COMPOSITE MATERIAL
INTRODUCTION Name: Man Keung Lee Background: Bachelor of Environments Major in Architecture Software experience: Rhino - learnt from Virtual Envrionment. Panelling tool was also used to create digital model. AutoCAD - used for drawing plans, elevation and sections. InDesign & Illustrator Cinema 4D - little knowledge. Self-learing for rendering architectural drawings.
A1. ARCHITECTURE AS A DISCOURSE
Architecture is a journey.
Design for Virtual Environment using panelling tool in Rhino
Design for Water Studio
Architecture is about experiencing. ‘Ideas are not innate but provisional.’ Hill, Jonathan (2006) Architecture is meaningless without users. It is a medium to transfer ideas. Its quality and beauty is defined by users. Everyone might perceive different feelings. And it changes under the change of time, weather and mood. Feelings change when the context changes. So does architecture. With the aid of digitalization, we are now able to make significant improvement in the design of architecture. Pure form, complex geometry, material propesties could be well considered in the design process.
CHURCH OF THE LIGHT, 1989 TADAO ANDO
Tadao Ando used to emphasize nothingness and empty space to represent the beauty of simplicity. It is a church with contrast. Reinforced concrete is the major component of the church, which normally gives a sense of heaviness,lifeless, and etc. However, all this characteristics were perfectly utilized to make contrast to the light. The cross in the front changes the mood totally. The lights penetrated define the volumne of the interior space. The church is not for sight seeing, but praying and worshiping. In the renaissance/ baroque cathedrals, lights are penetrated from the top, which symbolized Heaven and God. Ando made a different approach, where lights are penetrated from forward. Yet, it gave a feeling of divinity and also a sense of welcome from God. Ando made a step forward from the old ages.
‘Architecture must be immaterial and porous, as well as solid and stable where necessary.’ Hill, Jonathan (2006) Salk Institute demonstates how a good architecutre should be accoding to Hill and Jonathan. It is the modernist attempt to frame the atmosphere with architecture. It consists of two mirror-image structures that flank a grand courtyard.The use of repetition and strong axiality, emphasized the simple geometry of the surrounding buildings. These building blends with the nature in harmony as shown in the images. It is still using as its original function, but there are also architectural tours for those interested to know more about this award-winning architecture. It has also been described as the single most significant architectural site in San Diego.
SALK INSTUTE FOR BIOLOGICAL STUDIES LOUIS KAHN
In this information age, our lives are closely bound with computer. In architectural field, the word computerization and computation have always been misunderstood. While the former one is the use of computer to design, such as using AutoCAD to digitize the documentation, the latter one is the use of algorithm in the process of design. Not only allow architects to design buildings with complex geometry, it expands the possibility of design with the consideration of material properties. ‘With the aid of computational design tool, material behaviroal characteristics are integrated as parametric dependencies based on a large number of physical and computational tests. Thus, architectural form, material formation and structural performance can be considered synchronously.’ Fleischmann, M., Knippers, J., Lienhard, J., Menges, A. and Schleicher, S. (2012)
A2. COMPUTATIONAL ARCHITECTURE
ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion is a perfect example of computation design considering material behavior: The shape of the final outcome is determine by the elastic bending of plywood, which forms the elastically bent arch structures. The research pavilion’s structure is entirely based on the bending deformation of thin birch plywood strips within the elastic range. This is different from most of the architectural design, where normally the architect will design the shape of the final outcome. Material itself does not play an important role to the design of shape. However, this project demonstrates another path of design where material properties were fully investigated and driven the shape of the product.
‘Scripting is a voyage of discovery. ‘ Burry, Mark (2011)
Another main difference of computation design compared to the ordinary design process is the close relation between architect and manufacturer. ‘The manufacturing and assembly logics were integrated in the computational process.’ Fleischmann, M., Knippers, J., Lienhard, J., Menges, A. and Schleicher, S. (2012)
‘Architects have started to integrate fabrication as a generative paradigm into the design process.’ Gramazio, F., Kohler, M. and Oesterle, S. (2010) Therefore, fabrication-relevant decision would be included in the early design process. With the material properties data provided by the manufacturer, architect would be able to control complex interactions between singular material elemnets, and produce the machining data directly. It can foresee that the tightening bond would make a huge improvement on the precison between the product and the design, as architect can control every small detail of the construction process. More creative potential of the design could then be exploited West fest pavilion project is an good example showing the precision of computer-aided manufacturing (CAM).
‘So when we use methods of computation, it is not a technology that we try to do something with it; the focus is more on design intent and the architectural idea and concept. We try to find the right tool, and develop the tool to make the concept work.’ Peters, Brady. (2013) ‘While he admits that there is often an ornamental aspect, the designs are not primarily visually driven. The generation of geometry and material configurations are performance driven.’ Peters, Brady. (2013) It might be a trap for architects that more and more complex geometry can be achieved through computation. However, it is a tool to aid architects to design, not a tool constraining the design of architects. Design ideas should always be the centre of the architecture, not its geometry.
A3. PARAMETRIC MODELLING
Using the new production methods such as CNC milling, the manufacturer can ensure the precision of the building with the digital design. It successfully achieved a streamlined aesthetic which could hardly be done without the aid of computation. Undeniably the building is impressive with its fluidity. It is arguably that whether the design blends into its context nicely, as its soft form is quite different from the rigid buildings in the surroundings. However, like many of the other computation design, this building is much energy efficient than most of the building using contemporary design method. The use of computation can modify every smallest detail of the architecture to provide the best energy outcome. Also, its great flexibility also makes it adaptive to the change in the topography. Parametric design is still a developing style in architecture and there is a long way to gain the society, business and political acceptance. As discussed in the previous section, computation is a process of discovery, where architects might not be able to give the exact outlook at the very first start of design process.
NORDPARK CABLE RAILWAY ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS
Investor might be impatient as architects need to vary the parameters to find the best possible outcome. In the reality, the greatest concern of the clients are the interest of investment, the increasing time of design might lead to increasing amount of cost. Although the design period might be longer, the fabrication would be much easier as manufacturers can start fabricating using the data provided from the architects. Therefore, less construction time is required. ‘A far greater range of potential outcomes for the same investment in time.’ Burry, Mark (2011) Using computation, different potential outcomes can be generated easily through changing of parameter, therefore it gave more choice for the clients to choose the best outcome.
CARDBOARD CATHEDRAL SHIGERU BAN
Cardboard Cathedral is built in attempt to temporarily replace the old 19th century Anglican cathedral that was damaged by the magnitude-6.3 earthquake in 2011. As there is a need to build a new cathedral for the community, this temporarily Cathedral is built so that people can have a place to pray, worship and hold events and concerts. It is a waste-sensitvie house that is made of paper tube, a recyclable, low-cost and remarkably resilient material. The frame structure is built from timber, stell, 98 polyurethane and flame retardant-coated cardboard tube. Though the material seems cheap and not particular strong, Cardboard Cathedral is built to last with a lifespan of five decades. And it is 100 percent up to earthquake code. Though it is not appealing, the Cardboard Cathedral did achieve many of its brief. As in an inspiration to our project, the use of composite material in this building reduces the material cost, yet still providing a satisfying lifespan and performance. Cheap, soft material can be turned useful if its properties were being used effectively and combined with the other material. This will be what we are trying to achieve, combine materials with different properties to provide a final structure with good performance and attracting outlook. Computation is needed as they help investigating propeties of materials by converting them into digital parameters.
A4. CONCLUSION As mentioned above, my philosophical idea of architecture is that it is a journey, an experience to continuous discovering. And this will be the main idea of the gateway design. Users will be refreshing and fascinating by its abstract appearance. Parametric design will be used since it helps integrated the design and fabrication unit. It is presumably that there will be limited construction hour to avoid disturbing the traffic. Parametric design integrated the fabrication unit in the early phase of the design process, and a more precise result would be achieved due to the use of CNC manufacturing. Given the greater ability to control details, individual parts of the design will be adjusted to fit in the context to make it blend with the environment. Also, it will be a design that interacts with the atmosphere which aimed to produce a design that frame the nature. Composite materials will be used in the design, where properties of different materials will be converted into parameters in the designing tool in order to produce a efficient outcome. These materials will be combined together in order to produce a design that balances the efficient and the lifespan.
A5. LEARNING OUTCOMES As doing this assingment, I became more familar with parametric design and computation method. At first I though computation is the same as computerization, which I found this was a common misunderstaning towards parametric design. I became more familiar about the change in design and construction process under computation. Although I have not gone very deep in the practice of parametric design, I saw its ability to generate fascinating geometry in a short amount of time, which could never be done easily using comtemporary method. Moreover, it enables changes of the detail by changing the parmaters. It is all about doing experiments with the deisgn and to discover properties of the design.
A6. APPENDIX - ALGORITHM EXPLORATION
REFERENCE Image of Salk Instittude http://www.salk.edu/about/architecture.html Image of ibaraki kasugaoka church http://ibaraki-kasugaoka-church.jp/gallery.html Image of ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion http://icd.uni-stuttgart.de/?p=4458 Image of West Fest Pavilion http://www.archello.com/en/project/west-fest-pavilion Image of Nordpark Cable Railway http://www.dezeen.com/2007/11/29/nordpark-cable-railway-by-zaha-hadid-architects/ Image of Cardborad Cathedral http://inhabitat.com/shigeru-bans-incredible-cardboard-cathedralin-christchurch-complete/christchurch-cardboard-cathedral-shigeruban-3-2/ Burry, Mark (2011). Scripting Cultures: Architectural Design and Programming (Chichester: Wiley) pp.8-71 Fleischmann, M., Knippers, J., Lienhard, J., Menges, A. and Schleicher, S. (2012), Material Behaviour: Embedding Physical Properties in Computational Design Processes. Archit Design, 82: 44–51. doi: 10.1002/ ad.1378 Gramazio, F., Kohler, M. and Oesterle, S. (2010), Encoding Material. Archit Design, 80: 108–115. doi: 10.1002/ad.1114 Peters, Brady. (2013) Computation Works: The building of algorithmic thought. Architectural Design, 83, 2, pp. 08-15. Peters, Brady. (2013) Realising the Architectural Intent: Computation at Herzog & De Meuron. Architectural Design, 83, 2, pp. 56-61.