Studio AIR journal Final by Terence Ho

Architecture Design Studio AIR Western Gateway Design Project Progressive Journal

Terence HO

Episode 1 Discourse of Sensibility

In an architect’s office, days and nights are spent to translate a sketch into something that stands up, functions, suits the clients’ taste and does not leak. Based on such pragmatic practise architecture could be easily equated to the making of buildings. However it would be a big mistake to take architecture just as a problem-solving process that juxtaposes various programs within a certain boundary and complies with regulatory requirements. In a lecture by _____ from OMA, nearly 80% of their projects remains unbuilt for all sorts of reasons, yet each of them represents a specific interpretation and understanding of brief or background situation, and a well-thought, imaginative answer towards various scenarios.1 In fact architecture is informed by diversified context, responds to them, and is informed again by the renewed context. It is not an autonomous system but an interactive one. It communicates and evolves, suggests how we could live and behave in the current scenario, and projects vision of how the world could be in the future. Hence, each proposal or concept could be a statement that generates, engages and advances architectural discourse. Then what is happening in the contemporary? What is the prevailing discourse? As suggested by Yuko Hasegawa,“the 21st century will be the era of ‘consciousness’, ‘collective intelligence’ and ‘co-existence’. ...... Not a group-ism but how one can share material, spiritual, and spatial resources with others while maintaining one’s individuality.”2 An easy way to interpret such notion is the sensibility towards the surrounding environment and ability to interact with other people would be the key to contemporary urban life. Without doubt the invention of diversified electronic gadgets and computer boom makes communication and sharing of information a lot easier. While entertainment is becoming increasingly exciting and multi-dimensional in the digital paradigm, our attention starts to shift from physical to virtual reality. However it is also the over-dose of fascination and prosperity offered by information technology that weakens our sensuality towards the surroundings. As the profession that defines space and affects human behaviour, architects should engage the discourse of how architecture can provoke and response to our sensibility as a response to the notion of ‘consciousness, collective intelligence and co-existence’ of the 21st century. It is also through one’s awareness towards surrounding environment that one could connect to the air and atmosphere of a place. In fact, as supported by Farshid Moussavi, “many buildings of the twentieth century effectively relate to culture by creating sensations and affects”3. Here we find the proper statement for Wydnham City’s Gateway project - to awake people’s sensibility to surrounding environment and neighbors, facilitates them to interact, form a community that gives a sense of belonging and identity, and connects them to the atmoshpere of the city. The three projects included in this chapter demonstrate how architecture can be more than just buildings and engages with the discourse of how architecture awakes people’s sensibility and facilitates communication and interaction..

Notes

Yuko Hasegawa, ‘Space that obliterates and erases programs’, El Croquis Issue 77(I) + 99 + 121/122 (2004), 335-339 (p. 337) 2 Moussavi, Farshid and Michael Kubo. The Function of Ornament (Barcelona: Actar, 2006), pp. 5-14 1

Ephemerality: Between Presence and Disappearance Architecture as Air: Study for ch창teau la coste Junya Ishigami, 2010 Concept Model 4

“Confronting a space apparently empty, we gaze instantly, looking for signs of the supposed building’s existence. Doing so, we catch a slight movement in the air we usually wouldn’t notice or become aware that the air contains something exceedingly fine.” 1 Yoko Nose, Connecting Landscape and Architecture. In: Another Scale of Architecture, ed. by Ishigami, Junya (Seigensha Art Publishing, Inc., Kyoto, Japan, 2010), pp. 231 - 235(p. 231) 1

Sense the Architecture and the Air Although the structure collapsed soon after the commence of Venice Biennale, it still claimed the Golden Lion award of the best project in the exhibition, proving the amazement of delicacy and phenomenal discourse the project generates. Here, architecture is not a physical object that has to stand up with eternity, but also a vehicle that awakens oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sensibility to the surrounding ephemeral environments. The project references the scale of water vapor in air. All the elements of columns and threads are so slim and delicate that they seem to have melted into the air. The structure twinkles just as rain water observed in the sun, constantly capturing attention and vanish quickly. One does not just see the structure but also stops to think, feel and sense the space and air. In relation to the Western Gateway Project, this installation hints the potential of lightness, ambiguity and ephemerality provokes peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s consciousness to the air and atmosphere of the city.

Exhibition for 12th International Architecture Biennale in Venice

While most of the energy in contemporary computational designs is used for the production of complex, free-flowing form and skin, Antoine Predock suggested another way of transcending contemporary architecture with new materiality. He argued that nanotubes could form “gossamer structures that open up spatial realms far beyond anything we could imagine, blobs would seem heavy-handed by comparison, [as] nanoscale structures would be like clouds.”1 Although such notion may not be intentionally related with this project from the outset, there is doubtlessly a strong coherence between the two. Here the use of nanotechnology is not just advancing precise digital production of building elements but an investigation of new possibilities in designing and perceiving space. The cubic structure also suggests another way of advancing architectural discourse besides the search of novel form and fluid skin.

1: Carbon fibre pillars, diameter of 900μm 2: Polyarylate thread, diameter of 20μm Enlarged detail of flash photo 3: Complicated overlapping of wires 4: Pillar surrounded by wires, contact point between pillar and floor 5: Contact point between pillar and wires

1 Kolarevic, Branko, Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing (New York; London: Spon Press, 2003), pp. 3 - 62. (p.49)

Find Yourself from a piece of Cloth This office tower was the Final Year Project during my studies in Hong Kong. The design intends to revitalize the fading ambience and dynamic of the most sophisticated district in HK, which is due to a highly repetitive and structured working manner. One of the most important philosophy in Miyake’s fashion is that clients are always encouraged to participate in the designing of their own clothing to facilitate one’s understainding of his/her own character. With refernce to that, the tower was designed to facilitate communication between designers, clients and the public in order to generate discourse over people’s sense of identity. Inspired by the move of Cut and Fold, genesis of Miyake’s fashion, the facade was designed to resemble a fragmented, undulating piece of cloth in the wind. The exact patterning, size and transparencies of the curtain wall components was a result of performance-oriented rationalization - building performance and compliance with regulations. The juxtaposition of various types of glass generates the versatility of the tower, which stimulates public’s curiosity of what is happening beneath the tower’s skin. Such move also produces a camouflage effect, confronting people’s inertia of camouflaging into the neighbouring environment by surrendering their own character. This project is not just a sign that stimulates the general public, it is not just a piece of art that expresses the aesthetics of Miyake’s clothing, it is not just a gesture of confronting the prevailing cubism of the city, it is not just an experience that interacts with the public it is a sum of all three discourses of architecture of art, sign and urban experience.

Cut & Fold 8

Skeleton

Camouflage

ICentral, ssey Miyake HeadQuarters Hong Kong Journey of Discovery

1. Entrance - Shape of landscape paves the way for a journey of discovery

2. Designersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Capsule - Close interaction between designers and customers

3. Ascent - Searching and looking at others in their journey

4. Look Back - Revise the whole journey, ask yourself about your identity 10

A Computer-Coded Skin that overcomes the shout of billboards

N Building, Tokyo Terada Design 2009 In a city that is full of billboards and signs, too much emphasis is channeled towards money, shopping, propsperity and over-amplified literal excitment. People start to become less sensitive to the surroundings in order to survive such overwhelming stimulation. However a more advanced city life should not mean a inhibition of our sensuality - it should be fun and interactive. This project demonstrates what a building skin can do to promote a better quality of city life through the help of technology. The QR code on building facade is detected with personal electronic gadgets, allowing people to read instant messages, movements of others inside the building in real time. At times scanning the building facade leads to seasonal treats and greetings. Such incorporaton of technology brings informative depth to the apparantly flat surface, it is also an intelligent surface that changes with time. The building is also a product of contemporary computational technology - size and density of the highly sophisticated fritted patterns are programmed, adjusted according to the desired QR code. Although it might not be the most architectural response towards the computational contemporary, the attempt to return a better city life with computercoded skin suggests an attitude towards designing buildings that interacts intimately to people rather than annoys them with waves of billboard. Video captures in the following two pages explains how the building skin functions and becomes an intelligent installation that constantly changes with time and facilitates communication and co-existence between people. Left: QR code facade, N Building Next two pages: Video Capture Link: http://vimeo.com/8468513

Episode 2.1 Architecture Comes To Life New Potential Offered by Computational Design

In contemporary architectural design, the use of digital media is no longer restricted to visualization but as a generative tool for deriving form and its transformation. Designers no longer model a finite external form but articulate an internal generative logic. With the help of computers, such logics will generate a range of possibilities from which designers could select an appropriate formal proposition for further development. These possibilities, capable of consistent, continual and dynamic transformartion are replacing conventional, static norms of design process. The significance of digital design is not just the ability to develope, reshape and rationalise non-euclidean geometries with powerful computers that challenges conventional norms of grids, repetitions and symmetries; nor just the ability of taking numerous parameters and factors into account from the outset that leads to unprecedent complexity and fluidity of “emergent forms” and dynamic construct; nor solely the ability to directly pass on information from designers to manufacturers that facilitates new modularity, mass-customization and novel materiality. It is the combination of all computational construct, and they form a “self-reflexive”1 discourse that continuously challenges the designer’s thinking process. In other words, contemporary computational design techniques is advancing the search of novel architecture in all fields of design exploration, comprehension, production and manufacture. The new fluidity is doubtlessly providing us a new way in perceiving architecture and surrounding environments, digital tools, however still have more to offer besides facilitating curvilinear and elastic form. With the use of computers, derivation and combination of prototypes at different scales could be achieved at reasonable price and time frame. Such novel method of construct contributes to the erasure of sense of scale and boundary, which suggests a new way of perceiving space. Demonstrated by responsive projects like Aegis Hyposurface project and Liquid Prism, the application of digital tools can span from design to production to post-completion stage. That is, incorporation of sensors and reactors to generate real time response to various stimuli, allowing static artifice to come to live. I would like to leave with Branko Kolarevic’s observation, “future digital architecture, in its conception and its realization, will respond dynamically to the internal logics and external influences of the environment. Designs are already “alive” - the buildings will soon be as well.”2

Notes

Kolarevic, Branko, Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing (New York; London: Spon Press, 2003), pp. 3 - 62. (p.26)

Ibid, (p.51)

Visualizing Movements and Flow of Pedestrians and Vehicles Port Authority Bus Terminal New York

â&#x20AC;&#x153;While physical form can be defined in terms of static coordinates, the virtual force of the environment in which it is designed contributes to its shapeâ&#x20AC;?1 - Greg Lynn

Greg Lynn, Animate Form, (Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998). p.10

The Generation of Form through Dynamics According to his publication Animate Form, Greg Lynn defined the generation of architectural form is not a solution solely addressing an internal, parameter-driven relational systems. It also has to “engage and respond to dynamic, often variable influences from its environmental and socio-economic context”2. The project for Port Authority Bus Terminal is a demonstration of such philosophy. It is a preliminary proposal for a new type of public infrastructure and amenity. The structure operates at two scale - elevated for buses and street level for pedestrians, and 20

with two uses - as a sign and as a multipurpose tent structure. The roof that also serves as a display screen, is made of lightweight membrane. With the ue of lightweight flecible materials, it can combine pdedestrian program with a new information screen on a continuous supple surface that transforms from being a roof, to a canopy of light, to a projection screen. In terms of computational design techniques, this project is a prominent example of using particle systems to visulaize the “attraction” gradient fields present on site. That is, created by the force associated with the movement and flow of pedestrians and vehicles across the site.

Such method, known as dynamics, is innovative in the view of how computational design can help takes into account the effects of invisible forces (especially those do not originate within the system itself), translate that into architectural information and informs the generation and finding of a built form. Hence, this project offers a greater relevance and sets up a better dialogue with the site as the shaping force of the installtion was greatly dependend on the traffic flow and pattern, which is one of the most prominent features of site. Without the help of computational analysis and translation, these patterns could not be a successful driver of the final form.

Such conceptual shift would be impossible if Lynn restricted his use of digital media such as animation and special-effect software for rendering, visualization and imaging. His manipulation of these softwares into design tools serves as a sound example of relishing the innovative nature of computational design and reveals the potential offered by advanced digital tools.

Episode 2.2 Architecture Comes to Life The power of Surface

Thanks to digital design tools, the surface of a building gains increasing importance - NURBSbased software shifts the emphasize of formal conception from structure to skin; exploration of geometrically complex envelopes lead to the rethinking of surface tectonics, hence allowing the subsuming of structure into skin. Such liberation of skin from internal rigid structure is, however different from the notion of free facade demonstrated by Modernist tectonics. In Le Corbusier’s Domino proposal almost a century ago, building skin is liberated as load is entirely taken up by internal pillars, current digital avant-garde conflates structure and skin into one self-supporting element that eliminates armature. As suggested by Joseph Giovanni, “the idea of a structural skin not only implies a new naterial, but also geometries, such as curves and folds that would enable the continuous skin to act structurally, obviating an independent static system: The skin alone does the heavy lifting”1. While the design of surface is becoming increasingly important, such shift of paradigm to superficiality triggers the alarm of moving backwards - to Post Modern architecture. As observed by Fredric Jameson, it is when “depth is replaced by surface or by multiple surfaces”2. The overwhelming attention paid to designing surface appears to have reduced depth of architecture - expressions no longer need to represent the interior, there can be literally no relationship between inside and outside. It is not the case, as superficiality in architecture is linked to more practical factors. As suggested by Farshid Moussavi, the increasing number of ‘blank’ buildings such as department stores, shopping malls, liberies and museums that “do not require and relationship between inside and outside”3 channels design focus to an intelligent enclosure. It is particularly true as the use and users of a space becomes increasingly unpredictable from the outset. The incorporation of technology also requires sealed and controlled envrionements, hence opposing the Modernist notion of ‘buildings should be transparent’. In fact, with the integration of structure, ornaments and performance consideration into the design of surface, a building’s skin is far much capable of serving the function as a flat surface. Architect and theorist Stephen Perrella has even introduced the term ‘hypersurface’4 to describe the convergence of cyberspace, envisaged as hypermedia, and architeture conceived primarily as a surface of projection or a terminal. In fact as digital production is starting to realize new material of thinner dimensions, the new skin can now cater more information, stimulis and responce with same or even less amount of materials. In other words, a greater phenomenal depth in less literal depth, suggesting a greater intensity and density of affects generated. Hence the Western Gateway installation can take advantage of such new power and meaning of surface and become an iconic, contemporary, discourse advancing model that offers unprecedent experience to drivers, pesdestrians and public. The projects included in this chapter serve demonstrate the creation of novel surface with contemporary computational design tools.

Notes

Joseph Giovannini, “Building a better Bloc” in Architecture, (September 2000), vol. 89, no. 9, pp.126 - 128 Fredric Jameson, “Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism”, New Left Review, Issue 146 3 Moussavi, Farshid and Michael Kubo. The Function of Ornament (Barcelona: Actar, 2006), pp. 5-14 4 Stephen Perrella, “Hypersurface Architecture” & “Hypersurface Architecture II”, Architectural Design (1998 & 1999) 1 2

Instant Interaction with Movements, Lights and Sounds

Aegis Hyposurface Mark Goulthorpe

â&#x20AC;&#x153;[This project] marks the transition from autoplastic (determinate) to alloplastic (interactive, indeterminate) space, [it] utterly radicalize[s] architecture by announcing the possibility of dynamic formâ&#x20AC;?1 1

Mark Goulthorpe, In Kolarevic, Branko, Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing (New York; London: Spon Press, 2003), pp. 3 - 62. (p.19)

New skin can be thin, adaptive and responsive to natural environements passively. It can also take a step further. This project features a deformable, faceted metallic surface made of flexible rubber membrance covered with numerous triangular metal shingles. It can change its shape in response to electronic stimuli generated from movement, changes in sound and light levels in its environment, or through parametrically-generated patterns. While one could find it interesting that a surface designed with parametrics facilitates further use and application of parametrics, the project also shows coherence with the Liquid Prism project by Akihisa Hirata in terms of augmenting sensations - one would trigger a series of amplified reaction of the surface through physical movements or making noise. Such ‘intelligent’ behaviour that does not only sense a new condition but can also respond to it, is made possible by sensors, pneumatic actuators, and computational and control systems, Here the Hyposurface project sets a strong precedent for future building envelope thin, ‘smart’ composite material with an integrated ‘neural’ system. Considering its ability to change according to external stimuli, one could say this project has brough architecture to ‘live’, and it offers new potential for an architecture to interact with people as if it is human. ‘Experience’ is now transcended to another level. Human senses are sensitively comprehended, repoduced and provoked, New relationship between people, technology and architecture is formed.

Episode 3 New universe unlocked by Scripting

As discussed in previous chapters, the incorporation of digital tools can affect design in two fields - 1). opening up new approaches in conceptualizing and 2). rationalizing complex geometries for easy production. The use of computers, however is still somehow restraining the possibilities in architectural design as the programs we are using (Auto CAD, for instance), was not programmed by designers but by programmers who do not have similar magnitude of creativity and knowledge in design. In addition most of the current software are designed to facilitate productivity rather than design exploration. While designers attempt to keep up with trend and embrace the advancement of technology, there have not been much great leaps in coming up with new design methods. This is when designers start to be aware of the constraints - insufficient ability of current software to generate or comprehend intended complex design logic and physical form effectively in response to the increasingly sophisticated environment and social structure. In order to unlock further potentials of computational techniques and open up new paths in design exploration, designers start to alter current software through scripting and programming. Although there is a risk that scripting will end up become a reinvention of super drafting software, it still “affords highly wayward and idiosyncratic designers the opportunity to innovate in ways otherwise not possible.”1 Such possibilities include a self-organizing system that generates numerous solutions upon assigned logics, or the generation of form through dynamics just as the Port Terminal project by Greg Lynn. It is generally agreed that to learn scripting implies a rough and tedious start. Even experienced scripters find the process time-consuming. However, as scripting becomes increasingly common and easy to handle, it should be offering greater flexibility with less pain. As suggested by Robert Aish, “after a period of mental effort of focusing on the script may have distracted designers from focussing on the design problem, scripting will become more natural, more integrated into design process, less of a distraction”2.Meanwhile, scripters’ willingness to share amongst the scripting culture challenges the conventional perception of ‘authorship’ - the scripts that drive a project forward may not be invented by designers responsible for the project, however it is also such high accessibility to source that allows infinite modification and hybridization of scripts for further innovations. The Western Gateway project could contribute to current scripting cultures through exploiting innovative use of existing scripts, or even better, manipulate on them to make a new script that advances design exploration. To conclude, scripting should not be deployed as a tool that takes over designers’ role in decision making, nor should it be facilitating mindless, recurring production of fancy forms. The use of scripting should be a key to unlock potentials of current computational techniques and software, hence brings up new ways of design that would lead to innovative responds. Such responds, in relation to the Western Gateway project, is the novel material and logic that generates unprecedented affects and provokes sensibility in an innovative way.

Notes 1 2

Burry, Mark (2011). Scripting Cultures: Architectural Design and Programming (Chichester: Wiley), pp. 8 - 71. (p.39) Ibid, p.63

An Emergent Relationship between Public Space and Architectonics

Emergent Field Roland Snooks

The project is based on the belief that successful public spaces are those, which emerge rather than are prescribed. Through interaction of agents, fields of information and architectural elements that are seeded with certain desires, such agent-based simulation techniques are used to generate programmatic relationships and corresponding architectonic response. Facade, plaza and construction grids are given rules and behaviours, which govern the way in which they interact with the field of influence in the form making process. Hence an emergent relationship between program and peculiarities of architectural form is developed, enabling the design process and resultant architeture to exhibit particular behavioural qualities. Instead of repeating the rigid relationship between the plaza and its accepted program, the project creates a contiguous, smooth but differentiated weave of program, plaza and event. The critique against modernist objectground relationship brought by this project leads to a new perception of urban condition as a gradient field of influence. One could render such design approach impossible without the help of scripting, as the analysis of relationships between numerous agents would have been too complicated. Here, scripting offers a new approach in designing urban space with agent-based design technique. The significance and relevance of this project to the Western Gateway installation is that it demonstrates how the design of a particular space can integrate peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sensibility towards surroundings as a driving force, as a result offers a more organic, enjoyable urban experience to end users.

Episode 4 Experimenting Digital Tools & Design Methods

Design is generally conceived as a searching of solutions that complies with a given set of constraints and goals. Such process of ‘search’, according to Kalay, involves the steps of producing candidate solutions and choosing the “right” solution for further consideration and development1. Such aproach is strongly coherent with SANAA’s emphasis on process, that of ‘to create the largest possible number of alternative schemes in order to see the different options from many different angles’. In relation to the digital age, Ryue Nishizawa pointed out a breakthrough offered by computers. “One of the important changes brought by computers is that before, let’s say ten years ago, when we didn’t use computers, we could only do a few drawings and a few working models a day, but since we began to sue computers, we have been able to produce 100 different study drawings on the comouter and many studt models every day, all very quickly. That could not happen without computers, and it has given us the ability to see hundreds of different options, all at once. I think it is a new kind of viewport that has been brought by computers.”2 With the introduction of computers one can imagine the infinite ‘solution cosmo’ unlocked for them, offering an unprecedented promise through the method of ‘breadth-first search’. Although my investigation with Grasshopper definitions finds coherence with Kalay’s sproposition of ‘search’, it is not the ‘breadth-first’ but ‘depth-first’ approach I have taken. Considering my innocence to Grasshopper, it would be extremely difficult to understand the operation and possibilities offered without going through the entire process of combining input/association/output, testing every sliders and settings, and observing the results. It is a method of working out every combination to its logical conclusion, seeing whether if it meets the goals, or it fails, before another candidate solution is examined. Such goal, is the search of abstract representation of a process or phenomena. Speaking from a technical perspective, it also implies understanding why some combinations work well while others turn red. Through numerous trial-and-error, I gradually understand the failure of some combinations were due to misunderstanding of what information I was extracting, as well as what information I was feeding into a further operation. At the same time, I gradually have a sense of what combinations could have offered more powerful visual effects. Choice of components became clearer, connection of elements became easier, manipulations and changes became more efficient and effective, outputs became more sophisticated and inspirational. By the time I have finished the following matrix, I realised my investigation has brought me from ‘depth-first’ search to ‘best-first’ search, when I have a stronger sense of what element is more likely to offer my desired effect, hence became my more likely choices for further development. In relation to the Gateway Project, such design method, starting from testing every possible solution, and gradually progress to more conscious selection of candidate solutions, has the benefit of unlocking new possibilities for the designers as it unveils hidden visual effects, relationship between elements and ways of production. Hence it is more promising for finding and generation of unprecedented, more powerful solutions for further investigation. The following matrix includes outputs of different form, intensity and complexity. Selection criteria for further development would be their ability to achieve the effect of “disappearance”, “illusion” and “ephemerality of depth”. Notes

Juan Antonio Cortes, ‘A conversation with Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa’, El Croquis, Vol. 139, 2008, p. 7 Yehuda E. Kalay, Architecture’s New Media : Principles, Theories, and Methods of Computer-Aided Design (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2004) 1 2

Curve Intersection + Attractor Points + Extrusion Curve-Centre Distance Min Radius = 0.47 Max Radius = 9.54

Curve-Centre Distance Min Radius = 3.75 Max Radius = 7.50

Curve-Centre Distance Min Radius = 5.50 Max Radius = 6.37

Curve-Centre Distance Min Radius = 7.60 Max Radius = 2.23

Curve-Centre Distance Min Radius = 9.67 Max Radius = 0.38

Curve Intersections + Image Sampler + Extrusion Effect of Alpha Channel = 0.05

Effect of Alpha Channel = 1.09

Effect of Alpha Channel = 2.53

Effect of Alpha Channel = 5.89

Effect of Alpha Channel = 8.73

Effect of Alpha Channel = 1.0

Effect of Alpha Channel = 2.5

Effect of Alpha Channel = 5.0

Effect of Alpha Channel = 7.5

Effect of Alpha Channel = 10.0

Curve-Centre Distance Min Radius = 0.10 Max Radius = 0.20

Curve-Centre Distance Min Radius = 0.50 Max Radius = 1.57

Explicit Grid + Image Sampler + Extrusion

Surface Normals + Curve Attractor + Extrusion

Curve-Centre Distance Min Radius = 0.50 Max Radius = 3.68

Curve-Centre Distance Min Radius = 0.50 Max Radius = 6.24

Curve-Centre Distance Min Radius = 0.50 Max Radius = 8.96

Boolean Patterning + Curve Attractor + Orientation Range of Attractor = 0.05 - 0.10

Overlapping Pattern + Using Sets + Rotation

Offset Distance = 5

Range of Attractor = 0.15 - 0.38

Offset Distance = 20

Range of Attractor = 0.20 - 0.60

Offset Distance = 40

Range of Attractor = 0.80 - 0.40

Offset Distance = 60

Range of Attractor = 0.95 - 0.15

Offset Distance = 80

Surface Normals + Image Sampler + Rotation Effect of Alpha Channel = 0.0

Effect of Alpha Channel = 2.5

Effect of Alpha Channel = 5.0

Effect of Alpha Channel = 7.5

Effect of Alpha Channel = 10.0

Arbitary Points + Streaming Text File + Rotation Offset Distance = 0

Offset Distance = 5

Offset Distance = 20

Offset Distance = 50

Offset Distance = 100

Curve Intersection + Using Sets + Rotation Offset Distance = 0

Offset Distance = 5

Offset Distance = 20

Offset Distance = 50

Offset Distance = 100

Offset Distance = 27

Offset Distance = 75

Boolean Patterning + Using Sets + Rotation Offset Distance = 0

Offset Distance = 5

Offset Distance = 18

Boolean Patterning + Attractor Point + Rotation Distance from Attractor = 0

Distance from Attractor = 3

Distance from Attractor = 8

Distance from Attractor = 16

Distance from Attractor = 42

Curve Intersection + Using Sets + Rotation Curve-Centre Distance = 0

Curve-Centre Distance = 3

Curve-Centre Distance = 10

Curve-Centre Distance = 28

Curve-Centre Distance = 50

Curve Intersection + Streaming Text + Rotation Effect of Streaming Text =1

Effect of Streaming Text = 10

Effect of Streaming Text = 20

Effect of Streaming Text = 40

Effect of Streaming Text = 50

Boolean Patterning + Image Sampler + Shading

Effect of Alpha Channel = 0.10

Effect of Alpha Channel = 0.20

Effect of Alpha Channel = 0.15

Effect of Alpha Channel = 0.30

Effect of Alpha Channel = 0.35

Effect of Alpha Channel = 0.60

Effect of Alpha Channel = 0.85

Boolean Patterning + Image Sampler + Shading Effect of Alpha Channel = 0.50

Effect of Alpha Channel = 0.80

Effect of Alpha Channel = 1.0

Boolean Patterning + Streaming Text File + Shading Effect of Streaming Text = 0.2

Using Surface Normal + Image Sampler + Orientation & Shading

Effect of Alpha Channel = 0.00

Effect of Streaming Text = 0.4

Effect of Alpha Channel = 0.10

Effect of Streaming Text = 0.6

Effect of Alpha Channel = 0.25

Effect of Streaming Text = 0.8

Effect of Alpha Channel = 0.5

Effect of Streaming Text = 1.0

Effect of Alpha Channel = 1.0

Explicit Grids + Math Function + Shading

Time = 1

Time = 2

Time = 5

Time = 10

Time = 20

Overlapping Pattern + Multiple Math Function + Shading

Time = 0.39

Time = 1.08

Time = 3.03

Time = 7.78

Time = 13.68

Surface Normals + Math Function + Rotation & Shading

Time = 0.38

Time = 1.78

Time = 3.98

Time = 6.56

Time = 8.98

Arbitary points + Curve Attractor + Shading Overlapping Pattern + Streaming Text + Shading Arbitary Points + Curve Attractor + Extrusion & Shading Arbitary Points + Image Sampler + Extrusion & Shading

Explicit Grids + Attractor Point + Shading

Overlapping Pattern + Image Sampler & Curve Attractor + Shading

Curve-Centre Distance Min. Radius = 10.00 Max Radius = 0.25

Time = 0.32

Curve-Centre Distance Min Radius = 0.28 Max Radius = 9.50

Effect of Alpha Channel = 0.47

Point-Centre Distance Min Radius = 0.01 Max Radius = 9.08

Effect of Alpha Channel & Curve-Centre Distance = 1.1

Curve-Centre Distance Min. Radius = 7.80 Max Radius = 1.32

Time = 0.75

Curve-Centre Distance Min Radius = 3.00 Max Radius = 7.67

Effect of Alpha Channel = 1.41

Point-Centre Distance Min Radius = 2.46 Max Radius = 7.27

Effect of Alpha Channel & Curve-Centre Distance = 2.21

Curve-Centre Distance Min. Radius = 6.24 Max Radius = 3.78

Time = 1.50

Curve-Centre Distance Min Radius = 6.05 Max Radius = 4.34

Effect of Alpha Channel = 2.06

Point-Centre Distance Min Radius = 5.50 Max Radius = 4.32

Effect of Alpha Channel & Curve-Centre Distance = 3.46

Curve-Centre Distance Min. Radius = 1.89 Max Radius = 6.30

Curve-Centre Distance Min. Radius = 0.53 Max Radius = 8.50

Time = 3.25

Time = 5.32

Curve-Centre Distance Min Radius = 7.60 Max Radius = 2.32

Curve-Centre Distance Min Radius = 9.06 Max Radius = 0.68

Effect of Alpha Channel = 3.26

Effect of Alpha Channel = 5.73

Point-Centre Distance Min Radius = 7.24 Max Radius = 3.02

Point-Centre Distance Min Radius = 9.77 Max Radius = 0.02

Effect of Alpha Channel & Curve-Centre Distance = 5.75

Effect of Alpha Channel & Curve-Centre Distance = 7.84

More Investigations: Changing sequence of layers, radii and color of circles

Episode 5 Research on a precedent

Christian Dior Ginza 42

Kumiko Inui

A team of four is formed by now. Born out of a spelling mistake and the team members shared interest of optical illusions through layering, we call ourselves Team SMAP, which could be interpreted as Super or Super MAPping. Looking back at the Grasshopper definition matrix we have produced, we defined disappearance, play of depth and ephemerality as our focus of further investigation. We agreed that producing visual impact could be the most effective way of communicating ideas and provoking senses when people drive pass the freeway at high speed, in and out of Wyndham. Any visual effects that appears to melt into air or questions the sense of depth, would be a powerful representation of the versatility of a growing city. Hence we selected, from all available precedents in research project’s database, the Christian Dior project in Ginza by Kumiko Inui. The building is not only successful in disguising the scale and internal organization of the floors and internal program, it also raises the uncertainty of depth with the reproduction of a hazy, moire effect. The two-layered skin, consists of an outer, perforated layer of 10mm thick aluminium, with patterns cut by a CNC-milling machine, and an inner printed silk-screen layer. Separating the two layers is a 34cm airspace, illuminated by fibre-optics. The resulting effect is a depict of the instantly recognizable pattern of the signature of “Lady Dior” handbag. Contrasting its overtly loud neighborhood that is dominated by electrical signage, the Dior facade offers a ghost-like existence through luminating the two pattern-similar layers that are different in size and material. The different appearance in day and night also matches our interest of an architecture that changes with time and caters multiple meanings throughout a day.

57 cm

Outer Layer Sides: 57 cm cm

In-between space Separation: 3.4 cm

Shift to Align

Inner Layer Sides: 38 cm

Shift to Align 46

Our challenge, at this stage, is to understand and reproduce such flickering tartan effect through layering of perforated sheets. Considering the original size of in-between space is 34cm, the team has decided to produce a physical model at 1:10 as this is the most logical and practical scale for our production. The Grasshopper definitions used was the combination of “Surface Grid”, “Image Sampler” and “Circles”. The logic was to divide a scaled surface at the size of 57cm into equal number of rows and columns at regular intervals, where the intersections of rows and columns act as the centre point of circles for perforation. The “Image Sampler” component dictates the radii of circles across the surface with reference to the pattern of a “Lady Dior” handbag - larger perforations where the pattern line goes through, smaller perforations elsewhere. This outer layer would resemble one unit of the Dior pattern. The inner silkscreen printed layer was meant to be suspended behind the outer layer. Size of circles would also be scaled down to two-third of those of the outer layer. Finally, the larger circles of the two layers (i.e. where the prominent pattern lines run through) are aligned, but the inner patterns are shifted accordingly. While the outer pattern repeats itself at every three panels, the innter pattern repeats at every two panels, hence the two layers appears not to align. As a result, the perspectival distortion gives more depth to the skin than it actually is.

Parametric vs. Perfomance-Driven Design Knowing parametric design can perform quick alternations to the density and size of perforation, I wondered if there are further implications behind. Imagine the current skin being too perforated, too much light passes through the skin and causing nuisance to neighbors, to alter the size and density of each perforated holes would take ages. With parametric design life could be much easier. If the perforations are too small and opaque, scale them up; if they are not large enough, scale them up again; if the panels are taking up too much heat under sunlight, decrease the spacing between perforations to get a reduced surface area; if too much light is going pass the perforations, decrease the size and density. In fact, with the help of performance analyzing software, the implication on thermal, lighting and even shading performance of the perforations could be easily studied, and parametric design makes adjustments quick and easy. One can easily generate a family of different versions, evaluate each of them with evaluative softwares and pick the most preferable option. Although it would be impossible to come up with a “perfect, fully optimized” solution, it is still more likely to discover a more optimally directed outcome within a larger pool of candidate solutions (responding to Kalay’s design method of “best-first”). Even the intensity of moire effect could be easily and tested and adjusted with parametric modeling. As the sense of depth is dependent of the relative size and density of perforations and printed pattern, alternating these two parameters would provide various intensity of optical illusion. Such alternations would be extremely tedious, if not entirely impossible, without parametric modeling as it would have taken up so much time moving back and forth between calculating and manufacturing in order to get the desired effect.

Bottom: Grasshopper definition for facade pattern Opposite: Facade pattern at different size and density of perforations

Episode 6 The Physical Model and its Further Potential

The Making Of... After comparing the family of options generated through Grasshopper definitions, the team has decided on the size and density of perforations. White and clear perspex were selected as primary modeling materials as we believed it would reproduce a more ephemeral effect due to their transparency and translucency. Plywood was prepared as an alternative material for further experiment. Manufacturing took some time and costed pretty much as lascer cutting was the only option for such complex operation. We could have spent weeks cutting perspex with serious imprecision otherwise. Special hinges and spider brackets were designed to scale, this is to separate outer and inner layer for the reproduction of moire effect.

Further expanding from the precedent, the panels and brackets were designed to be interchangeable, offering potential for the juxaposition of different pattern and material of the outer panel. The motif of SMAP comes in as outer panels can be taken away, changed and mapped back to another position on the structure. As the pattern on outer perforated panels is fixed after manufacturing, the team has als decided to reprint the inner silkscreen layer at different scale to further test the mechanism of moire effect and play of apparent depth. Once again, we find the seemingly tedious work of rescaling all the circles a much easier job with parametric modeling - everything is done at once with the adjustment of a few sliders!

Moire Effect - Same radii for circles on outer and inner layers

Top: Same circle size for inner and outer layer Below: Circles scaled down on inner layer

Overlapping - Clear perspex over printed pattern on transparent paper

Top: Overall view - One clear panel Below: Close up on clear panel

Overlapping: Shadow and clear panels 58

Conversation: Cube, Shadow, Light A Moire effect created through light and shadow 61

Horizon 62

In-between space 64

Spinning Cube & Change of Color 66

Is it the color that we are looking at, or the physical object, or the air it frames? 67

Dynamic blocks A moire pattern and overlay of shadows that turn into space 68

Ornamentation: New affects on conventional geometry The reverse engineering, along with the further manipulation of models, has brought us to the discourse of “the function of ornaments”. Ornament is described as “figure that emerges from the material substrate, the expression of embedded forces through processes of construction, assemble and growth”1. As stated by Farshid Moussavi, “It is through ornament that material transmits affects. Ornament is therefore necessary and inseparable from the object”2. Parametric design and fabrication, as demonstrated in the reverse engineering research, have “opened up possibilities for non-uniform, non-monotonous, variable patterning and texturing of surface”3. A conventional box-shaped building mass, if covered with conventional aluminium, could be very opaque and gives a ‘bulky’ affect. Through highly sophisticated perforation patterns, the Dior building carries a light and hazy appearance. Aluminium panels, originally thought to be strong and solid, can now be deployed as a tool for disappearance and ambiguity. Through the further experimentation of overlapping panels as well as construction of a perforated cube, we have confirmed that parametric design has more to offer than the sole production of decorative patterns - it produces affects that is part of the model itself. The overlapping, interwinding pattern of ligt and shadow raises the uncertainty between virtual and reality, it also confronts our sense of depth and allows multiple readings at different occasions. The reflections of perforated and printed pattern between the inner and outer layer also question our sense of scale, transforming the thin intermediate airspace to an endless horizon. The perforated cube was made of clear perspex panels that were lascer cut according to the Dior facade pattern. When spinned and lit by colored light, transmit a ghosty, ephemeral affect - it shows itself as reflections of light, disappears soon afterwards, stimulating a sense of presence. It is through such ephemerality that one starts to be aware of the mass of encapsuled air, finally raising the question of “am I looking at the reflection, the structure or in intself, air?”. Such affects, is no doubt impossible without the sophisticated pattern generated through parametric design. Returning to the discussion of ornament and perception, the unprecedented way of producing patterns has helped to “produce new sensations tht remain open to new forms of eperience”. In fact there could be endless possible interpretations to the affects generated through the conducted experiments (or parametric modeling in general), depending on the context and broader factors that shapes ones perception and reading. Here, we see the competitive advantages offered by parametric design and its consequential novel ornamentation - an architecture that could “bypass the need for the codification of language”4 and is opened to multiple interpretations by different individual at different occassions.

Notes

Moussavi, Farshid and Michael Kubo. The Function of Ornament (Barcelona: Actar, 2006), pp. 5-14, (p. 9) Ibid, p.9 3 Kolarevic, Branko. Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing (New York; London: Spon Press, 2003), pp. 6 - 24. (p. 19) 4 Moussavi, Farshid and Michael Kubo. The Function of Ornament (Barcelona: Actar, 2006), pp. 5-14, (p. 9) 1 2

Episode 7 The Effect of Air

Architecture and materiality have long been considered inseparable, yet the immaterial quality in architecture is as important as that of the material. When addressing the topic of sensibility, we always pull up the concept of “users’ experience and perception”. Considering users’ experience can be easily affected by the complex relationship between many non-architectural factors such as weather conditions and one’s “mood”1 at a specific time. If a building has to communicate and resist the deterioration of richness with time, the ability to appear ever-changing, resist resolution and remain open to interpretation becomes critical. After all, most buildings are experienced not once but many times when they are not the focus of attention, there are always a lot more factors besides the building that contributes to the experience and sensation of users. The effect of air, in particular, could greatly affect the visibility, color, acoustics, lighting, appearance and environment of a building. Humidity, wind, temperature and a lot more environmental parameters would contribute to a building’s performance. The role of architects is, of course not to force a change in the greater climate but to justify and design how an architecture would react with such “agents of ambiguity”2: How much weathering of stone does an architect want? How fast should a copper turn green in color in response to humidity? What kind of temperature should a particular space hold? All these questions bridges the gap between users’ perception, (im)materiality of architecture, and the role of an architect. In other words, the job of an architect is to “create material conditions in which that decision can be made, while other authors of architecture and agents of ambiguity - such as the weather - may intervene to alter perception and matter”3. To a broader context, it can represent ambiguity and ephemerality. Hence the effect of air brings us back to the very first episode - the discourse of sensibility in architecture. Through interacting with natural process and phenomena, architecture should display a clearer character of a specific space. Through more vivid visual communication and sensation, users would be more aware and critical of the changes in the surrounding environment and space they inhabit. In relation to the design of architectural objects, it is in line with the pursuit of architecture that is ambiguous and open to interpretation, being able to refine itself with time, and being adaptive to the ever-changing environment and external stimuli. This chapter includes two precedents that demonstrates how architecture can respond to and display the movement and lightness of air. such pursuit of unusual phenomenal effect and lightness eventually became the origin of the design concept for Wyndham City’s Western Gateway Project.

Notes

Alejandro Zaera, ‘A Conversation with Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa’, El Croquis Issue 77(I) + 99 + 121/122 (2004), 8 - 21 (p. 13) 2 Hill, Jonathan. ‘Drawing Forth Immaterial Architecture’, Architectural Research Quarterly, 10, 1, (2006) pp. 51-55, (p.54 ) 3 Ibid. p. 54 1

Curtain Wall House Shigeru Ban A house where external walls are not solid but floats in wind. Rather than resisting ventilation in and out, it exposes the inside to wind. Habitants can sense the movement of air, temperature and humidity firsthanded. One can see a different appearance of the house that varies with wind, having an ever-changing, phenomenal impression. http://www.shigerubanarchitects.com/SBA_WORKS/SBA_HOUSES/SBA_HOUSES_15/ SBA_Houses_15.html

Row House Tadao Ando

http://www.nicz.net/works/azumaFinal2.jpg

Enclosed in front elevation but unvocered in the middle of plan, residents have to go literally outdoors walking between kitchen, bedroom and living room. This is an apparently subversive setting yet through exposed to external air intensely in every day life, residents are more aware of the environment they live in and have a stronger sensibility to it. 75

The Cloud Junya Ishigami

Different clouds have different shape, everyone can read it differently - some looks like marsh mellow, some looks like sheep, some looks like wave...However they do have structure, and it varies sensitively with height, atmospheric pressure, temperature, wind, etc. Through studying the ever-changing form and layers of cloud, Junya designed an installation that resembles such ephemeral structure and composition with very delicate, fragile elements - it deforms with gentle wind, changes color according to humidity and lighting condition, vaishes from certain perspective and reappears somewhere else with greater contrast. Such ephemerality, to me, will work very well for the open nature of freewayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s site. If one can be aware of the change of air, they will also have the sensitivity of observing and interacting with the surroundings, the city and their neighbors. The potential for multiple reading at different time and condition would also transcend the static nature of a built object. 76

Top: Changing appearance of model according to weather and lighting condition Bottom: Various form, composition and color of clouds in response to different climate Opposite: Model deforms with slight movement in air Junya Ishigami, Another Scale of Architecture, (Seigensha Art Publishing, Inc., Kyoto, Japan, 2010) , p, 40, 42-43

Episode 8 Expression of Interest

It was about time for the team to submit an Expression of Interest to the jury panels, stating our design philosophy and demostrating our capablity of challenging latest practise and discourse in architectural design. Revisiting various precedents studied by different team members, we have selected the discourse of how an architecture can carry multiple readings as our main focus. Looking at the example of Effiel Tower, we have made a statement to create an installation that interacts and gives different meanings to different people under a different scenrio, hence celebrating the vibrance and co-existence of the residents and visitors of the growing Wyndham city. We have also demostrated the potentials offered by computational design and digital modelling - fluid and seamless responds to complex scenarios, innovative methods of form finding and treatments, high accuracy of calculation, unprecedented predictability of an architectureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s performance in response to various stimuli, stunningly high productivity and efficiency, etc. Through our experimentations with the use of Grasshopper and parametric modelling we have also experienced the effectiveness and characteristics of different design methods as suggested by Kalay1. With the reverse engineering of Dior Ginza Building, we have further developed our understanding of fabrication process, can demonstrated the potential of digital modelling through the production of a physical mock-up. Hence the EOI arrives at the notion that digital morphogenesis is already challenging common, pragmatic norm in architectural design. It is not just the extravagant outcome that makes computational design an obvious choice. It is also through the engagement of latest design approaches that offers the most solid and direct response to the most highlighted statement in the design brief â&#x20AC;&#x201C; generation of new, inspiring and brave ideas that advance discourse. We think the ability to translate various information to inform design decision offered by computational design as a possible solution to represent the growth and emergence of Wyndham in a more appropriate manner. In view of the complementary background of Wyndham sister cities, we suggested the installation should be have a physical form that emerges and interwinds as it gradually grows out of the soil. It should as well be able to respond and mutate according the changing context of the growing Wyndham city.

Notes 1 Yehuda E. Kalay, Architectureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s New Media : Principles, Theories, and Methods of Computer-Aided Design (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2004)

Extracted from p.22-23, Expression of Interest Document

Design Intent A design, which would adapt to the changing context of its surroundings over time, whilst representing the rapid growth of Wyndham as an international city through exploring the interconnections between Wyndham and its sister cities: Chiryu, Japan and Costa Mesa, California.

Episode 9 Gain

As reflected in the early readingings, architecture is often referred to built objects, static and stable mass. It is also emphasized by the majority of architects that the design of physical construct is their main duty. The notion of “If you are an architect but you cannot build things, that is a pity” prevails. The pragmatic norm has channeled the main focus of “design” to the tiring progression of site analysis, parti diagram, programming (juxtaposition of function), choice of material, detailing, contract documentation and construction methods. The overwhelming demand for project architects over designers has also shaped our perception of “architecture” as the “making of buildings” rather than an “autopoiesis, idea-communicating” system1. Furthermore, the environmentalists’ concern over the impact caused by construction has also drawn the attention to pragmatic pursuit of “holistic” approach - yet another reason for the seemingly pragmatic profession. The chance of doing an exciting AMO style project is as scarce as hen’s teeth. Even though I have developed an interest of reading about concepts and theories, studio assignments from my previous studies were still about the making of buildings - buildability and practicality being the main concern. The impact and challenge offered by this studio is heavy and huge. After all spending eight weeks on studying discourse, Grasshopper, fabrication and design methods without translating and testing with tangible design proved to be way much less easy than I could have imagined. However it is through such deep reflections that I start to have a better understanding of my personal interest, its constraints and possible solutions. The topic of sensibility is abstract and could be subjective. Human senses could be affected by a wide range of factors and parameters - weather, personal relationship, emotions, perceptions, sense of distance, lighting, humidity, temperature, sequence of events encountered by a person, its context and a lot more. Converting sensibility into an architectural response means a translation of abstract, intagible or even invisible information into a seemingly disparate reality. I always find it difficult. From readings and case studies I have now gained a better understanding of how computational design has helped the creation and realization of new materiality and responsive architecture - hence establishing new relationship between buildings, environments and humans, questioning our conventional observation and perception, provoking thoughts and senses. After all, there are plenty different ways to experience a space, the ability for a building to adapt and generate multiple reading is crucial, and that is now more doable with computation design. Looking at a broader context, a responce to the progression from a material age to information age also implies a new way of designing. While the majority of architecture classes are still focusing on the conventional practise of making buildings, producing construction drawings in REVIT and CAD, I am actually glad that the course has exposed me to the latest discourse and technologies, such as the use of Grasshopper, novel fabrication strategies and cultures of computational design. From a pragmatic perspective, these knowledge should prove advantageous in a global market. In view of my personal interest, understanding how seemingly unrelated information can be interpreted and communicated between different paradigms, I am starting to see an unprecedented trend, or universe of design that could be crucial to my further studies on the topic of “sensibility vs. architecture”. Notes

Patrik Schumacher, ‘Introduction : Architecture as Autopoietic System’, in The Autopoiesis of Architecture (Chichester: J. Wiley, 2011), pp. 1 - 28.

Episode 10 Design Process

“Architects always pretend the scheme we are presenting is within such a conviction and as if it comes out of magic. But of course we tested so many schemes before we arrive to the final scheme”1

- Shohei Shigamatsu

“If one looks back over time and runs a memory record of a project through one’s mind, a diary of sorts takes shape. In serial fashion, key events milestone the project - changes, dead-ends, parallel lines of enquiry, the conclusion and the ambitions of that first inception - moments of importance that turn into only a few days of recollection.... With each day the long hours of criticism, the short seconds of inspiration, the tug of all those movements that push and pull each way as what we call ‘The Project’ ticks on.”2 - Cecil Balmond

Notes 1 2

Shohei Shigamatsu, Lecture on Instantanés d’architecture, 2010, University Laval School of Architecture Cecil Balmond, Informal, (Munich, Berlin, London, New York, Prestel, 2002), p.19

Responding to flow Looking back at the precedents, first thing that clicked was to create a fluid, light form that reflects and responds to the traffic flow on the freeway. Such fluid, smooth experience would poise a gentle welcoming gesture. The built form takes reference to and is inspired by Greg Lynnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s New York Port Terminal. Read as a canopy that grows from the landscape and spans across the road, twisted and lit with numerous lights on the multi-layered surface, it would represent the emerging vibrance of Wyndham city. It was an extension of the reverse engineering case study and research matrix on the use of layered patterns, visual illusion and colors. With these, it was intended to articulate the entrance experience of drivers and visitors, inviting and welcoming them to the city. However, to generate a form that is truly informed by traffic flow requires the advanced scripting and thus technically impossible for this studio. Besides, a canopy would create an enclosed space becomes conceptually static. It is also not so effective in achieving the effect of lightness. To a personal level, this is not interesting enough. And I went back to Grasshopper and tried something else.

From Top: View from North, South, East, West Opposite: Grasshopper Definition and perspective View

Wave - Harmony in diversity, framing views and moments I went on to create a progressive experience that changes as people drive by. The idea was to generate a fluid form or sculpture that resembles the gesture of waves reflecting the prominent Wyndham water front. Each sculpture is replicated along the freeway at different size and orientation with parametrics to form a family. Each sculpture can stand on itself, and can also be a part of the family, responding to the manifest

of 21st century - co-existence without losing identity. Upon approach, people will first see the view parallel to their direction; the gradual change of orientation and size of sculpture opens up and closes down different sight lines as they progress to frame changing perspectives. Through such alternating visibility provokes curiosity, hence encourages people to explore the vibrant, growing city.

Sight lines

Overview - Setting of sculptures frames different sight lines along the freeway

Approach - Driversâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; view on the sculptures that varies on sizes and orientation

Perforations were desired at the tip of each cantilevered sculpture to reduce wind load. These openings could also be used as lighting device that will glow like stars. This is to address different performance needs under various lighting and weather conditions. While this proposal is highly parametric, fabrication and rationalization of each single sculpture would still be utterly tedious. Positioning and orienting in an accurate

manner would be another hurdle. The wish of wave, constellation and progressive experience hence comes to an end. The team was advised to do one huge installation that relates closer to the discourse of ephemerality and sensuality - something light and more dramatic.

Overview - Setting of lightings highlights the wavy, continuous progressive experience

Perforations and lighting at upper end - Reduces lateral wind load and lights up in pattern at night

Grasshopper definition

Mushrooms It was intended to create a cloud-like sculpture that emerges from ground as a representation of the emerging city. The team decided to waffle out the structure considering the ease of fabrication and the structural stability ot could offer. However with skin-deep understanding of the aesthetic of fluid form and insufficient skills in digital modelling, the mushrooms created soon emerge as a proof of bad taste and futility.

We tried to articulate the form by moving control points in Rhino. However the proportions and dimensions of some prototypes were too extreme for a solid waffle structure - it discontinued in the middle, floated the upper part of structure, meaning the design would not stand up. Adjusting that into a more buildable form brought us back to boredom and inappropriate demonstration of Minimalism.

Gradually we realised a solid waffle was not what we wanted as it was too heavy and opaque to resemble the lightness and ephemerality of cloud. Furthermore all prototypes looked like mushroom clouds of an atomic bomb - too much of a disgraceful drama, especially for a growing city. Hence we have put an end to this detour of form-finding mushrooms should only be kept in kitchens. http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01410/hiroshimamushroom_1410747c.jpg

A Waffled slice of Cloud We thought we could have done a better waffle if that was designed out of a surface rather than a solid, yet again we made a mistake. To build a fluid form out of an orthogonal structure without any surface treatment, has made the design very incoherent. While the thick ribs allows the dramatic structure to stand on its own, the apparent bulk and opacity dismissed the pursuit of ephemerality straight away. Even though such mass will gradually become transparent when one drives pass and looks head on, the structure would still be seen from far away for most of the time - for the mint92

ues when approaching it would appear as a deformed thick slab, for the seconds when you are head on it will be transparent. And it becomes a slab again right away. Not the experience we wanted. While this scheme showed very limited reflection to prior experiements, the form, expression and tectonics are not dynamic enough in suggesting the fluidity and softness of cloud. With the help of T-Spline we have decided to re-evaluate the model and strengthen the concepts of emerging cloud, lightness, softness and ephemerality.

Presentation

Following the set requirements in the brief, we aimed to create a design, which would adapt to the evolving context of its surroundings over time, whilst representing the rapid growth of Wyndham as an international city through exploring the interconnections between Wyndham and its sister cities: Chiryu, Japan and Costa Mesa, California. The “Cloud of Growth” will be an exciting and eye-catching installation, which will inspire and enrich the municipality of Wyndham, as well as generate discourse in the field of architecture and design. The Wyndham Gateway project follows on from the “Seeds of Change” installation, located at the close-by Eastern Interchange of the Princess Freeway, and “House in the Sky”, located at the interchange with the Western Ring Road. The “Cloud of Growth” will be situated at the Western Interchange of the Princess Freeway, acting as a Gateway into Metropolitan Melbourne, but also as a signpost signalling the location of the city of Wyndham.

The “Cloud of Growth” becomes a part of the branding of Wyndham, acting as an icon or symbol of innovation, similar to how the Eiffel Tower represents Paris. The design proposal is innovative and provocative as it pushes the limits of conventional structural integrity and laws of physics, contributing to the discourse for cases of innovation. The design also challenges the notion of perception; perceptions that an object or sculpture must have one set meaning. The fluid form, generated through the aid of computational design, is influenced by the prominent features of Wyndham and her sister cities - an ocean wave. But keeping with the notion of different perceptions, the form can also be viewed as an emerging cloud, a more fluid form that pushes the boundaries of the rigid waffle structure, suggesting a new innovative way of interpreting conventional construction methods using solid materials such as wood.

“The Cloud of Growth” is both structural and sculptural, offering multiple meanings to different peoples under various circumstances. It offers a unique interactive experience to the motorists taking into consideration the high-speed movement of traffic along the Princes Freeway as you approach the Melbourne CBD. The visibility and clarity of the structure will change according to time of the day, as well as different weather conditions. As a motorist driving towards the Melbourne CBD, the installation will appear to emerge as you approach, undulating as you drive under and then gradually vanishing as you drive into the distance. During daylight the “Cloud of Growth” will be viewed as a solid timber structure, the high visibility allowing motorists to view the structural connections to the landscape. In contrast, at night, the installation will be lit from below, creating the optical illusion of the “cloud”, where the installation will appear to float as the motorist approaches.

CLOUD OF GROWTH

WYNDHAM WESTERN GATEWAY PROPOSAL WERRIBEE, VICTORIA

PROJECT|SMAPTM

TO MELBOURNE CBD

TO GEELONG

PREFABRICATION & TRANSPORT B A

4 5

5 6

3 4 5

CNC Cutting

Prepare for fabrication

1. TRANSPORT TO SITE, CONDITION WOODEN PANELS

2. SITE EXCAVATION

3. FOUNDATIONS AND BACKFILL

4. ATTACH BASE PANELS TO FOUNDATION (DETAIL FIG. 1)

5. CONNECTING PANEL TO PANEL (DETAIL FIG. 2)

6. CONTINUE CONNECTING PANEL TO PANEL

CONSTRUCTION PROCESS JOINERY DETAILS CROSS-BEAM CROSS-BEAM EARTH

FOUNDATION

FIG 1. STRUCTURE TO FOUNDATION

FIG 2. PANEL TO PANEL

Following a simple grid system, the panels are attached according to a specified X axis and Y axis order.

7. CONSTRUCTION COMPLETE!

PROJECT|SMAPTM

Episode 11 Salvage

Resurrection

Conceptual Sketch during dicussion with tutors

We still wanted the cloud, we liked the ephemerality of how a piece of cloud changes it shape, thickness and color with various weather conditions. It just cannot be a solid. Revisiting an earlier discussion with tutors and team, there was an attempt to create a large cantilever spanning over the road that is large enough to give drama and is fluid enough to represent cloud. It was this sketch that gave formal inspiration to the sculptures in the wave proposal. Yet the apparent difficulty in construction and uncertainty in arriving at a good-looking outcome directed us to some apparently more rational solutions. After all the failed attempts we have gone through, the team finally agreed to bring this sketch back to life. There has to be ways to make it stand.

Physics

Aerodynamcis http://s3.amazonaws.com/readers/scienceray/2008/04/28/36910_2.jpg

Revising the effects of air and how other architecture responds to it, I realized it would be more true to work with aerodynamics. Taking the example of airplane or birds, they can fly because air and wind lifts them up, then what about a lightweight cantilever structure? A Boeing 747-400 has a wing span up to around 27 meters on each side. Without the lift by aerodynamics each wing can hold two engines without breaking, in air they act as the only source of lifting force and is strong enough to lift up an entire aircraft, its passengers and luggages. For this installation we can omit all these weight, hence normal climatic wind should provide sufficient secondary lift for the internal structure and deep foundations. It could bend slightly just as airplane wings, the key is to design the form and size right.

A cloud out of ruled surface

Folded ribs and polysurfaces Ribs division and profile aligns with ruled surfaces

Left: Enclosed sculpture - perforated on each surface Right: Two sandwiched layers - opening up in-between space Bottom: Precedent for Structure - Dragonfly by EMERGENT http://www.ladesigntech.org/images/BH_df03.jpg

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Skin

Top

Driversâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; View

Side

The idea of ruled surface was once again based on buildability and ease of fabrication, however it does not give a soft expression and was abandoned. Yet it is at this stage where we gradually confirmed the need to break down our sculpture into two layers to reduce the bulkiness. The opening up of in-between space also echoed the experiments on Dior Ginza facade - from two layers of skin to an new horizon. The further complexation of form gradually become more true to the concept of aerodynamics. We were getting closer to what we wanted. 101

Two layers of double curved surfaces

Steel tubes braced to improve structural strength Dounble-curved surface suspended by secondary structure

Right: Canal Museum by Shigeru Ban http://colorcubic.com/files/2010/07/Centre-DInterpretation-Du-Canal-De-BourgogneFrance.jpg

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Perforations and Patterns

Top

Side

Driversâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; View 103

Colors and Ornaments Offset and Fade

Lower Layer

104

Upper Layer

Overlay

Flip and Contrast

Lower Layer

Upper Layer

Overlay

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Episode 11 The Project Cloud of Wyndham

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Going through such tedious back and forth in design progression, the team has reached an agreement on the final scheme - two layers of dynamic surfaces, fabricated out of delicately thin two-way waffle structure, concealed with translucent light-weight cloth-like structure. To us, it preserves the fluidity and smoothness of cloud, offers true lightness and ephemerality, and has a form that is more suggestive of organic, natural growth and emergence. Looking back, the design process would have been more straight forward and fast-track if we were not as distracted by buildability and ease of fabrication from the outset. However it was also through such tedious trial and error we justified and confirmed the most appropriate direction, and challenged all the difficulties in terms of structure, tectonics, expression, and scaled representation of a model. In the end, we managed to tie back the design with the discourse of sensibility and ephemerality, making the design more informed by our knowledge acquired through engaging computational design, digital modelling and fabrication. Such relevance rendered our input for experimentation and testing not in vain. This is a dramatic proposal, it challenges perception and disturbs pre-conception of ‘what is architecture and its limits’. Here, I would like to conclude the design journey with the final proposal. I call it ‘The Cloud of Wyndham”.

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Construction

1. Fabricated materials transport to Site

2. Excavation

3. Foundation

4. Lower parts of structure

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5. Second layer of structure

6. Start of cantilever

7. Completion

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Episode 12 Epilogue

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Without doubt it is the most expensive studio I have ever had. I could not calculate how much money I have spent on sketch models, relevant modelling materials, food and drinks to keep me company during all-nighters, etc. I once posted on facebook ‘No time and money for haircut because I have spent all of them on studio models’. It is also the toughest studio I have ever had - proved by the unprecedented amount of all-nighters and coffee break. But well, it is also the most fruitful studio I have ever had. I have been talking too much about sensibility in my previous studies but have always been futile in translating that into an actual design that translates such an idea. Even the Issey Miyake project that won me a second place in an internal competition wasn’t so successful in challenging tectonics and (im)materiality. With a project of installation, where program, function and regulation is not much a problem, I can channel all my focus to the further understanding of discourse, concept and how to carry it through to the final stage of realization. I am typing this reflection with the model next to me, looking at the delicate finishing, dramatic proportion, ephemeral expression, lightness and dynamic form, I am more than pleased with the result. It is such an irony that as a third year architecture student I have very limited experience in translating computer renderings into a physical model, and now I have tackled this weakness. Such finite experience of finishing a physical model also implies my impotence in taking good model photographs. This studio offered me a chance to develop on this area as well. When I completed internship prior to this studio, my boss reminded me the importance of teamwork and be nice to team members, ‘You never knows, sometimes it is you helping your partners, sometimes it is your partner saving you and helped you realize your dream‘. I had experienced that in this studio, especially at the final stages. Although I have taken up a larger burden in working with Rhino and Grasshopper, it was my teammates who made the most critical move to carry the design to the final physical model. This may not be the most complex project I have ever done, yet it is the most difficult one - it looks good, only if both the model and real installation can defy physics in reality. There was a night when I could not figure out how to hold the model in place regardless of how hard I tried. I was prepared to accept defeat as it would be impossible to change the design, fabricate and assemble a new model in time. It was when my teammates pulled together and offered a clever touch to hold the model in place. The dream of a dramatic, extreme design was finally realized. Of course productivity counts - if I were to work without the help from teammates, I would not have completed anything in time. Computational design is an inevitable trend, if people look at the work of AA and RMIT studios they will know there is a lot more work to do to become one of the brightest archtiects. The growing number of practise requiring digital design skills proves engaging computational architecture a real need. While this studio is frequently critisied because the insufficient number of tutors, I see this as a sign of “we are studying something so advanced that not many people know how to do it well”. Assuming we are one of the earlier students engaging such trend, we could possibly be one of those leading stars as we continue to brush up our skills and approach design with a more informed manner. As a student who is commited to become a good architect, I hope to find this studio has really equipped me well.

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