with the built environment. It is crucial that architectural discourse addresses these possibilities, and begins to embrace technology-driven entrepreneurship as a central theme for the future of architectural practice.

Contributors: Sandeep Ahuja, Ben van Berkel, Phil Bernstein, Helen Castle, James Cramer and Scott Simpson, Craig Curtis, David Fano and Daniel Davis, Greg Lynn, Jessica Rosenkrantz and Jesse Louis-Rosenberg, Brad Samuels, Marc Simmons, Jared Della Valle, and Philip F Yuan and Chao Yan.

Featured architects: Archi-Union, Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt, Bryden Wood, Gehry Partners, Front, Greg Lynn FORM, Millar Howard Workshop, Nervous System, SITU, and UNStudio.

Dennis Shelden is an Associate Professor at the School of Architecture at Georgia Tech and Director of the Digital Building Laboratory. He was previously Associate Professor of Practice in Design Computation at MIT's School of Architecture and Planning (2005-16). He is an expert in the application of digital technologies in building design and construction. He has lectured and written widely and is a frequent contributor to AD. He led the development of architect Frank Gehry's digital practice as Director of R&D and Director of Computing. He then co-founded Gehry Technologies, serving as Chief Technology Officer on the development of several software products and Project Executive on numerous ground-breaking building projects.