Standard Architecture. From Durand to BIM

Symposium Friday 20th Oct. - Sunday 22nd Oct. 2017

Deutsches Architekturmuseum Frankfurt am Main
Schaumainkai 43
60596 Frankfurt/Main

Conference Reader

Standardization has played a key role in architecture and construction since the Enlightenment. It accelerates building production, reduces costs, and assures quality control, at least in theory. The classical modernists of the twentieth century treated standardization and normalization as engines of social and technical progress. Despite claims to cultural specificity, standards continue to shape processes and products all around the world through the formalization of cognitive and material processes. This symposium event will trace the development of standardization in architecture over the last two hundred and fifty years; with this as a basis, it will also address contemporary developments such as BIM (Building Information Modelling). With a focus on how standards influence or shape the design process, the symposium is organized in thematic sessions.

Standardized Design Processes

Modernity has given rise to processes that rationalize, systematize, and accelerate the designing of buildings. More structures need to be built more quickly all the time. Designs are often executed by unskilled or semi-skilled workers. Buildings are being erected in disparate places around the world through the use of identical specifications. To make all this possible, design tools have been created that enable people to generate and implement a great number of design-related tasks simultaneously.