THOMAS MICHAEL
PORTFOLIO SCI-ARC 2015/16
CONTENT Complex Morphologies Introduction into Digital Design Speculations in the Camera Visual Studies 1 Advanced Techtonics Cultural Studies
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FALLTERM 2015
DESIGN STUDIO COMPLEX MORPHOLOGIES INSTRUCTOR MICHAEL CASEY REHM LIBRARY DESIGN IN PARIS ST GENEVIEVE
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ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXT In the heart of France the city of Paris with its axial organization cut by the curved Seine but also in the city of the architectural experiment with the eiffeltower and the centre pompidou our design is embedded in a contrasty and challenging area. As an addition to the existing Library St. Genevieve on the left of the picture and situated next to the university and a townhouse in its back as well as the pantheon the new design finds itself in a ancient environment with ornamented pierced limestonefacades and a far reaching cultural background.
thomas michael_COMPLEX MORPHOLOGIES
VIEW OVER THE ROOF Accompanied by blue tin roofs of Paris and red tiles it sits in its environment as a clear solitary but meaningfull embedded with its texturation that was created from abstracted pictures of the environment. An important Detail of the design are the meticulously picked areas for the curved links between wall and roof and the columns.
GLASS CANTILEVER
GRID AND GLASS
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ELEVATION
NIGHT VIEW
TOP VIEW
thomas michael_COMPLEX MORPHOLOGIES
CONNECTIONS Elevated from the ground the new mass creates a dense interlace from cityspace to the building, visually accompanied by the cantilever that by crossing the boundaries of the plot looses its shell and generates a interface to the public.
FONT VIEW Aside of the repetitive theme of the scaled square the frontview blurs the boundaries of geometry and texture in order to create ambiguity between the holes, columns and the black streams
BACK SIDE The Backside of the design encases the staircase and the elevatorcore in a forest of columns that vary in size, diameter and organizaton.
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COLUMN ARCH MACHINE The upper part that visually leads into the cantilever is dominated by a delicate order of small extruded elements. Those follow the perforations in the front and the interior grid of the building and create the impression of a gradient cutting through the whole building,
VOLUME Besides its base the Volume consists of three mainparts the cloudshaped part in the left the perforated element that embraces and binds together the whole building visually and finally the glass cantilever breaking through the shell and exposing the inner grid that is developed from the perforation of the facade.
LAYERING The interior circulation is cased by different layers from the transparent glassfacade to the loovers and the perforated curved shell and the shellpart that leads like a liquid into the ground. Those Layers break the light and open or enclose the building parts following its interior.
thomas michael_IDD
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INTRODUCTION INTO DIGITAL DESIGN INSTRUCTOR MICHAEL CASEY REHM
PANDORA’S BOX Once opened the point of no return is reached. As the evil is released it spreads and grows among its new gained freedom.The interpretation of the obscure theme of evil into visually living object. Inspired by the precision of a crystal depicting its incontrovertibleness and targetedness. In the picture it was catched the moment right after the opening. And the initial movements of the Object seam like a fragile sensoring of its new host despite the bars are already generating new branches following its consequent infrastructure on the objectsurface.
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DETAIL 1 As a base for the study the mass was inspired by different geometrical simple details
DETAIL 2
DETAIL 3
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ELEVATION 1 This elevation clearly depicts the visual movement of the object
ELEVATION 2 Contrasted by the rough grey the red planes create the impression of eyes that support the theme of a living object.
STUDIO ASSIGNMENT SPECULATIONS IN THE CAMERA INSTRUCTOR MICHAEL CASEY REHM
REBUILDING RECYCLING Developed initially from a rebuild candyjar and distorted and processed photographs of candy the object the object creates the transition between the look of an ancient metalpiece that was through distroying its immanent order into a new structure carrying an architectural object with a big door in its center. The surface of the volume is accoutered with corroding and melting textures of copper brass and gold that create ambiguity about its consitency and age.
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thomas michael_SPECULATIONS IN THE CAMERA
ELEVETAION 1 The overlaying of different textures was used to create a strong interlace with the distorted shape of the candyjar in order to support the impression of an ancient metalmade drinking vessel that was melted and de- and reshaped partially into a new order with its centered door and its loovers.
TEXTURE The texture was created with a processing script by distorting and overlaying different pictures of varying resolutions.
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STEP 3 VOLUME Within the last step the inner object moves further out of its shell.
STEP 2 SHELL In the second step the heart was corelated to the clean shape of a candyjar by breaking it up.
STEP 1 CORE In the first step the basis of the object was built its inner core that seems like the machineheart that contains the life.
VISUAL STUDIES INSTRUCTORS RAMIRO DIAZ-GRANADOS & MICHAEL CASEY REHM
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VISUAL STUDIES The subjectcontent was the learning of different possible applications for software in creation of digital behaviours animation drawing imagemanipulation and interaction in different small assignments. Those tools were partially employed in the other subjects.
thomas michael_VISUAL STUDIES
PROCESSING ASSIGNMENT 1 The assignment was to draw a picture by manipulating the movement path of circles and their interference
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PROCESSING ASSIGNMENT 2 The assignment was to create behaviors for agents and healers in order to react on existing paintings. In my studies I worked with the detection and reaction based on different colours in the pictures replacement and with the creation of grids based on them,
thomas michael_VISUAL STUDIES
PROCESSING ASSIGNMENT 2
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GRASSHOPPER ASSIGNMENT 1 The three pictures to the right depict three moments in a black and white animation created with the processing pictures and grasshopper.
thomas michael_VISUAL STUDIES
GRASSHOPPER ASSIGNMENT 2 Animation in colour using the processed pictures.
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thomas michael_VISUAL STUDIES
FINAL ASSIGNMENT A threediamentional object in processing moving according to the facetracking of a camera connected to the screen. The trackingpath of the object fades out over time and the object projects colourds textureanimations.
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ADVANCED TECHTONICS INSTRUCTOR MAXI SPINA STUDIES ON HL23 BY NEIL DENARI WITH KIRAN N. BHAVIN K. & KHALED H.
HOMUNCULUS The final assignment based on the tectonic drawings was to create a condensed model of the important buildingparts. This should be showing the connection of those parts and also the inherent material qualities the intended aesthetics and the bearing system as clear as possible. In the HL23 the two most important parts were the two facade elements which are the Curtainwallpanels and the Stainless Steel Panels on which lager research was done during the precedentstudy. The inner Structural system was formed by turbular steel columns that are hidden behind white fritted glass.
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thomas michael_COMPLEX MORPHOLOGIES
FACADE DETAIL The goal was to capture the techtonic qualities of the building in detailed 3d models and drawings.
CURTAIN WALL DETAIL 1.ALUMINIUM COMPOSITE PANEL EXTERNAL CLADDING 2.FRITTED GLASS INLAY IN THE MEGAPANEL 3.TOUGHENED GLASS GLAZING 4.LAMINATED WOOD FLOOR 5.REINFORCED CONCRETE FLOOR SLAB 6.STEEL I-BEAM 7.ALUMINIUM SUPPORTS FOR FALSE CEILING 8.INTERNAL GYPSUM FALSE CEILING
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SLAB DETAIL 1
COLOUMN AND SLAB DETAIL 1.ALUMINIUM COMPOSITE PANEL EXTERNAL CLADDING 2.FRITTED GLASS INLAY IN THE MEGAPANEL 3.TOUGHENED GLASS GLAZING 4.LAMINATED WOOD FLOOR 5.REINFORCED CONCRETE FLOOR SLAB 6.STEEL I-BEAM 7.ALUMINIUM SUPPORTS FOR FALSE CEILING 8.INTERNAL GYPSUM FALSE CEILING 9.STRUCTURAL STEELFRAMING FOR ALUMINIUM COMPOSITE PANELING 10.STRUCTURAL STEEL TUBULAR COLUMN 11.INTERNAL DRYWALL PANELING
thomas michael_CULTURAL STUDIES
URBANISM - A FRAGMENT THAT DETERMINES THE WHOLE 1 2 3 4 5
Background: The History The Problem: The Urban dictate The role of the Architect A new Urbanism: Approach and Intention Formulation of a scenario
In this essay I want to talk about some topics, certain issues that we are faced with nowadays. In this context I also want to introduce the ideas of famous architects into my argumentation and search solutions by confronting their ideas. The final goal is formulating a future scenario by exploring their ideas further and merging them in a concluding nexus. 1 Background: The History Peter Trummer describes with in his writing Pile City the development of the relation between the Urban environment the plot and Architecture in six points that outline the foundation of my first part of the essay. Therefore I’m going to summarize them shortly: (0) In the European Middle Age of Architecture was “an anonymous Mass” 1 and in the baroque period (1) “the ground on which a building was standing, became part of the architecture. The owner of the house became the owner of her land.” In the same time Capitalist Urbanism started to emerge. This is very important because Trummer also states that “the grid of the city operated as a layout for the subdivision of land. This subdivision became the base for all architectural objects.“2 (2) With the modernism architecture started to produce singular and individual freestanding objects. (3) In his third point Trummer describes the building becoming similar to cities with high-rises in the USA and large scale urban housing projects in Europe. (4) The development of different programmatic parts of the city entering the building which is also called “city under a single roof”3 by Raymond Hood is the fourth stage. (5) In the last point he states that “the city becomes pure interiority”4
Like Aristoteles stated in his metaphysic VII 10, is the preached guideline in many European countries. It is obvious that a lot of the necessary infrastructure has to be determined in a large structure. Nevertheless that does not include the aesthetical questions and many formal aspects. The regulations can be called an excess as they are performed nowadays. The reduction of architecture in few variations is the negative corollary. The supremacy of having the right and the assertiveness of a department suppresses architectural practice and new developments. The intrinsic conservative position manifests itself into the cultural framework. Deductive there is a certain tendency of many architects to relinquish and instead focusing on the less coveted areas and reactivate those and their abandoned factory halls. Even though many interesting projects are being built in those areas and there is also no doubt that they have immanent qualities too, including their historic identity. There are many examples for this tendency including the AEG-Areal in Nuremberg, the Toni-Areal in Zurich, Culver City and last but not least the new Sci_Arc building. Though that does not make architecture worse there. Instead it is for sure a good environment refreshing for an architecture school to see yourself, at least temporary in an arts district before rich investors increase the rents to exaggerated heights.
“THE WHOLE IS GREATER THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS”5
2 The Problem: The Urban dictate From Preservation to stagnation. With the building becoming an individual object freestanding and loose the Urbanism split itself completely from Architecture. Seeing itself as a superior profession. The freedom of the individual object of architecture nowadays is strongly limited and chained by dictate of the Urbanism. With its rules it is meant to preserve the freedom for everybody and Produce better solutions than many particular designs could achieve. But instead of freedom for everybody the rule is freedom for nobody.
Excluding Culver City the different projects are very similar and within all those Projects you can read the problem that architectural practice is not really honored and instead being pushed to the boundaries. And big investors make the developments after the way is paved.
Further many architects see themselves in the uncomfortable situation to be depending on working as a mere service provider and that by abandoning their profession working without high artistical value just to earn acceptable wages. Again the architect finds himself in the boundaries of architecture. It is the same problem that makes many talented architects seek for other goals in other disciplines doing visualizations, game design or even complete volte-face. Instead real estate agencies take their place. But their ambitions are not often the same as the architects. No long lasting qualities, no aesthetics
Quotes: [1-4] Pile City, Peter Trummer, Page 2,3 and 4 [5] http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/20103-the-whole-is-greater-than-the-sum-of-itsparts;12/15/2015; 16:01 [6] http://www.maartenhajer.nl/upload/Hajer%20-%20The%20generic%20city.pdf 12/12/2015; 13:00 [7-9] Pile City, Peter Trummer, Page 2,3 and 4 [10] 2009 Parametrismus – Der neue International Sytle; Patrik Schumacher, London 2008 German , Published in: ARCH+ 195, Zeitschrift fuer
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nor responsibility. The urban dictate has an impact to the lives of all citizens. It is not the culture or the common weal being implemented. Meanwhile the world constantly changes and the velocity as well. (And our socio-cultural structure is being changed radically considering in technical research and the recent movements in Europe considering only the current refugee numbers in 2015.) Other people move with their ideas and produce a brain drain and many just reduce their ideas down to the standard. 3 The role of the Architect informing mediating and convincing. The departments might have the laws on their side but obviously they are not able to dig as deep into the projects as architects can. They don’t have the necessary competences and knowledge to produce valuable architecture. What I think is very important to strengthen the mediating position of the architect. Schools like Sci_arc make an important work according to that. Other Possible solutions to lower this distance between urbanistic practice and architectural practice could be using new media.
INFORMING MEDIATING CONVINCING
Involving the society directly in a more or less interactive way contradicts the static rules of urbanism clearly. The departments are not able to compete in certain illustrating ways. Boring and rigid concepts don’t need new media. This is a big opportunity. Moving on with the ways of presentation and involving the citizens in wide range the benefits of an architects design can be conveyed to the expense of the existing dogma. Having a good connection to the press is only one more way to make things happen a lot easier. I saw that when I was working in an office in Munich. We constantly worked at the project of the Central station in Munich. Actually the project was cancelled after the competition the price was reevaluated and should be replaced by a cheap and fast design. After several years of hard work and publications their design is now being built.
4 The Goal: A new Urbanism: Different approaches and Intentions Generic City: Rem Koolhaas’ Generic City depicts a concept of a free growing city in which connectivity has more importance than the proximity and also the adaptability is more in focus than the tradition. A free growing city based on post-traditional relationships. “The past is too small to inhabit”6 Rem Koolhaas. Tradition and culture are interlaced into the urbanism within the hypertext of the composition. The Generic City is just like Benjamin Bratton explained with his recent lecture at Sci_arc an anonymous space like modern airports that also have the ability to create a new kind of world urbanism. Pile City_the building as an autonomous city-object: In his subsequent passage Peter Trummer intends to outline a new way of interaction of the architecture for the contemporary city in a formal and an economic way. In his deliberations Peter Trummer explains the phenomenon in major Asian and Western cities that “the building becomes embedded within the infrastructure or the ground of the city”. In this context the buildings are extended in different ways maybe on top or become the foundation for new cities or buildings. The economic argument that Trummer states is that the high-rises that used to resemble the value of the plot by its height now are able to be situated everywhere. He further states that the importance of the plot is becoming less due to the creation of value by their “mere existence” of buildings that “are even left deliberately unoccupied”. Very important for the comparison of the different approaches to the problem is the following conception. “How might a city look when its architecture has lost any formal relation to its ground, when any architectural element has the potential to be turned into a commodity?”7 He outlines a scenario where “buildings are no longer required to signify their verticality via the extruded repetition of the horizontal ground-plane”8 and “the legacy of the classical bottom-up parti is finally erased: Enter every building anyway you please.”9 The city and the piles become one circulative space. There is no private ground as well as common ground. According to this term all spaces are weak programmed. Parametrism_A new global Style Patrik Schumacher’s theory about a new conception for global urbanism architecture development can be summarized with his five points. 1. Parametric interarticulation of subsystems 2. Parametric accentuation 3. Parametric figuration 4. Parametric ability to react 5. Parametric Urbanism – deep comple
Architektur Original text: Parametricism – A New Global Style for Architecture and Urban Design; First Published in: AD Architectural Design – Digital Cities, Vol 79, No4, July / August 2009, Guest editor: Neil Leach, general editor: Helen Castle [11]Rem Koolhaas, Bigness or the Problem of Large, New York: Monacelli Press, 1995), 494-516. Copyright Rem Koolhaas and the Monacelli Press, Inc.Page 1-12
5 Confrontation The three approaches are very different and based on different nucleus. Their Characteristics can be best weighted by focusing on precise questions. Accidental developments shape our human history since we exist. How do the concepts react on chance and is there even space for chance in the concept? In the Generic City as Well as in the Pile City the chance is gaining more place through breaking up the boundaries of the current urbanism meanwhile In this essay I want to talk about some topics, certain issues that we are faced with nowadays. In this context I also want to introduce the ideas of famous architects into my argumentation and search solutions by confronting their ideas. The final goal is formulating a future scenario by exploring their ideas further and merging them in a concluding nexus.
THE INTERLACE FORMULATION OF A SCENARIO
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C
B
S
D
Without changing the cities cars could not be used the way we have them nowadays. By the way this single machine changed the way of human living we should always be open to rethink our existing orders critically. I want to conclude my essay with a combination and exaggeration of the ideas. The new interactive City that does not take place within boundaries. A fucked Context. It is further one big structure interlocked with its natural surroundings in a symbiotic way. Instead of sealing and covering it produces just another layer. A highly densified space. Architecture cannot be distinguished from urbanism. Though it has the ancient structure as foundation it was able to leave the former framework of space behind.
Without changing the cities cars could not be used the way we have them nowadays. By the way this single machine changed the way of human living we should always be open to rethink our existing orders critically. I want to conclude my essay with a combination and exaggeration of the ideas. The new interactive City that
does not take place within boundaries. A fucked Context. It is further one big structure interlocked with its natural surroundings in a symbiotic way. Instead of sealing and covering it produces just another layer. A highly densified space. Architecture cannot be distinguished from urbanism. Though it has the ancient structure as foundation it was able to leave the former framework of space behind. The horizontal and vertical orders are left behind as it completely relies on the flexibility of the combination. The inherited traffic zones run through it selfevidently with public and private movements is merged into one single infrastructure that correlates interactively. Based on electricity. Green energy. No long waiting and no break. Everything works fluent and strictly coordinated. Managed with gathered information from the not yet born to the one exhaling his last breath. Information can be gathered depending on your own free will. Anonymously. Data that is used to check the plausibility of plans and projects for companies and for the individuals themselves. Open source data from and for everybody. Everybody has his autonomy and should be able as far as possible to produce what he needs himself. The cultural traces that used to be our social framework are being more and more muted. Instead they become a portrayal to show how different lanes can lead to the same result. One collective heritage. The new Identity gathers it strength through the new freedom. Just like the American freedom depicted that earlier. What marks the highest difference among the citizens is their social position and the clusters formed by other interests. As spaces can be produced and moved in a high velocity there is not only no value for the ground but also no competition on those. The neighborhoods can change rapidly and the perishability of a city changes our way of planning. City parts emerge crowdfunded over decades and rely on statistics and temporal contracts. It appears just like in Frei Otto’s descriptive experiments. But here based on the influences that the citizens have. It may be a new job or the family or other reasons determining where to move with your belongings. By recycling most of the parts this flexible cities safe resources that else would be necessary to create new spaces and are designed to give the opportunity of a moveable habitat. Nevertheless the cities consist of a rigid basis. Its goal is mostly to react on oscillations of residents. The city may have an inherited algorithm. In which every resident forms a part. It does not determine development processes in the city but it constantly proposes and exposes qualities to the citizens. A new democratic space.
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THOMAS MICHAEL B.A. Architecture Engineer
thomasmichael@hotmail.de +49/919113931 Karl-Broeger Strasse 43 91301 Forchheim Germany @facebook @linkedin