BRIAN DUONG TUTOR: BRADLEY ELIAS 2017
STUDIO AIR
Part A : CONCEPTUALISATION 1
Ecoduct - The Borkeld, ZJA Architects Zwarts & Jansma Architects’ ‘The Borkeld’1 is a wildlife crossing which addresses an issue prevalent in highways all around the world. It is not uncommon for local wildlife to move throughout areas and with the advent of modern highways dividing large expanses of area. Collisions between vehicles and wildlife is a common occurrence. This not only a tragic and unfortunate outcome for the local wildlife but also a dangerous and traumatic experience for drivers. A solution for this situation is to install wildlife crossings to provide a safe passage for wildlife to travel through. Although this wildlife crossing is only one of many around the world, there is still a great lack considering the large network of roads and highways covering the world. This type of design shifts away from design which has “perspectival limitations of human centredness”2 by changing the focus of design away from humans and towards a different aspect, in this case the local wildlife, a new approach needs to be adopted. This not only applies to this particular situation or issue, but can be extended to various other areas of design. It is important for design to shift from designing to suit the needs of people to designing to suit the
“‘Ecoduct’ The Borkeld”, Zwarts & Jansma Architects, 2017 <http://www.zja.nl/> [accessed 11 August 2017] Tony Fry, Design Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics and New Practice (Oxford: Berg, 2008), p.1. 3 Fry, p.2. 4 Fry, p.1. 5 “‘Ecoduct’ The Borkeld”. 6 “‘Ecoduct’ The Borkeld”. 1 2
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Above: ZJA Architects – Ecoduct, The Borkeld (Netherlands, 2004)5
needs of the environment. If humans are the centralised focus of every design, then the environment around will be moulded to ideal human image unsuitable for anything else. In this age of “anthropocentric”3 design it is vital to remember the importance of environment around us. The realisation of ‘The Borkeld’ brings upon the notion that nonhuman centred design is not an idealistic thought imagined by a select few individuals, but a feasible concept that encapsulates the idea that design beyond human needs is essential. This piece of architecture can be appreciated by a wide range of people due to its design intention. It holds respect for the environment that it is in and wildlife residing in the area. This gives the structure intrinsic value that can be appreciated by any observer.
Below: ZJA Architects – Ecoduct, The Borkeld (Netherlands, 2004)6
“We human beings unwittingly have created this condition through the consequences of our anthropocentric mode of worldly habitation” - Tony Fry, Design Futuring
A.1 DESIGN FUTURING 3
The Commons, Breathe Architecture Above: Breathe Architecture - The Commons (Melbourne, 2014)10
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‘The Commons’ is a residential apartment complex designed by Breathe Architecture with the intent to promote a sustainable lifestyle through the design of the building7. It features rooftop vegetable gardens and a bicycle rack rather than parking for vehicles. This exclusion is uncommon for the type of building, forcing occupants to depend on other modes of transport and encouraging a more sustainable approach to travel. The building situated beside a railway station is able to provide such alternatives to personal vehicles. This approach to architecture where the building is not built to suit the specific needs of the individual client, but to build with an intention in mind and the occupants are required to adjust to the conditions of the space, is an important concept that should be considered when designing. This occupant adaptation is already existent in the current residential apartment market, although what is absent is the drive to design with a sustainable outcome in mind. There are a select few precedents that do, however the vast majority depend on the interests of the developer. The push for sustainable buildings is a response to the increasing inefficiency in areas of manufacture and design, heading towards an unsustainable future. This building opens up new perspectives on how to achieve a sustainable outcome while incorporating a notion of strong community a varied lifestyle. This example of “speculative design”8 is important to
“The Commons”, Breathe Architecture, 2017 <http://www.breathe.com.au/> [accessed 11 August 2017] Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, Speculative Everything: Design Fiction, And Social Dreaming (MIT Press, 2013), p.2. Fry, p.11. “The Commons”, The Commons, by Andrew Wuttke. “The Commons”, The Commons, by Andrew Wuttke.
expand the possibilities available to move towards sustainable future. It could also be argued that this type of sustainable building caters only for a specific lifestyle and outside of that, it is very difficult to adapt. That may be true, living a lifestyle out of interest beyond personal interest is indeed challenging. But this building style opens up the notion of influencing a certain lifestyle through a particular way of design. That through design, the choices of individuals are influenced. To what extent depends on the circumstances. The realisation of this project is an important aspect of turning the idea and intentions into successful solution. To design with awareness and consideration is to design intelligently9. Within this context, sustainable design is an important design intent.
Left: Breathe Architecture - The Commons (Melbourne, 2014)11
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Above: Antoni Gaudi - Hanging Chain Models (1889)15
Design computation could be defined as using a technological process to assist in the design process. It is not limited to only digital means but refers to methods used to allow design to form. Rather than an intuitive process, design computation uses processes to produce outcomes based on the inputs. This allows for a wider range of outcomes that may not have been possible without a form of computation. The way in which computers have changed design is widely debated and could be seen as a superficial method of design in which computers contribute to much of the design outcome. However prior to the introduction of computers to the design process, various other methods of design computation existed, for example methods of analogue computation which operate in the same manner as digital computation. Form finding methods such as
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tensile structures to find optimal catenary curves. By changing the input parameters such as the positioning of the endpoints of the strings, various outcomes are produced. This analogue computation method is identical to digital computation in this aspect. With digital computation, there is the ability to customise the computational process. Thus allowing more freedom to design the process or system. This type of design shifts from a traditional approach where design is focused on the outcome whereas in a contemporary digital computation approach, the focus is much more on designing the system where inputs and parameters can be adjusted to form various outcomes. This “parametric design”12 method allows for designs which are able to fulfil certain requirements to be developed through iterations to reach an efficient and desirable outcome.
Rivka Oxman and Robert Oxman, Theories Of The Digital In Architecture (London: Routledge, 2014), p.3. “Gaudi’s Hanging Chain Models”, List of Physical Visualizations, 2017 <http://dataphys.org/> [accessed 11 August 2017] “Bat Tower”, Ants of the prairie, 2017 <http://www.antsoftheprairie.com/> [accessed 11 August 2017] “Gaudi’s Hanging Chain Models”. “Bat Tower”.
With the aid of digital computation, specific needs are able to be addressed at a greater capacity meaning with technology, the ability to adjust designs to mould around a function is possible. Starting with a requirement in the brief for example, then taking information from the environment to create the ability to design very specifically to a certain context. A design that has fully utilised the technology to efficiently produce an outcome which fulfils the requirements is what digital computation is able to achieve. Taking the example of Gaudiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hanging chains13 to form catenary curves. This form finding technique is able to produce structurally optimum forms and from that, variations and iterations can be developed. Similarly digital computation can focus on a specific aspect and is able to create variations based off that initial fundamental concept. Digital computation expands the aspects of design that can be utilised, not only just the structural aspect in the hanging chains example. In the digital computation context, Joyce Hwangâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bat Tower14 is an example of creating a form based off certain aspects of the environment and needs of the brief. This is only one form of design, but is one that allows a greater control over process and outcome through parametrics.
Above: Joyce Hwang - Bat Tower (New York, 2010)16
A.2 DESIGN COMPUTATION 7
The use of digital generation within the design process is a controversial topic. On one hand the notion of delegating a computation system to produce design outcomes can be viewed as undesirable to some. However, without a doubt computational generation has expanded possibilities and created opportunities within architectural design. The shift from composition to generation, traditional to digital means, when comparing the two, seem vastly contrastive. However there are of course methodologies that have been developed and carried through. Although the design process has also transformed from a linear pathway to a more interconnected process of iterative refinement and form finding. With generation, design research has a more predominant effect on the overall design as it informs and influences much of the computational system. The parametric design system is also much more efficient, allowing complex iterations and adjustments to be created by only varying parameters. This powerful tool allows designs to go through a greater number iterations eventually reaching an optimal point of efficiency. Previously, through traditional means, this approach to design is practically unfeasible.
Below: ICD/ITKE - Research Pavilion 2010 (Stuttgart, 2010)19
The use of digital generation results in a design process which is entirely within the digital medium from idea procurement to design outcome. In the upcoming future, fabrication at larger scales could also be possible adding to this digital design process. This idea of “digital continuity”17 is perceived to be what the digital process should accomplish. The current digital design process and work flow has still yet to incorporate all the processes in a digital form, there is still a leap from the design outcome to the built form on larger scales. ICD/ITKE achieved such a feat in the 2010 Research Pavilion18 at a smaller scale, completing the pavilion while maintaining this continuity through digital design processes. The discontinuity within the design process is an inefficient transfer of information. The design realisation into built form is where the methodology is still indicative of the 17 18 19 20 21
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Oxman, p.2. “ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2010”, Institute for Computational Design and Construction, 2017 <http://icd.uni-stuttgart.de/> [accessed 11 August 2017] “Barak Building”, ARM Architecture, 2017 <http://armarchitecture.com.au/> [accessed 11 August 2017] “ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2010”. “Barak Building”.
Left: ARM Architecture - Barak Building (Melbourne, 2015)20
traditional methods used in the construction process. This disparity between the digital and the traditional methodologies creates limitations within the system and the overall design process is not as efficient as it could be. This is seen in the mass production of elements within a built form. This is inherently a traditional method where the outcome is limited by the process. With a digital design process, mass customisation becomes a much more feasible option. An example of this the Barak Building designed by ARM19. In contrast, other uses of the digital process include simply computerisation. Just as the digital medium is used as an outlet for more traditional processes, the translation from the digital design outcome to the built form is not dissimilar. However there is an increasing shift towards digital fabrication methods which expand the potential various digital design outcomes. However the design process is not quite at the stage where this is a completely feasible notion. Digitalisation is shifting design into a new typology which is the result of such digital practises and methods such parametric design and algorithmic modelling.
A.3 COMPOSITION/GENERATION 9
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The integration of digital design methods into the design procurement process is a beneficial advancement enabling the use of digital computational methods to produce efficient outcomes. With an increasing concern to produce built form of higher efficiency and reduce the impact of construction methods to the environment, research based design is becoming more prominent. Within digital design outcomes, there is a greater influence on the outcome directly from the research. Parametric design allows for such relationships between information in the environment and transforming it through a computational algorithm to produce a final design outcome. Not only does digital design enable such form generation, but also allows for a greater refinement process after being revised through many iterations. Design no longer becomes about designing an outcome but more designing a computational system to achieve outcomes which are efficient. The design process in traditional methods is starkly different to the digital design approach. This approach is a necessary step to change the way design has been produced in the past which has led to the problematic situation currently being experienced. New methods and processes are what is needed to move towards a more favourable future. Digital design allows such opportunities to be created.
A.4 CONCLUSION 11
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For me, I had preconceived notions that digital design was only limited design computerisation, that computers were merely another medium to essentially replicate what was done on paper but slightly more efficiently. Having expanded my knowledge, design computation through computers is what the focus of digital design really is. There has been a shift in the method of design thinking from having a set image of an outcome to refine to a more open approach in changing the algorithmic system to generate an outcome. There is more flexibility in a design computation approach and a wider range of outcomes can be generated through algorithmic design. With traditional idea generation, it is often easy to become fixated on specific ideas which restricts alternatives or opportunities that may exist. Digital generation and parametric design alleviate such issues to a greater extent. Design outcomes also tend to have less of an arbitrary form in digital design and more of a form that closely relates to aspects of the program. For digital design, research is a very important part of the design process. It is able to inform the design and algorithm to what aspects need to be addressed.
A.5 LEARNING OUTCOMES 13
Left: Octree Generation Sketch One
OCTREE GENERATION These examples explore the octree component within grasshopper. By taking input points, it generates a series of cuboid forms in the most efficient manner. These two examples were generated by using a lofted base curve to populate with points which were then input into the octree component. The various patterns were created by varying the input surface and also the random seed for the populate geometry component. The two sketches vary in outcome greatly from only manipulating certain parameters providing some insight into the capability of algorithmic modelling to make quick and significant iterations.
Right: Octree Generation Sketch Two 14
GRADIENT DESCENT Top left: Gradient Descent Sketch One Bottom left: Gradient Descent Sketch Two Right: Gradient Descent Sketch Three
These examples are attempts to simulate flow dynamics and interactions with surfaces and fields. The flow simulation was generated using a looping algorithm and downwards motion of points which are traced by curves. I initially began with planar surfaces but then moved onto three dimensional forms. The addition of a spin field creates a spiral like path for the curves down the surface. The second sketch uses a sphere as a base surface instead and variation of the position of the spin field created different path patterns. Finally I joined together a point charge and a spin force to produce the third sketch. From this exploration it is interesting to see particles behave when having an initial set movement vector but then also being affected by external forces to shift the path.
A.6 APPENDIX - ALGORITHMIC SKETCHES 15
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“Bat Tower”, Ants of the prairie, 2017 <http://www.antsoftheprairie.com/> [accessed 11 August 2017] “Barak Building”, ARM Architecture, 2017 <http://armarchitecture.com.au/> [accessed 11 August 2017] Dunne, Anthony, and Fiona Raby, Speculative Everything: Design Fiction, And Social Dreaming (MIT Press, 2013) “’Ecoduct’ The Borkeld”, Zwarts & Jansma Architects, 2017 <http://www.zja.nl/> [accessed 11 August 2017] Fry, Tony, Design Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics And New Practice (Oxford: Berg Publishers Ltd, 2008) “Gaudí’S Hanging Chain Models”, List Of Physical Visualizations, 2017 <http://dataphys.org/list/gaudis-hanging-chain-models/> [accessed 11 August 2017] “ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2010”, Institute For Computational Design And Construction, 2017 <http://icd.uni-stuttgart.de/> [accessed 11 August 2017] Oxman, Rivka, and Robert Oxman, Theories Of The Digital In Architecture (London: Routledge, 2014) “The Commons”, Breathe Architecture, 2017 <http://www.breathe.com.au/> [accessed 11 August 2017]
REFERENCES 17
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