Carl Lostritto
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Carl Lostritto lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island. He is the Graduate Program Director and Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture at Rhode Island School of Design. At RISD he teaches throughout the architecture professional curricula and in the Computation, Technology and Culture undergraduate concentration.
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In academia and his practice, Lostritto writes computer code, samples from history, designs tools, and adapts technology to augment human authorship in pursuit of architecture. Often, this work manifests as drawing. Because drawing does not have a fixed relationship to architecture, a complimentary line of his research involves reflection, analysis, and critique of drawing relative to form and space. Much of Lostritto's recent practice and scholarship address the broad implications of a refined technique: computer programming to control a vintage pen plotter. This work involves intense and iterative refinement of the algorithmic, aesthetic and material nature of lines. It is also a conceptual enterprise that relies on and addresses the capacity of the human eye, the adaptability of historic conventions, the role of representation, and the nature of architecture. His contributions to the field take the forms of artistic exhibitions, essays and professional collaborations on built and unbuilt work.
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​Lostritto’s recently-published book, Computational Drawing, From Foundational Exercises to Theories of Representation, uses a structure of exercises, algorithms, essays and examples to provide a resource for those studying or practicing architecture. The secondary aim of the book is to participate in theoretical discourse and speculation about the role of drawing, representation and computation within and around the discipline of architecture.