STUDIO AIR 2018, SEMESTER 1, CHELLE YANG JESSE SHEN
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Table of Contents A.0 INTRODUCTION
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A.1 DESIGN FUTURING
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Case Study One
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Case Study Two
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A.2 DESIGN COMPUTATION Case Study Three
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Case Study Four
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A.3 COMPOSITION-GENERATION
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Case Study Five
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Case Study Six
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A.4 CONCLUSION
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A.5 LEARNING OUTCOMES
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A.6 APPENDIX-ALGORITHMIC SKETCHES
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BIBLIOGRAPHY/ IMAGE SOURCES
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A.0 INTRODUCTION
For those who have not read the cover page properly, my name is Jesse Shen. As of developing this project, I am a third year university student studying the Bachelor of Environments program majoring in architecture. It is a privilege to grow up during the dawn of the digital age after the turn of the millennium. What it brings to architecture is the fascination of what could be achieve beyond the comprehension of what the human mind can project onto conventional mediums. The blending of new computing capabilities within architectural practices has already raised great new limits ready to be broken again. The most significant architectural training I’ve under gone has been in the past year. I have steadily been practicing digital modelling in Rhino for the past year in both Architectural Studios Earth and Water. Most significantly was in Digital Design and Fabrication where it was critical in experiencing a direct work flow from conception to fabrication.
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FIG 2: ARCHITECTURE STUDIO WATER BOAT HOUSE
FIG 2: ARCHITECTURE STUDIO EARTH PAVILION
FIG 1: DIGITAL DESIGN & FABRICATION SECOND SKIN 5
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A.1 DESIGN FUTURING
It’s no secret that the advancement in human civilisation has placed a colossal toll on the planet. Our attempts to both design for individuals as well as to the planet have been at most trivial and at worst inconsiderate and superficial. As illustrated by Tony Fry, ‘the introduction of easy to use design software had trivialised design as a practice’ (Fry 2008: 6). With the ease in which designs can be easily altered with hundreds of variations for customers to view, the direction design has taken has followed a competitive market place in which the forefront of design is the blatantly apparent aesthetics and style. Ultimately it is the market who has final say on the product’s realisation rather than the designer.
Advancements in technology today does allow designers to extend beyond pen and paper or even digital auto-cad drawings. The introduction of algorithmic designing and well as direct design to fabrication machinery have allow designers to broaden design considerations and well as add more insight to the work flow and the consequences into each design choice. Designers today have to break away from mere just dictating the surface, but decide what’s underneath that facade. Only then can design truly achieve far more optimal results to the benefit or detriment to the planet.
The problem of such design is rooted in the lack of considerations to the totality of the design package (Fry 2008: 6). Without acknowledging the consequences of every facet of the design, more harm may be done than actual good. It can be easy to design a seemingly sustainable product on the surface, but potentially lack any insight into the how design and building process.
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‘Is not simply that more people are ‘designing’ but that design become increasingly trivialised and reduced to appearance and ‘style’” TONY FRY:
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CASE STUDY ONE
PRECEDENT: LOS ANGELES RAM STADIUM HKS ARCHITECTS The most fascination attribute of this stadium isn’t the architecture itself, but rather the fabrication process of the cladding. The project demonstrates an attempt at direct and efficient work flow from design to fabrication thanks to digital fabrication machinery and algorithmic design/visualisation (SHEIL 2017). Just about every component of this cladding had been deliberately designed and considered in some way by the designers themselves instead of the fabricator. From the connections to the panel shape to the perforated holes to even the fittings and nodes for assembly; each facet has been considered for optimum material usage, performance, fabrication and work flow efficiency.
FIG.4: CLOSE UP OF CLADDING PANELS
The constant reiteration of finding the most efficient manner by the designer to fabricate the cladding ultimately helps make the most effective and efficient use out of the all materials and resources.
FIG.5: ARRANGENGEMENT OF PANELS INTO A MEGA PANEL FOR CONSTRUCTION
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FIG 6: RAM STADIUM CONCEPTUALISED:
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CASE STUDY TWO
PRECEDENT: PHILLIPS PAVILION/ LE CORBOUSIER This pavilion as an earlier iteration of the concept of direct design to fabrication work flow. Limited by the lack of digital technology, both the designer and engineer had to come up with a way to profile the radically designed hyperbolic paraboloid.
Thus to the broader perspective regarding sustainability, be aware of not just the benefits, but also the consequences of their design choices through out the whole project.
The end solution of prefabricating the cladding out of steel cables and concrete casting allowed for the efficient construction of the pavilion which met both the aesthetic requirements as well as the acoustic performance necessary for its intended purpose. Thus to the broader perspective regarding sustainability, be aware of not just the benefits, but also the consequences of their design choices through out the whole project. Yet despite such work flow, there were numerous problems to consider. The biggest problems lied within the materiality which whilst made construction efficient, was not used efficiently as the structure was designed to be temporary. In addition to wasting materials, Asbestos was deliberately utilised to add texture to the wall (“Philips Pavillion Expo 58 - Data, Photos & Plans - WikiArquitectura� 2018) despite being a hazardous material.
FIG.7: DIAGRAM OF PAVILIION STRUCTURE, THE CLADDING FORMWORK CAN BE DERIVED FROM A SERIES OF STRAIGHT LINES
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FIG.8: MEDIUM SHOT OF PAVILION CLADDING
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A.2 DESIGN COMPUTATION
As describe previously, to design for the future, designers should consider the totality of the project from concept to realisation. Design Computation provides the ‘toolset to amplify the designer’s analytical beyond what was originally possible’ (Kalay 2004:2). The precision afforded by computation furthermore affords greater control by the designer into the whole process. No longer does the separation between the designer and fabricator create as much potentially irreversible complications by the vagueness in communication between mediums. Therefore there should be no excuses for designers to merely remain in the ‘realm of representational design and visualisation’ (Oxman and Oxman 2014:1-2) because such potential to dramatically optimise/refine conceptual functionalities previously unachievable by hand. The direct design to fabrication workflow which can now be afforded thanks to digital computation encourages the designer to expand beyond representing their concepts and branching firmly into construction/fabrication as well. However, enhanced analytical prowess is just purely logic derived from mathematics. In addition, computation allows for seeming complex geometry to be easily modelled/visualised.
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“Buildings, prior to the Renaissance were constructed, not planned” YEHUDA KALAY
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CASE STUDY THREE
PRECEDENT: MESH MOULD/ ETH ZURICH The potential of computation as an superior analytical engine affords the possibility to model ideas into the physical quite seamlessly. In the case of this project, computation allows precise commands into a ‘robot to assemble the mesh with the capacity as both a load bearing structure and complex doubly curved geometry’ (DFAB) and others 2018); all without the need for costly form work and material wastage.
FIG.9: ROBOTIC FABRICATION USED TO ASSEMBLE MESH
Undoubtedly such an ideas in the past would have raised concerns over the practicality of the process, especially in the numerous potential issues as being able to precisely fabricate the mesh, the concrete mix leaking out and other potential issues surfacing after the initial physical testing. But with digital computation, modelling the entirety of the project as well as analysing its behaviour under different parameters allows for superior insight and better predictions of the outcome before even the physical prototyping or scale modelling.
FIG.10: CONCRETE POURING
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FIG.11: MESH MOULD TEST
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CASE STUDY FOUR
PRECEDENT: RESEARCH PAVILION 2015-2016/ ICD/IDKE One could describe nature as both inspiration and complex. Such is the process of which this research pavilion was conceptualised and fabricated, drawing much of its influence in both construction and design from a sand dollar. The lynch pin to the project wasn’t primarily in the geometry complex shell structure, but rather how construction logic can achieve such a shell. Focus was put into analysing the organic construction of a typical sand dollar then adapting such principles on an architectural scale. Most notably, the key success of this project lies within modelling ‘the fibrous connections working in conjunction with differentiation in materials’ (“ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2015-16 | Institute for Computational Design and Construction” 2018).
FIG.12: DIGITAL ANALYSIS OF PAVILION, MAX DEFLECTION
The evidence of design focused more on construction is evident in the manner in which digital computation was utilised in programming the robotic sewing construction process, or in the orientation of the grain of the multiple layers of wood. Ultimately, with digital computation comes the potential of translating and adapting such complex construction processes typically found in nature.
FIG.13: ON SITE CONSTRUCTION
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FIG.14: PAVILION IN USE
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A.3 COMPOSITION/GENERATION
Composition and Generation are in essence principles of tradition and modern design processes respectively. The limitations of past design mediums required the use of design principles in conjunction with a ‘focus on perfecting specific details and segments to better convey their project’s key intents’ (Peters and De Kestelier 2013:14). Whereas in contrast, generation took control from the architect away from such details to instead refocus on a more broader scale whilst achieving higher level of complexity. The results are startling as the efficiency in the design process through generation becomes more and more apparent. No longer are we meticulously re-arranging one by one the leaves and branches of a design “tree”, but instead remapping the growth of the tree itself from it’s roots to the leaves before even digging the hole. Thus its impact ripples down to the efficiency in which large scale infrastructure projects can be conceived and build whilst maintain complex geometry and variability. Generative has the capacity to visualise even the most unprecedented designs while providing the means to achieve it. Yet its roots in mathematics makes means that the designer may not have any control on the outcome.
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When architects have a sufficient understanding of algorithmic concepts, when we no longer need to discuss the digital as something different, then computation can become a true method of design for architecture. BRADY PETERS
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CASE STUDY FIVE
PRECEDENT: ESKER HOUSE/ PLASMA STUDIO Algorithms are adaptable in a sense by being able to ‘alter simple parameters and rules’ (Wilson and Keil 1999:11). This distinct advantage of generative design allow for greater building morphology of life which is a product of constant adaptation. The roof was ‘conceptualised like a parasite, it must adapt to the shape of its host before settling in and truly taking up its own identity. The parameters of the context are a great influence to the design because it serves as the parameter of the design in terms of bot scale and shape. Its modularity of the individual battens also allow for a greater extent of prefabrication. The individual spaces are reflected in the roof cover which controls the lighting through out the day. In a sense, it is a generative design in which the form of the roof follows the function within as its final appearance holds less importance than the utility of the project. Therefore the final outcome will always be unpredictable in some sense.
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FIG.15: ROOF STRUCTURE FOR ATTACHING BATTENS, NOTE THE GRID SHELL FIXTURE
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FIG.16: CONTOURED ROOF MADE WITH MODULAR WIDTH BATTENS
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CASE STUDY SIX
PRECEDENT: P WALL (2013)/ MATSYS Generative design also has advantages in analysing material and building performance and behaviour. The P Wall project would be unrealisable if it wasn’t processed through design computation. The project parameters were conceived to ‘test the boundary between modularity and repetition’ (“P_Wall (2013) « MATSYS” 2013). The numerous yet randomised parameters in addition to modelling elastic behaviour would have made realising such a project next to impossible. Thus it becomes even more apparent that when done algorithmically, it can efficient to not only model panels with elastic properties, but to randomise it behaviour whilst maintaining a modularity through quickly inputting different yet random parameters. The result is an outcome which can not only satisfy the constraints but also can also demonstrate a level randomness despite its modularity. Generation of where ad how the panels expand effectively allows for a greater level of complexity to be achieved without become repetitive. Whereas in contrast, a compositional design would have ad difficulty in elegantly individualising any repeated elements.
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FIG.17: EACH PANEL IS MODULAR, THE PATTERN IS PARAMETRICALLY RANDOMISED
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FIG 18: IN CONTRAST WITH THE 2009 ITERATION, MATERIAL HAS BEEN REDUCED WITH ONLY 20MM OFFSET AT THE BACK
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A.4 CONCLUSION
Design computation provides designers an opportunity to follow an divergent path from the traditional design philosophy unlike any other piece of technology before. This new opportunity entails the acceptance of certain responsibilities and even more potential unlike any before. The precedents described before demonstrate numerous advantages of design computation in optimising material usage, performance, structural capacity whilst providing a level of complexity and variability unlike ever before. No longer is there ad excuse to not make the use of a new medium which has removed constraints of the past and in contrast provide accurate outcomes with enormous level of precision. Therefore it is up to architects to extend beyond composing/visualising building faรงades and programs as such perspective are narrow. Now there is a perfect opportunity to expands and broaden insight into the whole project. Only then can architects begin to understand how to address problems which find its roots beyond just representation drawings and consider the consequences it entails to realise such a project.
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A.5 LEARING OUTCOME
What I have take out from the first couple of weeks from this module is an understanding of the importance of parametric design beyond just a means of representation. The accuracy it affords gives no excuses for me to just simple stay within the boundaries of just representing designs. It is about making the most out of the resources and materials available and to not simply squander those opportunities away. Thus it is particularly important in the next stage that with the modelling tools we have right now, it is paramount to be careful with what we represent on the screen, but to go beyond ad to test its performance before even beginning to fabricate the product. There is a need to me to be open about new techniques and tools, for some of the could hold great potential such as Kangaroo in modelling tensile behaviour.
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A.6 APPENDIX
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A.7 REFERENCES/IMAGE SOURCES
(DFAB), NCCR, Wyss Institute, Oliver Mitchell, Frank Tobe, and MIT News and others. 2018. “Mesh Mould: Robotically fabricated metal meshes | Robohub”, Robohub.org <http://robohub. org/mesh-mould-robotically-fabricated-metal-meshes/> [accessed 12 March 2018] “Esker house / Plasma Studio”. 2009. ArchDaily <https://www.archdaily. com/11957/esker-house-plasma-studio> [accessed 5 March 2018] Fry, Tony. 2008. Design futuring (London: Bloomsbury Academic), pp. 1-16 “ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2015-16 | Institute for Computational Design and Construction”. 2018. Icd.uni-stuttgart.de <http://icd.uni-stuttgart.de/?p=16220> [accessed 12 March 2018] Kalay, Yehuda E. 2004. Architecture’s new media (Cambridge Mass: The MIT Press), pp. 5-25 Oxman, Rivka, and Robert Oxman. 2014. Theories of the digital in architecture (London: Routledge), pp. 1-86 “P_Wall (2013) « MATSYS”. 2013. Matsysdesign.com <http://matsysdesign. com/2013/09/02/p_wall-2013/> [accessed 15 March 2018] Philips Pavillion Expo 58 - Data, Photos & Plans - WikiArquitectura”. 2018. WikiArquitectura <https:// en.wikiarquitectura.com/building/philips-pavillion-expo-58/> [accessed 5 March 2018 SHEIL. 2017. Fabricate (London: UCL Press), pp. 36-43 Wilson, Robert A, and Frank Keil. 1999. The MIT Encyclopedia of cognitive sciences ([Cambridge, Mass.]: Massachusetts Institute of Technology), pp. 11-12
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Fig 1 Self provided Fig 2 Self provided Fig 3 Self provided Fig 4 SHEIL. 2017. Fabricate (London: UCL Press), pp. 36-43 Fig 5 SHEIL. 2017. Fabricate (London: UCL Press), pp. 36-43 Fig 6 SHEIL. 2017. Fabricate (London: UCL Press), pp. 36-43 Fig 7 https://www.90yearsofdesign.philips.com/article/32 Fig 8 https://www.archdaily.com/157658/ad-classics-expo-58-philipspavilion-le-corbusier-and-iannis-xenakis/image-35 Fig 9 http://robohub.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/mesh-mould-5.jpg Fig 10 http://robohub.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/mesh-mould-3.jpg Fig 11 http://robohub.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/mesh-mould-4.jpg Fig 12 http://icd.uni-stuttgart.de/?p=16220 Fig 13 http://icd.uni-stuttgart.de/?p=16220 Fig 14 Image Source: http://icd.uni-stuttgart.de/?p=16220 Fig 15 https://www.archdaily.com/11957/esker-house-plasmastudio/500f12d128ba0d0cc700196d-esker-house-plasma-studio-image Fig 16 https://www.archdaily.com/11957/esker-house-plasmastudio/500f12a528ba0d0cc7001963-esker-house-plasma-studio-image Fig 17 http://matsysdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/IMG_8866_clean_1200-620x413.jpg Fig 18 http://matsysdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/IMG_9176_clean_1200-620x930.jpg
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