Listener: a probe into information based material specification

This paper presents the thinking and making of the architectural research probe Listener. Developed as an interdisciplinary collaboration between textile design and architecture, Listener explores how information-based fabrication technologies are challenging the material practices of architecture. The paper investigates how textile design can be understood as a model for architectural production providing new strategies for material specification and allowing the thinking of material as inherently variegated and performative. The paper traces the two-fold information-based strategies present in the Listener project. Firstly, the paper presents the design strategy leading to the development of bespoke interfaces between parametric design and Computer Numerically Controller (CNC) based textile fabrication. Secondly, by integrating structural and actuated materials the paper presents the making of a new class of materials that are computationally defined as well as controlled. The paper asks: what happens as architectural practice incorporates material design: how do we conceive and use variegated materials; and how can we develop relevant concepts and tools for such material specification?