X-Sketchbook - Publishing and Place

architectural design practice and the sketchbook of the future

05 Feb 2021

#xsketch #sempub | https://github.com/TIBHannover/xsketch | simon.worthington@tib.eu

Partners: Open Science Lab, TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology (lead), The Bartlett School of Architecture, Hochschule Hannover, and the Community-led Open Publishing Infrastructures for Monographs (COPIM) project.

Editors: Simon Worthington, Ina Blümel, and Lambert Heller, TIB. Ava Fatah, The Bartlett.

What is X-Sketchbook? It’s a book! It’s an experimental workflow! Released in sections during ʼ21, this publication will be a view on the state of the art of experimentation in architectural publishing. The publication will be realised in the context of architectural cultural infrastructural research at TIB for the ‘Consortium for Research Data on Material and Immaterial Cultural Heritage’ (NFDI4Culture).

Experimental workflow? In studio practice architects are using diverse digital objects from multiple locations in their design sketches. We are using Open Science data tools to help capture and store these objects, assign them persistent identifiers, and then package them as a book – aimed at reuse.

TIB has an existing workflow using the software Fidus Writer and Jupyter Books (Notebooks). The proposed workflow gives the architect a way to output the book as a multi-format publication, combining both born-digital and post-digital formats – from Jupyter Notebooks to riso-print.

Book content and process

Content: The focus of this research and publishing project is to look at innovations in design and publishing practice for the field of architecture that have been brought about by the challenges of using online platforms and social media. Questions of interest are also the new contexts of urbanism, data sovereignty, and reinterpretation of place. Distinct book sections would be created around these topics.

In architectural design practice we will be comparing and contrasting existing practices and experimental design informed by using new digital creative affordances, such as – robotics, sensory interfaces, 3D printing, 3D visualisations, real time data simulations, or photogrammetry.

Process: Our research method will use book sprints, which are goal oriented ‘hot house’ work sessions where challenges are posed and the participants have to create a finished ‘book or book section’ at the end of the sprint. The research project includes a hybridized version of book sprints where Jupyter Books (Notebooks) is used – existing open technology – that allows for more advanced types of complex digital objects, using 3D visualisations, real time data simulations, or plans for 3D printing, etc.

COPIM: The COPIM project will assist both the authors and publisher involved in this project to adapt their workflows to accommodate the proposed experimental workflow. They will provide technical assistance and will document the process as part of one of their Pilot Cases, which serve as inspiration to authors and publishers and aim to promote experimental book publishing.

Invitation to participate: Members of the architectural and urbanism publishing community will be invited to take part in short sprints to produce book sections, which will be curated by the editorial team. What is on offer is a technical way to assign PIDs to social media and archive content – with features such as automatic rights clearance as well as multi-format typesetting and website generation. No financial contribution is required from partners. The project will tap into the infrastructures and frameworks available from the NFDI4Culture cultural infrastructures project which is made up of Germany’s largest institution in the GLAM sector as well as academic societies.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4506467