COMMAND

C O M M A N D C C O O M M M M A A N N D D

A SPECULATIVE THESIS PROJECT

HOPE CHOI

I dedicate this book to my teacher, who has been with me since 2008.

With love and light...

DESIGN BRIEF

This speculative design thesis project stems from the fascination with the prevalent world of collaboration, responding to the body, cognition and the world of technology.

Assuming the body as energy and information database; the intelligent and responsive module proposed by the project seeks to dismantle the gap by providing an expanded personal spatial layer that registers subjective agency as form and movement through urban space. The body-mind creative production becomes the primary source that inspires movement and transformation of the modules thus your extended world moves at your COMMAND.

contents DESIGN BRIEF

part one process one inspiration two research three concept development four ideation sketches part two design five design development six diagram seven 3d model eight design situation nine narrative renderings ten acknowledgements

one Inspiration

The inspiration for this project came from being in the creative studio spaces we have at school.

Throughout the six years of my under grad, what I found most interesting was the way that we work.

Just by sitting down at a table working on a project, you end up interacting with so many different people that it affects the project and thus the projects are no longer my own but a product of collaboration with others.

Although we are working on our own individual projects, we are always working together.

PART ONE PART ONE

two archigram plug-in city

Marcel du champ

Yona Friedman, Ville Spatial, 1960

archigram plug-in city

RESEARCH Dada and surrealism in architecture

Dadaism is based on having absolutely no beliefs, no truths or rules. This can be applied to how we view architecture.

Architecture could be left unfinished for the users to finish and to use and become.

Dadaism known for the use of ready-made object and stripping of the conventions of the norm, Questioning the denotation of architecture, the Dadaism theory can also be applied to architecture.

concept of mobile architecture allows the city to move

modularity is explored as a medium for exploration and individual customizing

our bodies and this world is said to have energetic forces and fields. this explains why things attract and repel.

the energetic forces can become the database for the spaces that is created with the modules.

we are already constantly exchanging data/information just by being ourselves,

collaboration and inter connection happens every second

here future can be imagined not just in the 3 dimensional sense but in the 4th dimensional reality.

in the movie Interstellar, there is a moment of realization where everything makes sense for the protagonist

he makes sense of his world, when he realizes that we are all connected in a greater level.

the interest here is to allow a more fluid connection between people and our environment

what if we could move as we think...? what if we could connect through spaces and not just by physically being together.

concept development

what does individualization mean in terms of spatial planning?

how does our city reflect our bodies and our world?

overlords are a species in the game of starcraft, the zerg(specie) giant space faring and semi-intelligent creature that allows troops to be transported from one field to another.

what will transportation systems look like in the next 200 years.

what if we could instantly go home and shower and come back to whereever we need to.

overlord concept taken into architecture and city planning. combining the idea of modularity, mobility and responsive architecture to create spaces that adds flexibility to how users interact with space.

three

concept development

ideations

hand drawing on tracing

four Initial preliminary drawing on tracing.

This preliminary drawing was the first ideation for this project, where I wanted to integrate the concept of overlords in starcraft and apply it to architecture. in the drawing you see the beginning of any form a cube represented as a modular component. Then the modules are clustered together to form a bigger space.

The plug resembles the idea of the modules plugging into different spaces or overlords.

hand drawing on vellum

Hand drawing On vellum

Hand drawing on vellum

Preliminary Overlord design concept development

Preliminary design Collage

part two part two

the design

there is an existing gap between technology and the body. The undeniable separation that limits our ability to connect, collaborate and create. this project seeks to dismantle this gap by introducing these personal modules that become a part of your body that moves according to your needs. Architecture becomes an extension of our body. not just in a physical sense but in a physical, cognitive, and emotional level.

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

THE PREDICAMENT Everything around us is consistently shifting and changing, but the world of architecture today still remains static and passive. our spaces are ignorant of our bodies and the bio-information that we produce.

We replace body with transportation or technological devices as the primary source of connection between bodies and spaces. What if in the future our bodies were the primary connective source that binds people and spaces and the rest is a reflection and response to our bodies.

five

SIX THE METHOD Bodies and bodies: if our spaces responded to our bodies and became the extenions of our bodies then, our spaces could be the connective tissue that brings people together.

Living organisms such as the human body is a rich source of bio-information, the collective database’s are to be used as the essential source that transforms the forms of the modules.

As living organisms and human bodies emanate rich sources of information through our cognition, emotion, and physicality and received as form of energetic forces. This creates powerful energy fields and grids in our world that can be used as the traffic for the proposed modules to navigate through the city.

Thus the collective data of our bodies are shaping the form of our infrastructures and our urban environments.

forms are inspired by our bodies

a womb shaped module deforming in response to progression

good design is simple... you design a space and the rest is up to it’s users.

So then, design isn’t about making something but about leaving space

diagram

THE OBJECTIVE The objective of this project was to dismantle the disconnection between our spatial realities with our bodies.

By proposing an intelligent and responsive module that transforms and shifts according to the database of our bio-information this world emanates we create an authentic source of database that shapes the forms of our spaces and thus the infrastructures. Creating a new urbanism brought about by our own objectives.

six deformation based on demands of the urban scenarios

module deformation

collective database grid created by bodies

emotional

cognitive

physical

visual diagram of the modules in an urban context.

MODULE DEFORMED INTO FURNITURE

EXISTING BUILDING SECTION

FORMULATING NEW BUILDING FACET

MODULE MERGING ON BUILDING

HYPOTHETICAL BUILDING + MODULE CONSOLIDATION

3d models

SEVEN 3d printed

3ds max, rhino, and modeling software, and lighting contruction

SITUATIONS

nine 3ds max, autocad, illustrator, and photoshop

spatial relationships are created through the layers of grids that the bodies produce, just by being contained in your body the spaces move and transform according to the demand or desire.

A THESIS PROJECT BY: H O P E

v I N H E E

C H O I

INSTRUCTORS: ALA ROUSHAN AND CARLOS JARVIS OCAD UNIVERISTY TORONTO, ON. MAY 2017