WA/SA [waldrip architects/ s.a.] [architecture- los angeles]
Alberti, Sandro Academic Building Blocks; 18 October, 2002 [text24]
Working 9-5, at...
‘WA/SA’, ‘Aloha8’, and ‘Working 9 to 5, at...’
At UCLA A+UD, Kostas Terzidis continues with interesting introductions to C.A.D. In ‘Visual Literacy in Digital Media’, he postulates that the role of the architect in the late 20th century is of ‘designer and organizer of information” (for which digital design and drawing skills are necessary). Students not only learn new digital techniques. In doing so, Algorithm 001. they also thoroughly consider historical design precedents (various precedents are reconstructed, and their graphic particularities considered; “why single inked lines with meeting corners?; why wire frame or rendered surfaces?; why hand rendering?”). In ‘Algorithmic Design’, the important use
of algorithmic programming is presented. Terzidis explains that “mouse-based manipulations of 3d computer models are not necessarily acts of computation… [However,] algorithmic design [allows for] the designation of software programs to generate space and form from the rule-based logic inherent in architectural programs, typologies, building code, and language itself.” The course develops from basics of programming, to procedures and functions, and articulation, revealing that the incorporation of algorithmic logic allows for computational complexity and the creative use of computers.
are fictions of fen-om: [www.fen-om.com]
Algorithm 002.
Building-block 001.
The exhibition of ‘cellular automata’ in structures courses also continues from previous terms (closely related this term to the aforementioned concepts of digital algorithms; all very popular these days, of course, with the publication of Wolfram’s ‘A New Kind of Science’). In Terzidis’ ‘Kinetic Form’ publication, we find some interesting ‘observations’ regarding the configuration of forms (algorithmic or other) that reflect motion: 1. [Since] stasis can be represented by balance, [and] motion by direction, the juxtaposition of a balanced organization next to a directional configuration [effectively suggests] flow and motion. 2. Overlays of transparent/ translucent forms… [can] represent overlapping moments within the same form. 3. [Similar to superimposition,] sequential juxtaposition is a configuration where
Building-block 002.
