air journal Charlie Paine 702331
Guggenheim Museum - Under Construction, Frank Gehry, 1997
c o N T E N T S
Hyperbuilding, OMA/ Rem Koolhaas, 1996
Part A - Conceptualisation 2
A0 Introduction
3
A1 Design Futuring
A1.1 Case Study 01 - Frank Gehry
A1.2 Case Study 02 - OMA/ Rem Koolhaas
9 11 13 14 15
A2 Design Computation
A3 Composition/Generation A4 Conclusion
A5 Learning Outcomes A6 Appendix - Algorithmic Skechbook
A0
introduction
My name is Charlie Paine, born and raised in Melbourne, I guess have always been exposed to a massive array of creative design and architecture. I think I first developed an interest in becoming an architect at a very early age, when I saw the movie Click (2006). My little brother and I had an obsession at that stage with Adam Sandler, and seeing him in that movie depicted as a successful architect, playing around with cool models and drawings, I imagine this is what kickstarted my desire to be an architect In school, my best two subjects were maths and art, so to me it made sense to go down the architecture path, dad always told me that’s all it takes.
It would probably be safe to say that to a certain extent, since leaving school, my yearning to be an architect has swayed slightly. My realisation that the industry was largely computer based, paired perhaps with battling through a few of the ‘drier’ introductory subjects within the Environments course, my motivation began to depreciate and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t considered dropping the course altogether. However, this year (arguably semester), I told myself that I wouldn’t throw away the personal and financial resources I have spent in getting here, and that spike in self-motivation has honestly rekindled my interest in Architecture. Before this semester, every project I had done to date was handdrawn, which managed to get me thus far. However, seeing as this subject is almost entirely computer-based, it will be a challenge that I truly am looking forward to!
A1
Design futuring
During my three years at the University of Melbourne, I’m not sure I’ve attended a lecture or a tutorial under the course umbrella of ‘Environments’ in which the word ‘sustainability’ has not been mentioned, and additionally, consistently topical. It is without a doubt the central focus of any successful design, whether it be drawn or built, and is the key driver for any design process of the 21st century and beyond.
socially constructive future which would facilitate citizen-consumer participation and redefine our relationship and conception of reality1.
Naturally and uncontrollably, we are moving towards a more uncertain future, and the quality of life our children will have is largely dependent on design, whether it be in the architectural, scientific, technological or any other design-driven realm. Design futuring is setting out to develop a new building intelligence1, a creative form of design that will adhere to longevity and sustainability; and also, with democratic design as the foundation, create a
One thing that is safe to assume is that technology will continue to grow exponentially and infinitely. The traditional notion of connecting with your immediate neighbours has been driven obsolete, with the internet providing a catalyst for people to connect with like-minded people all over the planet. Additionally, a better future for one person is one that is wished to be avoided by another – dependent on demographic and culture – among other things. Meaning, the now seemingly distant idea of the creation of a truly utopian city, a dream of earlier centuries fallen apart due to sustainability prerequisites, should now be broken down and redirected to form ideal ‘utopias’ specific to each individual.
1
1
Fry, 2009
Dunne, 2013
Signature Towers, Zaha Hadid, 2006
A1.1 Case study 01 frank gehry
Disney hall (2002)
Frank Gehry’s Disney Hall (2003), a concept envisaged in 1988 in response to a design competition a year earlier, is an example of architecture’s ability to reshape one’s way of thinking, or reimagine reality through built form. Gehry, renowned for his free-flowing and fluid design, and his inclination to replace generic geometry and rational order with sweeping curves and non-rectilinear shapes1, without ever sacrificing the intended functionality, brought a refreshed design aesthetic to more basic contexts.
guage of the exterior2. In perhaps all concert halls I have visited, there have been areas of the audience which have been visually obstructed, however there is no need for internal supporting columns, as the steel roof structure spans the entire space. Gehry also left balconies and boxes out of the design, usually the central aspects of any concert hall design, in an effort to eliminate social segregation and hierarchy.
The initial conception of the design was to bring life to downThe building engages its audience town Los Angeles, in turn it has sensually, both visually from the brought not only a rise in the grandiose external form realized value of surrounding properties through vast sweeping titanium but a greater social and cultural sheets, and audially, with the epicenter for the city. The reignconcert hall’s billowed, rolling impact this buildinghas on the ing ceiling acting as a superisurrounding landscape and environor acoustic system, while subtly ment through its experimental form referencing the sculptural lanis an example of life-enhancing architecture and positive design for the future. 1 https://www.artsy.net/artwork/frank-gehry-lewis-residence-final-model-unbuilt-lynd2 http://www.archdaily. hurst-ohio com/441358/ad-classics-walt-disney-concert-hall-frank-gehry
Disney Hall, Frank Gehry, 2002
“I am always trying to express movement. I was fascinated with the fold – so basic to our first feelings of love and warmth” -Frank Gehry (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt1_BgCN6lU) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt1_BgCN6lU
a1.2 Case stuDy 02 OMA/REm Koolhaas
‘Hyperbuilding’ (1996)
Never built, but turned into a fantastical playground for ideas to evolve and manifest through a series of mixed-use urban systems, the Hyperbuilding, by the Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), headed by Rem Koolhaas, was conceived as a solution to overcrowding in Thailand’s capital city, manifested through a one kilometer high, self contained city, exploring vertical living possibilities relating to connectivity, communications, accessibility and circulation on a vast urban scale1.
which circulate and connect in an ongoing recursive network2 However, the advantages accompanying the hyper-concentrated structure would not be as ostensible or significant on a developed city such as New York or Tokyo, as it would not bring much to the table that these cities don’t already have. Rather it would be better suited to a developing capital city, such as Bangkok, wherein a reduction in reliance on commuting would be eliminated, through what can be seen as an integration of several mixed use buildings, resulting in an urban hub of an entirely new kind3.
The idea of a self-contained mega-structure, functioning as a city, is not the first of its kind, however. The Walking City, and The Plug-In City, concepts explored by Ron Herron and pub2 Schumacher, 2012 lished in avant-garde architecture journal Archigram in 1964, 3 http://oma.eu/projects/hyperthough envisaged as more of a building whimsical exploration, are two examples of autopoietic architectural systems and communications, 1 https://architizer.com/blog/ what-if/
“ To a c h i e v e u r b a n v a r i e t y a n d c o m p l e x i t y, t h e b u i l d i n g i s s t r u c t u r e d a s a metaphor of the city: towers constitute streets, horizontal elements are parks, volumes are districts, and d i a g o n a l s a r e b o u l e v a r d s .� Hyperbuilding, OMA/ Rem Koolhaas, 1996
a2
“It is possible to claim that a designer ’s creativity is limited by the very programs that are supposed to free their i m a g i n a t i o n .” Terzidis, Kostas (2009). Algorithms for Visual Design Using the Processing
John Frazer, British architectural academic maintains that “design computation is still only seen as ‘just a tool’ and remote from the real business of creative design”1. However, computation in design enables greater opportunity for design form, form impossible to conceive on paper, through parametric modelling. It applies new methods and outcomes to a designer’s problems, and reformulates complications to be amenable to computational approaches2. Parametric design as a facility for the control of topological relationships, enables the modulation of the raw elements of a design3.
As seen in Gehry’s Disney Hall, and consistent throughout his deconstructivist designs of the last 20 years, computing allowed him to move away from generic geometric forms and conventional structural systems, such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s use of Froebel blocks to construct 1 2 3
Frazer, 2006 Cuny, Snider, Wing, 2010 Oxman, 2014
design computat i o n
form, and enabled him to explore unpredictable, curvilinear forms through the means of parametric modelling, based on very rough sketches. geometry is de-emphasized as a theoretical precondition, and viewed as one possible formal result. Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is the architype of these notion, an iconic architectural embodiment of the turn of the century shift of the modernist ethos. “The building was analog in design and digital in production”4. It is in this way argued that computation is redefining the practice of architecture.
The effect this has on the building industry on each end of the spectrum, both design and construction, is a perpetually growing expectance or prerequisite for a younger generation of individuals to be fully competent with computational processes, and without, it would ultimately leave those, who may be great with a pen in hand yet no knowledge of computing programs, in the dark. This growing tendency of architects to rely upon the scripting 4
Oxman, 2014
of algorithms for research-based design is ostensible in the Serpentine Pavilion (2002) by Toyo Ito and Cecil Balmond, a design which expressively articulated the artistic and tectonic potential of the algorithm in architecture. The complex, seemingly random pattern of the form was derived ‘from an algorithm of a cube that expanded as it rotated. The numerous triangles and trapezoids formed by this system of intersecting lines were clad to be either transparent
or translucent, giving a sense of infinitely repeated motion’5.
The emerging expansion of a new discourse of digital design in architecture has evolved in the last decade, through the preference of non-orthogonal geometries and experimental form achieved parametrically, and will only continue to develop (oxman). 5 http://www.serpentinegalleries.org/exhibitions-events/ serpentine-gallery-pavilion-2002toyo-ito-and-cecil-balmond-arup
Serpentine Pavilion, 2002
Left: Guggenheim Museum, Frank Gehry, Sketch Right: Guggenheim Museum, Frank Gehry, Spain, 1997
a3
Composition /g e n e r ato i n
Symmetrical composition is one of the oldest and consistently used ordering principles in architecture. When looking at mankind’s first buildings, from the ancient Greek’s temple Parthenon, built in 438 BC, through to administrative buildings of more recent times, such as Melbourne’s State Library, it is evident that symmetry as a compositional device was originally employed to instill a building with balance, and ultimately represent connotations of nobility and power. However, today, with the ability to computationally modify geometries of a building to abstract entities, through parametric modelling and the application of algorithmic devices, the idea of symmetry within the context of a design is completely superseded.
The Centre de Congres in Mons, Balgium, by Daniel Libeskind is an example of architecture that has completely deviated from traditional symmetry once abun-
dant in architecture. Completed in 2015, and conceived by the city of Mons, a small medieval town, to revolutionize as a European centre of culture (2). It was envisaged as a key element in the economic revitalization of the city, and with it’s new-age design, and rounded form, juxtaposed with sharp, non-orthogonal geometries, is sure expand the architectural language of the old city.
Since Computer-Aided-Design (CAD) was first introduced to desktop computers in 1982, most architects have used computers to simply digitize the processes of preconceived ideas, this refers to the term computerization. However, since the development of programs such as Grasshopper, a visual programming language that has informed a new generation of scripting culture, augmenting the intellect of the user and further increasing the capacity to generate complex order, form and eventually structure from a design.
Generationally, we are moving from an era where architects used computers to simply aid the representation of their design, to one where architects explore architectural concepts through the writing and modifying of algorithms that relate to placement of traditional architectural qualities such as points, lines and planes, how these are configured, and the relationship between these configurations1 Computation, for architects, acts as an accelerator to simulate the analysis of building and environmental performance, knowledge of materials and tectonics in their designs. If we deem successful architecture upon its encounter between the building and the public, as American architect Stan Allen suggests, the tools in which we choose to design has 1
Peters, 2013
no concern, and with the increasing capabilities of computation, enabling architects to model the encounter between architecture and the public in advance using more accurate and sophisticated methods2. In this way computation not only gives better flexibility to design but also communicates an enhanced experience for the user. Contrarily, the social or existing context of a project cannot necessarily be determined simply by a computer. For instance, touching on my own previous studies, where we were prompted to design ‘a space for keeping secrets’ one’s mind precedes a computer in the development of the design context.
2 http://libeskind.com/work/ centre-de-congres-a-mons/
“When architects have a sufficient understanding of algorithmic concepts, when we no longer need to discuss the digital as something different, then computation can become atrue method of design for architecture” Pe t e r s , C o m p u t a t i o n Wo r k s , T h e B u i l d i n g o f A l g o r i t h m i c T h o u g h t , p p 8 - 1 3
The Centre de Congres, Mons, Daniel Libeskind, 2015
a4
Conclusion
The conceptualisation aspect of the design process is arguably the most important. Though we are yet to really develop a design outcome, the foundations are in place. With the introduction of Rhino, and its counterpart, Grasshopper, I have naturally developed a style in approach of which I will continue to follow throughout the course.
My intended approach is, like most architects or designers, based mostly on trial and error, through experimentation. Playing parametrically with the three core components of architecture, point, line and plane, I envisage to create something unique, profoundly surmountable with the infinite possibilities computation presents.
a5
Learning outcomes
In the last three weeks I have learnt more about algorithms and computing in architecture than I ever thought I would, yet there is still an infinite amount to learn. This is a fantastic concept however daunting it may be. Given I had never used any Computer-Aided-Software in my university career, I am pleased with
my progress to date, and hope to continue this through until November. I imagine last year’s Earth Studio would have eventuated into a much more comprehensive and beautiful design with the knowledge I have now in both Rhino and Grasshopper.
Lewis Residence, Frank Gehry, 1995
a6 appendixalgorithmic sketches
The first week’s algorithmic excersies followed the curve, and how when lofted, it would create a curvilinear surface reminiscent of a folded cloth, much like the work and compositional style of Frank Gehry. The top five outcomes are those from two curves, below that are the outcomes of three curves lofted, and with the bottom five outcomes I decided to play around with eight curves to get accomplish a truly unique beautiful collection of forms
Week 2’s exercise had us look at the human form and how we could apply knowledge from the first couple of weeks to create a 3d geometry parametrically to be worn by the human mesh.
a7
Bibliography
Dunne, Anthony & Raby, Fiona (2013) Speculative Everything: Design Fiction, and Social Dreaming (MIT Press) pp. 1-9, 33-45 Fry, Tony (2008). Design Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics and New Practice (Oxford: Berg), pp. 1–16 Oxman, Rivka and Robert Oxman, eds (2014). Theories of the Digital in Architecture (London; New York: Routledge), pp. 1–10 Peters, Brady. (2013) ‘Computation Works: The Building of Algorithmic Thought’, Architectural Design, 83, 2, pp. 08-15 Schumacher, Patrik (2011). The Autopoiesis of Architecture: A New Framework for Architecture (Chichester: Wiley), pp. 1-28