Sci-Arc M.Arch II Graduate Portfolio // 2020-2022

Page 1

Austin Lightle is an architectural designer currently residing in Los Angeles, California. He is currently pursuing a Masters degree at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. He received a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from The Ohio State University with a Research Distinction and Honors.

Sci-Arc

2020 2022

M.Arch II

AUSTIN LIGHTLE

SELECTED WORKS



AUSTIN LIGHTLE CONTACT INFORMATION

Austin.j.lightle@gmail.com 740-708-7013


STATEMENT


Austin Lightle is an architectural designer currently residing in Los Angeles, California. Born in rural Ohio, he had little interest in design and more interest in construction. He went to college at The Ohio State University to study architecture with the goal of entering the field focused more on construction and details. During his time at Ohio State, he began to understand architecture as something other than a building. He became interested in other mediums at his time at Ohio State and wished to further explore the future of architecture through a technological scope. After graduating from The Ohio State University he spent a year working as a designer at Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects in New Haven, Connecticut. He is currently pursuing a Masters degree at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. He received a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from The Ohio State University with a Research Distinction and Honors.


TABLE OF CONTENTS


008 POLLUTED SCHOOL DS 1200 2GAX Computational Morphology

038 ACRO VS 4200 Visual Studies I

056 SPLIT TRANSPARENCY AS 3200 Advanced Tectonics & Materials

066 CASUAL PLAYBOR

148 FITTING ROOM DS 4000 Fashioning the Phygital

172 OB_CESSION

HT 2200 Theories of Contemporary Architecture

AS 2768 Phygital Materiality

076 RESOLUTE AMALGAMATION

188 CURVED NOTION

DS 1201 2GBX Generative Morphology

108 Æ A-XII VS 4201 Visual Studies II

124 MATERIAL MEDIUM HT 2201 Theories of Contemporary Architecture

AS 2765 Steam Odyssey

202 Design Development AS 3222 Design Documentation

220 HOW ARE IMAGES READ? HT 2553 Aesthetic Implications of Noise

234 GENERAL CONDITIONS DS 5000 Double Standards

256 PERCEPTUAL DETAIL AS 2509 Details, Details


008

POLLUTED SCHOOL

The studio focused on the idea of changing the classroom and the school in light of the recent pandemic. We began by reimagining nature and its allure. The project was designed in incremental steps following the Ray and Charles Eames Power of Ten Method. My project began by analyzing trees and their branching systems. The idea of the branch became an organizing structure for my project, allowing things to happen sectionally in between the branching pieces. For my school, I wanted to create an open environment that allowed the students freedom. I wanted to break the traditional structure of a classroom by removing the

008

Austin Lightle

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO I Fall 2019 FLORENCIA PITA

walls and bringing artificial nature into the space to create diversity. Instead of separating the spaces with walls, I separated the spaces by sectional changes by raising and lowering the floors. The raised floor spaces allowed for space to flow into one another, while also keeping the classrooms connected to the outdoors. Being situated so close to the LA river, I wanted to utilize the plastic waste and aggregates as a new building material. I used the waste to create a plastiglomerate that formed the branching structure. An algae-polythene hybrid material was used to form roof-scapes. I allowed the natural marsh to flow up the center of the site, creating a raised pathway system from the branching structure that connected all of the school components.


Polluted School

09


010

Austin Lightle


Polluted School

011


Intermediate School Middle School Junior High School Gymnasium Office Building Auditorium and Gallery Ecology Center

Playground Spaces

Circulation

012

Austin Lightle


Algae-Polythene Roof

Floor Plates

Plastiglomerate Structure

Polluted School

013


A branching structure moves throughout the site, forming pathways and spaces. The bars move vertically to form the space of the school building. They supported floor plates and mezzanines of varying heights, creating spaces through section and not by physical barriers.

014

Austin Lightle


Polluted School

015


016

Austin Lightle


Polluted School

017


Base Image

018

Austin Lightle

Alpha Image

Albedo Map


The project draws from the formal properties of nature through the use of texture. Images of nature are used to generate displacement and base color maps. The displacement maps are used to create texture on the objects. Plastic waste from the LA river was re-purposed to create a play-scape inside the classroom. The play-scape mimics the formal properties of trees.

Polluted School

019


Algae-Polythene Lounge Chair

020

Austin Lightle


Branching Play-scape

Polluted School

021


022

Austin Lightle


Classroom Landscape As technology has been adapted to the classroom, the need for a hierarchical desk arrangement is no more. The classroom should be a space that allows the kids to decide where and what they want to sit on. Plastiglomerate bars fold into the space, giving the kids a surface to sit on. A branching play-scape also interrupts the space and allows kids to freely interact with it.

Polluted School

023


Plastiglomerate Bar Structure

024

Austin Lightle

Plastiglomerates bars intersect the space. Mezzanines are formed to give the students alternate areas to sit and learn. The algaepolythene roof allows light to be filtered into the space.


The roof structure does not uniformly cover the space below. At times, floors slip between the roof-scape and creates mezzanine spaces that bridge the interior and exterior of the classroom.

Mezzanine Play Space

Polluted School

025


Classroom Space Delineation

026

Austin Lightle

The classroom is not bound by walls, but rather separated by changes in section. The plastiglomerate bars outline spaces at different heights, separating the space.


Classroom Separation

The classrooms separate form one another, opening up the sides to have more of a connection to the exterior.

Polluted School

027


Site Strategy The natural marsh flows up the center of the site and a new raised ground is created for the program and circulation. The natural dry landscape of LA was recreated around the exterior of the site, filled with local ecology. The buildings were more solid and regular on the urban edge and began to separate and become more connected with nature and they moved further away from the urban edge.

028

Austin Lightle


Polluted School

029


Ecology Center

030

Austin Lightle


Gallery and Auditorium

Polluted School

031


Classroom Formations As the classroom clusters move further away from the urban edges, they become more disjointed. Each classroom space is separated from the adjacent one, but still connected by the roof-scape.

032

Austin Lightle


Polluted School

033


Algae-Polythene Texture

Ecology Center Surface Texture

034

Austin Lightle


Gallery Surface Texture

Gymnasium Tower Surface Texture

Polluted School

035


036

Austin Lightle


Polluted School

037


038

ACRO

2GAX VISUAL STUDIES Fall 2020 Eda Taracki William Virgil

Acro signifies the beginning or the end. The project is a metaphor for the end if we do not act at the beginning. The landscape is desolate on the ground, but flourishes at the top. The top appears to be unreachable, forever in control of the remnants that lie below it. Voting is the singular most important aspect of democracy. Voting is suppose to be the way to keep things in check and to maintain equality. A quote by Thomas Paine, “Voting is the right on which all other rights depend”, perfectly sums up the importance of voting

038

Austin Lightle

in order to prevent disparity. Even though voting may appear accessible to all, it is not equally accessible. There are still restraints and restrictions systematically put in place to hinder some people from voting. Our billboards stand as a monument to the world in which equality once existed. A world that seems lost. The billboard is now only a artifact of a lost time. “Our lives end the day we become silent about the things that matter” - Martin Luther King Jr.


Polluted School

039


Cartoon Alpha’s

040

Austin Lightle

Cartoon characters were gathered and image traced to create silhouettes. Through a series of photoshopped manipulations, they were combined to create an alpha map collage.


Shadow Box Geometries

The new alpha maps were used in Zbrush as masks to create new forms. The resultant forms were combined through a series of boolean operations to create the billboards.

Acro

041


Billboard One

042

Austin Lightle


Billboard Two

Acro

043


044

Austin Lightle


“Voting is the right on which all other rights depend” - Thomas Paine The design of the billboards is to signify the importance of voting and the difficulties that prevent that right from being fully exercised. The structure is a chaotic and unbalanced component working to support the billboards.

Acro

045


Flourishing Top and Barren Bottom

046

Austin Lightle


Acro

047


048

Austin Lightle


Billboard Relic The billboards are a collection of objects that are being overpowered by a larger object. This became the basis for the construction of our world. The billboards were a relic to a past world that no longer exist.

Acro

049


Perspective of The Monuments

050

Austin Lightle


Acro

051


Billboard One

Billboard Two

052

Austin Lightle


Billboard Structure

Acro

053


054

Austin Lightle


Animation Sequence The animation of the project used the aspects of the camera, along with audio, to evoke an emotion. By increasing the depth of field the camera at the same time as the camera is pulling away, we reinforced the idea of making it appear as unreachable.

Acro

055


056

SPLIT TRANSPARENCY The Blavatnik School of Government served as a ground breaking building in facade tectonics and function. Oxford University wanted a building designed to be a parliamentary space, centered around collaboration and transparency. Constructing a fully glass and transparent enveloped in a cold climate usually comes with a great expense to the environment. Herzog and de Mueron were able to achieve a fully glass envelope while also only consuming 50% of the energy most buildings its size would consume. Herzog and de Mueron used their tectonic expertise to develop a dual skin facade. The outer glass skin of the facade consisted of two foot wide panes of glass, separated by a two inch

056

Austin Lightle

2GAX ADVANCED TECTONICS & MATERIALS Fall 2019 Katherine Gessing Camille Thai Maxi Spina Randy Jefferson

air gap. This air gap allowed for air to pass through the first layer of the facade, but not the second layer, creating a micro climate. This micro climate kept the temperature between the layers of the faced uniform all year round, allowing for natural ventilation and less thermal bridging. The tectonic expressions of the building was explored through isometric drawings, allowing us to dissect the components of the facade. The tectonics of the envelop was adapted to incorporate the facade from The Uppsala Concert Hall. The envelop of The Uppsala Concert Hall is contrasting to that of Blavatnik, designed to be opaque and vertical.


Polluted School

057


Blavatnik School of Government

058

Austin Lightle

Designed by Herzog and de Mueron in 2016. The design of the school centered around the idea of paying homage to local Oxford design while also maintaining an open space for interaction.


300 MM REINFORCED CONCRETE SLAB

350 MM POST TENSION CONCRETE SLAB

RAISED FLOOR SYSTEM

PRECAST CONCRETE UNIT WITH STEEL SUPPORT DOUBLE GLAZING 8 MM TOUGHENED GLASS GLAZING: 2X 15 MM LAM. SAFETY GLASS

175 MM THERMAL INSULATION TWO LAYERS BITUMINOUS SEAL 350 MM REINFORCED CONCRETE

Isometric Detail

The exterior of the building consist of two glass envelopes, separated by 75 cm air gap. The interior consist of concrete plate construction with a central atrium.

Split Transparency

059


METAL JOINERY SYSTEM RIGID FOAM INSULATION PRECAST CONCRETE UNIT HOLLOW STEEL TUBE INTERSECTION

ALUMINUM FRAME

Envelope Isometric Detail

RAISED FLOOR FLASHING 180 MM PEDESTALS 180 MM INSULATION STEEL MOUNT HOLLOW STEEL STRUCTURE

Roof Isometric Detail

060

Austin Lightle

PRECAST CONCRETE UNIT 65 MM CONCRETE SLAB


20MM OAK PARQUET, CLEAR LACQUERED 440 MM PEDESTALS 200 MM REINFORCED CONCRETE 150 MM REINFORCED STRUCTURAL BALUSTRADE 20MM OAK PARQUET, CLEAR LACQUERED 100 MM PEDESTALS 200 MM REINFORCED CONCRETE SLAB

Converging Floor Plates

The envelopes peel away from one another at each floor. A raised concrete lip in the floor slab is used to connect the envelope to the building.

Split Transparency

061


300 MM REINFORCED CONCRETE SLAB

300 MM REINFORCED CONCRETE SLAB

350 MM POST TENSION CONCRETE SLAB RAISED FLOOR SYSTEM 350 MM POST TENSION CONCRETE SLAB ALUCOBOND METAL PANEL DUAL FACADE GLAZING: 2X 15 MM LAM. SAFETY GLASS 300 MM SPLIT LEVEL CONCRETE SLAB DOUBLE GLAZING 8 MM TOUGHENED GLASS + 12 MM CAVITY + 2X 4 MM LAMINATED SAFETY Glass 175 MM THERMAL INSULATION TWO LAYERS BITUMINOUS SEAL 350 MM REINFORCED CONCRETE

Section Isometric

062

Austin Lightle


The vertical aspect of Uppsala Concert hall was adapted to Blavatnik by adding skylights that connected to adjacent glazing on the envelope, creating a visual continuity. The angled metal facade module was adapted to fit the exterior glazing system. The exterior enveloping system consisted of equal parts glass, metal ,and perforated panels, allowing for air to still pass through to create a micro climate between the two envelopes.

Split Transparency

063


400 MM RAISED FLOOR STRUCTURE 300 MM SPLIT LEVEL CONCRETE SLAB RIGID FOAM INSULATION HSS FACADE STRUCTURE STEEL BRACKET RIGID FOAM INSULATION 200 MM CONCRETE SLAB METAL PAN FOR PLANTING FLASHING

300 MM SPLIT LEVEL CONCRETE SLAB RAISED CONCRETE LIP RIGID FOAM INSULATION 65 MM CONCRETE TILE ROOFING 200 MM REINFORCED CONCRETE SLAB HSS FACADE STRUCTURE ALUCOBOND METAL PANEL GLAZING: 2X 15 MM LAM. SAFETY GLASS DOUBLE GLAZING 8 MM TOUGHENED GLASS

Envelope and Slab Connections

064

Austin Lightle


DOUBLE GLAZING 8 MM TOUGHENED GLASS + BOLTED PLATE CONNECTION STEEL FACADE MOUNT RAISED CONCRETE SLAB HOLLOW STEEL STRUCTURE 300 MM REINFORCED CONCRETE SLAB

65 MM CONCRETE TILE ROOF RAISED ROOF STRUCTURE ALUMINUM SKYLIGHT MULLION RIGID FOAM INSULATION 300 MM REINFORCED CONCRETE

Envelope Skylight

DOUBLE GLAZING 8 MM TOUGHENED GLASS ALUCOBOND METAL PANEL DUAL FACADE GLAZING: 2X 15 MM LAM. SAFETY GLASS

FLASHING BOLTED PLATE CONNECTION METAL BRACKET ACM JOIST HSS FACADE STRUCTURE RIGID FOAM INSULATION RIGID FOAM INSULATION

DOUBLE GLAZING 8 MM TOUGHENED GLASS

Slab Edge Detail

Split Transparency

065


066

CASUAL PLAYBOR

Twitch and similar platforms offer the ability to convey information in a more personal and unique way. Live streams allow for the speaker to have an intimate connection to his viewers and receive live feedback and reactions via a chat stream. What separates live streams from other presenter-based software is the fact that live streams have a visual component as the main focus. While other video streaming software is meant for scripted presentations, live streams are content-based with ad-libbed descriptions and annotations. The streamer builds off of the audience,

066

Austin Lightle

2GAX THEORIES OF CONTEMPORARY ARCHITETURE Fall 2020 John Cooper Erik Ghenoiu

he adapts the way he performs based on the feedback the audience gives. This can bring an interesting aspect to a field such as architecture that primarily exists in a digital model platform. I used Twitch and live gameplay from Minecraft to explain the ideas behind the Homo Ludens by Huizinga. Video games are often viewed as merely a waste of time and form of juvenile play. While the main goal of video games is to play, they almost always contribute to capitalism and become a hybrid of labor and play or playbor.


Polluted School

067


Minecraft Intro Screen “Minecraft is a generative open-world game that was released in 2011 and has seen over 200 million copies sold. The game is primarily played as a survival game, meaning you have to gather resources, produce goods, and build a shelter to survive.” “Video games are inherently architectural because they deal with the depictions of constructed space and the actions that take place within it. In Minecraft, architecture serves as both the backdrop and the protagonist. The game is a constructed world, strictly bound to an isotropic grid. All elements of the game are made of square modules of an identical size that fits within the grid system. The idea of the grid is something that has long been attached to architecture and digital software.”

projects as virtual zones of unprecedented visual and protological complexity that are held together through underlying organizational systems. Archizoom and Superstudio taught us that the discipline of architecture could be challenged through new mediums in a way that is both playful and subversive.”

“1960’s speculative architecture firms, such as Archizoom, foreshadowed video games by depicting Pearson, Luke Caspar. “From Superstudio to Super Mario”. E-Flux. February 13, 2019. https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/ becoming-digital/248078/from-superstudio-to-super- mario/

068

Austin Lightle

Pearson, Luke Caspar. “From Superstudio to Super Mario”. E-Flux. February 13, 2019. https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/ becoming-digital/248078/from-superstudio-to-super- mario/


Work, Leisure and Play “According to Johan Huizinga, life is split into two parts, leisure, and work. He defines work as building up capital or making a contribution to an economical system, in other words, you are bound to something or someone. Leisure is a type of freedom in which what you are doing is for your own personal enjoyment and you are not bound to an exterior system.” “Play is a form of leisure that can be either highly structured or whimsical. Video games are a common type of play that tend to be more structured and involve things that can be measured.”

“Play is divided into two parts, qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative games are rare, they have no end goal or measured aspect of success. Quantitative games measure you success or progress.” “Minecraft is a unique game that offers a qualitative mode called “Creative”, and a quantitative mode called “Survival”.

Huizinga argues that in order for play to happen, you need to be in a second reality, somehow separated from real life. Alexander R. Galloway describes it as “A game is like a magic circle, one must step inside the circle before play can happen” Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens: A Study of The Play-Element in Culture. First. London: Routledge & Kegan Pual Ltd, 1949. 10.2307/2087716.

Casual Playbor

069


Stepping Into a New Reality

Architect Quantitatively Playing Minecraft

070

Austin Lightle


“When Minecraft first came out, everyone played as the same character. Interestingly, this character had no name and always wore navy blue pants and a turquoise shirt. Little importance was given to the character” “The player is given no backstory to the character, no heroism, frankly nothing to even fall in love with. The game is not about the character, but rather about you forming an identity of a new self in the game.”

“The game is made up of the identical sized modules, however not all modules exist equally. Each type of module has a different texture map along with different physical properties” “In Survival mode, the player starts with nothing other than his bare hands. You are reduced to your primal self and forced to collect resources in order to progress.”

goods with the ultimate result of progress.” “The relationship of Minecraft survival mode to the real world makes it harder to separate labor from play, leaving you stuck in a form of playbor”

“Survival mode has an end goal, making it quantitative. You must find a hidden portal and travel to a new world to slay a dragon. There are also zombies and other enemies in the world that will attack you, forcing you to build shelter and smelt armor. Your character must also maintain a consistent source of food by either hunting or farming.” “The game is very similar to a capitalistic driven world, with a goal of amassing resources and Galloway, Alexander R.. “The Rupture of Play.” Volume: Play-Bor, no. 56 (December 2019): 6-9

Casual Playbor

071


Architect Leisurely Playing Minecraft “In Creative mode, the character is suddenly free of all mortal aspects. There is no longer gravity, all blocks are stripped of physical properties, you begin the game with all the resources of the game already in your inventory.”

“Creative mode draws parallels to Constant’s New Babylon by enmeshing the logics of architecture and play together. Similar to New Babylon, Minecraft is an endless world that allows you to playfully drift through spaces”

“Creative mode allows to adjust how the world will be built before you spawn into it. This gives the player the ultimate freedom to interact in this world however they please. There is no goal to this mode, making it fully qualitative”

“Just as Archigram and Superstudio built worlds on paper that inhabited new dimensions, you can build new worlds through Minecraft.”

“The player can choose to simply fly around and observe the terrain, take walks through the forest, swim in the ocean, or watch the sunset. The player can also choose to express their creative liberties and begin to build and shape the world as they see fit”

Pearson, Luke Caspar. “From Superstudio to Super Mario”. E-Flux. February 13, 2019. https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/ becoming-digital/248078/from-superstudio-to-super- mario/

072

Austin Lightle


Qualitative and Quantitative ‘Play’ “Minecraft and Twitch became vital tools to display the aspects of playbor, qualitative and quantitative games.” “ As video games have become a dominant industry, cynical aspects of capitalism have entrenched themselves. Video games are not free, and often the games require in-game purchases as you them.” “Gamification, or the process of using game mechanics to extract free labor from an individual, is prevalent in video games today. “Block By Block” is a program created by UN-Habitat that allows locals to design public spaces in their cities using Minecraft. UN-Habitat then takes their favorite design and constructs an affordable version of the space. While the program has positive aspects, it is also exploiting free labor from primarily impoverished regions” Galloway, Alexander R.. “The Rupture of Play.” Volume: Play-Bor, no. 56 (December 2019): 6-9

“Decision-making in Survival mode is based on resources. You are not free to do as you wish because you must go mining, farming, hunting, and gathering in order to survive. In creative mode, however, your decision are no longer based on resources. Since physical properties no longer exist, you begin to make decisions on your aesthetic judgment of your inventory. This allows you to truly personalize your world.”

Scavnicky, Ryan. “How did DOOM Change the way you see the world?” YouTube, April 22, 2020. Video. https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=jNtmh-pFVMA

Casual Playbor

073


Qualitative Exquisite Corpse “Creative mode can also be played as a community, allowing friends or strangers to inhabit the same world as you. You can choose to communicate with them through a voice chat function, an instant message bar or you can choose to have no communication.” “This is an example of a qualitative world in which over 200 participants from around the world joined and did as they pleased. It ultimately became a game of exquisite corpses, blending fantasy and vernacular styles from the diverse participants. It became their form of a utopic world that separated them from reality”

Pearson, Luke Caspar. “From Superstudio to Super Mario”. E-Flux. February 13, 2019. https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/ becoming-digital/248078/from-superstudio-to-super- mario/

074

Austin Lightle


Empowered Play “Video games allow players to hold a mirror up to society, just like Archizoom and Superstudio’s utopic projects of the 1960’s.” “This is a world that was created by BlockWorks in partnership with Reporters Without Borders. It was a virtual library built on a Minecraft server that contained censored media from around the world. Citizens of countries with suppressed media could access the world and read news stories that otherwise would not be possible to read. This world used architecture as a way to empower people.

Bibliography: Galloway, Alexander R.. “The Rupture of Play.” Volume: Play-Bor, no. 56 (December 2019): 6-9 Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens: A Study of The Play-Element in Culture. First. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1949. 10.2307/2087716. Pearson, Luke Caspar. “From Superstudio to Super Mario”. E-Flux. February 13, 2019. https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/ becoming-digital/248078/from-superstudio-to-super- mario/ Scavnicky, Ryan. “How did DOOM Change the way you see the world?” YouTube, April 22, 2020. Video. https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=jNtmh-pFVMA

Pearson, Luke Caspar. “From Superstudio to Super Mario”. E-Flux. February 13, 2019. https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/ becoming-digital/248078/from-superstudio-to-super- mario/

Casual Playbor

075


076

RESOLUTE AMALGAMATION Mountains are hoarders, they are constantly collecting vegetation, precipitation, animals, fungus, aggregates, waste, etc. They are objects of multiple scales, resolutions, and layers. A singular mountain appears to be of a low resolution, like that of a primitive triangle with low fidelity. As you zoom out or in, the resolution and layers change. A mountain range appears at a high resolution of peaks and valleys with objects layering on and round them, such as clouds and vegetation. If you zoom into the surface of a mountain, the surface resolution becomes clearer and less indexical with numerous characteristics. What appeared as a low fidelity now appears as high fidelity, an amalgamation

076

Austin Lightle

2GBX DESIGN STUDIO I

Spring 2021

DAMJAN JOVANOVIC

of resolutions, layers, and scales. While the mountain shape barely changes over time, its surface definition and articulation are constantly changing. Nature in my project serves as both the subject and the object. Nature, specifically mountains, became something to analyze and decipher. Using precise software, the imprecision of nature becomes recreated formally. In this case, nature is converted into a physical form as an object. Nature becomes part of the project as a literal element and a diagrammatic element. If real nature serves as a subject for the form, then the form becomes the created object of artificial nature.


Polluted School

077


Small Auditorium

Lobby

Classrooms

Program Plans

078

Austin Lightle

Large Auditorium

Cafe

Roof Top

Library

Classrooms

Ourdoor Performance

Orchestra Rooms

Office Space

Office Space


Program Axons

Resolute Amalgamation

079


Roof Top

Orchestra

Library Classrooms Small Auditorium

Large Auditorium

Lobby Classrooms Cafe Office Space Office Space

Public Circulation

Program Diagram

080

Austin Lightle

Each program has its own form and is stacked on top of one another. A circulation path wraps the exterior of the building and serves as a progression connecting each program.


Ground Level Plan

The site can be accessed from the two southern corners, with the main entrance on the eastern side. The pathways on the side lead you underneath the building, where you can access the main circulation path.

Resolute Amalgamation

081


North South Section

082

Austin Lightle


Resolute Amalgamation

083


West Elevation

084

Austin Lightle


Resolute Amalgamation

085


Outer Shell Surface

Building Surface

086

Austin Lightle


Using algorithmic based software, the amalgamate formal qualities and resolutions of the mountain were used to develop the form of the building and create an articulated surface. The blend of different forms and textures appears to be imprecise and random, even though they were created with precise software. The indexicality of the digital tool becomes less apparent.

Resolute Amalgamation

087


Outer Shell

088

Austin Lightle


Massing Axonometric

Resolute Amalgamation

089


Outer Shell

090

Austin Lightle


Resolute Amalgamation

091


092

Austin Lightle


A shell covers the site and music school to create a biosphere on the interior, allowing nature to flourish in a clean environment. The lightness of clouds and the solidity of mountains were blended to create the formal properties. The shell becomes a synthesis of textures and transparencies created by an interlaced structure with compressing and expanding nodes. An additional layer of particles moves across the surface to serve as a filter to gather pollutants.

Resolute Amalgamation

093


Interior Biosphere

094

Austin Lightle


Resolute Amalgamation

095


Rooftop Amphitheater

096

Austin Lightle

The circulation acts as a progression, eventually ending at an amphitheater on the top of the school.


Exterior Amphitheater

The site features multiple exterior performance spaces. A large amphitheater is situated within the landscape, allowing for formal and informal performances.

Resolute Amalgamation

097


Site Entrance

098

Austin Lightle

The interior of the shell is a new environment, creating a new world within the site. The inside of the biosphere is full of plants and vegetation, with a backdrop of the music school as a form of synthetic nature.


Resolute Amalgamation

099


Vermont Ave Elevation

100

Austin Lightle


Resolute Amalgamation

101


102

Austin Lightle


Exterior Surface Layers The building massing is blend of different physical textures, acting at different scales and resolutions. An additional layer of image maps is placed on top of the physical texture to create an imposition of patterns.

Resolute Amalgamation

103


Main Entrance Lobby

104

Austin Lightle


Resolute Amalgamation

105


106

Austin Lightle


Auditorium Interior Like the exterior, the interior of the school is a composition of physical and digital textures. The physical texture on the interior becomes more defined with harder edges. A smooth metallic surface blends with the hard edges to create contrast.

Resolute Amalgamation

107


108

Æ A-XII

2GBX VISUAL STUDIES Spring 2021 Damjam Jovanovic

Humanity has long had a desire for nature. It is something that we have romanticized and held to a new idealized standard. The relationship of nature and humanity has had a long complex history, a history that has often seen humans attempt to take a superior role and create a false construct. This project specifically focuses on the relationship between nature and urbanism. There has been a large push in recent history to bring more greenery to cities. The nature that we see in an urban context is not nature in its true form, but rather a curation. Nature in its true essence is wild and chaotic, controlled only by itself. Cities, on the other

108

Austin Lightle

hand, are rigorous systematic machines. The city is an ordering system, forcing nature to be a constructed participant within its bounds. What happens if the roles are reversed and nature is not the ordering system and the cities become the constructed participant? In order to understand this new relationship, one must be unfamiliarized with urbanity and nature as we know it. Æ A-XII is an active simulation created in Unreal Engine that allows players to inhabit unfamiliar territory.


109


110

Austin Lightle


Æ A-XII Æ A-XII is a planet in which nature is true to its wild self and the city only exist where nature allows it too. The new ordering system of nature is not defined by grids and humans, but rather by the interstitial space of nature.

Æ A-XII

111


First Person View

112

Austin Lightle


Æ A-XII

113


Walking Simulation

114

Austin Lightle


Interactive Nature Simulation

Æ A-XII

115


Focal Length Animation

116

Austin Lightle


Æ A-XII

117


In the world X Æ A-XII, Nature still has its dominance and urbanism still has its chaos. Instead of replacing nature, the city exists where nature allows it too. Nature is present in the foreground and the background, the city exists somewhere in between. This new planet is an active simulation that allows the player to explore and discover these new unfamiliar relationships.

118

Austin Lightle


Relationship of Nature and Urbanism

Æ A-XII

119


Estranged Natural Object

120

Austin Lightle


Æ A-XII Vegetation

Æ A-XII

121


Walking Simulation

122

Austin Lightle


Æ A-XII

123


124

Austin Lightle


Æ A-XII

125


126

MATERIAL MEDIUM

On Kamilo Beach in 2006, an oceanographer discovered a piece of plastic that had washed up on the beach. Upon further inspection, the oddities of the plastic began to emerge, there were bits of rock, sand, and other elements fused with the plastic. This new type of rock, a hybrid of plastic and natural elements, became known as the plastiglomerate. They have marked, perhaps, a new geological epoch on earth signifying an impact made to the earth’s ecosystem. This new stone has emerged because of the mass production of plastics that are left astray in nature. Many of these plastics will not decay for over five hundred years, long outliving a human life. Plastiglomerates

126

Austin Lightle

2GAX THEORIES OF CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE Spring 2021 Marcelyn Gow John Cooper

are a unique material that is tied directly to the environment and humanity, they are a blend of subject, object, and environment. Platiglomerates have not only impacted the ecosystem of the earth, but it has impacted the way we think about architecture as well. The ideology of plastiglomerates provides a critical aspect to examine our approach to design as architects. Architecture has long been a field dominated by a formal approach, leaving materials to be a cladding on an idealized form. If we examine architecture as a middle ground between designers and the environment like we do plastiglomerates, we can see architecture’s relationship to the environment differently.


127


128

Austin Lightle


Material Medium Gallery Material Medium is a digital gallery curated in Unreal Engine. As a player, you are free to roam around the space and explore. The gallery is a collection of exhibits by architects that have allowed the material to take authorship in the design process.

Material Medium

129


Human Production

Plastic (Subject made waste)

Plastiglomerate Aggregates (Enviroment)

A unique material that is tied directly to the environment and humanity. Its a blend of the subject (humans), object (plastic), and the environment.

Roman Concrete Designing with material

Conglomerate

A sedimentary rock composed of rounded clasts that are over two millimeters in size and bound together by cement composed of calcite.

130

Austin Lightle

Romans began using concr early as 200 B.C. It was mad of natural materials, using la aggregates held together b smaller aggregates and cem


Architects often work with material as an idea of perfection. It is just a cladding over their ideal form, the material is not embraces for its physical properties but its aesthetic value. Material is often completely left out of the design process and only used to realized the form in the built environment.

Post Rock

Formal Complexity

Materiality

rete as de up arge by ment.

Digital Materiallurgy

Embodies the trajectory of materials and forces, rather than diagram form. It is not a representational tool for a medium, but rather a medium themselves.

Limiting design control to the material, capitalizing on matters ability to produce unexpected formal and material complexity. Digital Materiallurgy is a call to use material as a design medium and to relinquish control from the software to the material itself.

Indexical Results

Concrete fills the form work and its interior is no different from the exterior

Formal complexity in architecture is driven through metadata and software. The built results of the 3d model is produces by working with the material from the atomic level at an extreme precision.

Material Medium

131


Environmental Photographs Author Unknown Royalty Free Content

132

Austin Lightle

In 1907, the Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekland created Bakelite, the first synthetic, mass-produced plastic. Plastics adaptability, durability, and flexibility forever changed production as well as the environment. More than 380 million tons of plastic are produced each year worldwide. With a lifespan nearly seven times greater than a human, plastics long outlive humans.


Plastiglomerates Kelly Wood - Photographer Patricia Corcoran - Geologist

A new type of stone, recently designated as “plastiglomerate”, has emerged since the mass production of plastic begun. This new stone is formed from the accidental hybridization of aggregates and plastic waste from humans. They are a material that represents the relationship between humans and the environment. Plastiglomerates are representational objects, they represent the blend of the subject, object, and environment.

Material Medium

133


Plant T+E+A+M Studio

134

Austin Lightle

From the idea of plastiglomerates became a new actor in architecture centered around the idea of “Post Rock” as stated by TEAM STUDIO. Post Rock is a new type of material that is authored rather than found. It creates a new idea of working with the material in architecture as a physical medium. For Post Rock, the material is no longer a representational tool for a medium, but rather a medium itself. In TEAM STUDIO’s project, Detroit Reassembly Plant, plastic waste, and concrete aggregate from Detroit were used to create a new building that translated both culture and ecology from the city. This idea of Post Rock also introduces a new understanding of architecture’s relationship to the environment.


Dusty Relief Francois Roche

Through a similar idea of “Post Rock”, came matierallurgy, a play on material and metallurgy as stated by Adam Fure. Medieval blacksmiths did not understand how the molecular level of metal worked, only knowing how to slowly work the material from the outside. Digital fabrication has become a process of working with materials on a molecular level, making the material match an exact model. Matierallurgy is the argument that material should be used as a medium when making form, not an afterthought for production. Rosche’s Dusty Reliefs allows for the exterior of the building to form itself, merely only giving shape to the program and covering in an electrostatic net that collects pollutants.

Material Medium

135


P_Wall Andrew Kudless

136

Austin Lightle

In P_Wall, Andrew Kudless created a complex form without the use of data-driven software and digital fabrication. Kudless made form work with a spandex base, allowing the material to take form in unpredictable ways. The complex form was created by designing with material as the medium instead of software.


Sumak 2’ Roxy Paine

Roxy Paine’s exhibit, Sumak 2’, created amorphous sculptures through the viscosity of the material. An automated machine slowly oozed plastic, creating a unique piece every time. Paine turned over the design of the sculpture to the machine and the material, he could only author how thick the material was and not the form directly.

Material Medium

137


138

Austin Lightle


Material Medium Gallery The estranged central object is not clarified until the inhabiter located a hidden entrance into a back room.

Material Medium

139


Photogrammetry Models Melted Plastic

140

Austin Lightle

Plastiglomerates create a starting point for re-examining architecture and its role in the environment. Along with this, it also opens the discussion of how architects design unique forms. The form is often generated through mathematical-based software that is made of algebraic equations. Resulting in an indexical form that has done little to push the boundaries of a new form. In a process of working with material as a medium to create small forms, I replicated the process of plastiglomerates by melting plastic and using found rocks. This became an important study of learning how the two different matters combined in different conditions based on the viscosity of the plastic to create unique characteristics.


Photogrammetry Models Casted Plaster

By tying the form to the material, you are creating a form that cannot be realized beforehand with the use of digital tools. The new form that is produced is therefore one that has an opportunity to be unique, one that may be the answer to Kipnis’s DeFormation camp. Material Medium produces forms that cannot be decomposed or deconstructed into simple components or analyzed by comparing them to previous architecture forms. In contrast to DeFormation, Material Medium is referential, but it is not referential in form but in the history of the subject matter used. Material Medium becomes a new way to create a form that is not indexical, why also being able to sustain itself for the future since the agency of design is not relying on a singular person or software. Through a process of casting plaster in an unusual form, spandex, a form of complex curvature was created. This a form that is seeming complex through a lens of digital software, one that appears to consist of precise algebraic equations.

Material Medium

141


Gallery Maquette

Plaster Cast

142

Austin Lightle


Material Medium

143


Model Photos

144

Austin Lightle

In Jeffrey Kipnis’s text Towards A New Architecture, he states that there has been no new architecture mature in the past twenty years (safe to say 47 years now). The “new architecture” that Kipnis defines, is an architecture that has separated itself from the past while also sustaining itself for the future. Kipnis argues that a new architecture has formal vitality and a political reference, something that I believe Material Medium can provide. If you allow material to have agency in design, then you no longer have control over the form that is produced. Material Medium is inherently political because it is creating a representational object that links the new form to the history of the material


Model Photos

Material Medium does not have to be void of digital tools. While digital tools are not needed for the creation of the form, they can become a way of cataloging the results. While the created from has a physical scale, it can become scaleless in a digital realm through 3D scanning. A scanned object is now a new form that is slightly different from the physical model. This digital form can now be interpreted used as a new digital monolith. By going from the physical to the digital, the ability to re-purpose the form is now possible, meaning that we can design a form void of a program and mine it for its characteristics. The form can then be applied to a fitting scenario such as a sculpture, building, environment, etc.

Material Medium

145


146

Austin Lightle


Material Medium

147


148

FITTING ROOM

Contemporary architecture exist in two phases, a digital origin and physical production. The digital double of the physical production is typically turned into a digital waste that no longer serves a purpose. Architecture is constantly in flux, there is a need for architecture to be constantly changing and adapting to meet the current demands of its function. Seven architectural elements were designed, each having its own set of unique spatial qualities. The elements are not designed for a specific program or function, allowing them to be adapted and configured accordingly. An interface was developed that exist

148

Austin Lightle

DS 4000 FASHIONING THE PHYGITAL Fall 2021 Peter Testa

in three equal parts; architectural elements, phygital material library, spatial arrangement. The first part of the interface allows you to create new materials that come from digital doubles of real materials or from new found phygital materials. The elements can then be customized with the new materials to add a new spatial quality to them. The last part of the interface allows you to the arrange the elements in a spaces and assign them specific programs, in this case a fashion factory. The interface not only allows for the designer to construct the space, but also for the inhabitants of the space to further customize their environment based on their own design preferences.


149


Architectural Elements

150

Austin Lightle

Influences by Perry Kulper’s article The Naming Problem, the elements are designed based on spatial quality and not program.


Elements Interface

The interfaces allows you to view all of the elements and the spatial qualities that they provide.

Fitting Room

151


Material Interface

152

Austin Lightle

The material library has two parts, scanned materials and phygital materials. The scanned materials exist as a digital double, allowing you to change their dynamics.


Customizable Elements

The elements can be further customized using the materials to create to spatial qualities.

Fitting Room

153


Scene Construction

154

Austin Lightle


Fitting Room

155


Loading Docks

Distribution Conveyors

156

Austin Lightle


Distribution Center

3D Scan Room

Fitting Room

157


Collaborative Design

158

Austin Lightle


Fitting Room

159


Individual Design Studio

160

Austin Lightle


Individual Design Tower

Fitting Room

161


Hand Craft

162

Austin Lightle


Fitting Room

163


Production-Scape 1

Production-Scape 3

164

Austin Lightle


Production-Scape 2

Production-Scape 4

Fitting Room

165


166

Austin Lightle


Material Medium Gallery The architecture is constantly being changed and adapted by its digital double, both existing equally. The architecture is constantly in flux, meeting the demands of the fashion factories need to constantly be changing with the seasons.

Fitting Room

167


Phygital

Monochrome

168

Austin Lightle


Digital Back of House

2D-3D

Fitting Room

169


170

Austin Lightle


Phygital Interface The inhabitants of the spaces have the ability to further customize their environments. Allowing for the same space to exist uniquely to each designer in the factory.

Fitting Room

171


172

OB_CESSION

In light of Covid-19, the fashion industry has begun to branch out into a digital environments. Since the fashion industry is tangible, it relies on environments to be physically constructed in order to display their ideology. The construction of these scenes often come with excessive waste. This project addresses the current obsession of excessiveness of the fashion industry by allowing for the environment and the clothing to exist both digitally and

172

Austin Lightle

AS 2768 PHYGITAL MATERIALITY Fall 2021 Peter Testa

physically. An imply studio spaces with stop motion cameras allow for real people and real clothes to be converted into a digital doubles. The excessiveness of the environment can now exist through the use of digital assets. This new environment is both a collage of the present and the past through the use of the digital and the physical. The digital double allows for the expansion of the physical, the garments can have new


173


Swatch Patterns

174

Austin Lightle


OB_CESSION

175


Physical Scene

176

Austin Lightle


OB_CESSION

177


Physical Scene

178

Austin Lightle


A physical and digital environment exist equally. Physical elements are scanned and a digital double is created that can further be added to by upcycled assets. An new altered digital environment now exist that is a collage of the present and past through the physical and digital assets.

OB_CESSION

179


Physical Scene

180

Austin Lightle


Digital Scene

OB_CESSION

181


Scene 1

182

Austin Lightle


OB_CESSION

183


Scene 2

184

Austin Lightle


OB_CESSION

185


Scene 3

186

Austin Lightle


OB_CESSION

187


188

CURVED NOTION

Curved Notion is a project that seeks to expand upon the ideas of fabrication. A form was generated using an attractor curve in a grasshopper script. The form was scaled an rationalize in order to be constructed. In comparison to other fabrication methods, this project did not seek perfect realization of a digital model. Perhaps the biggest problem with parametricism is its reliance on perfection and little intolerance. Relying on most of the construction to be done

188

Austin Lightle

AS 2765 STEAM ODYSSEY Qihang Fan Jingyuan Wu Yu Cheng Huang

FALL 2021 Soomeen Hahm

by robots at a high cost. Using Microsoft Hololens, we did not seek perfection, but rather revolution of the construction process. Using off the shell materials, a the parametric form was produced by using only hand methods. The notion of the complex being impossible to construct can be challenged not by seeking perfection, but seeking the way in which the form is constructed.


189


Form Progression

190

Austin Lightle


Curved Notion

191


Developed Form

192

Austin Lightle


Connection Details

Curved Notion

193


App Design

Fologram

194

Austin Lightle


Board Connections

Steam Bending

Curved Notion

195


196

Austin Lightle


Constructed Chair The doubly-curved chair was constructed using off the materials and hand tools. 58 2”x4’ oak boards, 15 1-3/8” x 4’ punched steel bars, 324 1/4” hex nuts, 324 1/4” hex bolts, and 648 flat washers.

Curved Notion

197


Board Connections

198

Austin Lightle


Bracket Connections

Curved Notion

199


Completed Chair

200

Austin Lightle


Side Profile

Back Profile

Side Profile

Front Profile

Curved Notion

201


202

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT The project is a musical school located at the north-west corner of Exposition park. The building consist of a series of stack floor plates supported by two concrete cores. Enclosed glass volumes intersect both interior and the exterior. The exterior is a shell that covers the interior floors with a high level of surface articulation. The outer shell has additional layers of FRP panels and carbon fiber woven structure. A typical steel beam and concrete structural system is used as the primary structure to support the floor plates. Two large concrete cores provide the vertical structure and the floors are supported by steel trusses and

202

Austin Lightle

2GAX THEORIES OF CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE Kaitlyn Cartmell / Qihang Fan Katherine Gessing / Yuze Han Chenjia Ren / Khanh Linh Thai Kangzin Wu / Qiaochu Yang Jure Zibret

Fall 2021 Herwig Baumgartner Zach Burns

frames that tie back into the cores. Since the exterior shell is separate from the interior space, is treated with its own structural system that ties back into the floor plates and concrete cores. The shell is clad both on the interior and the exterior, created a five floor poche space. The shell is supported by an exo-skeleton system that has a secondary T frame system that is connected by nodes spanning every five feet. The entire exterior is clad in identical five foot triangulated insulated aluminum panels, allowing for the complexity of the facade to be constructed in an efficient manner.


203


FRP Pannels Aluminum Pannels

Glazzing

Carbon Fiber

Exterior Identifications

204

Austin Lightle


Secondary Structure Primary Building Structure

Exo-Skeleton Strcture

Structural System

Design Development

205


206

Austin Lightle


Original Building The building consist of regular interior with a complex exterior with multiple layers. The exterior is a giant shell that covers the interior space. The shell is clad on both the exterior and interior creating a unique design challenge.

Design Development

207


FRP Pannels Glazzing Secondary T Frame Insulated Aluminum Pannel

Curtain Wall System Carbon Fiber Woven Pannel

Chunk 1

208

Austin Lightle


The building consist of a vertical structural system supported by two concrete cores. The exterior has a separate exo-skeleton system to support the cladding. The exoskeleton is clad on both the interior and the exterior. The exterior has an additional layer of FRP panels that act as sun shade devices. On the curtain wall system, a carbon fiber woven panel system is used for sun shading.

Design Development

209


Glazzing Exo-Strcture FRP Pannel

Walkway On Pannel Connection Interior Cladding Interior Secondary T Frame Structure Insulated Aluminum Pannel

Small Chunk

210

Austin Lightle


Exo-Structure

Nodes

Exterior T Frames

Mullions

Insulated Aluminum Panel

Exterior Glazing

Panel Structure

FRP Panel Connection

FRP Panel

Interior T Frame

Interior Mullions

Interior Cladding

Interior Cladding

Thermal Break

Completed Chunk

Design Development

211


Raised Floor System HVAC Duct Work Connection to Primary Exo-Strcture Interior Secondary T Frame Structure Ventilation for Exo Structure

Exterior Secondary T Frame Structure

Suspended Ceiling

Shell Connection

212

Austin Lightle


Secondary Structure

Mullions

Metal Decking

Concrete Floors

Curtain Wall

HVAC

Raised Floor

Suspended Ceiling

Exo-Structure

Connection To Primary

Exterior T Frames

Insulated Aluminum Panels

Interior T Frame

Interior Cladding

Ventilation Panels

Design Development

213


Green System

214

Austin Lightle


Pinned Connection to Flat Metal Support Flat Metal Support Walk Way

Secondary T Frame Node Connection to Primary

Metal Support Conection to Node

18” HSS Primary Structure

FRP Panel

Secondary T Frame Node Connection to Primary 18” HSS Primary Structure

Irrigation Line Node Connection to Primary

Walk Way Pinned Connection to Flat Metal Support Drip System Soil Felt Lining FRP Pannels Pinned Connection to Flat Metal Bar

18” HSS Primary Structure

Design Development

215


3/8” Double Glazing

Mullion

T Section Secondary Structure

Back Face Mullion With Click Conection

Node conection with plate attachment for T Sections

18” HSS Primary Strcture

Exploded Facade System

216

Austin Lightle


Secondary T Frame

18” Hollow Steel Primary Structure Node Conection To Primary Mullion on T Frame Welded Node Connection Insulated Aluminum Panel W/ Snap Connection

Secondary T Frame

Secondary T Frame Interior Panel Cladding

2D Facade Detail

Design Development

217


3/8” Double Glazing Silicone Spacer Setting Block Mullion

Secondary T Frame Structure Back Face Mullion With Click Conection

Typical Mullion

218

Austin Lightle


Weatherseel Silicone 3/8” Double Glazing Spacer and Setting Block

2” Insulated Aluminum Panel with Snap Conection Mullion

Secondary T Frame Back Face Mullion With Click Conection

2” Insulated Aluminum Panel with Snap Conection Mullion Snap Connection Secondary T Frame Back Face Mullion With Click Conection

Weatherseel Silicone 3/8” Double Glazing

Spacer and Silicone Seel

Spacer and Setting Block

Mullion Types

Design Development

219


220

220

HOW ARE IMAGES READ

HT 2553 AESTHETIC IMPLICATIONS OF NOISE

Fall 2021

Walead Beshty

Algorithms have become a part of everyone’s life, rather they know it or not. Algorithms are designed to read an image in a very direct and precise way, allowing for the same construction of pixels to be interpreted in different ways based on the objective of the algorithm. There is no correct way for a human to read an image due to independent thoughts and opinions.

meta data through different algorithms specific to the program in use. The image is constantly being deconstructed into a string of text and re-assembled into an identical image or a new image based on an algorithm. The process that happens between the initial and final result allows for a parasite to create something new or unpredictable.

As architects, the image has replaced the drawing as our tool of communicating space. Even the orthographic drawings that we produced are only displayed through the means of images. We work with images on a daily basis and know so little about how the images are read and used. Since images have become digital, the image is read as

My research began by study different algorithms that read images and the result that they produce. The main focus is on The Colorful Image Colorizer algorithm. It was developed by Richard Zhang, Phillip Isola, and Alexei A. Efros with the intent to re-color grayscale images with A.I. based algorithm.

Austin Lightle


221


Digital Image Code

Digital Signal Processor

Analog to Digital Converter

Charged Couple Device

222

Austin Lightle

Camera Lens


Digital Photo The digital photograph, or image, is created by a camera lens filtering lighting to a charged couple device. This device then converts the light into a digital image code. The code is a string of text that represents each pixel as a color value and can assembled into a .jpg file in a computer based software. Since the image begins as a string of code and there is no singular origin, an infinite amount of originals can exist since the meta data remains the same.

How are Images Read

223


(R+G+B) 3

148

(0+255+188) 3

R: 0 G: 255 B: 188

R: 148 G: 148 B: 148

Grayscale Algorithms

(.21R+.72G+.07B) 196 (.21(0)+.72(255)+.07(188)

R: 0 G: 255 B: 188

R: 196 G: 196 B: 196

Grayscale Algorithms

224

Austin Lightle

In order to convert an image into grayscale, each pixel must be separated and ran through the algorithm to construct a new color value.


Old photograph (chemical based) are converted into digital images by scanning.

Color is applied by highlighting areas and applying a fill color with an opacity level.

The original chemical based photograph is now converted into a digital image that has an opacity overlay.

(R+G+B)

RGB values are calculated by comparing pixel clusters to over 1,000,000 images that have been analyzed with an A.I. algorithm that associates RGB values with pixel clusters.

Original Image Colorization

LAB color space L = Luminosity A = green and red values B = blue and yellow values

Colorful Image Colorization

= Luminosity

3 R = Unknown G = Unknown B = Unknown

The original method of color images relied on a hand made process. The Colorful Image Colorization relies on an A.I. to generate the colors, allowing for misinterpretations.

How are Images Read

225


Morning Cleaning

226

Austin Lightle

The same image can exist in multiple formats. The original image can be viewed as cluster of pixels, a three dimensional plot of points based on their RGB values, a 2D plot of the color range, or a string of text that tells a software how to construct the cluster of pixels to be viewed.


3D Color Space

2D Color Profile

Image Text Code

How are Images Read

227


Image - 20

228

Austin Lightle

A new image was created by pushing the Colorful Image Colorizer algorithm to its extents. By creating a feed back loop with the resultant image, a new image emerged. The image appears to be of a low fidelity even though it has the exact same resolution of the original images.


How are Images Read

229


Height Field - 1

230

Austin Lightle

In a comparison to see how a human reads depth and a computer reads depth, the images imputed into a heighfield map in Cinema 4D.


Height Field - 20

The resultant images from the Colorful Image Colorizer algorithms become flattened and texture when the depth is read by Cinema 4D’s algorithms.

How are Images Read

231


232

Austin Lightle


3D Color Space Between Images Using Houdini FX, all 20 images from the Colorful Image Colorizer study could be analyzed spatially by the amount of color each image retained. As the each image was fed back into the algorithm, certain colors remained and others faded out. This study allows for the sequence of images to be read in a new spatial way.

How are Images Read

233


234

GENERAL CONDITIONS General conditions examines the role of scale, context, and naming of architecture. The extracted objects from the Lieb House, Frankfurt Kitchen, and Winton Guest House are used to define a new action rather than function. A series of acts remove architecture from its “standard” context and given new action through digital scenarios. The materials are examined on a physical and digital scale simultaneously. New value is given to the pieces by interpreting new potentials offered through digital platforms. A new platform, BAM, was used to extract geometry from the Lieb House, Frankfurt Kitchen, and the Winton Guest House.

234

Austin Lightle

DS 5000 DOUBLE STANDARDS

Donwon Choi

SPRING 2022

Devyn Weiser

BAM allows you to rename the geometry with general attributes and a sub level of values. You can then randomly extract a set numbers of pieces bases on the attributes and values to create new geometry to be interpreted digitally or upcycled physically as a way of extending the life of architecture. The project is carried out in four acts; Furnishings to Furnishings, House Parts to New House, Object to City, and House to Furnishing. As the acts progress, the examination of the objects shifts from physical to digital, allowing the focus to shift from the physical object to the digital double as a new way of creating.


235


Lieb House

236

Austin Lightle

Winton Guest House


Frankfurt Kitchen

237


Attributes - Glass, Concrete, Wood Values - All Tween - 100 Limit - 10 View - Axon SW

238

Austin Lightle

Attributes - Gypsum Values - All Tween - 100 Limit - 12 View - Choisy SW


Attributes - All Values - All Tween - 100 Limit - 170 View - Axon SE

239


Frankfurt Kitchen

240

Austin Lightle


Furnishings to Furnishings

The scale, material, and geometry remained the same as the original Frankfurt Kitchen. New physical pieces of furnishings were created at a 1:1 scale. The new physical pieces were examined for their spatial attributes and performance qualities, and were assigned a function as a new piece of furnishing.

241


House Parts to New House

242

Austin Lightle

A further examination of 1:1 scale, the possibilities of using the digital counterparts were explored. The extracted geometry has the opportunity to become nameless, materialess, and functionless. This allows for another reading of the house parts in a digital environment for new future physical pieces.


Lieb House

243


244

Austin Lightle


Objects to City Working in contrary to naming heavy platforms like BIM, BAM objects exist physically before they exist digitally. The digital model and the physical pieces can be upcycled simultaneously. Assets were examined for new functions ranging from 1:1 scale, up to 100:1 scale to form new urban environments. The same geometry existing on a new spectrum ranging from the digital to the physical based on the potential for the spatial performance.

245


Lieb Table

246

Austin Lightle


House to Furnishing

The use of context through digital assets allowed for multiple readings of the same BAM geometry. The geometry functioned using the same material but at a new digital scale. The Lieb house assets created a new table that can simultaneously perform for 1:1 or 10:1 scale objects.

247


New Frankfurt House

248

Austin Lightle


249


Automavision Conditions

250

Austin Lightle

The studies of context, function, and camera from Kit Kit extended into the robot house. Physical models were examined in relationship to one another, relation to the camera, and relation to their digital counterparts as a way of giving them new relevance through context.


251


Automavision Conditions

252

Austin Lightle

Two cameras were attached to robot arms that randomly moved around the models, using the cinematic technique, automavision, invented by Lars Van Trier. Each camera began to create new worlds for the geometry depending on which context they were capturing.


253


254

Austin Lightle


255


256

PERCEPTUAL DETAIL Inspired by House III designed by Peter Eisenman, the cabinet uses separation of structure and surface as a stimulant for activity. It becomes unclear what is structure and was is detailed design. The separation of structure and surface allows for the surface to further engage with the structure, for the surface to move in between the structure. Perceptual Detail is a cabinet that seeks engagement. The essence of the detail does not lie in its own appearance, but the

256

Austin Lightle

AS 2509 DETAILS, DETAILS

Chenjia Ren

SPRING 2022

Dwayne Oyler

potential to impact the users perception. The detail is both a visual stimulant and physical experience. The cabinet plays with the intersection of voids and volumes to create its functionality. The puzzling nature of the cabinet uses the detail of the wood and metal as a communication for engagement. The cabinet has four hidden drawers, each one requiring a degree of interaction with other pieces to open the drawers.


257


258

Austin Lightle


.5” Steel Square Section

.5” Plywood Faces

Puzzle Drawers

.125” Plate Steel

259


260

Austin Lightle


261


262

Austin Lightle


Perceptual Detail The cabinet uses the void of the structure as a background and foil, as conscious stimulant for the activity of the owner. The void space in the cabinets enacts engagement, allowing the user to discover.

263


264

Austin Lightle


265


AUSTIN LIGHTLE

266

Austin Lightle


Thank You Austin.j.lightle@gmail.com 740-708-7013

267


CONTACT INFORMATION

Austin.j.lightle@gmail.com 740-708-7013


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.