High-rise Building

University of Jordan, Design 5, 0902423

High-rise Building, Ph.D. Nancy Al-Assaf Studio, Malak Mansour 0180669

Description

“What’s gone, but still seen?”“What’s still, but seen gone?”

Kevah Akbar

Do objects have histories of their own, and if yes, can they forget them, become confused, entangled with each other, estranged from their initial state, if they had any recollection of that time and place. This project was initiated from three distinct pebbles found under a Roman tomb in a historical prison located in Irbid, Jordan. These pebbles were selected for their peculiar qualities, the specific way in which they meet the earth, so distant and removed. Against contact. They appear as if they are about to detach themselves from their context and depart. They are elusive and strange, monolithic and self-sufficient, hostile and threatening. A series of operations followed to estrange and investigate the formal qualities of these artifacts, they were modeled by following Monge’s method of orthographic projections, converted to SubD surfaces then back to meshes. A series of mesh reduction operations were conducted that resulted in a diverse set of alternatives that could be plugged in another set of operations that ultimately estrange the object and question the limitsof the designer’s knowledge and understanding ofany object they work with during their design process.

Pebble I Pebble II Peb

The object ultimately recedes from reality leaving thedesigner with trances of its initial state, against interpretationor understanding.

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Mesh Reduction Taxonomy

ble III

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Fragmentation Process

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“I am for richness of meaning rather than clarity of meaning; for the implicit function. I prefer ‘both-and’ to ‘either-or’ , black and white, and sometimes gray, to black or white.”

Robert Venturi

In order to further investigate the formal qualities of these artifacts Grasshopper was used to write a script that allows an initial volume to be plugged in then fragmented by another set of volumes controlled parametrically using sliders. The final script functioned like a factory production line with clear input and output points and a set of operations in between. This operation resulted in a surprising set of objects that bear a family resemblance to the initial objects. The next step was to experiment with ways of pairing these fragments to produce multiple options and to look for connections and successful formal arrangements between unrelated fragments.

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Taxonomy Generation 2

Figure (08-A) Low-poly + Low-polyFigure (08-B) High-poly+High-polyFigure (08-C) Low-poly+Hight-poly

“A plinth

It’s like the object can detach andmove, it’s agile and mobile,It floats above the site,

It’s about architecture wanting to be in a place It’s the object communicating about the nature of the place it’s in, Architecture in different contexts,

Imagine you’re not looking at a building on a site, but a big battleship! Aircraft carrier, It’s a threatening thing, It went from being a pastoral thing to a work of armament”

Figure (09-D) Mixture

Jeff Kipins

(09-A)Page 09

GH Script

Podium Sub

Tower Add I

Tower&Podium

Tower Add IITower Sub

Tower Add III

Tower Add IV

Tower BodyTower Inlays

Tower

Tower Floors

Site Sub

SiteSite

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Exploded View

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Exterior Shot 3

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Zoning Diagram

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