Studio AIR: Part A

STUDIO AIR

2015, SEMESTER 1, CHEN CANHUI OLIVIA GUDE 641636

Part A Journal

Table of Contents

A.1 Introduction

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Design Futuring

6-7

Precedent Projects: Sustainability Tree House Lost in Paris House

8-9 10-11

A.2 Design Computation

12-13

Precedent Projects: Market Hall

14-15

The Coral Tower

16-17

A.3 Composition / Generation

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Precedent Projects: The French Institute of Solar Energy

20-21

A.4 Conclusion

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A.5 Learning Outcomes

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A.6 Favourite Part A outcomes

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Introduction “From a young age I have always enjoyed artistic, creative and design inclined activities, school subjects and hobbies - Architecture in particular has been on my goal list since the age of nine, luckily for me I have managed to continue pursuing my goal to be an architect ever since then.

My most favourite aspect of my degree is the practical, hands on work mostly found within construction subjects and through my own construction site experiences, and so studio work is probably the most difficult for me in terms of learning new softwares and the psychology and terminologies that come with each program; I have had a generous amount of time using Rhino, Auto CAD and the plug in Grasshopper amongst other program's, I feel that in combination with my love for creativity, Im confident and prepared .�

Image 1: Introduction image

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A.1 Design Futuring Image 2: Italian Futurism

The foundation of design futuring depends on change: an immediate change of design ethics, values, attitudes and behaiours, re-illiterating the reality of our human carbon footprint, changing the world’s will to design sustainably - Before our natural earth, ecological system and human species become extinct.

The future of design needs to be directed towards the opposite of de-futuring: self sufficiency in relation to services, energy consumption and production aswell as sensitive and progressive stratgey behind a design dynamic are components that I feel the future of sustainable design can potentially focus upon.

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Project no. 1 Sustainability Treehouse’ Mithun, 2013

Completed during 2013, the Sustainability Treehouse is an interesting pool of information for Design Futuring to take inspiration from.

Designed to respect the formation and seasonal cycle of its natural environment, the building works co-operativly with seasonal change, natural wind speeds and sunlight exposure during a year; all of this co-insides with the buildings energy production, dynamic and character as a community and education center for Boy Scouts of America.

Image 3 (Left): Perspective of the Sustainability Treehouse Image 4 (Right) Section drawing of the building 8

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Project no. 2

The Lost in Paris House, 2008

The Lost in Paris house is a project assigned to beautifully displays a vertical hydroponics wall that is growing ferns. The idea strongly argues that the concept is moving forwards from orthodox horizontal farming that used to require soil for plant growth.

Image 5 (Left): A perspective image of the fern facade, an interesting tectonical contrast to its surrounding counterparts.

Image 6 (Right): Interior image of the laboratory

A grey water system collectively irrigates each individual glassbeaker that is hung on a mechanical ‘drop by drop system’,resulting in a luscious, eye-catching fern facade that essentially domesticates what is a wild specie of vegetation.

The concept of the green wall revolutionizes how future design might use vertical space as opposed to horizontal space (Which is causing huge impacts upon how we as designers, prioritize land uses) and so I feel that this is a successful concept; in critism to this, the structural elements of the building appear to hidden under the hydroponic system, which really masks the un-sustainable truths behind the project. Choice of materials, being steel and reinforced concrete are selections that do not respond well to elements such as ethnical designing,

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A.2 Design Computation

Design Computation as a tool has revolutionized architectural design. Shifting away from traditional methology towards a practice which intergrates multidisciplinary fields - Effective co-learning and communication has been achieved through the use of computation which is virtually founded, tested, edited, compared and finalised within the realm of computation tools and techniques, typically as a file-to-factory format.

This method of design can be scaled accordingly to a specific task, macro or micro analyses may be conducted which has re-directed the dynamic of design; parametric design within computation allows the opportunity to customize parameters in order to create a variety of outcomes best suited to the challenges of a project brief. Furthermore computation allows design development to test reality based situations such as material strength, solar exposure and material composition for example.

Image 7: Aggregate Structure

I feel that the current movement for computation is a softer approach to parametric algorithmic design which incorporates the elements of tectonic innovation and digital materiality. Other priorities within the process are design time reduction and sustainable ambtion.

The foreseeable future can only improve from this stepping stone, possibly focusing upon new material systems and working more empathetically with natural landscapes in order to compliment energy, environment and and perfomance conscious design.

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Project no. 3 Image 8 (Left): Ground level perspective Image 9 (Right): Interior image of the digitally printing ceiling

Market Hall, Rotherdam Netherlands, MVRDV 2004-2014

Referred to as ‘Markthal’, meaning Market Hall in Dutch the project epitomises how people interact, exchange and move within a multifunctional space. Inspired by Dutch regulation, food markets were banned from open air sites as a health and safety law, MVRDV counteracted this law into the form of the building - Making what seems to be an open air space, the “tunnel” is encapsulated at each end with a cable net facade, protecting interior spaces from the elements. MVRDV refer to the facade as like a “tennis raquet” that can move up to 70cm in an inward outward motion, within the case of extreme wind loads.

Computation in this case has strongly celebrated a tectonic system, particuarly because the cable net facade structurally functions with the nature of its built environment, but aesthetically glass was selected to portray a traditional essence of an open aired food market - From afar, the structure appears to be a hollow tunnel, exacerbating the architectural response.

Computation in the case for the Market Hall, has enabled an interaction between residential and commercial architecture. Intrestingly, the digital materiality features in image ** expresses the fun, energy and outrageous-ness that MVRDV hae created. The actual geometry of the latter is a simplistic case of tunnel shuttering, however the interior layering of the building creates the complexitity, sophistication and multi-disciplinary aspect that computation design is most well known for.

Image 10: Perspective along the exterior facade, showing apartment allocation

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Project no. 4 The Coral Tower, Sydney Australia MVRDV 2014-Present

Described as a coral like structure, MVRDV envisioned the new tower with the intention of uplifting Sydney’s skyline - Adding a sense of character against the backdrop of samelike towers in the central area. Portrayed as a humanized design, each pixel area acts as a personlized space for a user: a personal view of the cityscape, floorplan and interconnections from room to room on each floor.

Interestingly, the project is a renovation and not a complete re-construction.

Occupying a previous structure, the project is set to decrease its construction time simply by utilizing the existing framework and developing the form into pixels.

The computational design in this case appears similar to three dimensional Voronoi mesh cited from Grasshopper, the excavated, pulling and pushing gesture of the form appears to be an achievable design; however the intelligence behind the form creates the projects unique placement. Furthermore computation has encouraged a heavily layered tectonic system which simply catches the eye.

Image *** illustrates how computation can translate its creations into a realistic vision.

Rendering has allowed a viewer to actively see how the tower shall look in real life Sydney, how the building might be used, its performances, aesthetic textures and qualities.

This in itself is a beneficial factor that orthodox hand drawing cannot deliver to the same standard, at a consistent and sharp pace.

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Image 11 (Left): Perspective render of proposed design Image 12 (Above): Render of facade and tower block views

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A.3

Composition & Generation

“The processing of information and interactions between elements which constitute a specific envrionment; it provides a framework for negotiating and influencing the interrelation of datasets of information, with the capacity to generate complex order, form and structure”.

(Ahlguist & Menges) The attitude and understanding during the movement from compostion design to generative design within the architectural industry predominately focuses upon how designers regarded compositional design and its ongoing significance to generative architecture. Initially, computation design in particular reference to algorithmic thinking was portrayed as utilizing information technology inputs to achieve an output - As if a computer was a coded computerized process, or a “Ghost in the macine” (Dietrich). The development and realism of computation from this earlier perception has led to a stronger grasp of the subject, where computation has been used as design to generate specific code forumlas and exploring these outlets - instigating opportunities within that formula that could generate an innovative design potential.

The “Building of algorithmic thought” has allowed world wide networks to collaboratively work together, where information, codes, tools, techniques and ideas can be shared between designers to help create outcomes. Online forums, websites, blogs and even websites such as Youtube have shared information - connecting the design world.

This has effectively influenced how architecture has progressed, with an emphasis upon open, social spaces, blurring the definitive lines between public and private spaces (Unlike traditional styles of architecture) and creating multifuncational, collaborative spaces that can be related to the simplistic action of information sharing on the internet.

portrayals of design (As a fabricated model or rendering images), performance assessments, aesthetic and textural qualities, context realization and simple practicality of design. During a design development these outcomes are critiqued and used to advance and polish a project, this might be repeated in order to completely satisfy the design realizations that generation provides.

Furthermore generation can be used to achieve feedback, this includes realistic CONCEPTUALISATION 19

Project no. 5 French National Solar Energy Institue (INES) Chambery, France Michel Rémon (Architect) and Frédéric Nicola (Architect)

Image 13 (Left): Perpsective view of the exterior en

INES, is the French National Solar Energy Institue created by Michel Rémon and Frédéric Nicola, the two firms collaborated together in a design scheme to create a set of specific strategies for the performance for the building.

Designed as an example to promote the success of solar power, the building is a bioclimatic structure, positioned in line with the path of the sun in order to benefit the most solar exposure through a year - A Northerly position allows cooler breezes to flow through into the atrium and a 10 degree angling of the panelling system to benefit the most the sun and wind elements to create a natural cooling system.

Generation has assisted in assessing the performance of the building. Solar exposure and wind direction in relation to the energy and 20

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thermal performance of the construction has directed the design process due to the nature of the building itself; however the building is powered 40% by solar power, as absolute independence was a ‘deterrent on the design progress’. The intentions of the structure are promising however the overall performance does not reflect the full potential of the design given that solar power does not completely power the building.

As a design, the envelope of the building appears like rectilinear geometries wind directions and solar exposure appears to have had an influence upon the final design presentation. Layering to the skin of the building has also been added to create complexity, a hanging wall of louvres may be seen along one side of the buildings facade, a design aspect to provide shading to the interior spaces along this side. that have been merged together to create an intriguing atrium and roofing system a skeletal like system may be observed throughout the entire building as this type of structure allows panelled materials such as glass to be installed, which was required for a naturally lit interior.

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Image 14 (Right): The north facing roofing system, that features solar panels.

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A.4

Part A Conclusion

Part A has introduced me to concepts of architectural design that are very important to the present standard and dynamic that drive the latest architural design processes. Computation and Generation especially have caused me to assess the nature of a construction in relation to its environment, energy performances, materiality, tectonics and decontruct the elements to understand how the structure was generated through virtual designing.

It is furthermore interesting to critique how consistenly and thorough sustainable ethics are carried throughout works,how this might impact the design itself, what sorts of challenges are created as a result of this and how effective are the implemented solutions. In combination with future design, applying this typology to sustainability, energy generation, building performance, material development and understanding how this challenge could be developed by computational design has been very interesting to brain storm given it is the current face for architectural pioneering.

A.5

Learning Outcomes

My learning outcome for Part A are of the follwing: Understanding the basic meaning of an algorithm.

Understanding an introduction to Design Futuring, Design Computation, Composition and Generation how the interconnnected relevances of each component.

Understanding basic works in Grasshopper, such as line, point or surface referencing, lofting, transforming and triangulation.

Being able to critique and evaluate a project for evidences of computation Recognizing how a design process is changed by computation and generation.

Computation and Generation as topics appear to be very complex systems, so it has been beneficial to understand them from the basic blocks of thier foundations through the weekly readings.

Algorithm’s especially given the mathematic nature can appear quite confusing, so to understand them through literacy has been helpful in building my skills with the concepts.

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A.6 Favourite Part A Outcomes

Using Mesh Geometry to create organic outcomes

Lofted surfaces and manipulating control points

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Lofted surfaces and manipulating control points

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