Digital Design - Module 01 Semester 1, 2019 Christopher Chen 1003927 Joel Collins Studio 15
Week One
Reading: Zeara Polo, A. 2010. Between Ideas and Matters.
According to Zeara-Polo, the diagram does not play a representational role in the design process but provides an organisational and can have a performative quality depending on how it is deployed. Explain how Diagram is different from Signs and Symbols?
Diagrams draw upon our cognitive ability to group, match and relate the qualities present to generate a organisation and conceptualise from an abstraction of ideas. Zeara Polo states that diagrams are “tools that describe relationships and prescribes performances in space.�, highlighting the idea that diagrams have no representational role, but we are able to decrypt them for deeper ideas. There are multiple categories of signs: Indexes, Symbols and Icons. - Symbols represent immaterial ideas while being material themselves - Icons are an expression of quality, although they do not possess the qualities themselves. - Indexes draw a connection between themselves and the content they represent. This is usually sublte and undefined however.
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Week One
Precedent Analysis
I
II
Image of Radix: Metalocus. ““RADIX” BY AIRES MATEUS IN THE VENECE BIENNALE” Metalocus. Last accessed 17 March 2019, https:// www.metalocus.es/en/news/radixaires-mateus-venece-biennale I: Image of ellipsoids and boolean difference for the form III II: Image of rib projection for accurate modelling First, boolean difference was used to create the overall shape. Then for the ribs, I projected flat lines onto the curved polysurface. Finally I exploded the model to make Make2D vectors for the diagrams.
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III: Image of diagram preparation
Week Two
Reading: Hertzberger H. 2005. The in-between and The Habitable Space Between Things, from Lessons for Students in Architecture. Herzberger discusses how design should not be extreme in its functionality. Use your precedent study to explain how the pavilion allows for an appropriation of use.
The Radix pavilion is extremely sculptural, more aesthetic than functional. However, it still maintains a practical shelter ability. The pavilion allows for an appropriation of use through it’s lack of defined user spaces. The varying heights of the interior create subtle suggestions as to how to use the space. However, there is no determination as to how one should experience or interact with the pavilion. The materiality lacks any discrete elements, it is purely suggestive, and the variation in heights helps the observer to decide where and how they want to interact with the Radix pavilion.
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Week Two
Isometric
Radix: Void and mass as one. The overall structure was easily modelled. By simply subtracting solids from a cube, the interior was constructed. One thing that did pose an issue initially was that the centre of the ellipsoids were not where they seemed, and so after some calculation, the true centrepoints were found and used. The ribs were tricky initially as they weren’t based on the ellipsoid centres, rather they arrayed off the curves of the interior. After discovering this, the lines were projected and modelled. With regards to the threshold, what was interesting was that the void itself served as a intemediary space which encouraged circulation and experience within a permeable space. The interior of the structure merely suggests and describes possible places to congregate, it does not define ones path through the space. Most importantly, I realised that Mass and Void are interconnected: you cannot have one without the other, and they define each other while allowing the observer freedom and decision.
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Week Two Diagrams
Circulation
Threshold: Permeability and definition
A diagram showing how the interior space and form creates areas of concentration and suggestion for the people experiencing the space.
A diagram highlighting the idea that the void itself is the threshold: an intemediary space which is a permeable zone between ground and mass.
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Appendix
Process
Ellipsoid modelling for subtraction using boolean difference.
Subtraction of ellipsoids and modelling of the base and steps
Projection of flat lines on to a curved polysurface for modelling the ribs in the vaults/ arches.
Clipping plane for the sectional isometric.
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Appendix Aires Mateus - Radix Pavilion
First iteration of the final board
Process
Lacked detail and the top isometric felt too empty at 1:50 scale, so I added a sectional cut through with a figure to emphasise the scale and materiality. The circulation diagram lacked a sense of connection between the pathways and the heat map, and furthermore, there is more of a circulatory space rather than a fixed direction. I added a more realistic diagram of the spaces that people might move through, and it relates to the heat map a lot better.
Christopher Chen - 1003927
Isometric 1:50 0
1000
3000mm
Outer shell: defining space
Outer shell: defining space
Interior layer: physical and material
Heat map of interactive form Void as intermediary space
Circulation paths
Base: Ground plane
Circulation 1:100
Threshold: Permeability and definition: 1:100
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Appendix
Final iteration of the board Aires Mateus - Radix Pavilion - 2012
Process
Isometric 1:50 0
1000
3000mm
Christopher Chen - 1003927 Interior layer: projects spaces for the heat map
Outer shell: encapsulating mass/facilitator
Heat map: locations of interactive form
Interior layer: physical and material
Circulation space: tendency not instruction
Void as an intermediary space: permeable layer between mass and ground
Circulation 1:100
Threshold: Permeability and definition: 1:100
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