In 2016, Ecole des Ponts ParisTech has established an advanced masters program with a focus on digital fabrication and robotics. Currently recruiting for its fourth installment, the Design by Data Advanced Masters Program appeals to architects, engineers, and tech-oriented designers. Since its launch in 2016, the program’s director Francesco Cingolani has sought to shape the relationship between architecture and technology by creating a cross-disciplinary culture between the two.
As previously mentioned on Archdaily, students study the main components of the program - computational design, digital culture and design, and additive manufacturing and robotic fabrication - throughout the 12-month program to fulfill Design by Data’s main objectives while working with peers in a dynamic learning environment. While providing each participant with both technical skills and an aesthetic eye, the program ensures students will also gain critical knowledge of current innovative trends and ongoing research. By exposing them to technology through hands-on use of tools of digital fabrication, the program will teach students to approach design through a process-oriented lens.
“Computational design, to me, is a completely new way of thinking about architecture and design that merges digital arts and engineering. Computational design is mainly about how we can use algorithms, mathematics, and generative thinking to create a novelty of architecture and object with complex geometries that are not standard.” --Francesco Cingolani, co-founder the Design by Data Program.
The program created a Makerspace, an interdisciplinary learning platform for prototyping. Makerspace "fosters interdisciplinarity between the various fields of expertise represented in the school and in neighboring schools." According to Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, students develop transferable skills in various disciplines by making and coding. They view the "Designer-Builder" "in this environment as a strategist, capable of conceiving and leading new methodologies for problem-solving."
The program aspires to change the way architects think about objects in space through a compilation of theory, design applications, and prototype generation. École des Ponts ParisTech is considered one of the premier engineering institutions. The school is home to state of the art laboratories and research units that mainly tackle problems in structural engineering and material mechanics. The Design by Data program is able to take advantage of these facilities, providing students with unparalleled access.
Design by Data has a diverse body of faculty from a multitude of backgrounds, including the professor and researcher, Olivier Baverel; designer and digital fabrication expert, Adrien Rigobello; and architect and robotics expert Aldo Sollazzo, who is also affiliated with IaaC and Noumena in Barcelona). You can learn more about the academic team and the modules offered here.
For more information and to apply, visit Design by Data’s website. Applications are open and the first selection committee is scheduled for the end of January. Submit your application before January 15th to be considered.
Below, learn more about the Design by Data from Keerthana Razan, a graduate of the program and Olivier Baverel, architectural engineer, professor, and the Scientific Head of Design by Data:
News via: École des Ponts
