Naturalizing Architecture

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archilab 2013

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archilab 2013

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Founded by Mark Foster Gage and Marc Clemenceau Bailly in 2004, Gage / Clemenceau Architects is at the forefront of a new generation of architects working to combine architectural practice with the innovative use of today’s most advanced technologies. The work of the firm ranges from large-scale architectural projects, including a ten million square foot warehouse facility for Industrias Correguea, to retail, commercial, exhibition, residential, and renovation projects. In addition to architectural design, Gage / Clemenceau is actively involved in interdisciplinary collaborations, most recently with Lady Gaga’s Fashion Director and Creative Director for Mugler, Nicola Formichetti. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Deutsches Architektur Zentrum in Berlin have all exhibited the work of Gage / Clemenceau Architects. In 2010 Gage / Clemenceau was selected as one of the architecture firms representing the United States in the Beijing International Biennale. The firm recently received an American Institute of Architects NY Design Award, and was named an “Avant Guardian” of architecture, by Surface Magazine. Gage / Clemenceau was nominated as one of thirteen international architectural firms for the prestigious Ordos Prize in Architecture – a select group that Rem Koolhaas referred to as “the next generation of great architects.” Gage / Clemenceau’s work has been featured in The New York Times, MTV, Vogue, USA Today, Mark, Harper’s Bazaar, Wired, Fast Company, PBS, as well as numerous books. 5


archilab 2013

Using automotive design concepts to create innovative architectural forms. Inspired by the surface modeling and design techniques of automotive designers, Gage/Clemenceau Architects used 3D modeling tools to design their entry for the Estonian Academy of the Arts Design Competition. Conceptual Design. Gage/Clemenceau Architects use automotive design tactics as a way to develop new techniques for manipulating surfaces in architecture. This project provided an ideal opportunity to apply these advanced surface design techniques and strategies. Design Iteration. Using software built for auto-

Surface-Based Geometry. Instead of relying on

motive design, the team created over 100 dif-

rectilinear geometries that typically guide ar-

ferent formations and iterations. These unique

chitectural design decisions, the facade of the

architectural forms are more robust—and less

Estonian Academy of the Arts is wrapped en-

expected—than those created with software

tirely in what the automotive industry refers to

used specifically for architectural design.

as Class-A surfaces that produce maximum aesthetic effect with minimum mathematical description. Surface Styling. The proposed facade is made from both purely aesthetic fluid ripples and contours, as well as performative scoops, tunnels, and vents that funnel fresh air to all areas of the building from the lobby to the interior courtyard.

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Gage / ClĂŠmenceau

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archilab 2013

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Gage / ClĂŠmenceau

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archilab 2013

Proposal of Academy of Fine Arts in Tallin, Estonia

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Gage / ClĂŠmenceau

Detail of Academy of Fine Arts in Tallin, Estonia

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Gage / ClĂŠmenceau

Detail of Academy of Fine Arts in Tallin, Estonia Academy of Fine Arts, Tallin, Estonia

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Visualisation of Academy of Fine Arts in Tallin, Estonia

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Gage / ClĂŠmenceau

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Visualisation of Academy of Fine Arts in Tallin, Estonia


Gage / ClĂŠmenceau The project L.E.S. Residential Building is a building designed to be convenient, but no less important it is to be noticed. It contrasts with the typical New York architecture. On the one hand there is contrast in the volumes. Like a Dutch house, the building is narrow and elongated. On the other hand, the massive decorative facade becomes a unique feature among the orderliness of a classic street. Recent projects from Gage / Clemenceau Architects, such as the competition entry for the Estonian Academy of Art, have actively researched the digital tools used in distant design disciplines in an attempt to move beyond normally unchallenged design boundaries within the architectural profession. The facades, apertures, and large courtyard manifold openings of this project are designed using the software package Alias Studio, which is typically used for automotive design. Instead of relying on platonic geometries which typically guide architectural design decisions, the facade of the Academy is entirely, and tautly, wrapped in what the automotive industry refers to as “Class-Aâ€? surfaces. Surfaces which produce the maximum aesthetic effect with a minimum of mathematical description.

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archilab 2013

Interior of L.E.S. Residential Bulding, New York

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Gage / ClĂŠmenceau

Exterior of L.E.S. Residential Bulding, New York

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Michael Hansmeyer is an architect and programmer who explores the use of algorithms and computation to generate architectural form. In his role at the CAAD group, he teaches courses at the bachelor, master, and postgraduate levels. He is coordinator of the Master of Advanced Studies program. He holds an MBA degree from Insead Fontainebleau as well as a Master of Architecture degree from Columbia University. He previously worked with McKinsey & Company, J.P. Morgan, and at Herzog & de Meuron architects. Architecture stands at an inflection point. The confluence of advances in both computation and fabrication technologies offers architects the possibility of designing and constructing hitherto unimaginable forms. With increases in processing power, the roughly triangulated geometries and simple blobs of the early 2000’s have given way to the possibility of complex geometries at multiple scales with details approaching the threshold of human visibility. In parallel, advances in additive manufacturing technologies have put us at the verge of printing any form. Recent machines with print spaces of many cubic meters make it possible to print not only small architectural models, but full-scale architectural components. As a result, a form with a few million surfaces is as easy to print as a form with a few dozen. From making of

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archilab 2013

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Michael Hansmeyer

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archilab 2013 For the first time, complexity is not an impedi-

dictable. Instead, they have the power to sur-

ment to design and fabrication. Rather, it is an

prise. Once formulated, such a computational

opportunity that is waiting to be explored. For

approach can be applied again and again. One

years, it was information technology that con-

no longer designs an object, but a process to

strained architects. Arguably, this relationship

generate objects. It is no longer necessary to

has reversed: it is now architects who are con-

successively refine a singular design, as one can

straining the possibilities of information tech-

work with many variants in parallel. These vari-

nology. This development raises the questions:

ants can be bred and cultivated into entire fam-

How can we best explore the opportunities that

ilies of objects by combining and mutating their

information technology offers us? How can we

constituent process parameters.

understand the possibilities? A computational approach enables architecture To truly exploit the possibilities, we can no longer

to be embedded with an extraordinary degree of

draw by mouse in CAD programs. A single object

information. Structure and surface can exhibit

with millions of unique facets would take years

hyper-resolution, with seemingly endless dis-

to draw. Neither can the new opportunities be

tinct formations. The processes can generate

fully exploited using parametric approaches, as

highly specific local conditions, while ensuring

these usually involve morphing existing geome-

an overall coherency and continuity. As such, the

tries using control parameters, rather than cre-

resulting architecture does not lend itself to a

ating geometries that are genuinely new.

visual reductionism. Rather, the procedures can

What is needed is a more abstract and open-end-

devise truly surprising topographies and topolo-

ed method: a computational approach. In com-

gies that go far beyond what one could have tra-

putational design, parameters do not control

ditionally conceived.

the geometry directly. Rather, they control the operations of a time-based, predefined process that is itself transforming or generating geometry. These processes strike a delicate balance between the expected and the unexpected, between control and relinquishment. These design processes are deterministic – so as not to rely on randomness, but not necessarily entirely pre29


Michael Hansmeyer

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Subdivided Columns - A New Order

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Digital Grotesque

Michael Hansmeyer


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