STUDIO AIR 2013 S1 HILTON CHAU 383768
Introduction: Hi guys, I am Hilton Chau. I am a third year student of The University of Melbourne, currently undertaking an Architecture Major in the Bachelor of Environments. I am an international student from Hong Kong and I have been living in Melbourne for four years. My interest to architecture is due to where I came from. Hong Kong is a metropolitan city where full of skyscrapers and contemporary architectures. However, within the contemporary urnban context, a lot of traditional and characteristic architectures can be found around in the old district. By contrasting both old and modern building, you can see how digital designing tools change the way of designing buildings.
My pervious works: Two years before, I have done Virtual Environments during my first year architecture studies. During that course, I was asked to construct a paper lantern. Firstly, I designed it with sketches and made sketch models. Then I used Rhino to digitise my model and used paneling tools to test different geometric pattern on the surface of the lantern.Lastly, I fabricated it with paper. During the time of digitising, I fimilarized myself with Rhino, apart from that I also think digital tools actually help creating some interesting form and structure.
Loft diagram of the digital model
Box panels on the surface of the model
Precedent: Building: O-14 Architect: Reiser + Umemoto Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates The O-14 is a twenty-two story tall commercial building in the heart of Dubai’s Business Bay. Apart from the conventional high rise building, there is a concrete skin surrounds the building of O-14. The concrete shell exoskeleton consists of three main features which is the shade producing wall, concrete load-bearing wall and an open interior space. Sunlight will shine through different size of holes on the concrete shell which provide a variety of incoming sunlight. The designer of this building tends to reduce the weight of materials in the middle core of the building, therefore they need to construct an external load-bearing wall to support the load of the building. Super liquid concrete and tons of steel reinforcement are required to maintain its rigidity and stability. Since the majority of loads are shifted to the external shell, apart from the lifts and stairs, the interior of the building can be column free which makes the interior area more flexible. In terms of computation, the pattern on the shell is generated by computer software and the thickness of the wall is also carefully calculated by engineers through computer.
References:
http://www.arcspace.com/features/reiser--umemoto/o-14/ http://www.archdaily.com/273404/o-14-reiser-umemoto/ http://archrecord.construction.com/projects/ portfolio/2011/08/0-14-tower.asp
Case for innovation: Dublin’s Aviva Stadium The design of the Dublin’s Aviva Stadium enabled a smooth parametric-to-BIM-fabrication process. The major feature of this design is the parametric bowl watershed of the stadium. This roof is unique becuse it slopes down significantly at the north end which offers the views across the city. In addition to that, designer ensured the structural design was placed within the surface shape and also the architectural detail such as the cladding system and finish outside of it. The surface of the building used over 3,500 tons of primiary steel, 62,000 roof-panel anchor points, and 4,114 differently position facad panels. With the total of 36,000 square metres of building structure, the parametrically defined surace actually manufactured off site. As the parametric design of the complex roof involved of high level of detail, designers used different of digital softwares such as Rhinoceros and Generative component to design the building. During the design of the stadium’s shape, designer fully adapt the parametric bowl designer tool, which generated a fully resolved 3-D bowl geometry using a variety of tiers, geometric set-out parameters and capacities.