AIR Zheng Li 514486
1.0 Architecture as discourse
From the previous two years of study experience in this profession, I was informed or educated that being an architect is to learn a bit of everything comparing to engineers, for instance, they know one thing very well. It seems to me that designing an outstanding building is not a simple mixture of a little bit of arts, a bit of symbolized signs and spatial experience inside the building. Rather, to me, architecture is a hybrid of the above. Some may argue, why they are different, and I will tell that their differences arose from their essence. In my viewpoints, the designing process is somehow like a chemical reaction. A chemical reaction differs from a physical one: The starting and ending materials of a physical change are the same, even though they may look different, but in a chemical reaction a new substance will be made. Several substances (material, structure, design ideas and etc.) are restricted by a number of factors (technological developement), under certain conditions (social, cultural and political contexts) and through special treatments (including computation or fabrication approaches); the final products will be produced. However, the products are not buildings themselves; instead the overall reaction shares a lot of similarities of the process of generating modern architectures.
S
r B o d W a t c c ‘
Son- O-House Son en Breugel, the Netherland Architect: NOX
Son-O-House,
NOX’s project for building a recreational and educational pavilion is in Son en Breugel, the Netherlands. The project is dedicated as one of the most successful cases in exploring the digital design and fabrication techniques. What is interesting was that the conceptual design and analogue processes intertwined so closely. According to Ander Chaszar, the revolution brought from this case study was a kind of ‘material computation’ which can offer the designers an alternative gateway to ‘emergent behavior’ and ‘evolutionary forms’.
Designers were inspired to focus on the visitors’ movement paths and modeled with paper strips twisted and slitted forming various configuration. The development of such concept required the consideration on spatial volume which covered by those ‘path’ strips. The geometric skin was thus generated by digital tools with both mathematical and physical calculations, such as the bending and surface tension forces exerted on outer materials. The analogue analysis was achieved through modeling and displaying the magnitude of bending movements in various rib elements.
These highly craft- oriented approaches are now being discussed under the rubric of ‘emergence’. When it comes to constructing the pavilion, architects collaborated with engineers with the aid of computing information and depicted the profiles of those intersecting ribs as located them precisely in the final framework. Manipulation of the project’s components in digital presentation form is very beneficial in both precision and ability to capture and convey detailed information.
Arc
By learning from this case study, I realised that two approaches, they are craft- oriented and digital presentation respectively, both are contributing and convey designers' intention of the project. Similarly to a chemical reaction, handcrafted- orientation is like a molecular movement or pattern which is not be seen. However, digital techniques enable the whole situation of changing is under control precisely and very specific. The advantage of digitalization emerged to make architects know their perceptions better and quantitative and qualititive deternine the building's responce to the landscape, to the social and psynological effects for the people in use.
Blobwall, a modular system, which is made from a lightweight honeycomb material, and was built up by four hundred large recyclable plastic ‘blobs’ which the design was for a single brick. The way that Greg Lynn and his students prepared, programmed and finally assembled was quiet impressive. First of all, preparing files for each brick and transferring into brick geometry into a Maya animation file, and then exported those data into rhino files. Additionally, using algorithm to determine and program a tool path in order to instruct a robotic arm and generated CNC code for cutting of bricks with a 6-axis robot. Blobwall SCI-Arc Gallery Los Angeles, California,
chitect: Greg Lynn
1. We began with Maya 3D polygon surfaces + Rhino NURBS brick file.
2.The NURBS brick was imported into Maya, then repositioned accordingly.
3. Each individual brick was exported and repositioned back to Rhino.
The most impressive part of the project is the organisation of those blobs in three dimentional space. Architectu mathematical formulas and kept experimenting the new material properties, which has brought a lot of challen or even the curvy surface, architects have successfully conveyed others how his thoughts have formulated and glance. This very straightforward way of expressing spaital occupation interested me and I, kind of, rise a desir of a building, and make it breathable and communicable to its users.
The designer Greg Lynn was famous for his approach on computer-aided design to produce irregular biomorphic architectural forms resulting from integration of calculus into architectural theory
FORM has experimented with five initial prototype shapes, including the igloo, s-curve and u-curve, and the possibilities within these shapes are also highly variable Each of the ‘Blob’ units is custom-shaped using a 3D robotic arm developed by the Los Angeles firm Machineous which creates individual, tri-lobed, hollow forms
ure, this time intergrated nges. To me, through the shape drew attention in the first re of experimenting the facade
‘The meaning of architecture was therefore not single, authoritarian and closed, but multiple, democratic and open.’
The meaning behind this quotation, I understand this as discourse is another way of saying diversity. The idea of hybrid does not mean superficially put things together to customize people’s tastes, but to challenge theirs.
In th as a and of scali prac aide of c me Thro say their som enco spar work Entit form then com from a bu and
2.0 Computing in Architecture
he last few decades, computation design approach which facilitates generates great number opportunities for drawings, ing works and other types of ctices. Like CAD, computered design software, this kind computation method reminded mass production somehow. ough some of the works, rather some of them were inspired by r formal practices they pasted me of the ideas, in which does not ourage creativity. By contrast, rks of imagination are filled in the king process in computerization. ties or processes that are ready med in the designer’s mind, and n entered or manipulated in the mputer system. As mentioned, m my own perceptions, designing uilding is a prolonged process requires changing continuously.
Catalyst
Digital modeling and fabrication technologies are acting like catalysts in a designing process. They, as tools, are not about to changing the final outcomes, rather, to accelerate, or in a more architectural way of saying to fasten the tension between design conception and advanced structure performance.
In terms of computational process, firm UNStudio has so far devoted much to the industry and dealing with shorten the distance of a high- complexity programming conception oven other parameters which also have made what a building really embodied. Coresponding to a dialogue with its urban setting, building's function, the initial impression of the form, UNStudio has sugguseted flexibility of computation also created and changed the way people understand a building.
The Rubber Mat, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 1997 The Rubber Mat project is a model of inhabiting property values, rent, density, business growth and green space growth. It comprised four mats, in which each of the mats embodied the suitable moving in space and in time. The design crew had this computational thinking, at the early stage of the designing, they input algorithms and diagrams into programming process and organized and instrumentalised abstract geometries to reveal the concept of ‘deep planning’ and to assimilate the complexity of contemporary architecture.
Along their way, the manipulating and accumulating advanced technologies and strategies in UNStudio’s daily practice have evolved into ‘Knowledge Platforms’. The key function of the Knowledge Platform is to act as a dynamic hinge between practice and research, which is playing a similar role of a computerizational model generated from the concept to the building. The platform- project was characterized to allow the interactive and effective cross- fertilization of research innovations being utilized in the future design approaches. In later of UNStudio’ s works, the platforms evaluate new concepts and techniques in its most specific and broadest sense, such as tools, software, thinking and design models, together brought the various parameters to define a project. In addition, the Platforms have operated on a number of non-geometric parameters: social, economic, political and material, among others.
Personally, I supported UNStudio's views on taking three approaches to obtain the meaning of a building at every time they commerce to build one. Material, Program and Parameters, there is no doubt that these three criteria are essential when designing a building. The diagram on the right top seems to enhance the effect of intergreting, hybriding and communicativity. Since architecture is designed for people who use them, designers may sometimes struggle with how to make it look simple but manipulate it hard.The Rubber Mat have made it in which architects introduced the 'Knowledge Platforms' by transforming the theoritical exploration to practice and also transforming professional minds to the public.
Burnham Pavilion, Millennium Park, Chicago, 2009
The temporary pavilion is made up with three identical openings that support a very straightforward horizontal surface and structure so as to achieve a desire for a formal, axial and visual relation to the downtown Chicago. Such untangible connection between the pavillion and the environment is something inspired me that I would like to embody in the gateway project later in the semester. According to Kalay’s paper, it is being considered that the digital design process is a process to confront uncertainties and create analytical and creative thinking constrained by many limits imposed. In this case, the Burnham Pavilion in Chicago is influenced by two economic and material constraints: ‘a structural system that is required to be essentially post and beam, and the repetition of the form of the openings in the surfaces.’ Manipulating visual programming aimed at instrumentalising the parameters intuitively to fit in its specificity. Therefore, the solution to that is to create holes within simple and parallelogram frames to the main structure and being duplicated and rotated to direct vistas diagonally upwards. Such experiment serves not only a tool solving problems, but also deeply in root encouraged the designers’ logical thinking to expand and upgrade.
d o t . t
m
. e l .
3.0 Parametric Modelling
Parametric modelling, according to Woodbury,is something about change. It requires the buildling components could be adapted to context for quite a long time. It has been mentioned by him that patterning are very good tool for thinking and using parametric design. At this stage, I get a better understanding on how the digital approaches provide a generic solution for solving new complexity, in addition to that parametric modelling is kind of the upstream of the general computation. Based on my opinion, it is believed that parametric modelling has some advantages that some common software may not acquire like its smooth clarity, flexibility of changing the variables and so on. In the reading, a spreadsheet has been given as an example for directly illustrating the data flow and CADecisions calculated by algorithms.
Arnhem Central station, the Netherlands, 1996- 2014 The project has been a drive of innovation since its beginning more than ten years ago. It was the genesis of early concepts such as the V- model and the Deep Planning Principle, and continues to drive innovation in the practice; therefore it encompasses many of the UNStudio’s working approaches. It is worthy to mentioning specifically that its roof paneling system through which the woven pattern has evolved and worked altogether on structural, material and economic parameters. The tool it used is the programming language in Rhinocerosemphasis was placed on the relationships of the panels to develop a pattern that constrained by mould size, anchor locations and geometric efficiencies and so on. ‘Programmed objects acting as abstractions of the panels contain methods that autonomously create boundaries, check for geometric optimisation (ruled, cylindrical, flat), create anchor points, annotate and extract data.’ Not so hard to see that computation’s primary potential is its flexibility to communicate information between computation and humans across multiple declines via associative data.
Serpentine Pavilion London, 2002 Architects: Toyo Ito/ CecilBalmond
Serpentine
a temporary struc oringinally built fo Gallery Pavillion prog Kensington Gardens, part of a restaurant The surface structur famous in terms of an pattern is laying and the mass and it was i an algorithm. Thro digital compuptatin intersecting lines h patterns with numb trapezoids, and w and translucency has sense of 'infintely
Pavillion
is cture which was or the Serpentine gramme in London's , and now it has been in southern France. re has made it so n extremely complex d spreading all cross in fact derived from ough manipulating ng programs, the has formed chaotic berous triangles and whose transparency s presented a given y repeated motion'.
According to Balmond himself, there are two questions when they first proposed this building, one is based on the structural thinking about how the floors are to swelling up and supporting the roof and the other would be how would the random cross line composed on the flat floor stand up themselves and supported only by exterior wall. In achiving it, they found a geometric algorithm formed by a rectangular or squared plane, and by drawing lines following the edge lines going across the plane at a certain angle.The angle is defined by drawing a line in a certain ratio between the different sides of the plane.
Some are primary for load bearing, some will serve as bracings to secondary and the rest will be a binding motif of the random across the surface of the box typology.� The innovation reminded me a lot about geometrical patterning and supporting ribs functioned not just in the consideration of aesthtics, but also as a medium communicating with the load bearing elements, as well as the nature including lights . vegetation , which made the building a active entity can breathe in that sense.
Part B EOI II
DESIGN APPROACH
B.1.
Design Focus
I believed that architecture ought to be an output of the logic, it incorporates both material and imaterial perception and put an emphasis on forming an local identity in a cultural, landscape and civil context. In relation to our gateway project, architecture has to fit in another critiria, that is dynamic capacity since the aesthetic tastes may vary across the time as well as the technology. How could the architecture maintain its position throughout the time becomes the dominant issue that in this section I will be exploring. First of all, I was considering how to come into a critical thinking in forming the pattern on surface since once the patterning works have done it can no longer be changed. In the following case studies, I took two approaches to seek the synthesis of various material manipulation to reflect the imaterial nature of the design.
Flexibility?
Physical Constraints Architecture
Cycling Questioning ?
B.2.
Case Study 1.0
The HdeM deYoung Museum case study was chosen because it was a typical building which has manipulated flexible patterns on the facade. In the consideration of ventilation, visual extension and as well as the connection of the interior and exterior, this treatment of facade has presented to us the patterning technology would offer us great visual impact at the first glance of the building.
The dimpled circles on the surface both in planar and three-dimensional forms are medium to have a dialogue with the external and natural environment, such as light, wind, air and vegetation. Therefore in terms of 'Architecture as a discourse',it served as a commucative tool bringing in breath to the structure. In terms of digital technology,it used the 'image smapling' to allocate each of the cells, and by controlling the variables to suit both conceptual and performance needs.
Box Morphing
Hexgonal Grid
Image Sampling 2
Point Attractor
Multiple Point Attractors Density Control
Three Dimensional Cells
External Hexagon + Internal Circles
Cull Conditionally
Controlling the size
Brightness
Image Sampling
Cull Conditionally Dispatch (Point and Line)
Three Dimensional+ Image Sampling
Dimpled Surface In this attempt, I explored various ways of distributing the circles (representing as the breathable cells in the case study building) and tried to find out the rules of dynamism. Though in the external form, they followed the so-called changable and dynamic outcomes, they did not reflect much from the meanings of the patterns on the facade I concern.Then I shifted to search for not 'image sampling' itself, but took a control on the graph and see what would those trials pass message to myself and others.
Inspired by the seventheen century French Cathedral, the stained glass had its asthetic pleasure and the transparency characteristics, in some way, satisfied the need of visual connections to the outdoor environment. By trying the voronoi patterns, lightweight materials tended to be more suitable in presenting the lightness of the elements on surface.
Center Pompidou-Metz By Shigeru Ban
The wooden roof structure of Center Pompidou- Metz was so remarkble. The roof is made up of long- spanned laminated timber and they are intersected to each other to form small numberous hexagonal wooden units resembling in irregular pattern. More interestingly, there was a fibreglass membrane for sunlight going through. In this example, it remind me many of the structural joints techniques and patterning as protective layer. Because it was formed by irregular geometry on the wooden structure, in grasshopper, it could be archieved by setting the grid algorithm on a curvy surface and create a Voussoir form to be its structure members carrying the loads.
In terms of materiality, the use of wood in such a large amount but also exposed to the air, which makes it really stand out. The way Shigeru Ban used the roll material without any finishes on, to express its true value of the architecture. Viewing it from the distant location, the structure skeleton is easily to be seen and related to our project the design has to be representative and recognisible. Some messages that passing on and inspired me to expose the real, untreated material and laying them out in sequence may probably be a way to reveal its dynamic ideas.
Metropolitan Opera House Taichung By Toyo Ito
Metropolian Opera House, its continous system seperates the whole structure into two spaces. The spaces have no clear boundaries and there is no explicit supporting members, but the two spaces are changing accordingly, that is if one increases in size, the other has to reversely shrink. It seems to me that the architect wants to create the building in harmony and follow the natural rules. In addtion, the way he came up this idea was very fascinating as well. It is like pulling up two horizontal planes and within the immaterial space and surface are not applied to it, but is generated from it. The lighting effect was also taken into consideration because it is a hollow structure and enabled the freshness penetrating into the building, and in result of that, all beams of sunlight are to concentrate in the interior spaces and will be create dynamic lighting effects. Such ways of bringing the natural elements into the building would be extended and linking to our project, the form ought to be altered and stretched to fit in the landscape context.
Voronoi Patterning and fillet cells Random selected for extrusion
Using Kangaroo for soften the edges
Case Study 2.0
B.3.
A Series of illustration showing above explained the process of forming the script in Grasshopper. Firstly, on a horizontal plane we created various forms of patterning by centering their positions in points, and then tried to make the cells in voronoi fillet since a continous with no sharp corners structure should we end up with. After then, randomly selected fillet cells would be extruded in both upwards and downwards directions. Lastly we transformed it to mesh and input into Kangaroo plug-in for changing its flexible shapes at the edges, in archieving the string effect. In finding the language used in digitalising this precedent, we encountered a lot of difficuties such as constrainting points on the eages as the anchor points during using kanganroo and how to apply the patterns on the mesh surfaces. We started to rethink the theme on the following design procedures, and how would elaborate our ideas on the base of this algorithum. As those we have thought of has already be done by Toyo Ito, thus from this point on, I shifted our focus on the free-up form and make it curvy as well as creating gap space in bewteen the strips.
Recognised as one of the landmarks in melbourne City,the design focus of Southern Cross Station is the dune-like roof.
'The roof’s form plays a crucial role as part of the environmental envelope ensuring that it is symbol of sustainable architecture developed in response to the hot external climate and the internal need for diesel extraction and ambient cooling via natural ventilation.'
Southern Cross Station By GrimShaw Architects
Royal Australian Institute of Architects president Alec Tzannes called the award "sensational recognition" of an "absolutely outstanding, remarkable" building.
According to the Lyon on the Australian Design Review, stated that the primary consideration of the design was that the roof had to extent to occupy the city block and the building was proposed to deliver message to the users that the building's envelope ought to define and protect the interior. The ambition was to let the users experience the natural ventilation under the structure. Moreover, due to the mass scale of the building its properties as bridging the city and Docklands were revealed with the vistas within and from the station. Southern Cross Station's responses to maintain the requirements in the urban, cultural, political and finanial contexts expressed many of dynamism concepts. In this example, resourced from Lygn's article the project 's essence remained unchanged throughout the early stage design process and even to later construction process. Since the design proposal first came up in 2001, it must endure ambiguity because it seemd its ability to appear never changing. However, I concerned that being a critical architecture may arise various agents affecting a building's ambiguity. The users would be the only source to determine its nature. Thinking a building in this way, it is unnecessary to keep changing the design ideas to fit different critiria, but dynamism was deeply rooted in a moral perception of the users.
Meiso no Mori Crematorium Difu By Toyo Ito & Associates
The reason that I did not choose from the case studies on the list was that Ito's typical continous seamless system was so fanciating and for this particular crematorium, the link between pure graceful surface and structural engineering was so rigid. To me, it dealt with the spatial, soft concrete shell and itself as a reflection of the still artificial lake in the front for enhancing the ritual and spiritual nature of the building inspired me a lot. Furthermore, the combination of material and immaterial elements to form the building really highlighted the value of being a critical architecture. Here is a quotation from a architectural magazine: 'Ito has sought to dematerialize all sense of formal structure by floating a vast undulating shell over the landscape... it stands as a calm, comtemplative place in which to observe the rituals of cremation and honour the dead.'
In digitalising the model of the building, a Grasshopper plug-in called Karamba was placed in providing accurate analysis of spatial frames, trusses or other structural support members. Since it was a nurb-based surface and controlling the points of the projection of the nurbs to create support columns could be achieved by using Karamba. At the early attempts, I changed the position of some of items (represented by points on the surface created)that would alter the whole structure of support. And then, tried to triangulate the mesh surface and made some variations of the patterns.
B.4.
Technique: Development Parameter
Extruded Polygons consititutes the structure
Contour lines lofted as stripping surface
Hollow Polygons distributed unevenly
Continous contour sectioning
Planar Surface ribbons
Box Morphing creating opennings
Unevenly distributed volumes
Pinching on the basis of voronoi pattern
Truss Structure in finding the structural support
Analogy with human organs as its form
Exploration of the structure as a whole
Undulating Surface determined final form
Uplift the subsurface for ventilation
B.5.
Technique: Prototype
Timber Skeleton experiments Firstly, we attempted to use the truss system to test how rigid our model could possibably be and then after it has been found that those truss members are able to function as the self supported skeleton. However, it did not reflect much the fluidlity of the shape and by doing this experiment I have just realised that in the future when we determine the materiality of the design,it will be constrained.
Paper stripping to determine its flexibility This prototype really aimmed to examine the aesthetic outcome of our design.We focused on creating the gap and spacial layout of the model. Accompanying with the light effect, it showed the emotional experiment that we want to achieve.
Pinning the Paper Roll for Joints
In considering how the cells may joint together, I stimulated the pins as the joist member on both ends to stablise them, which is very practical in terms of in the reality we can replace the pins to things like steel hinge.
At last, we put some notches on the stripping wood sticks in order to place them in position and we, in some ways satisified with the final performance.
B.6.
Technique Proposal
Our design interests are more focusing on connecting the rural Wyndham area with the Melbourne city and as mentioned above we wanted the gateway functioned not just an interchange on the freeway, but as a medium for the users to experience the transition emotionally. Related back to the dynamism characteristic of architecture, we were keeping questioning ourselves whether our design has the capacity of change. I summaried a few concepts that have been embodied into it, firstly for have a dialogue between sculpture and landscape the speed or motorization could be expressed from its continous wavy and smoothy roof; secondly it included both crest and trough and arranged them in a certain rhythm which made it more liveable to the site. At last, we would like our design to be subjective and ambiguous, and we consider that its unpredictable performance would be able to attract much attention.
At the beginning, we had searched respiration system in normal human body as the breathin and breath-out processes in the organisms shared many of the simmilarities with the experiential transition like the oyxgen and carbon dioxide exchange tanking place in alveolus. We wanted to have an analogy with that, and in accordance with the muscle flexing in human body to determine the openings of the structure. In addition to that, controlling the size of the gaps between each strip in order to bring in the light which intended to create the dramatic effects for the users as they are passing through. Since the frequency of muscle flexing is traceble,we could use the Kangaroo to control its flexible shape accompanying with the patterning on the surface aimming at making it breathe and communicatable.
FORCE
DENSITY
FLOW EXPERIENCE
Referring to the Southern Cross Station precedent, what made it stand out may result form its sustainable approach and its adaptability to accommodate future expansion over a 100year lifecycle. As s traffic interchange, it offered to us a unique and dynamic arrival experience. Similarily to out gateway project, the intergration of sustainable and energy efficient roof design inspired to us not only coming up with the new solution to dealing with either finanial constraints or urban energy comsumption in the junction zone of Melbourne city and Docklands.
In considering the innovative values of the design, its abstract shape would be potentially influence users aspirational intent and feeling, for which in my opinion it is the essence of our design since only if the users as the authors of the building, rather than a person who was informed by the architect. The moral weight of the perception for users is the dominate factor that will be understandable and acceptable across the time without being affected by external change of the agents.
B.7.
Algorithmic Sketches
This is a early trial of the case study one, we would like to use the plug-in Kangaroo to soften the edges, but it has been considered as a failture in terms of not setting the anchores properly.However, I indeed took the wind forces into account to change the shape according to points setting, which could be able to connect to our site that the natural agents or factors are the determinants of the form. As we shifted our attention to more stripping dominated form, we abandoned this script, the reason I thought it was useful was that the support of our structure is not certain,maybe we could embody this kind of approach to enhance our concepts better.
B.8.
LearningObjective and Outcomes
In this section of experimenting and self-learning processes, our group has finalised the major concept of the design approaches that in a large extent which matched up with my intention to create dynamism in the project. The computational research really assisted us to find out more oppotunities and potentials of our design precisely. Although we still have some engineering problems that have not yet been solved, such as the supporting system and how will it be standing up on the highway, as well as the incorporation of the urban and site context in a more practical way. I expected that the solution to those could be solved in the part C learning.