Journal part a 671127 by Queenie Li

STUDIO AIR 2015 SEMESTER 2 LI MINGKUN TUTOR CHEN CANHUI

CONTENT

Table of Contents INTRODUCTION

A.1. DESIGN FUTURING

A.2. DESIGN COMPUTATION

A.3. COMPOSITION/GENERATIVE

A.4. CONCLUSION

A.5. LEARING OUTCOMES

A.6.APPENDIXALGORITHMIC SKETCHES

REFERENCE

INTRODUCTION As a landscape architect student, lots of people ask me, “why you choose Air as elective subject?” Actually I did not know how to answer, especially after touchin with grasshopper, it is a disaster. I am writing this introduction after the whole Part A, and I could answer the question now. To choose such a chanllenging subject is totally out of expectation, but now I believe it could bring me something that values for my whole career. Designing of Environments is like a abecedarian, Constructing of Environment is like the skeleton of my design idea, Visuallizing of Environments improved my skill of express my ideas by sketching, drawing and even create a collage. Then what Air brings me? By reading through the previous students work on algorithmic design, I realized “it gonna be lots of fun“, as my tutor always said. Computerisation sounds far away from me in the past, however luckily and unfortunately, this era will be its, in this semester and not only stop in this semester, I will also definately be its intimate friend. Hope After this semester, I could use grasshopper to design as proficient as use a pen. It really gonna be lots fun. I totally believe that.

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A.1. DESIGN FUTURING

ccording to Fry, Design futuring has to confront two tasks. First one is to slow the rate of defuturing, because for us humans the problem adds up to the diminution of the finite time of our collective and total existence. The other one is redirecting us towards far more sustainable modes of planetary habitation. Design is no longer a subjective creating process, it could and should be in the front-line of transformative action which is increasingly likely to be inspired by softwares. At the same time, the challenges of sustainability of architecture design is highlighted. The principle of designers decides many users direction of behavior and attitude, one may argue that it is uses’ demand matters, it is apparently true, however before greening apartment is constructed, little users realized the cozy liveable environment directly relates to the conservation of macro environment. To some extent, design is an activity highly requires responsibiity to our future and to our planet.

“It is not just that many contemporary practices harm the world of our dependence but also that so few of them deliver the means to actually know the consequences of their activities beyond a horizon of immediate concern”——Tony Fry I might have exerted so much pressure and duty on designers, which could be a quite wide concept towarding every common individual nowadays. Sorry about that! design is still more than exiting. As being described in Speculative Everything: Design Fiction, and Social Dreaming , Design is dreaming, ……(it) “thrives on imagination and aims to open up new perspectives on what are sometimes called wicked problems, to create spaces for discussion and debate about alternative ways of being, and to inspire and encourage people’s imaginations to flow freely. Design speculations can act as a catalyst for collectively redefining our relationship to reality.” To live towards future means possibility, responsibility and many stuff you would add as well. Let us open up them that can be dreamt by designing futuring.

TONY FRY, DESIGN FUTURING (OXFORD: BERG, 2009). ANTHONY DUNNE AND FIONA RABY, SPECULATIVE EVERYTHING (CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS: THE MIT PRESS, 2013).

“

Critical design can often be dark or deal with dark themes but not just

for the sake of it……We view people as obedient and predictable users and consumers. Darkness as an antidote to naive technoutopianism can jolt people into action.

ANTHONY DUNNE AND FIONA RABY, SPECULATIVE EVERYTHING (CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS: THE MIT PRESS, 2013).

”

PRECEDENT PROJECT 1

GARDENS BY THE BAY, SINGAPORE

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Gardens by the Bay is one of the largest garden projects of its kind in the world. Ultimately, the site will total 101 hectares comprising three distinct gardens – Bay South, Bay East and Bay Central. Located on reclaimed land in Singapore’s new downtown at Marina Bay, the site will provide a unique leisure destination for local and international visitors. Taking inspiration from the form of the orchid, Grant Associates’ masterplan is a rich fusion of nature, technology and environmental management. Stunning architectural structures are combined with a wide variety of horticultural displays, daily light and sound shows, lakes, forests, event spaces and a host of dining and retail offerings. The whole plan has an intelligent environmental infrastructure, allowing endangered plants, which could not normally grow in Singapore to flourish, providing both leisure and education to the nation. Between 25 and 50 metres in height, the 18 Supertrees designed by Grant Associates are iconic vertical gardens, with emphasis placed on creating a “wow” factor through the vertical display of tropical flowering climbers, epiphytes and ferns. At night, these canopies come alive with lighting and projected media. An aerial walkway suspended from the Supertrees offers visitors a unique perspective on the gardens. The Supertrees are embedded with sustainable energy and water technologies integral to the cooling of the Cooled Conservatories.

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GUANGZHOU OPERA HOUSE ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS

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PRECEDENT PROJECT 2 GUANGZHOU OPERA HOUSE ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS

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The design evolved from the concepts of a natural landscape and the fascinating interplay between architecture and nature; engaging with the principles of erosion, geology and topography. The Guangzhou Opera House design has been particularly influenced by river valleys – and the way in which they are transformed by erosion. Fold lines in this landscape define territories and zones within the Opera House, cutting dramatic interior and exterior canyons for circulation, lobbies and cafes, and allowing natural light to penetrate deep into the building. Smooth transitions between disparate elements and different levels continue this landscape analogy. Custom moulded glass-fibre reinforced gypsum units have been used for the interior of the auditorium to continue the architectural language of fluidity and seamlessness. The combination of the design with natural landscape and light well shows the construction’s sustainability principle, the building exterior has modern but smooth natualized line shape which also highlight the futuring consideration.

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A.2. DESIGN COMPUTATION “The theoretical foundations of a digital architecture appear in a richflowering of exhibitions and publications at the beginning of the new millennium. By this time writings of the digital in architecture had become the de facto locus of architectural theoretical discourse.” — — Theories O f The Digital In Architecture

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Software was identified as the tool for designers to realize a generated idea in brain, but with the level of digitalization being gradually improved and prevalented, design becomes the thinking of architectural generation through the logic of the algorithm. Design computation informed by performative design, tectonic models and digital materiality. According to Theories of the Digital in Architecture, working within the variability of parametric algorithmic design and the tectonic richness of the material shift of the last decade, the integration with performance analysis software is seminal. This is producing the digital linkage of form generation and perfomative form finding.

RIVKA OXMAN AND ROBERT OXMAN, THEORIES OF THE DIGITAL IN ARCHITECTURE.

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HEYDAR ALIYEV CENTER

FREARSON AMY, 2013 <HTTP://WWW.DEZEEN.COM/2013/07/11/HEYDAR-ALIYEVCENTRE-BY-ZAHA-HADID-ARCHITECTS/> [ACCESSED 13 AUGUST 2015].

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PRECEDENT PROJECT 1

HEYDAR ALIYEV CENTER ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS

FIG.2

Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects Design: Zaha Hadid, Patrik Schumacher Project Architect & Designer: Saffet Kaya Bekiroglu Baku, Azerbaijan 2007-10 May 2012 74 m (243 ft)

The Center, designed to become the primary building for the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cultural programs, breaks from the rigid and often monumental Soviet architecture that is so prevalent in Baku, aspiring instead to express the sensibilities of Azeri culture and the optimism of a nation that looks to the future. The Center houses a conference hall (auditorium), a gallery hall and a museum. The project is intended to play an integral role in the intellectual life of the city. Located close to the city center, the site plays a pivotal role in the redevelopment of Baku. The Heydar Aliyev Center represents a fluid form which emerges by the folding of the landscapeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s natural topography and by the wrapping of individual functions of the Center. All functions of the Center, together with entrances, are represented by folds in a single continuous surface. This fluid form gives an opportunity to connect the various cultural spaces whilst at the same time, providing each element of the Center with its own identity and privacy. As it folds inside, the skin erodes away to become an element of the interior landscape of the Center. Responding to the topographic sheer drop that formerly split the site in two, the project introduces a precisely terraced landscape that establishes alternative connections and routes between public plaza, building, and underground parking. This solution avoids additional excavation and landfill, and successfully converts an initial disadvantage of the site into a key design feature.

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HUFTON + CROW, GALLERY, 2013 <HTTP://IMAGES.ADSTTC.COM/MEDIA/IMAGES/5285/246E/E8E4/4E22/2500/0150/ LARGE_JPG/HAC_INTERIOR_PHOTO_BY_HUFTON_CROW_(6).JPG?1384457244> [ACCESSED 13 AUGUST 2015].

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PRECED CARBON-FIBRE PAVILION UN

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DENT 2 NIVERSITY OF STUTTGUTT

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A robotically woven carbon-fibre pavilion based on the lightweight shell encasing the wings and abdomen of a beetle is the second structure revealed this week from the team of architects and engineers at the University of Stuttgart. It is based on the development of a robotic fabrication process for modular, double layered fibre composite structures, which reduces the required formwork to a minimum while maintaining a large degree of geometric freedom. This enabled the transfer of functional principles of natural lightweight

A robotic winding method was developed to fabricate each of the fibrous modules, which were impregnated with resin for addition strength. Two robots wound the fibres around the custom-made steel frames, and could be adapted to suit the propositions of all 36 necessary geometries. Undoubtedly, the pavilion is mostly a digital generation, as the designer introduced, coreless filament winding does not only save substantial resources through the needlessness of individual moulds, but in itself is a very material efficient fabrication process since there is no waste or cut-off pieces. the inspiration has many aspect, fistly, the computation of design makes the construct process more automatic and time-saving. Secondly, by adopting sustainable material, the architecture pollution is hopefully being resolved to some extent in the future. In additional, the digitalization makes the design full of possibility, that is to say, the tedious architecture outcome may gradually lose its way.

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A.3. COMPOSITION/GENERATION

n terms of generative design, computation is its meat, ideas of designer generated or developed basing on which have obvious time making. According to Computation Works , architects use the computer as a virtual drafting board making it easier to edit, copy and increase the precision of drawings, this mode of woking has been termed ‘computerisation’. ‘Computation’, on the other hand, allows designers to extend their abilities to deal with highly complex situatiins.The most impressive part of working with computers and digital fabrication machines may be they provide inspiration and go beyond the intellevt of the designer. Peters provides an example, which is also my personal real experience, “when an architect writes a computer program to solve a design problem, further options can then be explored through modifications to the program - sketching by algorithm.” Algorithm is a train for designers and sometimes they do not even know the

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destiny, however, the view on the road may be surprises them even without any expectation in the very beginning. Another good news of design computerisation, in my opinion, is it lower the treshold of design industry. I am not saying that it is easier to design and just depend on computer operation. For example, in the past, people who wants to be a designer must or better equipted with handdrawing skill, which ask for specialist academic education. However, as Peters states, “as networks, both digital and social, now allow for the access to knowledge generated by others. Events such as Smartgeometry, and online forums such as the Grasshopper community, allow designers to gain knowledge of digital tools and codes.” Let’s predict boldly, computation design could soon give us a easy participated design era, if you have interesting to handle the algorithmic procedures and have willing to realize your big ideas, odd imaginations, then you willc be a designer.

“

We are moving from an era where architects use software to one where they create software

BRADY PETERS AND XAVIER DE KESTELIER, COMPUTATION WORKS.

”

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KHAN SHATYRY ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, ASTANA

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PRECEDENT PROJECT 1

KHAN SHATYRY ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE

Khan Shatyr Entertainment Centreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 150 metre mast successfully erected The most critical phase in the construction of the Khan Shatyr Entertainment Centre in Kazhakstan was successfully completed yesterday with the erection of its 150 metre-high tripod mast. The 2,000 tonne structure was lifted into place by four cranes in a process that took two weeks. The project is intended to provide a new civic focus for Astana and is situated at the northern end of the new city axis. The structure rises from a 200 metre diameter elliptical

base and its massive volume will provide a sheltered environment and contain an urban-scale internal park, shops, cafes, as well as a wide variety of entertainment amenities, including a spa, sports centre and an indoor beach. The vast tent-like cable net structure is clad in ETFE, allowing light to wash the interior spaces while sheltering them from extreme weather conditions. At the core of the building is a large flexible space that will form the cultural hub of the centre, accommodating a varied programme of events and exhibitions. The remaining phases are due to complete by July 2009.

The Khan Shatyry Entertainment Centre in Astana will become a dramatic civic focal point for the capital of Kazakhstan. The soaring structure, at the northern end of the new city axis, rises from a 200m elliptical base to form the highest peak on the skyline of Astana.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;

When architects have a sufficient understanding of algorithmic concepts, when we no longer need to discuss the digital as something different, hen computation can become a true method of design for architecture.â&#x20AC;?

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IN PROGRESS: INFINITY TOWER/SOM Architects: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, Structural and Plumbing Engineering: SOM Site Area: 3,026.50 m2 Project Area: 111,484 m2 Building Height: 307m (73 stories) Area: 0.0 sqm Project Year: 2013

Dubai’s Infinity Tower, a 72-story skyscraper designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), began construction in 2006 and is finally nearing completion this year. The major characteristic of the tower is the way it twists up into the sky, as each floor is rotated 1.2˚ to create a full 90˚ twist from bottom to top. In order for a building to endure, the exterior form must be a direct expression of its structural framework. The powerful helix shape created by the rotating floors emphasizes SOM’s design philosophy and utilization of cutting-edge techniques. SOM shows the great power of design through Infinity’s unique spiral shape that reflects the everchanging shapes of the deserts, winds, and seas that surround it.

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A.4. CONCLUSION

The definition of design has long been a controvercial topic among not only designers, but public who care about or focus on the design trendency in nowaday’s society. For architects, the computerisation makes them more possibly to design futuring and design sustainabily. Computational designers are more than just creators of complex 3D models, they distil the underlying logic of architecture and create new environments in which to explore designs and simulate performance. Some one, like me, might have the worry that whether the popularizing of algorithmic will decrease the human activeness during the design process. It may be a heliscoper helping us to strech eyesight, maybe it is a tool that makes designer so much addict into unconcious result and let them become “lazy“, who knows?

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Frankly speaking, I was not that into software using, which takes time and when I haven’t absorb the handling skill well, the design process turn to a tedious and easygo-wrong procedure fighting.

A.5. LEARNING OUTCOMES

Luckily, after learning the Part A reading and experience the grasshopper progressily, the thing becoms different. I’m afraid I still not, say, interest in it, let alone being attracted by it, but at least I could calm down and sit in front of the laptop to try to understand the software logic and transfer it to my idea and origin of thought. What impressed me most was one time when I trying to follow the online tutorial to add a component, but unexpectly I add a wrong one, the result is not bad, actually it is the most fantastic linear partern I’ve made ever. So no matter Rhino or grasshopper, I finally persuade myself to get along with them, after I grasp most of the logic and could well operate it, thing will be different.

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A.6. APPENDIX ALGORITHM

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MIC SKETCHES

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References ÂŠ Iwan Baan, Guangzhou Opera House / Zaha Hadid Architects, 2010 <http://www.archdaily. com/115949/guangzhou-opera-house-zaha-hadid-architects> [accessed 13 August 2015] Amy, Frearson, 2013 <http://www.dezeen.com/2013/07/11/heydar-aliyevcentre-by-zaha-hadid-architects/> [accessed 13 August 2015] Dunne, Anthony, and Fiona Raby, Speculative Everything (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2013) Fry, Tony, Design Futuring (Oxford: Berg, 2009) Hufton + Crow, Gallery, 2013 <http://images.adsttc.com/media/ images/5285/246e/e8e4/4e22/2500/0150/large_jpg/HAC_Interior_photo_ by_Hufton_Crow_(6).jpg?1384457244> [accessed 13 August 2015] Oxman, Rivka, and Robert Oxman, Theories Of The Digital In Architecture Peters, Brady, and Xavier De Kestelier, Computation Works

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