Nathan Anderson
The Client
The main character of Neuromancer, Case, is a space cowboy, an occupation whose scope is vague enough to encompass individuals whose roles include hackers, hitmen, spies, information traffickers and thieves – outlaws of the cyberpunk era.
What is Cyberpunk?
• Dark, gloomy, semi-dystopian urban environments, • Rapid advancements in technology, especially in the fields of cybernetics/cyberspace/internet, artificial intelligence, economics, and artificial prosthetics. • Implications of the fusion of technology and the digital age, and the physical world.
Daniel Brown
The Cover Art
London-based Daniel Brown – an artist, designer and programmer – achieved the abstracted look of the covers by using computer software based on fractal mathematics. The program overlays elements from his portfolio of architectural photos, to produce amazing Escheresque images of ‘impossible buildings’.
Marcel Van Vuuren
Vladimir Manyuhin
The Setting
Much of the novel is set in a depressed environment full of dirt, grit, and technology. It is a fictionalised version of Tokyo Bay, and the postwar, technocratic, urban consumerist frenzy that was modern Japan when Gibson visited the country. “Modern Japan simply was cyberpunk. The Japanese themselves knew it and delighted in it. I remember my first glimpse of Shibuya, when one of the young Tokyo journalists who had taken me there, his face drenched with the light of a thousand media-suns – all that towering, animated crawl of commercial information.”
Quotes from the book
• “A block down Baiitsu, toward the port, stood a featureless ten-story office building in ugly yellow brick. Its windows were dark now, but a faint glow from the roof was visible if you craned your neck. An unlit neon sign near the main entrance offered CHEAP HOTEL under a cluster of ideograms […] The elevator, like Cheap Hotel, was an afterthought, lashed to the building with bamboo and epoxy.”
Tim White, 1986
• “They floated in the center of a perfectly square room, walls and ceiling paneled in rectangular sections of dark wood. The floor was covered by a single square of brilliant carpet patterned after a microchip, circuits traced in blue and scarlet wool. In the exact center of the room, aligned precisely with the carpet pattern, stood a square pedestal of frosted white glass.
Vincenzo Natali https://www.dezeen.com/2016/11/20/william-gibson-sprawl-trilogy-book-covers-architecture-fractals-graphic-design-daniel-brown/ http://blogs.cornell.edu/exlibris/2014/05/18/neuromancer-by-william-gibson/
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Leon Zondervan and Dwayne van Halewijn - cardboard prototype Pop-up Dome. • A lightweight structure made out of corrugated cardboard sheets, connected with fiberglass reinforced tape. • 2.5 meters high with a diameter of 5 meters • Foldable into a transportable package with a diameter of 2 meters and 0.5 meter high. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design 3D printed models
3D printed model of a parametric surface
Precedent Studies Architect Kisho Kurokawa designed Japan’s first capsule hotel in 1979 They are found in big cities and airports, and provide a low budget, single night stay. The capsules of popular hotel chain 9 Hours measure 1.1 x 1.1 x 2.2 metres
Patterns in concrete
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Nakagin Capsule Tower • The building was designed by Kisho Kurokawa, a pioneer of the “metabolist” architectural ambition—a 1960’s movement that emphasized the idea of buildings as dynamic and adaptable to a fast-paced, continually evolving cityscape of the future. • The building was built in 1972 in just 30 days. Kurokawa envisioned this building as the dawn of a new age. • Each capsule was prefabricated at a factory before they were attached to the tower and installed with a small shower and toilet unit at one end of the room. • The capsules were intended to be removable so that they could be exchanged with new ones over time. • It is built around two concrete cores, 11 and 13 stories high.
The Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo by Studio Gang was built in 2010. It enables the site to function as an outdoor classroom that demonstrates the coexistence of nature and city.
Harbin Opera House, China, was designed by MAD Architects from 201015. It seamlessly blends with surrounding landscape to create a dramatic cultural center of the future. The exterior references the landscape of the surrounding area.
Boiler Suit, by Heatherwick Studio, is an undulating skin of woven steel panels encasing the boiler house at Guy’s Hospital, London.
Selfridges was designed by Future Systems Architects in 2003. The architectural style called Blob Architecture or Blobitecture. It is coated in 15000 anodized aluminium discs.
Bosjes Chapel, located within the Bosjes Farm vineyard in Western Cape, South Africa, designd by architecture firm Steyn Studio. The crisp white slim concrete shell has sections that rise and fall, appearing to be held up by glass walls. It is surrounded by a valley and mountains.
MaoHaus, China, by AntiStatics Architecture explores historical context, material potentials, novel fabrication and performative qualities within architecture.
The Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects in 2007. The Center establishes a continuous, fluid relationship between its surrounding plaza and the building’s interior. It consists of a concrete structure combined with a space frame system. In order to achieve large-scale column-free spaces that allow the visitor to experience the fluidity of the interior.
Zaha Hadid’s Serpentine Sackler Gallery is built from a glass-fibre textile, forming a free-flowing white canopy that appears to grow organically from the original brickwork of the single-storey gallery building. ”The extension has been designed to complement the calm and solid classical building with a light, transparent, dynamic and distinctly contemporary space of the twenty-first century,” explain the architects.
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Sketches of the site
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Light and Sound Diagram -
I discovered that the intensity of light and sound followed a similar pattern across the site so decided to map both factors on the same diagram. My shelter will be based in an area of medium intensity as this will suit the client.
Key -
Red = Dark, Noisy Orange - Yellow - Green = In Between Blue = Light, Quiet
Shelter location
1:500
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Circulation Diagram There are five subways leading into and out of the site. I connected all of them with straight lines to estimate the paths that people will take through the site and help me decide where to position the shelter.
Gravelly Hill Train Station Brookvale Park and Lake
Shelter location Gravelly Industrial Park
Aston Reservoir, Park and Train Station
Birmingham City Centre
Star City Amusement Centre
1:500
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Sun Path Diagram
Shelter location
1:500
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Sections and Elevations
The shelter will pramarily be used by one person, Case, however it may sometimes be used by two people. From adding people to the section and plan I can see that two people will comfortably fit in the shelter.
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Axonometric Drawings
These drawings were challenging due to the parametric nature of the shelter so I tried to take a logical approach.
Cut away axonometric showing frame structure
11.
Smocking Smocking is a textiles technique with a long history. It’s earliest appearance is in Tudor portraits, though it is unclear whether it is the same smocking as we know today. Then, when women of the aethetic/pre-raphaelite movement started wearing ‘healthy’ loose fitting garments which didn’t require corsets, smocking was used to add shape and decoration. The technique sometimes allows the fabric to stretch slightly and also creates air pockets which provide insulation. Smocking continued to be popular into the 20th century. It has a range of applications, from garments to domestic textiles to children’s wear.
18th century French dress
The Frame
Many modern tents use rigid steel poles as their structure. Some tents use flexible poles, which are made of fibreglass or an aluminium alloy.
The Fabric
I have chosen to use ripstop nylon because it can be very strong, durable and waterproof. The main characteristic of the fabric is that during manufacture, thick reinforcing threads are woven into the fabric in a grid pattern. Also, it is a suitable fabric for smocking.
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A smocking design in the Women’s Home Companion magazine, 1916
Smocking Diagram -
The points at each end of each diagonal line are sewn together to mmanipulate the fabric in intriguing ways.
Renderings
I found that doing these renderings really helped me to visualise the shelter in it’s location, especially the photomontage ones. The drawing is less successfull at conveying the shelter because of it’s sketchy style. I think that these renderings are more valuable than the physical model because of the site context.
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The Model
I first made a model at 1: 20 scale (left side of page) to find out how the frame would work and how the smocking looks on the curved shape. It was successful so I then made the 1:10 scale model in the same way, however as it is larger I connected the points at the base of the structure with a lenth of dowel to add strength.
Initial Model
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Final Model
References Neuromancer • Manyuhin, V. (2018) http://theartofanimation.tumblr.com/post/40757309449/ vladimir-manyuhin [Accessed 01/02/2018] • Senvox, N. (2015) Artistic Representations of Neuromancer. Available at: https://cyberculturabr.wordpress.com/tag/neuromancer/ [Accessed 01/02/2018] • Anders, C. J. (2014) The Most Beautiful Art Based on William Gibson’s Neuromancer. Available at: https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-most-amazing-artworks-based-on-william-gibsons-neu 1507726378?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_facebook&utm_source= io9_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow [Accessed 01/02/2018] Precedents • Zondervan, L. and van Halewijn, D. (2013) Pop-up Dome Prototype. Available at: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTkhOJaJ2-E&feature=share [Accessed 01/02/2018] • Anon. (2017) Harbin Opera House by MAD Architects. Available at: http://88designbox. com/architecture/harbin-opera-house-by-mad-architects-887.html [Accessed 01/02/2018] • Studio Gang (2010) Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo. Available at: http://studiogang.com/project/nature-boardwalk-at-lincoln-park-zoo [Accessed 01/02/2018] • Brancart, S. et. Al. (2015) UNDULATUS: design and fabrication of a self-interlocking modular shell structure based on curved-line folding. Available at: https://www.researchgate. net/publication/281201895_UNDULATUS_design_and_fabrication_of_a_self-interlocking_modular_shell_structure_based_on_curved-line_folding [Accessed 01/02/2018] • Frearson, A. (2013) Serpentine Sackler Gallery by Zaha Hadid. Available at: https:// www.dezeen.com/2013/09/25/serpentine-sackler-gallery-by-zaha-hadid/ [Accessed 01/02/2018] • Zaha Hadid Architects (2013) Serpentine Sackler Gallery. Available at: http://www.zaha-hadid.com/interior-design/serpentine-sackler-gallery-2/ [Accessed 01/02/2018] • Ming, Y. (2017) Pictures Reveal Life Inside Tiny Futuristic Cubes. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2017/10/nakagin-capsule-tower/ [Accessed
01/02/2018] • Anon. (2015) Capsule Hotels. Available at: https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2025_capsule_hotels.html [Accessed 01/02/2018] • Bekiroglu, S. K. (2014) Heydar Aliyev Center. Available at: http://uk.archello.com/en/project/heydar-aliyev-center-0 [Accessed 01/02/2018] • ITKE (2014) Arboskin: Durable and Recyclable Bio Plastics Façade Mock-Up. http:// uk.archello.com/en/project/arboskin-durable-and-recyclablebioplastics-facade-mock [Accessed 01/02/2018] • 9h (2015) Nine Hours Narita. Available at: https://ninehours.co.jp/en/narita/ [Accessed 01/02/2018] • Anon. (2018) The MaoHaus / AntiStatics Architecture Available at: https://www.archdaily. com/886282/the-maohaus-antistatics-architecture [Accessed 01/02/2018] • Fairs, M. (2007) Boiler Suit by Thomas Heatherwick. Available at: https://www.dezeen. com/2007/08/20/boiler-suit-by-thomas-heatherwick/ [Accessed 01/02/2018] • Anon. (2017) The Sculptural Design Of This Chapel Emulates The Mountains That Surround It. Available at: http://www.contemporist.com/sculptural-chapel-emulates-mountains-that-surround-it/ [Accessed 01/02/2018] • Nikolousi, M. (2015) The Selfridges Building, Birmingham. Available at: https:// www.johndesmond.com/blog/design/the-selfridges-building-birmingham/ [Accessed 01/02/2018] • Anon. (2015) Parametric Architecture. Available at: http://uk.archello.com/en/collection/ parametric-architecture [Accessed 01/02/2018] Smocking & the Structure • Anon. (2014) Canadian Smocking Tutorials. Available at: http://1001fashiontrends.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/canadian-smocking-tutorial-tutorials.html [Accessed 01/02/2018] • Singer, R. (2016) Pinning the Past - Smocking. Available at: https://www.mrxstitch.com/ smocking/ [Accessed 12/02/2018] • Anon. (2018) Tent. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tent [Accessed 12/02/2018] • Anon. (2017) Ripstop. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripstop [Accessed 13/02/2018]
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