Orion Keith - Digital Transformation Spring Semester

SKUMHUSET MARKET Digital Transformation Spring Semester Orion Keith

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SPRING SEMESTER WORK Discovery and Integration of parametrics in Skumhuset and its beginnings in The Spine

Orion Keith Studio Digital Transformation Aarhus School of Architecture Aarhus, Denmark Spring 2016

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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION An Introduction “Studio Digital Transformation aims on expanding the field of architectural expression and realization using computational design methods and computer aided manufacturing processes.

Digital Transformation is how we address the act of embracing computation as an integrated part of the architectural design process aiming at architecture of a high complexity and artistic quality. The implementation of computational methods promotes an extensive amount of results with the possibility of a large diversity of spatial conditions, formal expression and a very high level of detail. The implementation of computer aided manufacturing processes on the other hand, makes it possible to produce accurate representations of the digital in physical form.

It is our intention to explore how digital generative tools can amplify the creation of complex spatial structures in an architecturl context. By

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customising digital generative tools, we strive to benefit from the essential power of computation in order to be able to control much higher level of complexity within the form-generating process.

Complexity is not necessarily a goal in itself, but being able to manage greater amounts of complexity, enables the designer to envision a larger scope of possible solutions for a specific problem. Realization of more complex solutions is underpinned by the diversification of digital production facilities within the building industry.

If computational design expands the field of architectural expression, it only makes sense if possibilities for actually realizing the design simultaneously exist.�

-Jan Buthke, teaching research assistant, cand.arch Robert Trempe, part-time teacher, cand.arch

ASSIGNMENT FORMULATION

My initial reading of the site was influenced by the process of scanning and rebuilding the site digitally. There were two specific things about this process that interested me: First, to approach digital design, we must first “digitize” the site in a way that it leaves the physical world and builds a near-exact representation in the digital world. Second, this technology allows for such high degree of documentation of historically-relevant work, that it requires us to reassess the cultural and historical propriety of maintaining these structures as unchanging monoliths to a specific time and place.

The title of our studio suggests a connection between the digital realm of design and fabrication, and its direct connection to real-world constraints. Similarly, “the Spine” project was successful because of a continual dialogue between digital design modeling and real-world testing and feedback.

It is my goal in this semester to take this framework to the building scale, and work with physical models and digital tools in a workflow that influences each other. To do this, my work will need to understand the propriety of using digital and physical tools for the maximum effect.

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ROOTS IN THE SPINE Design for Milano Exhibition

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GHOSTS AS ARTIFACTS 3d Scanning and Momentary History

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The Spine installation, developed for the Milan Design Week, was conceived as a reinterpretation of the traditional system of thatching. This fit into the theme of the exhibition, “History as a Catalyst.” The “catalyst” for The Spine was led by a desire to integrate digital design and fabrication methodologies with a traditional construction typology to document the transitions that occur in integrating traditional building methods with emergent technologies. The integration of robotic assembly with existing systems led to the title of the project, “Experiments in Robotic Thatching.”

The design process was reductive rather than singular, condensing a large array of possibilities into smaller groups. First, a deep understanding of the traditional process of thatching was required. While attending a two-day thatching course, material constraints and properties were observed.

A process of abstraction began whereby materials and processes were questioned, contorted, and pushed to the point of breaking. The observations gathered from these models led to new understanding of material properties and spatial opportunities.

The constraints inherent in the material were then further tested against the constraints of production inherent in the conversion to robotic machinery. This meant that there was a continual dialogue between the Cartesian system of the computer and the constraints of fabrication, a process termed by Willmann, Gramazio & Kohler as Digital Materiality.

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THE SPINE INSTALLATION Milan Design Week Exhibition

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The role of the software was not to give the designer control of each of the 594 singular reeds. Instead, the computational aspect to the design allowed the designer to control the overall shape and interaction through the simple use of seven controls.

While the structure articulates in a single direction, its effect in a room becomes that of a multiple-exposure image captured in space. The modulation, twisting and scaling that the triangle takes on is communicated into the space around it, responding to site constraints (walls, columns, ceiling and floor), while also being “self-aware� in that passages were intentionally created through the installation by the path of the structure.

The Model was controlled by ten control triangles, that then influenced the placement of 594 synthetic reeds.

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ROOTS IN THE SPINE Pathmaking Through Negative Structural Space

The Spine project was developed as a simple structural system that could define complex spaces for inhabitation through its movement in space. Through this repetitive stacking process, an otherwise ordinary room became a dynamic space with various methods of interacting with the viewer. In this way, it was impossible to understand the piece from any singular angle. Instead, it required the viewer to move around, and more importantly through the piece. This is a core element of the design that I took forward as I approached the structure of Skumhuset.

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ROOTS IN THE SPINE Dynamic Light Production

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SKUMHUSET Site Documentation

Warehouse built in 1809 located in the center of the Latin Quarter on Pustervig Torv and is currently inhabited by the fabric store, Skumhuset. Skumhuset was constructed of heavy brick load bearing walls and heavy timber construction to hold the sizeable weight of the products originally stored.

Because of its age, style of construction and historic significance, it has been listed as a landmark building.

While its landmark status tightly regulates what can be added and subtracted from the building, there are elements that must be addressed to allow the building to be brought to modern use. The floor-to-floor height above the ground level would not allow it to be re-purposed into usable space, and the building has shifted considerably overtime because of its insufficient foundation. The roof has fallen into disrepair and lacks any insulation at all.

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The texture and details of the building are rich and colorful, with finely crafted wood joinery, heavy bearing walls of brick and a dark, imposing interior that is not available to the general public.

Because of the loads required on the building to store goods, the structure of the warehouse is dense dense heavy timber. The redundancy of the structure leads to a very thick interior space, with few opportunities to convey light between levels.

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SITE PLAN

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Aarhus City

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GHOSTS IN THE ARTIFACTS 3d Scanning and Momentary History

The old warehouse plays a prominent role on Pustervig Torv. Its brightly colored yellow facade with green shutters and traditional red clay tiled roof stands out against its surroundings.

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SITE

PUSTE RVIG T ORV

BADS TUEG ADE

TO KLOSTER TORVET

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3d Laser Scanning is a technology that has only recently become a tool for the building industry. Portable, highly accurate laser surveyors produce images through millions of points. These points can be imbued with color and tone information to convey not only spatial data, but also texture and pattern.

a monument to the inhabitation of the building, the street, the city.

The density of information is given without bias. Where little information is known, there exists fewer points. Where nothing is known, there is left only empty white space. It is up to the viewer to decide what is important, and what can be removed.

In these large-scale scans, artifacts are left over, detail is aggregated where one would usually not look. The ghostly figure of a man unloading a beer truck, an out-of-place light fixture, a dent in a wall from a car. These elements become as much the focus of the scans as the building itself. Rather than being strictly a measure of the structure and envelope of a building, it becomes

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GHOSTS AS ARTIFACTS 3d Scanning and Momentary History 3d Laser Scanning is a technology that has only recently become a tool for the building industry. Portable, highly accurate laser surveyors produce images through millions of points. These points can be imbued with color and tone information to convey not only spatial data, but also texture and pattern.

In these large-scale scans, artifacts are left over, detail is aggregated where one would usually not look. The ghostly figure of a man unloading a beer truck, an out-of-place light fixture, a dent in a wall from a car. These elements become as much the focus of the scans as the building itself. Rather than being strictly a measure of the structure and envelope of a building, it becomes

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PROGRAMMING THE SITE Program Analysis

Percent of Danish Farmland Held By Conglomerate Farms*(Greater than 200 Hectares)

In 2000:

16%

421,000,000 Hectares

In 2013:

46%

1,157,000,000 Hectares

Making up over 26% of the total area of Denmark

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Small farms grow agriculture that is more diverse, and has a greater connection to the community and region.

At the same time, there is a growing interest in food diversity. Restaurants seek out premium ingredients with real connections to the people that grow them.

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By providing a place to showcase these alternative forms of agriculture, we can begin a conversation about our food, and create a resource for local restaurants and consumers.

DINING EXPERIENCE

LOCAL OUTREACH

SMALL FARM CULTURE AND PRODUCTS

LOCAL RESTAURANT PROCUREMENT

The Old Warehouse Then Warehouse of Another Type...

MARKET CUSTOMERS

Becomes

a

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PRECEDENTS A Changing Culture

Food culture has changed over the last few years, with greater interest in how our food is grown and who grows it. Sunday markets are not only a way to buy fresh produce from local farmers, but also a networking hub for restaurant culture, food education and outreach. At the same time, restaurants are changing from institutions to pop-ups where mobility is key not only day-to-day but monthly and yearly. Flexibility is a greater driver than before, for both the owner of the business and property owners.

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Ingerslevs Market, Aarhus

Mercado Roma, Mexico DF

Melrose Market, Seattle

Mercado Roma, Mexico DF

Sosio’s, Seattle

Papirøen, København

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INITIAL STUDIES Light Entrance

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Initially, I approached the project by programming a script to move in a semirandom pattern through the space removing structure as it did so to open up the space for light and create vertically communicated spaces.

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INITIAL STUDIES Placemaking

Once the structure was removed, circulation was applied to the remaining space, integrating with the open area created by the path of the script. goal of this process was inspired by the The Spine project, to create complexity of space through simplicity of design.

The few parameters that were given to the script created a system of active and static spaces, interrelating volumes, and heterogeneous forms. The formalism, like that in the Trabeculae and The Spine was an artifact of the process, rather than a design directive. By searching for the most beneficial result, spatial characteristics were left to the parameters and thereby opened up opportunities outside of my own notions of space.

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INITIAL STUDIES Program Distribution

Finally, program was dispersed into the remaining areas. The intention was to begin to have a hierarchy in ceiling height, denoting different spaces and uses.

Issues arose from this process, the design did not solve the insufficient ceiling height on the levels above Ground, and the assumptions I had used to program the script were more false than true.

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GHOSTS AS ARTIFACTS 3d Scanning and Momentary History

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TERRACE

RESTAURANT

KITCHEN

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RESTAURANT BAR

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MARKET

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DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS Structure As Space-Making

I began experimenting with various ways to control the space in Skumhuset. The overall goal was to not only to provide greater access to light, but at the same time to define the space for market stalls by lowering the height of the surface and similarly raising the eight of the ceiling to denote pedestrian passages.

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GHOSTS AS ARTIFACTS 3d Scanning and Momentary History

Initial studies looked at a simple extruded form that followed the shape of a control surface that was modeled to control light in the space while also responding to the locations of program elements

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GHOSTS AS ARTIFACTS 3d Scanning and Momentary History

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GHOSTS AS ARTIFACTS 3d Scanning and Momentary History

Next, the ceiling element was defined by a script definition that would intersect the control surface with tapered extrusions to provide greater variety in the sae

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GHOSTS AS ARTIFACTS 3d Scanning and Momentary History

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GHOSTS AS ARTIFACTS 3d Scanning and Momentary History

Finally, a design emerged that did the opposite of previous iterations. The structure stayed open and porous, allowing filtered light in while responding to geometry

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GHOSTS AS ARTIFACTS 3d Scanning and Momentary History

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NEW FROM THE OLD 3d Printed Structure Within An Existing Context

With this idea of flipping the way we look at structure, the goal became to make the space more dynamic while also at the same time being more open and inviting.

=

9.5m3 Wood

Convert Density To Open Structure

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olume

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NEW FROM THE OLD Precedents

Lead Pencil’s structure, Non-Sign uses structure to highlight what is void rather than what is structured. The density of steel becomes a frame, much like Hiroshi Sugimoto’s famous Theaters series. What is missing is as important as what is represented.

Whereas Non-Sign is a highly choreographed installation with no direct purpose, MX3D’s Bridge Project does the opposite. It’s exact purpose is to create infrastructure for the people of Amsterdam. The robot becomes an automaton, toiling away as the citizens nap in the grass of the park.

The method of development of Lead Pants is analogue, MX3D is highly digitally driven.

However, they meet in rigid material knowledge and testing allowing for a rich environment for design.

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Lead Pencil Studio - Non-Sign

MX3D Steel Printing Project

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GHOSTS AS ARTIFACTS 3d Scanning and Momentary History

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GHOSTS AS ARTIFACTS 3d Scanning and Momentary History

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GHOSTS AS ARTIFACTS 3d Scanning and Momentary History

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THE STRUCTURE Creating A Point-Based Structural System

The complexity of an open 3d printed structure makes it difficult to generate a structural model. To represent the geometry, a solid form is imported into Kangaroo, a generative structural modeler

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The solid is intersected with a linear grid of 60,000 points.

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Each point is given a charge and a bounce strength from the enclosing solid. The points arrive at an equilibrium from the balancing of forces, becoming equidistant from each other.

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Each point finds its seven closest neighbors, and a line is drawn to each point. The list is then culled for redundant data. This system is then piped to create solid geometry.

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FINAL DESIGN Section Perspective Through Pustervig Torv

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FINAL DESIGN Exploded Isometric and Plans

UP

UP

EXPLODED ISOMETRIC Not To Scale

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UP

PRODUCE

BUTCHER

CREAMER/DAIRY UP

UP

PLAN, GROUND Not To Scale

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DN

UP

CAFE UP

UP

PLAN, 1ST FLR Not To Scale

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DN DN

BAR

PLAN, 2ND FLR Not To Scale

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DESIGN AS CHOREOGRAPHY Discovery and Integration of parametrics in Skumhuset and its origins in The Spine

Critical Written Reflection, Spring 2016 Orion Keith Studio Digital Transformation Aarhus School of Architecture

DESIGN AS CHOREOGRAPHY Discovery and Integration of parametrics in Skumhuset and its origins in The Spine

I.

Preface

In this text, I will discuss the design process of the installation The Spine - Experiments in Robotic Thatching, and how it informed the subsequent transformation of a historic warehouse on Pustervig Torv. In pursuit of this, I will present the digital tools and design parameters that inspire decision-making and how the results influence form-creation. The selection of criteria for elements to use as parameters, and the importance of testing these values for designer bias will be discussed.

II. Introduction Digital Transformation is focused on creating an interaction between computational design and real-world requirements of material, construction and sustainability. Through integrating cutting edge tools such as 3d-laser scanning and rapid fabrication, we are able to work at a high level of precision and refinement.

The direction of this semester was set out in two stages: First, we were tasked with integrating robotic assembly and computational design tools with the traditional building system of roof thatching. This was to take the form of an installation that was designed to be highly specific to its context (the room) and modify the spatial conditions within.

Second, our assignment was to repurpose a historic warehouse in the Latin Quarter of Aarhus into a restaurant / bar. The intent was for the initial installation project to infer the design process of the latter project. My interpretation of

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this was to focus on The Spine’s spatial creation, and focus on a process of parametrics to create form-finding based on a set criteria.

III. The Spine: Experiments in Reinterpreting Traditionalism The Spine installation, developed for the Milan Design Week, was conceived as a reinterpretation of the traditional system of thatching. This fit into the theme of the exhibition, “History as a Catalyst.” The “catalyst” for The Spine was led by a desire to integrate digital design and fabrication methodologies with a traditional construction typology to document the transitions that occur in integrating traditional building methods with emergent technologies. The integration of robotic assembly with existing systems led to the title of the project, “Experiments in Robotic Thatching.”

The design process was reductive rather than singular, condensing a large array of possibilities into smaller groups. First, a deep understanding of the traditional process of thatching was required. While attending a two-day thatching course, material constraints and properties were observed. A process of abstraction began whereby materials and processes were questioned, contorted, and pushed to the point of breaking.

The observations gathered from these models led to new understanding of material properties and spatial opportunities.

The constraints inherent in the material were then further tested against the constraints of production inherent in the conversion to robotic machinery. This meant that there was a continual

dialogue between the Cartesian system of the computer and the constraints of fabrication, a process termed by Willmann, Gramazio & Kohler as Digital Materiality. Through integration of both processes, “…Digital Materiality allows one to combine the abilities and deficiencies of human beings and machines to deliberate advantage. In the digital age this means that while the machine with its numerical logic can rule over an infinitely large quantity of numbers, only human beings with their cognitive abilities and intuitive approaches can recognize meaning in them.” 1 Being consciously aware of the interaction between material, assembly and design, a formal language began to develop from our material experiments and over successive design iterations two specific branches appeared [image 1]. One formal argument required the reeds to be encased by a super structure, and act as a texture or space-

creating material. The other argument was for the material to act both as structure and as a space creator. Each had benefits and weaknesses.

The first, more massive approach relied on a secondary structure to present the material.

This allowed for a greater flexibility in overall design, and could define space within itself. The installation could grow in scale, and respond to a greater number of site and building constraints.

By virtue of the complexity and scale, it would seem less an installation and more a permanent construction with real-world applications. Over the course of research in this direction, the focus of the design for the “Massive” approach became more about the structure and less about the material itself, the thatch. Rather, the thatch began to seem as if it were being displayed by the structure, instead of being an integral part of it.

The structure grew in importance as the material

1. Jan Willmann, Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler, “Towards an Extended Performative Materiality – Interactive Complexity and the Control of Space,” in Theories of the Digital in Architecture 2014, ed. Rivka Oxman & Robert Oxman (New York: Routledge, 2014), pg 306-7.

Image 1: Early Study Models for The Spine

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that inspired the project became less prominent.

The second approach relied on the material to do most of the work itself, and the structure would become an integration between the reed and an added connector piece. This approach required that the thatching material have greater strength and uniformity than the organic reed. A new thatching product, Novariet, was discovered.

Rather than being made of organic material, Novariet is made from 100% synthetic plastic polymers. The production process is engineered at a high tolerance so that uniformity could be tightly controlled, mirroring the precision in the robotic process. At the same time, there was an argument for integrating a new material into our exploration robotic thatching. With the addition of Novariet, the “Discrete” approach would be a process of placing a single reed at a time in the order of a triangle. This way, each reed was connected in four locations, and the structure of the spine itself took on an extruded triangular shape. Therefore, the structure would only move in a singular vector and define the space around it as it twisted and revolved.

What was produced was surprising: A simple method of construction could lead to a complexity of space by design. While the structure articulates in a single direction, its effect in a room becomes that of a multiple-exposure image captured in space. The modulation, twisting and scaling that the triangle takes on is communicated into the space around it, responding to site constraints (walls, columns, ceiling and floor), while also being “self-aware” in that passages were intentionally created through the installation by the path of the structure.

As the design of The Spine developed, there was a requisite need for immediate feedback of design decisions.

The role of the software was not to give the designer control of each of the 594 singular reeds. Instead, the computational aspect to the design allowed the designer to control the overall shape and interaction through the simple use of seven controls. Robert Woodbury calls this establishing “relationships” between elements.

This consolidates the design into a few specific parameters controlled by the designer, and the software thus acts as automaton to fill in the elements between the control parameters.2 Computational software did not drive the aesthetics of the design, but instead gave visual feedback to the designer by highlighting elements that could not be assembled by the robotic arms, and allowing for physics emulation to be performed on the reeds themselves. In this way, the design remained top-down. In the end, the overall form of the design was driven by a small number of controls, each being operated by the designer. This does not suggest that the design should have been more automated by the software, but instead shows that The Spine was made from a specific position with respect to the role of the designer and the software that developed it.

IV. Skumhuset: Digital Transformation By Design After The Spine project had finished, our studio received our individual design assignment. We were each tasked with developing a design for a restaurant in a historic building in central Aarhus.

The site is a warehouse built in 1809 located

2. Robert Woodbury, “How Designers Use Parameters,” in Theories of the Digital in Architecture 2014, ed. Rivka Oxman & Robert Oxman (New York: Routledge, 2014), pg 153.

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in the center of the Latin Quarter on Pustervig Torv and is currently inhabited by the fabric store, Skumhuset. Skumhuset was constructed of heavy brick loadbearing walls and heavy timber construction to hold the sizeable weight of the products originally stored. Because of its age, style of construction and historic significance, it has been listed as a landmark building.

While its landmark status tightly regulates what can be added and subtracted from the building, there are elements that must be addressed to allow the building to be brought to modern use.

The floor-to-floor height above the ground level would not allow it to be repurposed into useable space, and the building has shifted considerably overtime because of its insufficient foundation.

The roof has fallen into disrepair and lacks any insulation at all.

Reflecting on these constraints, I began to search for a way to integrate the lessons from The Spine into the Skumhuset project. The Spine defined space by shaping the voids around it. Passages were made, and it responded to the specific conditions of the place of its installation. In this way, the spatial elements to the piece were actually the negative spaces created by the structure, rather than within the structure itself. By using this methodology in the Skumhuset project, it could be taken to a higher level by adding placemaking, wayfinding and programmatic response.

All things that the Spine installation could not do because of its scale and assembly process.

Where the development of The Spine project was reductive, the process for Skumhuset could be considered additive. The parameters given to

the project meant that rather than exploring the myriad ways of approaching the building, the driving elements were defined by the building, site and program.

With these practical considerations of the building in mind, I began the design process by first challenging the initial program of the building.

Rather than suggesting a restaurant which would be more private than public and restrict access to this historic building, a small integrated food market consisting of goods by small, familyrun farms was suggested and developed. The reasoning was to create a platform for these farms to gain more attention, and at the same time raise the quality of products that restaurants and the public had access to. Furthermore, because of its central location on Pustervig Torv and access to a generous south-facing courtyard that connects by passage to Klostertorviet. By forming the building into a semi-public market space, the new market would extend its influence outside itself, allowing for pop-up markets in Pustervig Torv, outside dining and drinking in the associated courtyard, and extending the pedestrian experience of Store Torv into the Latin Quarter.

V.

Design as Choreography

Initially, the design of the Skumhuset was an exercise in acting as choreographer. My goal was to develop a complex scripting system that would automate the design process within specific parameters. These parameters came from design goals defined by the new programmatic function. By creating a market, the requirement was to keep major spaces open of hard program and create deliberate corridors of circulation

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and movement. To simplify this, I defined three basic parameters to begin the design process: An introduction of light into a closed volume, create a design that communicated visually between levels, and open up the space where soft program (market stalls, seating, etc) were used.

To this end, I wrote a script that would selectively remove structure as it wove its way through the building. This approach was an attempt to simulate the spatial system of The Spine where the negative space of the structure becomes the space for inhabitation and circulation.

By giving some level of control to the software, difficult and time-intensive tasks are removed from the process. For this to be successful, there must be careful consideration of the parameters embedded into the software. In his article, “How Designers Use Parameters,” Robert Woodbury sums up the role of parameterization with the following:

Supermanoeuvre used this approach for their project Trabeculae (2009), a script-based heliotropic function that would branch and change scale based on lighting parameters. It is a subtractive system that would “eat” through existing volume to create new atria within the existing buildings. [image 2] As the function advanced, it would parasitically attach itself to the floor structure of the existing building.

Trabeculae was developed as a system to challenge the traditional atrium space by using specific parameters to create non-traditional spatial relationships. While not seemingly the direct intent of the project, an artifact of the process became abstract form creation. 4

“Parametric design depends on defining relationships and the willingness (and ability) of the designer to consider the relationship-definition phase as an integral part of the broader design process. It initially requires the designer to take one step back from the direct activity of design and focus on the logic that binds the design together.” 3 3. Robert Woodbury, pg 153.

Image 2: Skumhuset Project – Initial Design, Generated by Removing Existing Structure For Light

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Image 3: Skumhuset Project – Initial Design, Generated by Removing Existing Structure For Light

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Based on assumptions of access to light and driven by a desire to create space that communicates vertically, the approach of Supermanoeuvre made sense as a method to introduce a parameter into the design process, building a logic of space from it. Furthermore, the script could be run multiple times to present an array of design options. Once an iteration was chosen based on the criteria, circulation and program were applied to the remaining spaces not through the script but through my own intuition and suggestion. The design became a story of two separate paths, the path of light, and the path of the building user.

Circulation wove between the void created by the script and a path through the existing structure.

This story then became more articulated by a

continual change in the access to light and space, where some areas would be darker and more intimate, others would be open with access to light from above.

The goal of this process was inspired by the The Spine project, to create complexity of space through simplicity of design. The few parameters that were given to the script created a system of active and static spaces, interrelating volumes, and heterogeneous forms. The formalism, like that in the Trabeculae and The Spine was an artifact of the process, rather than a design directive. By searching for the most beneficial result, spatial characteristics were left to the parameters and thereby opened up opportunities outside of my

4. Dave Pigram, Iain Maxwell, Brad Rothenberg & Ezio Blasetti, “Trabeculae� in Skyscrapers of the Future 2014, 1st ed. Carlo Aiello (New York: Evolo, LLC 2010) 137-9

Image 4: Marcel Duchamp. 3 Standard Stoppages1914.

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own notions of space [image 3].

In the larger history of art and design, the use of parametrics is not new. In their article, Parameterize, Casey Reas, Chandler McWilliams and LUST point out that parametrics have been involved in art and architecture before the invention of the computer or computation design.

The use of parametrics has been used as an act of aesthetic choice, where the designer wishes to add variability or randomidity to the design in search of artistic outcomes not immediately considered.

Artists such as Duchamp, Jean Arp, William S. Burroughs and John Cage have used controlled variability of parameters to reach unexpected conclusions. 5 One such example of this is Marcel Duchamp’s 3 Standard Stoppages[image 4] which used a one meter long string dropped from a height of one meter to define the geometry of ribs of wood cut to the form created by the falling string. The wood cuts were subsequently used to create new forms. While the outcomes of the falling string seem random, they are controlled by Duchamp’s intent. The length of the string, the height of the fall, the method of release and the moment of documentation were specific choices made

by Duchamp. The selection of parameters and design criteria create a space for the semi-random operation in search of an outcome within a predefined band of results. Reas and McWilliams suggest that the act of controlling parameters in design has a twofold effect: “Thinking about parameters provides a bridge between repetition and transformation, as well as visualization and simulation. While transformation describes a

parameter’s effect on form, repetition offers a way to explore a field of possible designs for favorable variations.” 6 The initial scripting applied to the Skumhuset provided variations within the parameters defined by stated design goals, transforming the geometry of the existing building and creating new abstractions of space. Its repetition generated various options that could be chosen based on their effectiveness on the design as a whole.

Upon reflection, issues emerged from this process of design. Trabeculae worked as a blunt (though elegant) tool for removing space for a singular purpose: Light. However, with the requirements of Skumhuset there were multiple interconnected forces at work simultaneously.

The position of the light area inferred where program gathered around it, where circulation was critical and how the elements were structured. Furthermore, lighting criteria was much more complex than was originally written into the definition. Thus, once space is formed for multiple purposes, each with parameters of interconnectivity, there required a greater knowledge from the designer. For a computational design to be successful, the designer must have enough understanding of the project and process to choreograph information with intention. The computational environment will elicit results based on the criterion set, regardless of the authenticity (because of incorrect assumptions or data) of that criteria. At that point, the result of the code then becomes a method of checking the parameters injected into the design by the designer.

5. Casey Reas, Chandler McWilliams and LUST, “Parameterize,” in Theories of the Digital in Architecture 2014, ed. Rivka Oxman & Robert Oxman (New York: Routledge, 2014), 377.

6. Reas, McWilliams and LUST, “Parameterize”, 377

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What for me began as a method of formfinding had instead proved more successful as a test of internal design bias. For example, while the assumptions suggested that the script should remove more structure above and less below for light penetration, this logic was shown to be untrue when held up to internal lighting calculations. In fact, the inverse was true. Similarly, assumptions of program associations were under-developed.

As the composer of the script, the software could only work within the framework that I built. To recognize issues within the design, additional checks needed to be brought in. This is where outside advice, and the usage of daylighting tools reoriented my initial biases.

Computational design can lead to abstract forms that were not directly emergent through traditional design methodologies. Much like Duchamp’s work, “Random values can be used to emulate unpredictable qualities of our physical reality and to generate unexpected compositions.”7 Yet without a performative basis, the form-finding is essentially one-dimensional. Instead, taken together with a wider range of design parameters and simulation environments, the design process becomes an act of choreography that does not have a direct expectation of a conclusion. This is just one of many issues that Michael Hensel considers in his text, Modelling Modelling: “What is at stake is a complex multifaceted design process that involves the human subject, the environment, and the spatial and material organization complex as active agents in production and utilization of heterogeneous space.” 8 Taking these factors into account, the system for defining light within the volume developed into

a script that would place light wells through the roof structure, and would infer where they were most effective by utilizing the generative tool Galapagos in tandem with DaySim to measure indirect illumination. The position of the light well in the western half of the building generated better light penetration while at the same time creating a volumetric space at the back of the building to draw users through. However, the exact position could not be determined, as the time taken for each generation of calculation was high. Because of this, it was required that the number of possible outcomes be greatly reduced.

Because the location wasn’t highly specific, there was the ability for the program to affect the light well’s location as much as it affected the program.

Once the location of the light well was established, programmatic zones were applied to the building, placing hard elements away from central spaces and finding logical rationale for circulation systems. These systems were applied, again, by me the designer rather than the computer. While the computer could apply these systems given the correct system of parameters, the process was unnecessary as the number of solutions seemed highly limited. This followed the reasoning of Digital Materiality by working with the strengths of both the designer and the digital tools available.

Over the course of the design process for the Skumhuset, the role of the computer changed as data and feedback were received. This change began with my approach. To create the feeling of an open public space, an early design parameter was to keep the building as open as possible.

This meant that differentiation in the ceiling height would denote programmatic functions.

7. Reas, McWilliams and LUST, “Parameterize”, 379 8. Michael Hensel, “Modelling Modelling” in Persistent Modelling 2012, 1st ed. Phil Ayres (New York: Routelidge 2012) 77

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The lessons learned from the initial exercise in scripting still held true: the atrium and light well were located based on those initial studies, though their association with the space had changed.

VI. Conclusion As previously discussed, parameterization and controlled variability have been elements used in form-finding long before the rise of computational design. The parameter acts as a boundary to limit the set of results within a more narrow spectrum. Once the rules have been established, the outcomes are semi-random by design. The use of parameters is more complex in architecture scenarios, as the requirements on the outcomes have a greater number of constraints.

informs the variation in the ceiling planes.

Therefore, the design process became additive and a complex organization evolves from an introduction of parametrics. Again, the intent is to create complexity of spatial conditions through controlled variability, where heterogeneous form is the artifact of the process of transformation, rather than the directive.

The potentials of this process were not nearly tested to their extreme with Skumhuset, but instead are a starting point for an approach to design in the future that can benefit from developing a specific logic toward design goals, identifying the driving parameters behind it, and finding platforms to test the assumptions of designers.

Throughout the design process of The Spine and Skumhuset, the requirements and constraints played a specific role. While one became a process of reducing options down to a singular design goal, the other allowed for the addition of complexity as the design progressed.

Through working with parametric and computational modeling, design elements were tested and defined, and new complexity could be applied. In an approach opposite to The Spine, variables in the Skumhuset were converted to constants as design constraints were solved. By removing variables from the design, new variables and parameters could be established and tested. In this way, overall design goals (such as introduction of light, open floor plan and communicating vertical space) begin to make architecture of greater specificity. The location of the light well then informs the program. The program

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Gerber, Dr. David Jason, and Ibañez, Mariana in Paradigms in Computing - Making, Machines, and Models for Design Agency in Architecture Los Angeles: eVolo Press, 2014.

Hensel, Michael, “Modelling Modelling” in Persistent Modelling 2012, 1st ed. Phil Ayres (New York: Routelidge 2012) Hensel, Michael and Menges, Achim in Morpho-Ecologies London: AA Publications, 2006.

Kolarevic, Branko. Architecture in the DIgital Age - Design and Manufacturing New York: Spon Press, 2003.

Pigram, Dave, Maxwell, Iain, Rothenberg, Brad & Blasetti, Ezio “Trabeculae” in Skyscrapers of the Future 2014, 1st ed. Carlo Aiello (New York: Evolo, LLC 2010) Reas, Casey, McWilliams, Chandler and LUST, “Parameterize,” in Theories of the Digital in Architecture 2014, ed. Rivka Oxman & Robert Oxman (New York: Routledge, 2014) Willmann, Jan, Gramazio, Fabio and Kohler, Matthias, “Towards an Extended Performative Materiality – Interactive Complexity and the Control of Space,” in Theories of the Digital in Architecture 2014, ed. Rivka Oxman & Robert Oxman (New York: Routledge, 2014), pg 306-7.

Woodbury, Robert, “How Designers Use Parameters,” in Theories of the Digital in Architecture 2014, ed. Rivka Oxman & Robert Oxman (New York: Routledge, 2014)

IMAGES Fig. 1: Engdal, Mads Baj, Codam, Kristoffer, Hundal, Mads, Langkjær, Rikke, Schubert, Imke, Birch, Daniel, Keith, Orion. Study Models, Experiments in Robotic Thatching - The Spine 2016 Fig. 2: Pigram, Dave, Maxwell, Iain, Rothenberg, Brad & Blasetti, Ezio “Trabeculae” in Skyscrapers of the Future 2014, 1st ed. Carlo Aiello (New York: Evolo, LLC 2010) pg. 138 Fig 3: Keith, Orion. Skumhuset Design Studies 2016 Fig 4: Duchamp, Marcel. 3 Standard Stoppages1914. Wood box, with three threads, glued to three painted canvas strips, each mounted on a glass panel, three wood slats, shaped along one edge to match the curves of the threads.

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