COURSE GUIDE
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Considerations of regenerative design principals
AA Haiti Visiting School 2014 Wynne Farm, Kenscoff, Haiti Architectural Association School of Architecture, London, UK 2 - 12 January 2014 EXPERIMENTAL BAMBOO
“Deye monn, gin monn.” or “Beyond mountains, more mountains.” This age old Haitian proverb has taken on a new meaning following the political, natural and economic factors which have afflicted the nation over the past century. However it was originally intended to describe the unique terrain of the Island nation of Haiti. The past century has seen the eradication of all but 2% of Haiti’s trees and bamboo is being increasingly grown as a solution not just in binding the exposed hillsides, but as a light weight material for construction. The Haiti Visiting School uses this unique terrain as the setting for a design workshop which asks students to design a vision for bamboo architecture in Haiti. Working in small groups each team will be asked to design a bamboo campus for a hillside site in Kenscoff 12km South of Port au Prince. Over the course of the ten day workshop students will be exposed to 3d modelling software and parametric programs which can test both the material characteristics and their response to the extreme seismic and climatic context of the site. Students will also be taught and expected to use representation programs such as Adobe Creative Suite to at the end of the course present their proposals in the a competition format to a panel made up of local designers, international architects and the local community. The teaching staff will comprise of a formidable force of both local and international architects, engineers, artists and horticulturists will form an impressive base of knowledge of local culture, bamboo material characteristics and 3D design software.
Some of the most prominent features which the participants will be exposed to during the course include:
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Teaching team: The teaching staff comprises of working architects and graduates of all levels of the AA School. The tutor student ratio of 6:1 allows the opportunity to for students to directly engage with persons from all over the world whom have worked for some of the largest and most sought after architectural practices.
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Software exposure: Students will be required to already have a basic knowledge of Rhinoceros. They will be able to supplement their 3D skillset with intensive workshops and regular exposure to advanced Rhinoceros, grasshopper, climatic analysis softwares, and presentation tools.
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Competition format: Students will work in small groups to articulate the brief and map the site in an initial form finding exercise. These teams will be expected to develop these and present them in a professional competition manner to the potential client, local and international architects, local artists and community leaders.
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Lecture series: To supplement the workshop a wide array of architectural and cultural lectures will be delivered by local professionals. This aims to embolden the students work with an architectural knowledge of bamboo and the local vernacular, as well as the history of this uniquely vibrant location and culture.
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Cultural events: Visits to local artists’ studios, lectures by local artists about the history of and culture of Haiti as well as an opening night food and football event will give a lively introduction and context to the workshop.
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Using Falcon software to perform climatic analysis on a form
Application of bamboo to the form
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BRIEF
The aim of the course is to push students to consider and experiment with the limits of bamboo as a construction material for Haiti, as well as engaging students in the design methodology of the AA. Throughout the course students will be allowed to use software they feel works best for them at each stage. For each stage there will be tutorials and we will encourage you to work in the software mentioned at each stage. Stage 1 - Site Site dynamic mapping Working in groups of 3 students will go on site in the wilderness of Kenscoff a forested area to the South of Port au Prince. Here the unique alpine climate mixed with views over the city, spectrum of changing colours over the day and the black of the night will all provide you, the mapper, with a range of dynamic parameters which can all be found, mapped and quantified. A few examples could be: Sight, sound, materiality, temperature, light, wind, moisture etc... Stage 2 - Form Translation from data to form Software workshops: Rhinoceros 1.1, Grasshopper 1.1 The raw information from the initial site mapping exercise will be taken forward and used to generate a form through a series of scripting templates on Grasshopper and 3D software tutorials on Rhinoceros. This will be an opportunity to engage students in the software capabilities but at the same time program the same morphologies digitally, expressing site parameters formally. Stage 3 - Utility Introduction of a program to the form Software workshops: Rhinoceros 1.2, Grasshopper 1.2 Groups will then be asked to speculate and imagine their groups morphology and its relevance, adaption, potential to articulate the specific programmatic requirements of the client, site and wider Haitian context. What relevance if any does the form posses to vernacular circulation, vernacular occupational styles and what balance can your group build between morphological representation, and building function. Stage 4 - Haiti Formal climatic analysis Software workshops: Rhinoceros 3D 1.3 Vasari, Ecotect, Falcon Groups will then, through an intensive workshop in a number of climatic softwares, be asked to refine their forms through a series of tests. This then allows the group to argue the ability of their proposal to be resilient to the extreme climatic context of Haiti. Stage 5 - Material Formal articulation though bamboo Software workshops: Grasshopper 1.3 In the final stage of the workshop students will be asked to put their knowledge and thought into how bamboo, as the material of choice, can be applied to their proposal. How can the form and with that the interior functionality and exterior climatic resilience still be articulated through the use of a versatile yet sometimes restrictive material. Final Jury All groups are required to present 3 A1 boards as well as a slideshow presentation. Boards will be curated with tutors over the week and will talk about site, the formal design process and diagrammatically explain how bamboo can be used to construct the building. Each group will then have the opportunity to present their projects to a group of assembled architects, horticulturists, community leaders, local artists, and cultural figures. This is an opportunity to explain both design decisions as well as state how they believe this building works for the both the site and the wider propagation of bamboo architecture in Haiti. As the proposal is for a specific site, the long term hope, depending on further funding, is to test the design at 1 to 1 scale.
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TIMETABLE
Day 1 • • • • • •
Tutor introductions. Brief is given out. Site visit for photos and learning about the site. Visit Bamboo project by UN in Port au Prince. Peguy Ville to meet Les Ateliers Ganthiers and their studio. Football match, food and drink in Peguy Ville.
Day 2 • • • • •
Break into groups of 3. Site visit, map and survey the site for dynamic factors. What does each group find interesting about the site? Correlate and diagram information. Basic Rhino tutorial, show how Rhino can be used as both 3D and 2D software. Tutor project presentation.
Day 3 • • • •
Work day tutors on hand to answer any questions on diagramming and the brief. In Design and presentation skills tutorial. Grasshopper tutorial. Tutor project presentation.
Day 4 • • •
Work day tutors on hand to work with groups to generate a 3D formal logic from site mapped data. Horticulturist Lecture - Work in agronomy and the environmental tasks facing Haiti, putting the design brief into the wider context of moving away from concrete buildings. Tutor project presentation.
Day 5 • • •
Interim Jury to discuss results and propose direction for a building design. Lecture by a bamboo architect on their work. (Lecturer to be confirmed) Discuss the design brief program in relation to the forms generated from site mapping.
Day 6 • • •
Lecture about the principles of earthquake resilient design. Hurricane software tutorial, Falcon, Vasari, Ecotect, which software to use and how to test forms. Design tutorials how bamboo can be used to articulate each groups form generated over the past days.
Day 7 • •
Additional tutorials how bamboo can be used to articulate each groups form generated over the past days. Cultural lecture, an artist working in Port au Prince with a personal story of the earthquake in 2010 - Life in Port au Prince and the role of art and design in Haitian Culture.
Day 8 and 9 • Production days, no structured tutorials but tutors available for discussions. Day 10 • •
Long tutorials with each group, discuss presentations and answer design questions. 3 A1 prints handed in by 3pm to send to printers in Pétion-Ville.
Day 11 •
Final Jury with all tutors and invited crtitics.
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TUTORS
John Osmond Naylor AA Dip Architectural Association London , UK Originally from South Shields in the North of England, John graduated from the Architectural Association, London. His continuing research to promote bamboo architecture in Haiti has seen him travel widely through the country working with landowners to promote bamboo construction and cultivation. In 2013 this work won him both the AA Holloway Prize and the Fosters Prize for Sustainable Development, following which his work was widely published. John has worked in London, Paris and Beijing for firms including MAD, Farshid Moussavi Architecture, and rare architects. He has taught at the Architectural Association (London), Tsinghua University (Beijing), Singapore Polytechnic (Singapore) and the Leeds School of Architecture (UK). He now directs the AA Visiting School in Haiti.
Aditya Aachi AA Dip Cullinan Studio London, UK Aditya is currently a Part II Architect at Cullinan Studio in London. He gained his undergraduate degree at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL and his Diploma at the Architectural Association School of Architecture. While at the Architectural Association he was awarded the Foster+Partners and AA prize for Infrastructure and Sustainability 2011. Aditya is interested in exploring the role of the architect in humanitarian and socio-politically complex situations. He has worked with various NGO’s and charities as well as the UN to deliver and develop both architectural projects and consultation tools. While working internationally for architecture practices such as Grimshaw Architects and Foster+ Partners, Aditya pursued his interests in infrastructure and political lobbying. He was part of the design team for the Lubetkin Prize winning Casa Kike at Gianni Botsford Architects.
Diego Perez Espitia PerezReiter Architects Bogota, Colombia Diego Perez-Espitia is a registered Colombian architect. He graduated with honours from University of Los Andes (2000) and obtained his Masters degree in Architecture and Urbanism with a thesis on Parametric Urbanism at the Architectural Association’s Design Research Lab (2008). For the last seven years his work has focused on the application of algorithmic design techniques at a wide range of urban and architecture design projects. Diego has worked for Zaha Hadid Architects and MAD Architects, where he founded and lead the Parametric Design Team. He is now founding partner at PerezReiter Architects, based in Colombia and Austria, where he currently explores the potentials and constraints of generative design and digital fabrication through architecture and interior design commissions. Diego has taught at University of Los Andes (Bogota), Tsinghua University (Beijing) and the Architectural Association (London), and has lectured at universities and design institutes in Colombia, Wales, England, Turkey and China. He is Director of the AA Bogota Visiting School.
Rose Di Sarno MA Gensler Los Angels, USA Rose graduated from the University of Southern California in 2008 with a Bachelor of Architecture degree. During her time at USC, Rose travelled extensively through Southeast Asia, observing and studying the adaptive modernization of densely populated countries in which the extremes of the economic spectrum are visible. Paired with a team of students from the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Rose worked to develop sensitive, site specific architectural solutions for over-crowded, under-funded schools in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Professionally, Rose has worked in Beijing, China, where her projects ranged in scale from single family residential projects, to urban art installations, cultural centres and large scale commercial developments. She currently lives and works in Los Angles, California.
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Wynne Farm Ecological Reserve – Haiti
AA Haiti Visiting School Architectural Association School of Architecture 36 Bedford Square London WC1B 3ES United Kingdom +44 (0)20 7887 4014 visitingschool@aaschool.ac.uk
Wynne Farm Wynne Farm Ecological Reserve Kenscoff 97 #5A Haiti info@wynnefarm.org