This was a great experience and fascinating lecture. Thanks to professor Tom Maver we had a chance to explore history of CAAD presented by its witness and author.
Inaugural Ceremony of ASK 2015/16 and the opening lecture of prof. Tom Maver: „Architectural Design and the Information Technologies: a Retrospective”. The ceremony took place on 2nd of October, at 18.15 in the auditorium 103 at the Faculty of Architecture, WUT, Koszykowa 55.
Tom Maver, Research Professor at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art, is one of the pioneers in computer-aided architectural design and undisputed authority in this field. Already in the late 60’s and 70’s, when information technology in architecture was in it’s infancy, he founded the famous ABACUS (Architecture and Building Aids Computer Unit, Strathclyde), a research group at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Strathclyde. This group, under his leadership for 32 years, has been the world leader in the field of design and research in CAAD, multimedia, virtual reality, urban models and the use of information technology in protecting heritage. The project Virtual Glasgow of the early ’90s pioneered the use of IT in the protection and popularization of heritage. Modes of user interaction incorporated in this project were far ahead of it’s time and predicted the concept of Web 2.0.
Professor Maver has been honored for his work many times by various organisations, including the International Building Performance Simulation Association, the Building Environmental Performance Analysis Club, the European CAAD Association, the American CAD in Architecture Association, the Iberoamerican Sociedad de Grafica Digital. He also received the Gold Medal of the Royal.
Tom Maver is a member of the Advisory Board of English-language Master program Architecture for Society of Knowledge at the Faculty of Architecture, Warsaw University of Technology.
Photos by Robert Rzadkiewicz.
