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Hi, My name is Qiuliang Li. In my brief 21 years. I have studied in China, Botswana, New Zealand and Australia. Since I was a child, drawing had always been my main method of communication, second to speaking of course. Throughout the years, drawing had helped me in many ways to gain popularity and achievements among friends and school. It all started with a pen and my bedroom wall, from stick figures to the best graphic designer in the school, a homeless man’s shack to New Zealand scholarship winning cliff house. All of these were the result of my sixth-sense in drawing
and of course, the hard work. Throughout my senior years in school, I have travelled to both developed and developing countries and was inspired by the close relationship between social, cultural and economical factors of a country to its architectural style. One major difference is the use of computation in constructing buildings. In developing countries, such as Botswana where I worked on site as a labourer, the interaction between all parties were direct and on paper. Whereas, everything was set out on BIM in New Zealand. Thus, I believe computation still has a long way to
fully aid the human society as a whole, first, we must make it available to everyone. However, with the rocketing prices on software, it is very hard. I have been using ArchiCAD since high school to produce designs, however, hand drawing has always been my strength as I think it is important to have the mind and the body to work as one. Until recent time, I have taken up interest in learning grasshopper, which is fascinating in terms of how simple algorithms can be transformed visually into designs. Computation is a booming skill to have and I will try my best to acquire it.
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Design Intelligence (not to be confused with ‘intelligent design’). 1 What is Design Futuring? What is sustainability? What is nature? What is a question that cannot be defined? Indefinable or incomprehensive? We, humans, live in a world we do not fully comprehend. The rocks are being melted into iron, the soil is drained for crops, the roots are made into furniture, yet, we keep pushing our overweighted bodies erratically onto the crumbling cliff to test if it would hold. It will‌just kidding. Before one more person becomes the victim of climate change due to unsustainable development. We must wake up to the fact that the end is near! A spaceship needs to be designed and built in order to accommodate the elite and leave the everyday people in the apocalypse, which I believe is the case with architecture today. People with the appropriate financial and political means gain free access to the spaceships made from
steel and glass while the rest shelters in wood cabins burning coal to survive. Anyhow, the point is that architecture today has become a materialistic mean that focuses on the aesthetical appearance to a very narrow group of people. For example, mansions build for the rich in the desert in Las Vegas .2 How much is enough in order for us to realise that sea level is expected to rise 7 metres by the end of century with 500-750 million plus environmental refugees?3 Social and political aspects in society have set a general standard in promoting democratic designing, which allows a wider variety of design to be accomplished by a wider group of designers. This grants a more satisfied society, but also humans have become so proud and comfortable in their architectural developments that they are reluctant of creating the will and
means to mobilize appropriate technologies at the scale needed to make a real difference.4 Thus, design intelligence must intervene to create a sustainable future. Parametric design is the tip of the iceberg in design futuring as it is an effective method in finding the optimal structural strength and form from different materials to produce an advanced, durable and functional construction with minimum outputs. Therefore, in increasingly unsustainable worlds, design intelligence would deliver the means to make crucial judgements about actions that could increase or decrease futuring potential.5 Essentially, design intelligence has become design futring. It has to confront two tasks; slow the rate of defuturing and redirecting us towards far more sustainable modes of planetary habitation.6
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The Swiss Re, designed by Norman Foster and Arup group is a commercial skyscraper with 41 floors that was completed in construction in December, 2003. The building is an iconic symbol of London and one of the most widely recognised examples of contemporary architecture. It demonstrates the power of the linkage between parametric modellers and their scriptable mediated variability and performance simulation software.7 This is evident in the design of the building’s effective ventilation system ,
The six air shafts in the building act as natural ventilation systems as well as creating a double glazing effect, trapping air within to force warm air to escape upwards in summer, while using passive solar heating in winter. As a result, it only consumes half the power that a similar tower would typically use.8 The commitment to curvilinear design and the preference for non-orthogonal geometries, such as aerodynamically splitting wind paths rather than blocking them like typical orthogonal buildings have redirected the Swiss Re to the differentiating
potential of topological and parametric algorithmic thinking and the tectonic creativity innovation of digital materiality.9 In turn, it formalises the biomimetic principles of design as it combines the concept of morphogenesis with the tectonics of futuring materials, e.g. glass in conjunction with performative simulation, such as the natural ventilation to create naturally ecologic systems. Ultimately, the Swiss Re pushes architecture towards a sustainable design future.
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With 40,000 square metres of exhibition space, the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) in Doha is the largest Congress centre in the Middle East. The building complex was designed by Arata Isozaki, and it impresses with construction shaped tree trunks and monumentally uprising branches that take on a vital supportive function.10 Through the use of advanced computing software, the structural form, e.g. the sharp connection from the trunk structure to the roof was able to be executed to an optimal connection in relation to the materials used. The exhibition not only exhibits what is inside but also its futuristic structural experimentations only made available by computation technologies. Made of steel, wood, marble and glass – it demonstrates the powerful
potentials of materials in supporting the building with minimal quantities and extreme, non-orthogonal shapes. The building has already received the 'Leadership in Energy and Environment Design' (LEED) award by operating efficiently with innovations such as water conservation and energy-efficient fixtures. One of the features is the 3,500sq m of solar panels providing 12.5 percent of the Centre's energy needs.11 The exhibition centre is a vivid example of innovative integration between material fabrication, form generation and performative form finding. The end result is a democratic design free from restrictions, limits or unsustainability. This building has revolutionised architecture as multiple functions can be accomplished by a single
building. For example, a power station could also perform as a recycling centre, or a commercial office with water catchments and farming facilities this concept was already visioned in Le Corbusier’s roof gardens. However it lacked the appropriate technologies to materialise. Today, with design intelligence and performative parametric computing, we must take the next step and use this advantage to create complex systems that are effective in harmonising with nature and sustainability. As already evident in the exhibition centre, many other integrative design elements were included in the building to achieve the highest level of environmental and sustainable standards.
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Computing technology has become so effective in today’s society, especially in designing that it has formed part of our daily practices and we are dependent on the efficiency it provides. In fact, we are so over reliant on it, without it, society would be paralysed. Thus, it leads to a common question to whether we must continue down this path or find other solutions. Lawson's theory on 'fake‘ creativity encouraged by CAD, that technology can replace design12 is a reasonable argument and that we are more dependent on machines rather than our imaginations and dreams. However, our imaginations are limited by what we
understand and the ability of our brains to process these information. Thus, a majority of designers use programs simply to computerize their ideas electronically onto CAD. Whereas, computation not only eliminates these limitations but also helps us to discover new comparable possibilities each with its own processes and data. Computer aided design (CAD) helps to formulate randomized concepts into informed designs through the processes of calculating structural performance, load distribution, optimal strength threshold of materials13 in merely minutes, granting major reductions in work loads, material quantities and time
spans. Furthermore, BIM (Building Information Modelling) as part of CAD has become an international communicating tool that brings designers from different ethnic, social and political backgrounds together to share and develop architecture as a global goal towards major developments, such as sustainability, Form generation and composition have never been made easier with the redirection of computation to a precise, puzzle making process, allowing architects to find, instead of making14 patterns inside and outside the puzzles.
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Located in Kuwait City, the National Bank of Kuwait is a successful computing architecture. "The building is an environmentally responsive building and a complex geometry designed that was designed to integrating various performance parameters while continuing to investigate geometrical solutions".15 Generative Components™ (GC) was the primary parametric modelling software that quickly produced various options for the design considering a range of performance parameters including “aspirations, structural, environmental functional and operational requirements”. 16 The speedy analysis and generation of models enhance the tectonics of materialization and fabrication. The fins that create the shading system were studied for buildability through testing the level of curvature of the elements and through the derivation of elements with possible repetition, all while maintaining the shape. 16 Three sides except the South façade are covered by the intelligent shading system where fins are angle at such
degrees to reduce sunlight penetration but at the same time, allowing views and the daylight to facilitate the interior spaces. The building responds well to local weather conditions. Parametric and performative design have been utilised with integrated simulation software for wind, sunlight, energy and structural calculations (shown in Fig. 4) in scripting the angle and shape of the saw-tooth form for optimal shading and energy efficiency. Furthermore, computation processes have turned the facades from singularities to multiple singularities, which consists of multiple performative layers that integrates with each other to create an optimal product that provides maximum efficiency and minimum environmental impacts. Required interdisciplinary skills and communication to accomplish these is much easier to be expressed and managed with computer generations. Time span of designing is shortened as multiple performative forms can be simultaneously calculated, evaluated and perfected.
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The national aquatics centre in Beijing, China, also known as the ‘water cube’ brings aspiration to computer generation technologies. 22000 structural elements and 4000 unique cladding panels were modelled and designed using CAD with rapid prototyping machinery.17 The exterior pattern was generated by randomized shapes formed by computation, it is similar to the result of Voronio in grasshopper 3D. The end result is an iconic futuristic building. Environmentally, the cube is an insulated greenhouse with diffuse natural light. Functionality wise, the main steel structure is housed in a cavity, isolated from both the outside and the corrosive pool atmosphere. ETFE, a fluorine based plastic cladding was used to be an efficient means of construction as it would use minimal material
and remove the need for a secondary structure, while providing better insulation than single glazing. These innovative and performative features are made possible solely by computation. Materials, costs and time are saved by the continuum of form generation and testing by CAD. With the exterior cladding generated with computation, this demonstrates another advantage of computation that it can be used to spark ideas and to continually generate forms in order to keep the design process circulating as sometimes, designers grow weary and run out of concepts. With the development of material fabrication, structural tectonics was simultaneously calculated by CAD to test and execute performative forms in hands with the morphological structure.
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Parametric design has given us countless opportunities and ideas that we would never dream of without it. It has made unbuildable designs buildable. Unimaginable form generations generated. The trial and error age has passed and today, with powerful computers, knowledge is key to create imaginations. Knowledge in systems, modelling, sharing and reuse of computational tools. With more powerful computers come with much more sophisticated analytical algorithms and visualisation techniques that render the analytical data. Ultimately, design outcomes become more sophisticated in creating much more complex design briefs with the access to gain profound discoveries about abstract
concepts. It is fascinating to observe forms, patterns, structures generated with the aid of algorithmic thinking, such as the pattern of bird flocks through Boids by Craig Reynolds. 18 Multiple briefs can be fitted into one design with the help from form generation to composition of performative forms to form a complex brief that meets multiple functions. Sustainable fabricated materials are used to achieve a more environmental friendly design. Computer programs such as Grasshopper relies on visual connections in writing parametric script. Visually descriptive nodes are only shown in a visual form similar to the architecture field, which heavily relies on visual communications. This
creates a barrier between developers and users as beginners in the field are constrained by their insufficient knowledge in computing. Thus, unable to fully express themselves through CAD programs. Ultimately, hand drawing is still a popular method in designing. However, educational videos on the internet have proved in encouraging more designers to use CAD, which increases the data base online for sharing and reuse throughout the world. Nevertheless, sharing have caused existing designs to be modified due to individuals’ vague believe in only form and structure, leading to the loss of connection to the brief. The individuals ‘simply being a designer’.19
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In this pavilion, the efficiency of computational generation is achieved through advanced simulation and robotic fabrication that expands the design space towards hitherto unsought architectural possibilities, 20 enabling material behaviour to unfold a complex performative structure from a surprisingly simple material system. Referring to the pavilion, the development of a generative computational process based on the morphological principles of the plate skeleton of echinoids enabled the design and robotic manufacturing of a modular system, which exploited the hygroscopic behaviour of wood in the development of no-tech responsive architecture. The pavilion only uses extremely thin (6.5mm) plywood sheets, 20 thus making it both economical to build and materially highly efficient. At the same time providing an enriched spatial extension of the public space. By utilising computer generation, the surface of the building was able to be created through form generation in cooperation with performative form finding. A series of computerised detailing , such as digital fabrication and compositing the surfaces greatly enhances the structures adaptability to the surrounding environment as well as simplifying the designing and construction
processes while maintaining its complexity. The surfaces were divided into singular panels which were digitally fabricated, then fitted on site efficiently with the aid of CAD. Similar in putting together a puzzle. The morphogenetic property of the pavilion form a relationship between its surrounding vegetation and the pavilion’s interior. Elaborative formations such as undulations, bifurcations, folds, and inflections modify this pavilion surface into an architectural landscape that performs a multitude of functions: welcoming, embracing, and directing visitors through the interior spaces. With this gesture, the building blurs the conventional differentiation between architectural object and urban landscape, building envelope and urban pavilion, figure and ground, interior and exterior.21 Thus, form generating through algorithmic thinking allows the design to relate to its surroundings in harmony both aesthetically and environmentally. Advanced computing allowed for the continuous control and communication of these complexities between a wide variety of participants also reduced time span and allowed for the bottom-up system where more productive ideas and concepts were combined to perfect the pavilion as a whole..
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With Toyo Ito’s Serpentine Pavilion. The aesthetic and tectonic possibilities of the algorithmic was eloquently demonstrated.22 It was designed during the time when multidisciplinary research were developed to expert the ability to exploit computational geometry in the mediated generation and analysis of digital designs.23 The design can be related to the Delaunary and Offset commands in Grasshopper, which allows computation to tease out the patterns in which the building could utilise. Experimentations with the modelling of the tectonic potential of the square was carried out. A series of squares were drawn with the same
centre point, with the aid from form generation, patterns were formed during the process which composited together to form a computational design we see as the end product. Moreover, this pavilion portrays one of the symbolic properties of form generation, that, it creates randomised patterns and designs through controlled parametric algorithms. This is in the similar case with nature as it is the randomness of trees and mountain ranges formed by a broader pattern of genetics and plate tectonics that creates beautiful and natural sceneries. This cannot be achieved by hand as one will always be limited by his/her design patterns and way of thinking.
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It is with urgency to inform the industry that architecture has come to a stall. In one hand, futuristic and fascinating buildings are being designed and constructed. However, on the other hand, they are still been built at a cost on environmental degradation no matter how energy efficient it is. ‘one must destroy something in order to create something new’, animals must be killed to make meat, trees must be chopped to turn into timber. Architecture is forever a create and destroy relationship. Natural resources are burnt in need for constructing skyscrapers or
providing energy for households. Thus, the most feasible option would be to slow down ‘defuturing’ and prolong our habitable environment, which can be accomplished by computation. Design intelligence/algorithmic thinking is able to aid us for optimal performative form finding, in relation to utilising resources and materials to generate precisely the minimal resources needed in generating the maximal efficiency in all areas of a design from energy consumption to material strength. With the constant development of programing, designers
will be able to use algorithmic formulas to calculate the unpredictable growth patterns of renewable resources such as trees or bird flocks by Craig Reynoids. This can be used directly as design elements. Leading to the creation of live architecture which cooperates with nature to build shelter. Therefore, there are endless possibilities with computation to turn undefinable designs on paper into an algorithmic system where designs come from generation and generation from intelligence.
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Through the process of comprehending computational theories and practices, I am able to understand the necessity of being able to grasp this important skill. Being a designer, it is not only about creating new styles or forms of architecture, but to experiment with
different genres of architecture in order to discover and find the optimum solution to a puzzle. Whether it is an environmental puzzle or a social puzzle, I am able to use computation to aid me in performative form finding and providing accurate calculations for
multiple goals. The precision of computational tools fascinate me the most as it is crucial in constructing major projects. I will utilise these tools to their full potential in order to find the puzzles that were considered to be impossible on paper.
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This algorithmic stretch consists of many fundamental elements of computation. It represents parametric design’s ability to generate mesh , then dividing it precisely into producible components while adding appropriate thickness and details to the design. Following up to the mesh and geodesic components, I have added thickness as well as transformed
the rigid outcome into a more morphogenetic structure which relaxes its protruding characteristic and maintain its structural integrity at the same time. From this sketch, I have discovered that by using computation, structures can now be generated into interesting shapes that can be exposed purposefully to achieve both aesthetical and
structural success, such as bridges or skyscrapers. With the aid of computation, model making has become more efficient and time saving as parametric algorithms automatically calculate and generate the necessary elements into producing the model with an infinite number of modifications in perfecting the outcome.
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The diversity of algorithm outcome in this parametric design interests me. By simply changing a few nodes, (Box Morph> Orient, Weaverbird) grasshopper was able to generate brand new faรงade patterns for the entire design in
mere seconds. This greatly reduces design time and more importantly, allow designers to explorer much more feasible possibilities that would never be achieved by hand. This once more emphasise on the efficiency of computation.
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This parametric design displays the beauty of repetition through form generating. It
demonstrates the limitless using Offset and freedom of algorithmic Number Slider thinking. The design can Grasshopper. be infinitely expanded
the in
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