Booklet: Smart Geometry, workshops (2011) by CITA

Smart Geo metr y Work shop and Confer e n c e 28. 3. -2. 4. 2011

ho sted b y : C I TA : Ce n tr e f or IT an d A rc hit ec t u re Ro ya l D a n i s h A c ade my of F in e A r ts, Sc hool of Arc hit ec t u re

http:/ / cita .ka r ch.dk

SMART GEOMETR Y 2011 Workshop and Con ference, Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Copenhagen

SMART GEOMETRY workshop and conference 2011 Venue Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture / ITU Copenhagen Host and Co-Organiser Centre for IT and Architecture (CITA) Dates 28.03 - 02.04.2011 Particpants Workshop 150 / Conference 300

Funding SmartGeometry KARCH - Royal Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture Dreyer Foundation Bentley Systems The annual SmartGeometry event took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, 28th March â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2nd April 2011. The event was the key gathering in the year for experimentation, discussion, learning and networking within the emerging community of digital parametrics in the fields of architecture, design, and engineering.

CITA hosted and co-organised the event in only 4 month of preparation The event came in three parts, a Workshop (28th-31st March), a public Talkshop (1 April), and a public Symposium and Reception (2 April). These events follow the highly successful previous sg events in Barcelona 2010, San Francisco 2009, Munich 2008, New York 2007, and multiple preceding events.

SMART GEOMETR Y 2011 Workshop and Con ference, Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Copenhagen

Architectural design with computational tools

smartgeometry community

The Smartgeometry group was founded in 2001 as a partnership between Practice, Research and Academia, formed by members of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading architectural and engineering practices and educational institutions.

The sg community is built on an annual workshops and an international smartgeometry is run entirely by passionate volunteers who balconference. sg is a truly global community with articpants and cluster ance their professional careers often competing against each other, champions coming together from countries right across the planet. with investment of time and energy in the wider community.

To the new generations of designers, engineers and architects, mathematics and algorithms are becoming as natural as pen and pencil. Smartgeometry promotes the emergence of this new paradigm in which digital designers and craftsmen, are able to intelligently exploit the combination of digital and physical media taking projects from design right through to production.

As the smartgeometry has progressed and the tools and techniques have matured smartgeometry has emerged asa forum where the new critical language of digital architecture can be formed. The magic of smartgeometry lies in its curious mix of community and competition, which conspires to inspire and provoke.

smartgeometry organisation

The magic of smartgeometry lies in its curious mix of community and competition, which conspires to inspire and provoke.The excitement of each smartgeometry event is the anticipation of the unknown, the creative mix and intensity of ideas. Each year generates heightened expectations which inevitably challenge the current design methodologies.

SMART GEOMETR Y 2011 Workshop and Con ference, Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Copenhagen

The SmartGeometry conference is every year devoted to a special topic. This years challenge vast set to the role of Data in design. The call was: Vast streams of data offer a rich resource for designers. User data, energy calculations, embedded sensing, material and structural simula-

tion allows design to be situated and responsive. As digital designers our challenge is in harnessing the power of computation to assist us in informing our design process. Computers help us collect, manage and analyse the environment and inform us about an abundance of data. Our challenge is to use these inputs in a meaningful way to help us make better informed design decisions.

SMART GEOMETR Y 2011 Workshop and Con ference, Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Copenhagen

Interacting With The City

Przemek Jaworski

Flora Salim

Martin Kaftan

Worlds’ cities and communities are generating a vast amount of data on various digital, mobile, and social platforms. Activities, movements, interactions, ideas and sentiments about cities, places, roads, buildings and street blocks can be harvested from these public feeds and analysed to inform our design processes. This cluster aims to create tangible models of the city ‘in action’, using historical or real-time data. Using Web 2.0 technology, Processing, tangible interactions, projections, and digital modeling and fabrication, physical and digital models will be set up to enable visualisation and tangible interaction with the data. The use of data from Facebook, Twitter, Google Maps, and various data sources from cities and public websites will be investigated. The goal of the cluster is to explore a new kind of design collaboration informed by real world data.

The cluster will create a generic visual environment for interactive and collaborative design in which tangible and gestural interactions play an important role. The use of tangible tables, Microsoft Kinect sensor and projections in the workshop environment and out at the city streets will be explored. Outcomes may include graphical, digital and physical representations of data, models on tangible tables, 3D model of a building in a city informed by public data, and interactive installations.

SMART GEOMETR Y 2011 Workshop and Con ference, Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Copenhagen

Agent Construction

Petra Jenning

Rupert Soar

David Andreen

The cluster will be exploring a thoroughly bottom-up approach to construction, by placing ourselves as agents in an emergent system. The goal of the cluster is to demonstrate how â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;invisibleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; processes (in this case air and energy flows) generated by the emerging structure can be visualised during the construction process and used to direct the ongoing fabrication process in real time. Rather than pre-designing a blueprint, the cluster members will be agreeing on rules which will guide the assembly of a physical structure which will mimic some physical and formal characteristics of termite mounds. The role of the computer will be to analyse the emerging structure and simulate alternative rules which can then be applied to the ongoing construction process in order to effect - evolve - the

outcome. During development extensive documentation of the rules which guided the construction, how these evolved based on performance feedback and simulations, and the corresponding physical emergence of the structure over time will be recorded and fed back. Freeform Construction is a multi-disciplinary organisation exploring rapid manufacturing on an architectural scale and its implications for the industry. With an interest in adaptive structures and process integration and with extensive knowledge and expertise of rapid manufacturing, biological processes and innovative construction, they have attracted international media coverage and are collaborating with leading architects. Rupert, Petra and David

SMART GEOMETR Y 2011 Workshop and Con ference, Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Copenhagen

Hybrid Space Structure Topologies

Justin Diles

Dr. Clemens Preisinger , PhD.

Bernhard Sommer, Arch. Dipl.-Ing

The Hybrid Space Structures Cluster aims to reexamine the intricate three-dimensional space structure systems based on modular polyhedra first popular in the 1960s and now, in modified form, reappearing in contemporary architecture in non-modular variants. As a starting point the cluster will use an existing physical environment to which the space structure will be an addition or an alteration. Digital techniques to scan 3D space will be used to virtualize the physical environment. . Workshop participants will use Generative Components and/or Grasshopper to produce precise parametric models of non-modular space structures. Initial â&#x20AC;&#x153;seed templatesâ&#x20AC;? (tessellated and scripted armatures and compatible components and definitions in GC and Grasshopper) will be distributed to participants.

In addition to the space structure templates, cluster participants will work with Karamba, a parametric structural evaluation tool developed by cluster leader Dr. Clemens Preisinger and BollingerGrohmann Schneider Engineers. Karamba is a Finite Element plugin for Grasshopper that allows designers to interactively calculate and analyse the response of three dimensional beam structures under the action of external loads. Karamba establishes an intuitive feedback loop between physical behavior and geometry that can be used to inform design decisions and form-finding.

SMART GEOMETR Y 2011 Workshop and Con ference, Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Copenhagen

Performing Skins

Mette Ramsgard Thomsen

This cluster will investigate the fabrication of three-dimensional knitted surfaces that provide an intelligent skin, are performative structurally, and are behaviourally responsive. 3D complex design strategies will be developed that allow for the creation of responsive fabric skin constructions. By combining advances in intelligent textiles with parametric modelling we will devise bespoke interfaces that link between standard architectural design software environments, CNC knitting machine (Stoll) and simple computational steering (Arduino). The cluster uses parametric design tools to generate material fabrication code directly from digital design models, built in response to input

Ayelet Karmon

data. Introducing conductive fibers and simple actuation, the produced materials will ask participants to model textile surfaces physically and computationally at a level that takes into account both the performance of the surface as a whole through its pattern, texture, materiality, flexibility, breathability, warmth and electronic interface. The cluster works as the interstices of architecture, fabric technology, passive and active responsive systems.

SMART GEOMETR Y 2011 Workshop and Con ference, Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Copenhagen

Responsive Acoustic Surfacing

Prof. Mark Burry

Jane Burry

Alexander Peña

Daniel Davis

This cluster aims to develop and evaluate a new generation of parametric tools that embed emergent behavior within parametric models. Swarming, Flocking, Cellular Automata, Genetic Algorithms and Dynamic Relaxation are examples of emergent tools that synthesise datasets into solutions. In this cluster we will explore sound datascapes in order to investigate how surfaces with variable resonators can be used to reduce particular frequencies of sound in response to shifts within a particular soundscape. After qualitatively and quantitatively measuring the sound and environmental conditions of selected situations, participants of this cluster will use emergent-parametric tools to search for doubly ruled surfaced forms that accentuate certain frequencies of sound and muffle others.

The variable tunable Helmholz resonator is one example of how this can be achieved in association with the design of the surfaces. The emergent nature of our parametric tools allows them to synthesise acoustical analysis by setting up a real-time feedback loop between the data from the parametric model, and the analysis provided by acoustical analysis software: ODEON. The resulting designs will be prototyped at 1:5 using the hot-wire cutter, constraining the geometry to doubly ruled surfaces (the same vocabulary Gaudí used in his later years) and allows for the analysis of the parametric models’ accuracy. The resulting data including acoustic properties, aesthetics, material and manufacturing constraints, is then fed back into the parametric model to improve the next generation of prototypes.

SMART GEOMETR Y 2011 Workshop and Con ference, Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Copenhagen

Reflecting Environments

Judit Kimpian

Goetz Peter Feldmann

Josh Mason

The primary objective of this cluster is to work with the occupancy and behavioural data in a given space using the SG workshop space as a testbed. This cluster looks to reveal characteristics of the currents and mechanisms of occupant engagement that would otherwise go unnoticed, mapping the heat, electricity consumption, noise levels, temperature and air quality, online activity and motion of the workshop participants through the use of pre-wired sensors. The data is the digital ďŹ ngerprint of the invisible forces at play within the environment. Analysing, representing and utilising occupancy and behaviour information for design is the underlying generator for this cluster. Having compared buildings as designed with how they perform in operation it would appear that designers are missing out on planning

for the activities that will actually take place in a building once occupied. This omission includes what drives occupancy patterns, hours of operation, impact of organisational structures on spatial arrangements as well as the analysis of the control infrastructure required to support activity types and intensity. This is most obviously illustrated by the unexpectedly high energy consumption of most new buildings where user behaviour is automatically excluded from compliance calculations. Designing to support occupants requires a level of understanding of likely occupants that is rarely available at design stages and therefore falls out of the realm of design. This cluster aims to address this.

SMART GEOMETR Y 2011 Workshop and Con ference, Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Copenhagen

Cyber Gardens

Marco Poletto

Claudia Pasquero

Andrea Bugli

The aim of the cyber-gardens cluster is to experience and test design as The apparatus will embed multiple radiation sensors and connect a form of cultivation, whereby the designer operates as a cyber-garden- to a custom designed and programmed Arduino board and Grasser in both choreographing and breeding new artificial ecologies. hopperâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s parametric script. The physical prototype and digital model will engage in a generative dialogue and will co-evolve. The This cluster will test a design method centred on interbreeding archiphysical components will be produced of translucent perspex and tectural design with social sciences, ecology and cybernetics: the deadded to the physical model causing change in the lighting filed. signerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role expands to that of manager or moderator, facilitating com- This in turn will affect the digital plan and trigger the emergence munication between diverse and heterogeneous systems and ecologic of other gardening components to be designed and cut and added regimes. Flows of light and nutrients, human care and physical contact on. Each cluster participant will generate input and design, fabrior ecological stress analysis are allowed to contribute to the growth of cate and install an output component. The effects on the garden an augmented garden model and digital plan. The goal of the cluster is are evaluated, this continues after the workshop during the exhibito conceive, design, build and run a cyber-gardening apparatus; the ap- tion. paratus is the interfaced assemblage of a physical prototype (or garden model) and its digital counterpart (or parametric garden plan).

SMART GEOMETR Y 2011 Workshop and Con ference, Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Copenhagen

Authored Sensing

Kyle Steinfeld

Kat Park

Nick Novelli

In contrast with generic approaches to quantification, this cluster hypothesizes that data-driven design must be supported by designed data. The Authored Sensing cluster promotes the production of designer-authored environmental datastreams: highly contingent, intrinsically idiosyncratic, free for public use, and encouraging of interpretation. This paradigm of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;authored sensingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; may already be seen in the informationally democratic and algorithmically accessible present - we seek to take this reality a step further by injecting intent and design into the typically passive process of data collection. The centerpiece of the workshop is the production of participant-designed datastreams, each describing a specific environmental condition as measured by a custom sensor node. The environmental conditions

described by these streams aspires to move beyond the generic and technocentric categories of current measurement systems (temperature, humitity, uv index, etc.) and into the realm of the specific and the aesthetic (perceived color temperature, gloominess, average airspeed velocity of african swallows, etc.). These designer-authored datastreams will be enabled by the production of sensor trees and corresponding graphic data visualizations, each collectively designed and fabricated by participants over the course of the four-day SG workshop. Once completed and installed at host institutions around the world, each sensor tree is intended to capture and publish a stream of comparable environmental data for a period of one year.

SMART GEOMETR Y 2011 Workshop and Con ference, Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Copenhagen

Use The Force

Daniel Piker

Andy Payne

Robert Cervellione

Volker Mueller

Through Kangaroo, the live physics plug-in for Generative Components and Grasshopper, this cluster will explore ways of using the simulated interaction of physical forces and real-time spatial inputs to develop novel form-finding processes. The physics engine will constantly react to the streaming data â&#x20AC;&#x201C; when one element in the system changes, the entire system adjusts itself accordingly in order to find and maintain equilibrium. Treating geometric and construction constraints, material behaviour, and user interaction all within this common language of physical forces unifies and allows complex real-time interaction between them.

Participants will be challenged to create a dynamic system for the generation of a structural form using Kangaroo. This form must react and adapt to the real-time position and force inputs from a collection of cameras and force sensors. The changing virtual model will be projected back onto the interaction space, and finally a full scale prototype of one project will be built and tested against the digital simulation..

SMART GEOMETR Y 2011 Workshop and Con ference, Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Copenhagen

Urban Feeds

Luis E. Fraguada

Tomas Diez

Felipe Pecegueiro

The cluster will be working at the urban scale. Humanity’s largest creation is the city, a constantly morphing organism with an amazing capacity to compute informal organizations. The cluster focuses not on the accurate, three‐dimensional recording of existing terrains, but rather the temporal inhabitation of existing environmental landscapes. Collecting data from urban spaces can help us to gain a qualitative understanding of an existing, functioning space which is evolving continuously over time. The cluster will provide several prefabricated sensory nodes which will be placed prior to workshop in the city of Copenhagen. Connection to the sensory data will be done through gHowl, a set of custom components written for Grasshopper which allow users to connect to existing data streams, and also to emit manipulated data back to the sensor data stream.

The cluster aims to generate design responses that scrutinize and analyze the relationships between two or more sensor parameters. Like traffic lights with sensors that are programmed to respond to fluctuations in traffic flows, the cluster aims to prototype urban interventions. These ‘behavioral prototypes’ allow the participants to design explicit behaviors and their varying degrees of expression in relation to the input parametersv

SMART GEOMETR Y 2011 Workshop and Con ference, Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Copenhagen

SMART GEOMETRY talkshop and conference 2011 Venue ITU Copenhagen Host and Co-Organiser Centre for IT and Architecture (CITA) Dates 01.04 - 02.04.2011 Particpants Talkshop 230 / Conference 300

After four intense days of four intense days of innovative work, the tational design is reshaping built form in response to data flows and SmartGeometry finishes with two days oriented towards exchange and interactive feedback systems. discussion. This takes place in two very different formats:

Talkshop The TalkShop offers an opportunity for critical reflection on what has been accomplished in the workshop. Talkshop is an opportunity to open debates, pose questions, challenge orthodoxies, and propose new ideas. TalkShop features informal and open discussions between cluster participants, leading practitioners and emerging talents in digital design, offering inside perspectives on how the landscape of compu-

Symposium The Symposium follows on the theme of this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Challenge, Building the Invisible, invited keynote speakers will showcase major projects around the globe that exemplify the ways real-world data informs design. The Symposium is a unique opportunity to hear insights into the challenges ahead for the discipline.

SMART GEOMETR Y 2011 Workshop and Con ference, Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Copenhagen

Speakers, Moderators and Debaters Talkshop The talkshop was moderated by: Jonathan Rabagliati, Hugo Mulder and Martin Tamke Debaters were in four sessions: Bruno Moser (Foster+Partners, London), Kyle Steinfeld (Berkley), Nick Novelli (CASE, New York), Ole Sigmund (Technical University of Denmark), Giovanni Betti (Foster+Partners, London), Kasper Guldager JĂ¸rgensen (3xN | GxN, Copenhagen), Armen Menendian & JoĂŁo Albu-

querque (BIG, Copenhagen), Clemens Preisinger (Bollinger-GrohmannSchneider, Frankfurt), Kat Park (SOM, New York), Daniel Piker + Robert Cervellione (Kangaroo, Los Angeles), Kjell Yngve Petersen (Interactive Art / UbiCOM, Copenhagen), Przemek Jarworski (Independent Computational Designer, Warsaw), David Anderson & Petra Jenning (Freeform Construction, London), Simona Maschi (CIID Interaction & Interface Design, Copenhagen), Irene Gallou (Foster+Partners, London), Rupert Soar (Freeform Construction, London), Dan Hambleton (Halcrow, Glasgow)

Symposium The symposium was moderated by: Jenny Sabin and Earl Mark Speakers included: Ben van Berkel (UN Studio, Rotterdam), Usman Haque (Haque Design + Research, London), Billie Faircloth (KieranTimberlake, ) Philadelphia, Craig Schwitter (Buro Happold + Adaptive Building Initiative, London), Lisa Amini (IBM Smarter Cities Lab, Dublin), and Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen (CITA, Copenhagen)

SMART GEOMETR Y 2011 Workshop and Con ference, Royal Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Copenhagen

for f urt he r in form atio n a nd pr o j ects plea se s e e http://cita.karch.dk http://www.smartgeometry.org