Dr. Ayodh Kamath

Previous education:
Master of Science in Architecture Studies (Design Computation), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2009)
Bachelor of Architecture, Sushant School of Art & Architecture (2006)

Ayodh is a partner at Kamath Design Studio, New Delhi. He is an assistant professor at Lawrence Technological University, Michigan. Ayodh has lectured about his design and research work at Cornell University (2016), MIT (2015 and 2011), the AA Visiting School (2011), and other venues. He was awarded the best paper runner-up at CAADRIA 2013. Ayodh's current research investigates the relationship between information flows in design, and material, energy, and information flows in construction and the environment.

Keywords: Anthropocene, environmental design, materials, tectonics, design computation, digital fabrication, craft.

Research Question: The development of architecture as an independent discipline has required it to be differentiated from building construction. Unlike building construction, architectural design relies on drawing and other forms of representation to engage with materials indirectly. Paradoxically, many architects and theorists have recognized, and sometimes sought to reduce, the distance between design and the materials and processes of building. While this tension between materials and representation has often been used productively by architectural designers and theorists through the history of the discipline, architecture has been primarily thought of as engaging with materials indirectly. However, contemporary environmental issues bring into focus the materiality of buildings and challenge established conceptions of materials in architecture. How can one clearly understand and clarify the relationship between building processes, building materials and environmental processes in this context?