Navigating towards digital tectonic tools

The computer holds a great potential to break down the barriers between architecture and the technical aspects relating to architecture, thus supporting innovative architecture with an inner correspondence between form and technique. While the differing values in architecture and technique can seem like opposites, the term tectonics deals with creating a meaningful relationship between the two. The aim of this paper is to investigate what a digital tectonic tool could be and what relationship with technology it should represent. An understanding of this relationship can help us not only to understand the conflicts in architecture and the building industry but also bring us further into a discussion of how architecture can use digital tools. The investigation is carried out firstly by approaching the subject theoretically through the term tectonics and by setting up a model of the values a tectonic tool should encompass. Secondly the ability and validity of the model are shown by applying it to a case study of Jiørn Utzonis work on Minor Hall in Sydney Opera House - for the sake of exemplification the technical field focused on in this paper is room acoustics. Thirdly the relationship between the model of tectonics and the case will be compared and lastly a discussion about the characteristics of a tectonic tool and its implications on digital tectonic tools will be carried out.