COMPUTATIONAL Design Techniques Week 2
Computation design is a process in which computation is used to solve design problems. A computer is used to perform millions of mathematic computations to create multiple outcomes. These could be anything : manipulations, reductions or form generations. The result of this technique can only be created with the help of a computer, these solutions could not be sketched by the designer/creater alone. Computation design techniques are much faster and have the possibility of creating the solutions to a much finer leve, using algorithmic code.
Computers can graphically illustrate solutions of a design problem. They do not tire or get bored, unlike human beings. The required reading, Architecture’s New Media : Principles, Theories, and Methods of Compuer-Aided Design illustrates the importance of computer’s in the field of designing. Architectural designing is constrained by a number of problems, it relies on the analytical and the create sides to produce a feasible solution. Computers are amazing analytical engines, which when programmed correctly, can achieve solutions to design problems much faster and to finer details. They lack the creativity needed, but computers can follow instructions well. Humans can programme the computers in ways which can tell them to manipulate electrical impulses. These manipulations can be representated in the most suitable form required for its comprehension.
Capital Gate: Parametric Design Results in Worlds Steepest Leaning Building The Capital Gate is a building design by RMJM Architects. Certified as the “World’s further leaning man-made tower” in June 2010 by the Guinness World Records, the Capital Gate is a unique outcome of parametric design which pushes its limit to achieve a steep leaning building. The building has a lean 18 degrees westwards; which is more than four times than the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa (RMJM Architects). The construction of the Leaning tower of Pisa began in 1173 and continued till 200years after because on the ongoing wars. It is 183feet high and has 8 stories and a chamber for the bells(http://www.towerofpisa.info/) . Where as, the Capital Gate of Abu Dhabi is a 35story high building which is sitting on 490 piles that are drilled undergroung to stop the tower from falling over (RMJM Architects). The Capital Gate is an innovative and unique design of a skyscraper which shows the extrordinary skills of the architect by the 18degree lean. Awarded the world’s further leaning tower by guinness world records, already a part of the discourse, the building produces an iconic design technique which could be used to enhance the site of the Gateway project.
Richard Buckminster Fuller’s Manhattan Dome Richard Fuller was an Architect, Inventor, Designer and Theorist. Born in 1895 (-1983), Fuller workded on numerous projects as an architect, designer, philosopher, artist, engineer and more. Fuller and Shoji Sadao designed a dome over Manhattan in 1968. He imagined cutting people off from all elements by doming the cities. According to Fuller, doming the cities would have free climate control during winter and summer-never rain or snow, it would be much warmer inside than outside (New Yorker).
Imagine Source : http://www.newyorker.com/online/2008/06/09/slideshow_080609_fuller?slide=7#slide=7
Ordos Museum Ordos Museum is located at a site which was nothing in the recent years in the Gobi Desert - the new city centre of Ordos, China. Inspired by the Manhattan Dome by Buckminster Fuller, the protective covering of this museum keeps it safe from the ‘city’, the museum was designed to be the new irregular nuclues for the new town which encourages history and culture of Ordows which would further extent into the futrue. The masterplan of the city is an urban grid which still exists only as a pattern due to its urban prematurity.
The ides of having something unique in the middle of no where, or in other words, redefining a natural landscape, looking at it like an empty canvas and painting something out of the ordinary on it makes the Ordos Musuem beautiful. Buckminster Fuller had an idea of covering a city with a dome to protect it from the outside weather and see the types of conditions arising inside the dome because of its existance. The simplicity of this design integrated into the vast environment around, puts the Museum in contrast with the surrounding. The Museum in Ordos stands out and offers an environment within which people can experience their culture. A simple, tranquil, yet unique design is needed for the Gateway project and the Ordos Musuem can inspire great ideas.
National Aquatic Centre (Water Cube), Beijing The water cube is designed by PTW Architects of Australia, based on the structure of soap bubbles built in 2003. The structure of soap bubbles form a voronoi; in mathematics, a voronoi design is a special kind of decomposition of a metric space determinded by distances to a specified discrete set of objects in space. In 2004, The National Aquatic Centre (also known as the Water Cube) won the 2004 Venice Biennate award for the most accomplished work in the atmosphere section (PTW Architects). The design of this piece of architecture is inspired by a simple idea of soap bubbles which was then transformed into something different and unique, yet beautiful. Keeping the simplicity of ideas in mind, the water cube is a perfect example for the EOI- it is innovative and iconic. The idea of turning simple to something complex could be implemented in my design. It is made of a steel frame which has a memberane made of engergy efficient ETFE-which is a recyclable, ecofriendly and energy efficient material. The use of such materials for the Gateway project would keep the design in the limit of budget.
Above pictures are sourced from: Arup_Ben McMillan, and PTW + CSCEC http://www.e-architect.co.uk/beijing/watercube_beijing.htm
Bus Terminal, San Francisco The Bus Terminal is a new project near the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. Developed by Bin Lu and Joongsik Yang at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, it is a design project that is based on parametric design, and sustainable technologies as design tools. The Bus terminal is inspired by voronoi patterns that analyses the people coming to the bus station from different directions at different points in time. The result of this is a tree-like structure, opening to the sky, with a cellular pattern. This design focuses on the voronoi structure and also uses the vessles of a human hand to form the tree-like structure of the building. It is inspired by voronoi patterns, similar to the water cube in beijing. This architectural piece uses a simple idea and results in a complex pattern.
Sourses: Website: MAD architects: http://www.i-mad.com/?go/#works_ details?wtid=4&id=33 New Yorker; http://www.newyorker.com/online/2008/06/09/slideshow_080609_fuller?slide=7#slide=7 PTW Architects: http://www.ptw.com.au/ RMJM Architects: http://www.rmjm.com/projects/capital-gate-adnecdevelopment-phase-3-abu-dhabi