Associate Professor Mark Ericson has been published in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. His article, titled Grasshopper Algorithmic Modeling for Rhinoceros, explores architectural history through computer-aided design and scripting. The article expands on the role of history in architectural production and how to offer new techniques of formal analysis in historical inquiry.
Focusing his article through the lens of Grasshopper, a free plug-in for the digital modeling software Rhinoceros (commonly referred to as Rhino), Mark explains the three-dimensional geometric modeling application and its origins in what Mario Carpo has called “the digital turn in architecture.” As Mark mentions, this digital turn “would set historical analysis and digital technique in relationship to one another, using architectural history as a legitimating continuum within which to situate computational work and as a source for working methods.” Mark draws upon the work of Greg Lynn, Cameron Wu, and Adam Marcus to illustrate differences between the historian and architect; i.e., the historian may aim for a “precise and invariant” relationship with historical objects, whereas architects often look to make history operative.
Read more about Mark’s ideas on history, algorithmic modeling and architecture through the full article.
About the JSAH
Published since 1941, JSAH is widely recognized as a leading English-language journal on history of the built environment. Published four times per year, each issue offers four to five scholarly articles on topics from all periods of history and all parts of the world, reviews of recent books, exhibitions, films, and other media, and a variety of editorials and opinion pieces designed to place the discipline of architectural history within a larger intellectual context. Published both in print and online, JSAH brings topics to life for those interested in the history of architecture, landscape architecture, and urbanism.