AIR STUDIO
JESSICA ZHANG 391028 journal.
EOI EOI CONTENT
ARCHITECTURE AS A DISCOURSE 3 ARCHITECUTRE AS A DISCOURSE COMPUTATION IN ARCHITECTURE COMPUTATION IN ARCHITEC PARAMETRIC DESIGN PARAMETRIC DESIGN 3 DEVELOP - MATRIX 3 DEVELOP - MATRIX DEVELOP -DEVELOP REVERSE-ENGINEERING 3 - REVERSE-ENGINEERING DEVELOP - MATERIAL EFFECTS DEVELOP - MATERIAL EFFECTS 3 CONCEPT EXPLORATION
DIGITAL FABRICATION MOVING IMAGE IN ARCHITECTURE DESIGN DOCUMENTATION CRITICAL DESIGN NARRATIVE FINAL LEARNING OUTCOMES
S
THE CASE FOR INNOVATION
CUT
GATEWAY PROJECT
ARCHITECTURE
AS A DISCOURSE
STUDLEY PARK BOATHOUSE
THE KOOL HOUSE 2011 ---- The Kool House in the manner of Rem Koolhaas Thisprojectwasstrongly influenceby theworksof DutcharchitectRemKoolhaas.Thisdesigncouldnotbe completedwithoutcomputationaltools,RevitArchitecture 2011wasadoptedhereinordertoaccomplishadynamic shapeandinnovativedesignfeatures.Thetriangular skylightsontheroofsarealignedcarefullyinorderto maximisethesite’ssunlightandcastsimilarshadows aswindowframes,creatingastylishmovementonthe floorduringasunnyday.Thepliablesurface,thekiosk’s frostedglassroofwhichliftsfromtheground,couldnot beachievedwithoutthesimulationofthedesigninathree dimensionalspace.Conventionaldrawingtechniqueslimit thepossiblegeometricaloutcomes,howevermodelling inthreedimensionalspaceallowscriticalthinkingwhilst designing.Thatis,takingadvantageofcomputational toolsasawaytoexpressdesignintentionsquickly,at thesametime,onceseestheresultinstantly.Onthe otherhand,thisprojectcausesarchitecturaldiscourse forthatitevokesquestionofwhetherornotsucha computationaldrivenbuildingissuitableforaserene boathouse.Nevertheless,itachievesallthecriiterias intheproposalandwasluckyenoughtobedisplayed.
CCTV-CHINA.CENTRAL.TELEVISION
HEADQUATERS 2002 ---- The Loop RemKoolhaas’spracticeOfficeforMetropolitanArchitecture(OMA)designedthisprojectforCCTVinBeijing, China.OMAdecidedtocreateabuildingwhichthethree dimensionswouldforceallofthefacilitiesandactivitiesinvolvedinonesinglegiantloop.Structurally,the teamdescribedthebuildingasa‘continuoustube’,they realisedtheonlywaytodeliverthisdaringandunique architecturalformwasto‘engagetheentirefaçade structure,creatinginessenceanexternalcontinuous tubesystem’.ThatishowandwhyCCTVbuildingcould resistearthquakesandwindload,aswellasthehuge forcesgeneratebythecrankedandseeminglyunstable form.Theplanesofbracingarecontinuousthroughout thebuildingvolume,asshowninthepictures,inorderto reinforcethecorners.CCTVHeadquatersbuildingcaused thediscussionabouttheemergingEast/WestarchitecturaldiscourseandtherapidurbanisationofChina.This buildingisindeedbecominganiconicbuildinginBeijing, whetherthepeopleliveintherelikeitornot.Itisindeed revolutionary,foritstrulythree-dimensionalshapeonthe outsideandthree-dimensionalexperienceontheinside.
‘It pus
hes th
social
e limit
ly, cult s of architectu urally, re, not j and te chnolo ust formally bu t gically .’
---- Tina di Carlo
PROJECT NAME ARCHITECTS STATUS
CCTV Headquaters Rem Koolhaas/OMA Construction
THE VM HOUSES 2005 BjarkeIngelsGroup(BIG)designedthismultilevel-apartmentbuildingwhichinterlocks incomplexcompositionsonthefaçade,makingthewholebuildingseemlikeathreedimensionalgameoftetris.ItalsowonthebestbuildingprizeinDenmarkin2006.The bestandthemosteye-catchingfeatureofthisbuildingmustbeitsdistinctivetriangular balconiesalongthenorthfaçadefacingthepark.Thebalconiesaredesignedlikethat, whichincorporatesmaximumcantileverwithminimumshade,istoencourageresidents tohaveaverticalbackyardcommunitywiththeirneighboursinaverticalradiusof10 metresrightontheirbalconies.Italsopromotsakindofexperienceasifoneisstanding atthebowofashipintheair.Ifarchitectureismeanttomakepeoplefeelcomfortableandhappy,BIG’sVMHouseswasdefinitelyheadingtowardstherightdirection.
COMPUTINGIN ARCHITECTURE
Computersinourdailylivesaremakingeverythingmoreconvenient,efficientandeasier.Duetothefact thatcomputersaresuperbanalyticalengies,theywilltransferhuman’sknowdedgeintotheirsystemsand willdoeverythingquickly,repeatedlyandcorrectly.MarcFornefromTHEVERYMANYisoneoftheleading figuresinthefield.Hecertainlyunderstandsthetranslationofsimplecodecouldbestructuredinto complexandappealingformeasilyusingcomputers.NonLin/LinPavillionisoneoftheexamples.NonLin/ Lin’scomputationallydrivenconstructionattemptstoresolveanarchitecturalgesturethatcouldpotentially bereplicatedindefinitely.Thematerialsusedinthisprojectwerelightweightperforatedaluminuminparts thenassembled.SomethingthatcouldberelatedtofinalgatewayprojectiswhatFornesaidaboutthis project:‘theparametersoftheseprotocolsarebasedonformfinding(surfacerelaxation),formdescription (compositionofdevelopablelinearelements),informationmodeling(reassemblydata),generational hierarchy(distributednetworks),anddigitalfabrication(logisticofproduction).’theprojectoriginatesfrom a‘Y’modelwhichreferredtothemostbasiclevelofmulti-directionality.Computationalarchitectureallows designerstodiscovererrorsindesignandfixthemandcontrolthemonalocallevel,whilehavingapicture ofthewholecomplexityofthedesigninmind.AlthoughFornedoesalotofinstallationprojectsratherthan buildings,itispromisingthatcomputinginarchitecturemightbethedominantofallmethodsinthefuture.
PARAMETRIC Notjustanotherbrickinthewall?Butlotsofholes.Thisparticularcomputer-aideddesignexplores thepossibilitiesofarchitectureinthenearfuturecombiningskin,geometry,spaceandstructureinto oneform.Inthefuture,parametricmodellingallowspeopletoreallyexpresswhattheywant.Since parametricdesignisnotexactlyverymaturerightnow,theexperimentalstageweareatrightnow encouragesalotofarchitectsanddesignerstoexploreandexperiment;failandlearn;justgowithit. Thusthereisnothingquiteconservativeaboutparametricdesigns,theyallappeartobeverymodern andinnovative.Ontheotherhand,itmustbeveryhardforthepublictoacceptthedramaticchange ofarchitecturefromclassicaltomodernandeventuallyparametric.Inordertomakeparametric designspeople’sdesign,itisessentialtoconsidernotonlythefunctionalityofthebuilding,butalso aesthetics-thatcanbeacceptedbythepublic-ofit(someparametricbuildingshavefartoomany holesonthem,whichmightmakepeoplehavetrypophobia).Nevertheless,theconceptofparametric modellinghighlightsaninterestingtrendintheworldofarchitectureandgenerativescripting.
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A matr and su and m combi differe particl an inte differ a of inno design double definit definit grids’, t same d projec
ATTRACTOR POINT
CURVE ATTRACTOR
IMAGE SAMPLER
MATHS FUNCTIONS
MULTI. MATHS FUNCTIONS
STREAMING TEXT FILES
USING SETS
ATTRACTOR POINT
EXPLICIT GRIDS
CURVE ATTRACTOR
IMAGE SAMPLER
OVERLAPPING
rix of combinations of definitions for the inputs: explicit grids, overlapping patterns urface normals with 7 associations is presented on this page. The aim is to mix match in order to find interesting geometry and patterns generated by the different inations. By having a matrix it makes one easier to spot the similarities and ences. For example, Explict grids are straight forward, once a shape is identified, the les form themselves together or apart to generate a certain result. Overlapping is eresting one. By overlapping two surfaces one on top of another, the images start to and change, forming an overall new effect together. it certainly reminds me of lots ovative parametric facades on the streets, where double thin layers of parametric ned surfaces are overlapped to create a skin of the buildings. If we are to create a e skin or even multi-skin sculpture for the Gateway, ‘overlapping patterns’ shall tely be used and explored further. Surface normal on the other hand, generates tions in not 2D, but 3D. Although same associations are plugged in here as explicit the results are quite different. Dynamically it changes the whole perception of the defitions and makes them more interesting and less facade like. For the Gateway ct, to work out a 3D overlapping sculpture sounds tempting yet achievable.
MATHS FUNCTIONS
PATTERNS
MULTI. MATHS FUNCTIONS
STREAMING TEST FILES
SURFACE NORMALS
The Airspace Tokyo designed by Faulders Studio has a very interesting voronoi double-layered screen. It’s absolutely great to see this very innovative facade. It was apparently designed through a series of computational geometric patterns overlaid and projected. Through research I learnt that there is one command in grasshopper that would help me achieve this effect, it’s called Voronoi. When first started experimenting the pattern, I assigned several point on grasshopper, eventually I stopped after the first layer because there was no way to change the points for the second layer as shown on the facade of the Airspace to create void. One wall falls another rises, to create a wall/facade, a surface was needed. Then, instead of manually click in all the points, a Random was used to get random numbers, which was basically, random locations of points. When that was done, Voronoi was inserted and created offset around the points, that basically meant each point is a void we see on the facade. That concludes the first layer of the facade, then I went on and did 2 more and made a triple-layered screen using voronoi in grasshopper.
PROJECT NAME ARCHITECTS COMPLETED FACADE DESIGN FACADE COMPUTATION PUBLISHED
INITIAL SURFACE
ORGANISATION OF POINTS
Airspace Tokyo Faulders Studio 2007 Faulders Studio Proces2 Birkh채user; Springer distributor, 2010
INITIAL GEOMETRY, ORGANISATION OF POINT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR, AS IT EFFECTS THE COMPOSITION EXTRACTION OF FINAL GEOMETRY AND ABILITY TO OFFSET AND FILLET INTO FABRICATED PANELS
VORONOI PRODUCES THE PLANAR VORONOI DIAGRAM USING THE INITIAL GEOMETRY TO ORGANISE THE CELL STRUCTURE
EXTRACTION OF CURVES
OFFSET DISTANCE FILLET TYPE
Matrix Exploration The organisation of points and the number of points in a voronoi patterning determine the various results generated from grasshopper. The matrix on the right demonstrates the ability of grasshopper make variations of voronoi patterning possible.
Voronoi Patterning Although the production of a Voronoi is considered as simple in grasshopper, we used this technique to show how you could create and manipulate many ilterations in a short period of time. Voronoi is in its primitive form, an organisation of points. By using grasshopper to manipulate how this geometry is spread over a surface, we can see how the voronoi patterning can be aesthetically organised.
1. BENDING|OVERLAPPING 2. 2D FOLDING 3. 3D FOLDING 4. TRANSPARENCY 5. MOISTURE DEFORMATION
Material Exploration
The following experiments explore the use of 2D voronoi patterning produced by laser cutter. They attempt to introduce dimensionality into voronoi patterning.
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2
4
3
5
WEATHERING EFFECTS
In order to understand the project better, it is essential to consider the possible weathering effects on site , both in long-term and
short-term period of time.
short-term: instant weather change like rain and moisture long term: the split of the material over a long period of time caused by weathering
Capsular Theory: The capsular theory speaks of how people often feel the need to be protected and therTefore live in cities that are large capsules for humans. The car is seen as an extention of this capsule. The people in these moving capsules are in a controlled environment with controlled climate and protected from the sounds of the exterior world. Our concept of Reconnection needs to reactivate their senes, to bridge them out of this capsular environment and to interact with the site.
Our geographical observation of Wyndham at the moment shows how people are often going past Wyndham on the way to Geelong and do not interact with the site. Our aim is to reconnect the people who go through the site and there is a need for the site to be a place-maker for Wyndham - to put Wyndham on the map.
RECONNECTION GEELONG|WYNDHAM|MELBOURNE
The sun path was generated in order to provide us a better understanding of the site. The effect the sunlight would have on the site help us to think about the positioning of the gateway, how people would approach the site (towards or against the sunlight from different directions at different times), and the materials to utilise for the gateway.
EMPLOYMENT LOCATION (WYNDHAM) 57.5% of people work in Wyndham but do not live in there
EMPLOYMENT LOCATION (OUTSIDE) 57% of Wyndham residents travel out for work
OCCUPATION OF WORKERS 36.7% are tradesmen.
MODE OF TRANSPORT TO WORK 73.9% use cars to get to work
Research shows the stakeholders of the site, that 73.9% of Wyndham residents use cars to get to work, which means our site has a very high possibility of being used by them. Among which, 36.7% are tradesmen. That means, they are mostly likely to use the site for the longest time, that sure shall be take into consideration to our design. Hence, our idea of the gateway project is something that would be constantly changing throughout the whole day, connecting people to the site, and thus reconnecting the site to Geelong and Melbourne.
PLAYING WITH MOVEMENT
This model shows our concept of ‘Reconnection’. The basic notion of this model is to domonstrate how the sculpture would react to vehicles. Earlier we described the drivers are isolated in capsules. To encourage interaction, the model would move with the circulation, providing interesting movement on site. This would generate interest and encourage the drivers to interact with the site more. This concept works especially well if they move through the site twice a day, it would somehow produce different effects everytime they go through.
This model highlights the variations of the concept of movement that we are trying to explore. The individual discs rotates in different directions that create various patterns.
Feedback from Group EOI -Instead of mechanical forces, think about forces that can be passively driven by wind on site -Site analysis and data collection were good, but connect it back with the concept -Learn from Victor’s articulated cloud, experiment movement
PROJECT PROPOSAL | CONNECTING THROUGH KINETICS |
PROJECT NAME ARTIST/SCULPTOR COMPLETED
Wind Veil Ned Kahn 2000
80,000 small aluminum panels are hinged to move freely in the wind. The entire wall reacts to the wind, appears to create waves on the facade. This precedent links back to group’s interest in reconnection through movement. Ned Kahn materialises the force of wind into a visually pleasing display of kinetics. Here, repetition creates pattern. The use of small panels gather together to form a dynamic, constantly changing sculpture. In a sense, this precedent demonstrates how a successful design can be seen in two different scales: smaller scale - close-up look -, and bigger scale - when viewed from afar-. The Gateway project is designed to be experienced and viewed in two different scale as well, in order to connect the cars, community, wind and site together.
PROJECT NAME ARTIST/SCULPTOR COMPLETED
The Square Wave Reuben Margolin 2005
The Wave is made of five components: two camshafts orientated at right angle to each other on twn-foot tall platforms, two matrixes, one long and narrow, the other big and square, fixed fourteen feet above the ground, and suspended by 81 cables. The motors rotating the camshafts can be varied in speed giving the generated wave a period between 100 and 10 seconds in either direction. Each camshaft can be controlled independently. Its motion can be described as Asina+Bsinb+C, where C is the over height of the wave, A and B are the variable amplitudes, and a and b are functions of the speed of rotation and position of each cam. It would be interesting for the gateway project to encourage interaction between the sculpture and people. Margolin’s design is a good example how it interests people, encourages them to look at it, study it and understand it. Margolin’s sculptures are rather slow for Wyndham City Gateway project as people could not slow down to look at something that moves only centimeters in 10 seconds. What we need is a sculpture that draws people’s attention to it, while driving safely at 100km/h. Hence, our design must be moving relatively fast, responding to the speed of passing vehicles.
PROJECT NAME ARTIST/SCULPTOR COMPLETED
Tsunami 1.26 Janet Echelman 2010
Tsunami 1.26 utilises Spectra, a material 15 times stronger than steel by weight. The mesh is knotted by machine in order to withstand winds, however, it is engineered to reflect the obscurity of handmade lace. Echelman focuses on the development and creation of large-scale artworks. What we should learn from this is how her design is alive, it responds to the forces of nature, such as wind, water and light. As well as how it is inviting and embracing the general public, accessible to all. The Gateway project is indeed in the middle of a highway, however, while stamping Wyndham city on the map, it is also essential to consider the local residents. Therefore, we must take the community into account, ensure our design embody local identity and invite residents to form a personal and dynamic relationship with the place and sculpture.
SUMMARY Ned Kahn - Wind Veil This inspires our group to harness the wind to capture the change in nature. Also to design a sculpture that can be viewed in both big and small scales.
Reuben Margolin - The Square Wave The movement of the sculpture interests people, encourages them to stare at the sculpture. to create a sense of awe. The gateway project needs that particular exciting and eye-catching effect. In doing so, we need to take car speed into account.
Janet Echelman - Tsunami 1.26 Gateway project should be accessible to all like this precedent. In order to do that, the project must be community friendly, that is to ensure general public’s safety while being on the highway, especially on site.
1:500
‘Connecting Through Kinetics’ is a Wyndham City Gateway project aiming to reconnect residents and people traveling through Wyndham with the site. Heavily influenced by artists and designers such as Ned Kahn, Ruben Margoln and Janet Echelman, the project uses motion and dynamic objects to generate interest. This project proposes to use wind as an important changing variable and uses its own power to generate different geometrical shapes and effects. The users of the site, bound in the seats of their cars, sit through the experience of this invisible phenomenon becoming visible through the movemnt of spinning turbines. Although many of the precedents works without the use of computation, this sculpture uses Rhino3D with the plug in Grasshopper to further enhance and simulate the effect and execution of this proposal. These turbines are massed on site and distributed according to their different functions. This project further advanced the interaction between people and site, this is depicted through the moving vehicles and the design of the wind turbines.To achieve such a connection the turbines close to the roads harnesses energy through the air movement left behind by the passing vehicles. Its ability to activate the site on human contact as well as responding to the site’s environment (wind condition) proves that gateway designs ought to consider social and environmental demands on top of being aesthetically pleasing.
DESIGN PROPOSAL Learned from the precedents and improved from Part I of the journal, our decided to continue design something that moves, only this time, with a stronger concept. The natural context is to harness wind, which changes over time, every second, minute, hour, day, month and season. On a smaller scale, we are going to continue using passing vehicles as a changing variable for wind, which would change our design in some way. Pin wheels, air planes and wind turbines got our attention as they are objects that react to the change in wind, and move with or against the direction of wind. Again, we are intending to propse a reconnection joint, making Wyndham City on the map, through its newly designed sculpture which connects the site, the people, and the vehicles.
DESIGN EXPLORATION
The models very clearly demonstrate the path of design. It is shiny, it it elegant, it responds to light very well, it collects wind and let the wind push itself in a circular motion. It is a new kind of wind turbine. The model on the bottom right proves one of the very first ideas we generated, a wall with patterns organised by computational techniques, where elements in the holes would react to the movement of passing vehicles. Later we ditched that idea because, a wall is unnecessary in this case, where the focus is on the element that respond to wind movements. Now we have before our eyes, some elegant looking wind turbines which actually move quite smoothly in the wind.The shiny effect shown in these photographs ought to be kept in the later and final design. The elegance, cleanness and purity of these draft models should be important characteristics, and should not be lost in the end.
MATRIX.
Experiments by Victor Wong
This matrix establishes different effects we are able to generate from one wind turbine, but positioning the blades in various ways. In doing so, the aim is to look for the most efficient design. That is, a wind turbine that would capture wind the best and create a smooth circular motion while spinning with the wind. Here, sine graph, exponential, linear, basic roation and so many more are experimented.
THE GOLDEN RULES OF SITE POSITIONING/DISTRIBUTION 1st RULE: Topography determines span and height - because of the 12% increase in height, the increase of wind speed would double. 2nd RULE: Point of interest - how to design a program throughout the site. 3rd RULE: Influence and interaction with the car and community.
SELECTION OF SITE
PROGRAMING CIRCULATION: OUTBOUND/INBOUND TRAFFIC
RELATIONSHIP TO PROGRAM: DISTANCING/INTERACTION
Options of distribution of wind turbines on site
SIZE MATTERS
Recall the three golden rules and apply them on site. Drivers are expected to gradually get into the site, where they see human scale wind turbines (roughly the same height as the cars) scattered across on their right hand side. This is when they get interested or suspicious. Progressively, as they drive at 100km/h, within a few seconds, they see wind turbines become dense and intanse. ‘Why are they spinning crazily?’, a driver ponders. ‘It’s the car before mine making them go wild! How did that happen?’ Without getting an answer, the vehicle keeps going forward, and hold on, ‘these spinning things are growing bigger, oh they’re further away from me and going uphill now.’ Now the bigger wind turbines are carefully placed on site, as a transition between the small and the big. Eventually, the biggest turbines spin gracefully in the wind on the top of the 4m hill. As one drives away from the hill, he sees how the cars to the oppositite direction interact with the wind turbines. ‘This one minute or so made my day! I must go home and google this wind turbine field.’ The driver then goes around and tells his friends about this amazing new sculpture in Wyndham City Gateway over a drink or two. To his and many people’s surprise, this place is accessible to all.There is a parking lot near the petrol station. One then walks on the path which leads one to a submerged /underground observatory , where when one look upwards, spinning wind turbines amaze you all.
Parking
Submerged Observatory
The construction processes diagramed on these two pages signifies the wind turbines can be done on site. As discussed before, the distribution of the turbines are carefully designed and placed, hence each turbine has their own place to be. Therefore the construction process would be straight forward. The blade itself also has a template to follow. This establishes the fact that these wind turbines can be fabricated, and since the material we’ve used is durable and low maintenance, there is a foreseeable future where this could be mass-produced and used wherever needed.
X 2000
DAY NIGHT
DAY NIGHT
TEAM SUPER AWESOME ISOLATED THEMSELVES FROM THE CROWD FOR 3 DAYS AND NIGHTS. RESULTS? 1:100 SITE CONTOUR + 2000 WIND TURBINES.
DAY NIGHT
FROM NOTHING TO SOMETHING.
NIGHT EXPERIE
ENCE AS DRIVE BY
The Relationship Between a Car and Wind Turbines ^
^
Community Experience
MATERIALITY
LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND OUTCOMES It has been a long journey. I was on the road. Before undertaking ADS Air, I had never used Rhino or grasshopper before. In fact, I were one of those people who was scared of trillions of holes on a building facade. When I first heard that we were going to learn parametric design this semester, I was excited to learn something new but never had the chance, at the same time I was afraid I might learn it too slowly and fall behind soon, not to mention my view on parametric design was still very hole-ly. On top of that, computers never work with me, I am not particularly good at any computational design software. Nevertheless, the journey began. Some people might be constantly complaining about this course, I do not really see it. Even though it might be unorganised at some point but this is a new course, and Stanislav has absolutely put in all his effort to teach us. Even though I am still not very familiar with grasshopper, but thanks to this course, it showed me some light in the dark. In the future, it will be quicker to pick up, hopefully. Besides all of this, this course also introduced me to stop-motion film, issuu, ffffound.com and so many more exciting things to look at when I’m free. In addition, a little voice in me always felt this was like virtual environments throughout the semester: at first it seems unbearable, all the videos, journals, new program to learn, that probably would last for a semester, but in the end, when I looked back, I felt grateful that I learnt how to use sketchup (rhino and grasshopper in this case), and I learnt how to layout (hopefully), how to be critical with fonts and so on. This stuido has been a very different one from previous architectural studios. For the first time, our design brief was not to design a building, but rather, a sculpture, on a highway. When it does not measure the width of your toilets, it’s a strange one. Through the semester, I’ve been trying to figure out if it was strange-good or strange-bad. This studio has actually taught me more than the previous ones. What materials are you using? Concrete would be the easiest answer for a normal studio, but not this one. Think, think, research, analyse, think again, check with your tutor, research again, finalise it. What is going to happen over a period of time, long and short? Why not play with your material and fire, water, fog, ice, colour (all experimented in this journal) and figure out yourself? The tutors: Chris and Loren are extremely helpful as well. Whenever we were stuck, for example, when we were unsure where to position our turbines, they gave us some exceedingly helpful suggestions. We then analysed it and discussed which one is better, why is it better, why isn’t the other ones as applicable as this one. Questions were asked, through a few different answers, we then all agreed to one and only, because together we made it far better than all the other options. This was exactly why our group project was done. In that way, we knew every single detail of things we needed to know, or didn’t need to know, but we learnt anyway. It has definitely pushed me through the semester, with 8 quizzes and weekly tasks. But it is exactly because of that, I was on track of everything and didn’t go to the wrong direction. Although groupwork might not be everyone’s cup of tea, I am still unsure whether it’s a good idea to have a group project throughout the whole semester or not, for the future third years. Having that said, I feel privileged to be working with Team SuperAwesome (because we are): Victor, Tracey Nguyen and myself. Everyone has their strength. For example, Victor is really good at making diagrams and layouts (see his journal), he and Tracey have both learned grasshopper before, so I can ask them questions whenever I wish. Tracey is good at concepting and encouraging. And I guess I’m a little better at model making and photography. We even spent 3 days and nights together at architecture building making our final models. The environment in this team is strong and warm. I am very grateful for this. Thanks to this course, now when I go out and see simple parametric patterns and/or facades, I might get slightly excited and whisper to my close friend, ‘hey, I know how to do that.’ On a more serious note, it has shown me a higher standard of work we are expected to produce, and for that, I need to work harder in the future. Parametrics might or might not be my thing, but I am certain to say I don’t find it scary anymore, rather, I find it charming, interesting and dangerous ( in an exciting way) sometimes. I hope to enhance my parametric skills because it will definitely be an important part of architecture in the near future.
REFERENCE. BIG. ‘YES IS MORE’ Denmark, Taschen, 2010 ‘CCTV- Headquarters, China, Beijing, 2002’, OMA, last modified in 2012, http://oma.eu/projects/2002/cctv--headquarters Echelman, Janet, 2011, ‘Taking Imagination Seriously’, TEDtalks, United States, viewed on 8 May, 2012, http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YekkGz1E2k James M. Dennis and Lu B. Wenneker. ‘Ornamentation and the Organic Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright’, Art Journal, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Autumn, 1965),4 Kahn Ned, 2007, ‘Wind Veil’, Charlotte, NC, viewed on 8 May, 2012, http://video/google.com/videoplay?doc id=7901501115882163997# TEDtalksDirector, ‘Michael Pawlyn: Using nature’s genius in architecture’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3 QZp6smeSQA ‘The Square Wave - Math and the Night Sea,’ Reuben Margolin, last modified 2011, http://www.reubenmargolin. com/wave/Square/squareWave_text.html ‘Tsunami 1.26, 2011 - Sydney, Australia’, Janet Echelman, last modified 2012, http:www.echelman.com/sydney. html ‘VM House’, BIG, last modifired 2012, http://www.big.dk/ ‘Wind Veil’, Ned Kahn, last modified in August 2000, http://nedkahn.com/wind.html