Michela Turrin

The Department of Architectural Engineering and Technology (AE+T) is at the forefront of one of the most important challenges of the 21st century: meeting the demand for better buildings within the scope of our planet's limited resources. This major challenge requires a fundamental shift in the way the built environment is valued, designed, constructed, operated, maintained, transformed and dismantled. Therefore, our mission is to use knowledge, experimentation and design to make ingenious contributions to built environments with positive value for people and the environment. This positive value is based on renewable sources and is sustainable, circular, healthy and digitally developed. We do this with an integrated approach that is inspired by and based on innovation in building technology, installation technology, engineering, construction, architectural and spatial informatics and design. This in combination with a keen eye for the more aesthetic and comfort and health-related features of the built environment. At AE+T, we specifically address this challenge by: Developing and exploring new (computational) design and manufacturing methods, tools and new (digital) technologies for the sustainable buildings of the future, and innovative solutions for the large numbers of outdated buildings; Equipping the next generation of building and design professionals and architects with the latest technological knowledge, skills and solutions required to meet the challenge; Helping to develop and deliver technology-based innovative solutions to societal challenges, through collaborations with leading national and international partners. The Digital Technologies Section at AE+T focuses on computational methods, techniques, and tools to sense, understand, model, design and fabricate the built environment. Our approach integrates computational design and geo-spatial data. We focus on spatial data and infrastructure for geographic data modelling and dissemination, driving paradigm shifts towards vario-scale geo–information and point cloud representations, and advancing the geo-information infrastructure to solve complex social, industrial and management problems in the built environment. To support architects and engineers from design conception to digital fabrication, we focus on AI-supported and performance-based design; foster human-computer cocreation, and innovate in design space exploration for decision making, and human-robot interaction for creative robotics. Our expertise includes techniques in Artificial Intelligence, Sensing, Data Infrastructures, 3D- 4D- and Multidimensional- Modelling, Point Clouds, Simulations, Digital Twins, Parametric Design, Virtual Reality, Robotics, Additive Manufacturing, among others.