Algorithmic Tectonics is a course on creative computing in architecture and design. By learning to create computational design artefacts ( such as experimental software, responsive objects and robotic fabrication applications) participants explore computation as a territory for speculative, critical and poetic thinking about design, rather than merely an instrument for production or representation.

Departing from the conventional approach of programming courses based on lectures and problem sets, the course each topic in a project-oriented fashion through design questions.

Organized in three modules,, design, visualize and make, the class prompts students to develop an appreciation for current developments in computation design and to create their own projects with an incremental degree of sophistication : from simple interactive computer graphics to architectural robotics applications.

The book reports in the course as taught for the first time at Penn State in the Spring of 2015.