STUDIO A I R
2 0 1 8 L O U I S S A U N D E R S 8 3 1 8 0 7 T U T OR : DAVID WEGM AN
Table of Contents INTRODCUTION A.1 Desgin futuring A.2 Desgin Computation A.3 Compsition / Generation A.4 Conclusion A.5 Learning Outcomes A.6 Apendix
INTRODUC TION My name is Louis Saunders; I am third year environments student majoring in architecture from Melbourne. I have completed the design studios Earth and Water, for Water I studied the work of Japanese architect Tadao Ando. I have also completed the course Digital Design and Fabrication. As such from my completion of these subjects I am proficient in the programs rhino, adobe illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Revit and have a very basic understating of grasshopper. Some of my architectural inspirations include, Frank Gehry, Bjarke ingles, Antonio Gaudi, Adolf Loos, Mies van der Rohe and countless others.
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PAS T WORK Studio Earth DDF Stduio Water
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A .1 . D E S I G N F U T U R I N G “Safe ideas will not linger in peoples minds or challenge prevailing views but if its too weird it will be dismissed as art, and if its too normal it will be effortlessly assimilated.”
As stated by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby their 2013 book “Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming” Today the way in which designers go about their work to define the future is a complete contrast to that of the height of radical design from the 70’s. Today in striving for the future, designers now “hope rather than dream” and as such design as now become a source of blandness in a search for the easy to use and the preferable future rather than striving for the impossible and creating a positive change.
The future of design must “dream new dreams for the twenty first century as those of the twentieth century rapidly fade” There needs to be a middle ground found between radical ideas and the average consumerism in order for the blandness of the preferable future to take over. Radical design will never be at the forefront of the future if there is an easier, cheaper and more consumer friendly option available as such a middle ground must be reached in order to change.
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FREDERICK KIESLER ENDLESS HOUSE 1950 Endless House is a conceptual work of architecture by Frederick Kiesler. Kiesler used the project to merge the spiritual and practical into a new housing typology. One of its main features is its derivation of the shape, this shape was argued due to the fact that it its is based on a lighting system; the shape would allow ample light to reach every corner of the room without being broken up by corners and interior walls of a conventional building. Being from the 1950’s Kiesler’s endless house shows how the future was designed by dreams compared to todays search for hope rather than radical change. to put this in perspective at the time kieslerr’s design was created in a time not inflicted by todays mod cons and mass consumerism more a time that was still restive but real more on the imagination than the need to create to please as such the design looks as radical and different today as it did then, the endless house shows what is possibles when designers ignore the limitations and constraints of todays modern consumer driven world and enforce radical and different ideas to dream and imagine rather than hope and worry.
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BEN VAN BERKEL (UNSTUDIO) AND WERNER SOBEK, MERCEDES-BENZ MUSEUM, STUTTGART, 2006 The Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart is a perfect example of were radical design meets public consumerism. The building itself is unique and challenges that of ordinary design in that there there are virtually no right angles or plane surfaces in the whole building which help create its free flowing original form. In the way of using consumerism to its advantage the building itself is a tribute to the german automotive taking all that is great about the company and enforcing those ideas to create this building, this ultimately shows that futuristic design can go hand in hand with public consumerism and create a radical and original designs.
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A . 2 . D E S I G N C O M P U TAT I O N As the future progresses, so to does the way in which we design, now days t squares and drafting are no longer essential tools to the architect, in todays modern age the greatest psychical aid or tool to the architect is the computer. An architect must not rely on the computer to do everything though, but let it do tedious tasks that would otherwise many years ago take a long time to do This mode of working has been termed computerisation. Ultimately the computer is a catalyst for the design process, it allows for an endless amount of inspiration for research, it excels idea generation in its ability to generate differing ideas and furthermore takes presentation to a whole new level.
The computer via algorithms and coding can provide the architect with an endless array of ideas and opportunity, this mode of working is called “computation. “But there is a danger when it comes to computation, as these techniques become common place and easy to use, we come to a point were individuality is lost and computer aided designs become repetitive and derivative. This is because people tend to go for easy option and stick within the computers limits rather then spend say hours developing a script the average designer will now days may download a script online or use over used components and easy tools to achieve something that sits well with the masses. It is this safety in creativity and fear of failure provided by the computer which almost impedes the creative spark as much as it amplifies it. As such ultimately the computer is a fantastic source for creating and driving designs but in the end sometimes the best ideas come from the simplest forms of technology like the pen and paper or a simple model.
SHOP ARCHITECTS, FLOTSAM & JETSAM, DESIGN MIAMI, FLORIDA, 2016 3D printing technology is one of the latest design aids used by the architect in conjunction with the computer, Its ability to project computerised form in three dimensional objects, gives the architect a freedom to create a vast array of differing forms and designs, but the design will in most cases be limited by the size of the print bed. Not in the case of SHoP Architects pavilion at the 2016 design Miami. This structure is one of the largest ever to be 3D printed. Using a lattice-based structure the technology employed use of gantries and robotic arms extend the range of the printing heads in order to create the 3D printed structure made of Biodegradable bamboo filaments.
What this precedent shows, is that one of the major downfalls of the use of the computer is its limitations which can be sometimes solved. But its lattice like printing technique and form created from it, is nothing really that new and innovative, the real innovative part really is the shear scale of the structure other than that it is very similar to other alogrithimic designs though they may be at a smaller scale. That’s the major problem with everyone’s reliance with the computer some else could easy reproduce this style or form and slightly alter it, it lacks the individuality of human error .
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Frank Gehry, 8 Spruce Street, New York 2010 Gehry is prime example of the way in which analogue techniques like a sketch or a model can be enhanced and pushed to completion by the computer. His work is all but Impossible to replicated and has uniquie indivual charateristics, somthing some algorithmic designs dont have
Even when compared to something more modern, but designed within the limitations of the computer like my first precedent, Gehry’s work creates almost a contrast between that and computer derivative works of today. As well known as it might be, Gehrys technique is completely individual to him, you see a Gehry building you know it’s a Gehry building and it is this ability to merge to distinctly different techniques together, an abstract sketch/model with the computer that gives his signature style.
The benefits of contemporary computational design techniques in the case of Gehry are evident in that without the comptuer Gehrys ideas, would not be able to be materialise as abstract and different as we know them today, with out the computer his ideas may be more toned down in an effort to be built.
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A.3 COMPOSITION/ GENERATION From composition to generative, the architecture and design world went from standard architectural practices of sketches and drawings to algorithmic programing resulting in generative design. “Generative design approach works in imitation of Nature, performing ideas as codes, able to generate endless variations � In its search for optimal design, generative design creates complex forms that would otherwise be impossible to make, among this benefit you are also able to maximise optimization for materials and reduce costs as a result.
Though as generative design gets increasingly popular it is in danger of being overused. As such it id evident of one major drawback in that when designs created using theses computer aided and algorithmic methods the outcomes in some cases tend to share the same overall astheic, like that of the lattice like weaving form, though they are performing vastly different functions. Generative design takes away human error which cases can strengthen a project and make it stand out, its much easier to copy an algorithm then a more of a individual project. Generative design works better in certain situations than others for example in engineered and structural projects rather than art and decorative projects not to say I can’t be used in the latter but it makes more sense to generate optimal from for a structural project than a art work.
MAMOU-MANI ARCHITECTS, CLOUD CAPSULE, LONDON,2014 This design which is a two-metre-high micro-pavilion designed by architect Arthur Mamou-Mani uses generative design to create a form that measures changes in the levels of the way in which light diffuses through its forms in the natural environment. Mamou-Mani looks to the natural system of light to develop an algorithm that calculates daylight simulation thus allowing for optimal form to be created. In looking at parameters such as number of oscillations, number of emitted rays and the diffusion factor, the daylight simulation software called “Silkworm� is able to output various designs which would have been impossible for the designer to achieve. In this case the designer is using generative design very effectively by maximising the possible outcomes and creating a unique algorithm to achieve exactly what they want.
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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION WASHINGTON DC, USA, 2004-2007 FOSTER + PARTNERS (BRADLEY PETERS) Working for Foster + Partners on the courtyard enclosure of the Smithsonian Institution Bradley Peters enforced generative design techniques to create the optimal form for the roofing structure. “Instead of simply translating the designer’s sketches, Peters developed a script that could be easily used to control and manipulate the complex geometry. The script became a combination of all the design ideas and was constantly modified and adapted during the design process. According to Peters “As the possibility to generate thousands of different options by using scripting, it increasingly important to not only understand the system constraints, but also to have a clear strategy for evaluating the generated options”, in saying this the work was not all done by the algorithm the project required a knowledge of both programming and architectural design to achieve the final structure such as the way in which the design was evaluated structurally, environmentally, its acoustics, and aesthetic.
As the allure of generative designs endless options sweeps up architects from all around the world, the problem still arises of the ability to borrow or reproduce someone else’s algorithm to create or influence your own design, in the case of the Smithsonian institution courtyard we only have to look closer to home to see the same idea being enforced for the roof structure of the Chadstone shopping centre (see below) though on a much larger scale it still enforces similar ideas of Peters to create their roof.
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A.4. CONCLUSION Ultimately my intended design approach will to take on more radical ideas to strive for the impossible future rather than the possible. I will blend together both my creative intuition with the endless possibilities that a computer can accomplish. But I will not let the computer do all the work as that will result in aesthetically derivative designs. It is important to design this way because the world is becoming too depended on the computer alone. With the input of human error and creative intuition in to the digital design process it ultimately creates some more unique and individual thus more relatable. I’m designing for humans not robots.
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A.5. LEARNING OUTCOMES My understanding has developed in such a short amount of time from the beginning of semester, I feel like a have a good understanding of the way in which computers can aid the design process and have a general idea of how to use the grasshopper plugin for rhino. It is the ground work on for what will come next. This knowledge I have learnt would have helped improve my designs in my past studio in that I had a very abstract plan to begin with creating an algorithm would have allowed me to get various forms thus allowing me to chose the one the worked best with the brief, in doing so I would have saved time creating the overall aesthetic which then time could of spent more on the details and designing how the structure worked.
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A.6. APPENDIX - ALGORITHMIC SKETCHES
VORONOID AND SPIRALING
DRIFT PAVILION EXERCISE
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EXPLORATION OF THE NATURAL SYSTEM OF CORAL VIA REACTION DIFFUSION
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References 1. Fry, Tony (2008). Design Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics and New Practice (Oxford: Berg), pp. 1–16 2. Dunne, Anthony & Raby, Fiona (2013) Speculative Everything: Design Fiction, and Social Dreaming (MIT Press) pp. 1-9, 33-45 3.Kalay, Yehuda E. (2004). Architecture’s New Media: Principles, Theories, and Methods of Computer-Aided Design (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press), pp. 5-25 4. Peters, Brady. (2013) ‘Computation Works: The Building of Algorithmic Thought’, Architectural Design, 83, 2, pp. 08-15 5. Definition of ‘Algorithm’ in Wilson, Robert A. and Frank C. Keil, eds (1999). The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences (London: MIT Press), pp. 11, 12 6. New Structuralism: Design, Engineering and Architectural Technologies (pages 14–23) Rivka Oxman and Robert Oxman 7. Alberto Pérez-Gómez (2018) Surrealism and Architectural Atmosphere (pages 24–29) 8. Neil Leach (2017) Size Matters: Why Architecture is the Future of 3D Printing (pages 76–83) 9. sobek Werner (2010) radical sources of design engierring (pp31-32) 10. nina azzarello I designboom “SHoP architects’ enormous 3D printed pavilion to mark design miami/ 2016 entrance” @ https://www.designboom.com/design/design-miami-shop-architects-3d-printed-pavilion-10-07-2016/ 11. Arthur Mamou-Mani 2014 @https://mamou-mani.com/project/cloudcapsule/ 12.Peters Brady 2007 infromation on the The Courtyard Enclosure for Smithsonian Institute link @ http://www.bradypeters.com/smithsonian.html
Images 1.Tullio Crali 1939 Cityscape http://www.starktruthradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/I-F. 2.Endlesss House: https://www.archdaily.com/126651/ad-classics-endless-house-friedrick-kiesler 3. mercdes benz museum https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/mercedes-benz/classic/museum/10-years/ 4. Gehry Frank Walt Disney concert hall https://www.archdaily.com/441358/ad-classics-walt-disney-concerthall-frank-gehry/5264ac6ce8e44e88a00001ff-ad-classics-walt-disney-concert-hall-frank-gehry-photo 5. SHoP architects’https://www.designboom.com/design/design-miami-shop-architects-3d-printed-pavilion-10-07-2016/ 6. Gehry Frank spruce street https://www.dezeen.com/2011/07/12/new-york-by-gehry/ 7. Ingels bjarke-ingels new York https://ny.curbed.com/bjarke-ingels 8. Arthur Mamou-Mani 2014 @https://mamou-mani.com/project/cloudcapsule/ 9. XWPeters Brady 2007 ihttp://www.bradypeters.com/smithsonian.html