“MAKING IS THE MOST POWERFUL WAY THAT WE SOLVE PROBLEMS, EXPRESS IDEAS AND SHAPE OUR WORLD” – DANIEL CHARNY
BRANKO KOLAREVIC REFLECTS IN HIS PUBLICATION ‘ARCHITECTURE IN THE DIGITAL AGE – DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING’, THAT “THE DIGITAL AGE HAS RADICALLY RECONFIGURED THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONCEPTION AND PRODUCTION, CREATING A DIRECT LINK BETWEEN WHAT CAN BE CONCEIVED AND WHAT CAN BE CONSTRUCTED. BUILDING PROJECTS TODAY ARE NOT ONLY BORN OUT DIGITALLY, BUT THEY ARE ALSO REALIZED DIGITALLY THROUGH ‘FILETO-FACTORY’ PROCESSES OF COMPUTER NUMERICALLY CONTROLLED (CNC) FABRICATION TECHNOLOGIES.” THIS IS EVIDENT IN THE COMPLEXITY OF ‘BLOBBY’ FORMS THAT FEATURE PROMINENTLY IN CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE. CONTINUOUS AND HIGHLY CURVILINEAR SURFACES HAVE SPATIAL AND TECTONIC RAMIFICATIONS THAT CHALLENGE CONSTRUCTABILITY. KOLAREVIC NOTES THAT FOR THE NEW ‘DIGITAL’ AVANT-GARDE, CONSTRUCTABILITY BECOMES A DIRECT FUNCTION OF COMPUTABILITY. CONTRASTINGLY, FOR SOME DESIGNERS, LIKE FRANK GEHRY, THE DIRECT TACTILITY OF A PHYSICAL MODEL IS A MUCH-PREFERRED WAY OF DESIGNING THAN A ‘FLAT’ DIGITAL MANIPULATION OF SURFACES ON A COMPUTER SCREEN. YET, COMPUTER MODELING STILL PERFORMS A CRUCIAL ROLE AS A MEDIUM OF TRANSLATION FROM THE GEOMETRY OF THE PHYSICAL MODEL TO DIGITALLY ENCODED CONTROL INFORMATION THAT DRIVES VARIOUS FABRICATION MACHINES. THIS PROCESS CAN BE REFERRED TO AS ‘REVERSE ENGINEERING’. HERE, THE PROCESS IS FROM PHYSICAL TO DIGITAL TO PHYSICAL THAT ENABLES 2D FABRICATION, SUBTRACTIVE FABRICATION, ADDITIVE FABRICATION, FORMATIVE FABRICATION AS WELL AS ASSEMBLY AND SURFACE STRATEGIES. FOR ME TOO, THE TACTILITY OF A PHYSICAL MODEL IS PREFERABLE IN THE CONCEPTUAL STAGE OF DESIGN. IN SEARCH OF A DYNAMIC AND COHESIVE SYSTEM, IT IS IMPERATIVE FOR ME TO BE ABLE TO ‘PLAY’ WITH MATERIALITY IN THE DESIGN PROCESS. THIS IS NOT NECESSARILY POSSIBLE IN RHINO, SO, I HAVE EXPERIMENTED WITH MANY HAND BUILT MODELS THAT UTILIZE BOTH THE STRENGTH AND FLEXIBILITY OF MATERIALS TO CREATE FORM.
FISH SCULPTURE, FRANK GEHRY
MATERIALLY INFORMED COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN IS NOT ONLY INTERESTING FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW MATERIALS AND PRODUCTION PROCESSES IN ARCHITECTURE, BUT IS ESPECIALLY RELEVANT FOR EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL FOR AN ECOLOGICAL ARCHITECTURE INHERENT IN ALREADY AVAILABLE CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS. TO EXTEND MY CURRRENT MODELLING WITH WOOD, I WOULD CONSIDER COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN.
HAESLEY NINE BRIDGE GOLF CLUB, KOREA
ICD PAVILLION, STUTTGART
Wood photo
TREES PRODUCE WOOD AS FUNCTIONAL TISSUE. AS THE GROWTH OF TREES IS SUSTAINED BY PHOTOSYNTHESIS, A PROCESS THAT CONVERTS CARBON DIOXIDE INTO OXYGEN POWERED SOLELY BY SOLAR ENERGY, THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF WOOD AS A BUILDING MATERIAL IS REMARKABLE LOW. WOOD IS ONE OF THE OLDEST AND MOST COMMON CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS. YET, IN COMPARISON TO OTHER INDUSTRIALLY PRODUCES CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS, WOOD HAS BEEN CONSIDERED AN INFERIOR AND OUTDATED MATERIAL FOR SOME TIME. IN THE CONTEXT OF THE TODAY’S ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES AND THE SECOND SKIN BRIEF, FEW MATERIALS CAN RIVAL IT. DIFFERENT FROM MOST CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS, WOOD IS NOT INDUSTRIALLY MADE BUT GROWN AS THE TISSUE OF TREES, FUNCTIONING AS THEIR LOAD-BEARING STRUCTURE AND METABOLIC INFRASTRUCTURE. IN RESPONSE TO THESE BIOLOGICAL DEMANDS, WOOD HAS EVOLVED A DIFFERENTIATED CELLULAR STRUCTURE THAT HAS A VERY MARKED INFLUENCE ON ITS PROPERTIES AND BEHAVIOR. THE DOMINANT STRUCTURE OF WOOD TISSUE IS FORMED BY THE CELL WALLS, COMPOSED OF A CELLULOSIC STRUCTURE OF FIBROUS-LIKE STRANDS CALLED MICROFIBRILS THAT ARE REINFORCED BY A MATRIX OR HEMICELLULOSES AND LIGNIN, THE CONSTITUENT THAT DEFINES WOODY PLANTS. THUS, WOOD NOT ONLY RESEMBLES THE MATERIAL MAKE UP-UP OF SYNTHETIC FIBER COMPOSITES, AS FROE EXAMPLE GLASS-FIBER-REINFORCED PLASTICS, IT ALSO SHARES THEIR ELASTIC PROPERTIES. SIMILAR TO THESE MATERIALS, WOOD IS CHARACTERIZED BE RELATIVELY HIGH STRAIN AT FAILURE, WHICH MEANS RELATIVELY LOW STIFFNESS COMBINED WITH RELATIVELY HIGH STRUCTURAL CAPACITY.
“MANY PEOPLE THINK THAT CRAFT IS A MATTER OF EXECUTING A PRECONCEIVED FORM OR IDEA, SOMETHING THAT ALREADY EXISTS IN THE MIND OR ON PAPER. YET MAKING IS ALSO AN ACTIVE WAY OF THINKING, SOMETHING WHICH CAN BE CARRIED OUT WITH NO PARTICULAR GOAL IN MIND. IN FACT, THIS IS A SITUATION WHERE INNOVATION IS VERY LIKELY TO OCCUR” - DANIEL CHARNY
IN ‘DIGITAL FABRICATIONS: ARCHITECTURE AND MATERIAL TECHNIQUE’, LISA IWAMOTO DESCRIBES HOW THE RECENT SHIFT IN IN ARCHITECTS USE OF TECHNOLOGY FROM DESIGN TO FABRICATION. IT IS EVIDENT THAT ARCHITECTURE CONTINUALLY INFORMS AND IS INFORMED BY ITS MODES OF REPRESENTATION AND CONSTRUCTION, PARTICULARLY NOW, WHEN DIGITAL MEDIA AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES ARE RAPIDLY EXPANDING WHAT WE CONCEIVED TO FORMALLY, SPATIALLY AND MATERIALLY POSSIBLE. DIGITAL MODELING, COMBINED WITH DIRECT DIGITAL FABRICATION CAN ELIMINATE THE GP BETWEEN REPRESENTATION AND BUILDING AND HYPOTHETICALLY CREATE A SEAMLESS CONNECTION BETWEEN DESIGN AND MAKING. THE SECOND SKIN BRIEF FACILITATES THIS CONNECTION BY PROMPTING RESPONSES WITHIN THE SIZE LIMITATIONS OF THE VARIOUS FABRICATION MACHINES. THUS, IT IS POSSIBLE TO GO FROM DIGITAL MODEL TO 1:1 DIGITAL FABRICATION. THE PROCESS ENCOUNTERED IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS REFLECTS THE SHIFT IN THE ROLE OF THE ARCHITECT ONCE AGAIN INCLUDE OVERSIGHT OF THE BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION PROCESS, AS IN THE AGE OF THE MASTER BUILDER. MOREOVER, WORKING DIGITALLY ALLOWS MOVEMENT FROM BETWEEN REPRESENTATIONAL FORMATS; FOR EXAMPLE, FROM DIGITAL MODEL TO VECTOR LINE FILE TO MANUFACTURING METHOD. THESE TRANSLATIONS CREATE A MORE FLUID FABRICATION PROCESS AND REDUCE LABOR. TYPICALLY, CURVED SURFACES ARE MORE COMPLEX AND EXPENSIVE TO CONSTRUCT THAN FLAT ONES, AND TESSELLATION OFFERS A WAY TO BUILD SMOOTH FORMS USING SHEET MATERIAL. DEPENDING ON THE RESOLUTION OF TESSELLATION, APPROXIMATED SURFACES CAN BE SMOOTH AND PRECISE. OF COURSE, OUTSIDE PURE MATHEMATICS, A PERFECT SPHERE OR CONE CANNOT EXIST; IT IS HIGH RESOLUTION TESSELLATIONS THAT ALLOW US TO CLOSELY APPROXIMATE THESE FORMS IN BUILDINGS. YET, IT IS ALSO POSSIBLE TO OVER TESSELLATE TO THE POINT OF BEING UNBUILDABLE. THIS LINKS TO THE PROMINENT FACETTED FORMS IN CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE THAT TESSELLATE AT A LOW RESOLUTION.
“EVEN WHEN MAKING IS EXPERIMENTAL AND OPEN‐ ENDED, IT OBSERVES RULES. CRAFT ALWAYS IVOLVES PARAMETERS, IMPOSED BY MATERIALS, TOOLS, SCALE AND THE PHYSICAL BODY OF THE MAKER. SOMETIMES IN MAKING, THINGS GO WRONG. AN UNSKILLED MAKER, HITTING THE LIMITS OF THEIR ABILITY, MIGHT JUST STOP. AN EXPERT, THOUGH, WILL FIND A WAY THROUGH THE PROBLEM, CONSTANTLY UNFOLDING NEW POSSIBILITIES WITHIN THE PROCESS.” - DANIEL CHARNY