Caterina Tiazzoldi | Academia
info@tiazzoldi.org Via Agostino da Montefeltro 2 10134 Torino, Italy +39 345 6133730 +011 3157 411
Spring 2014 Politecnico di Torino
Studio: first year housing studio Critic Architecture: Caterina Tiazzoldi Critic Structure: Mario Sassone Critic Urbanism: Luca Staricco
Syllabus From the cell to the city: The first year studio is an multidisciplinary class integrating an architecture studio, with urban design studio and structure studio. Sun slice draws upon a lesson learned from the history of the city, that autonomous housing can be effectively brewed into the city. It is a contemporary version of the terraced house that shaped the urban identity of Europe from the XIVth well into the XIXth century. Sun slice combines the advantages of autonomous housing (flexibility, freedom, variety) with the advantages of urban density (efficient use of soil, contest responsiveness, shared spaces and services). The class is going to engage the relation between geometry and material manipulation and the discovery of the space performance at the urban architectural and structural level. This course has ten specific aims, developed over the period of 12 weeks:
Aims The studio objective is to design and individual house to be contained in a envelop of 4 meter x 13 meter x 13 meters. 1. To understand the relation existing between human body and constructed artifacts 2. To understand the relation between an architectural artifact and urban environment 3. To understand the relation between an architectural artifact and its structural organization
Procedures 1. To survey the architectural characteristics of ceilings, base boards, doors, screen dividers, window moldings, and doorframes. 2. To learn from research, interviews and case study analysis basic programmatic function of the building. 3. To derive from a reclaimed object, precise geometric characteristics to develop a tridimensional model for the construction of an artifact. 4. To compute series of transformations in a tridimensional form from the application of a set of recursive abstract manipulations through deformers and Boolean operations. 5. To represent a precise set of drawing instructions for the adaptability of the abstract tridimensional model to programmatic properties inherent to the design brief. 6. To develop knowledge through drawing survey of existing construct to foster the insertion of the new building component as a phemelolgical, structural and urban response 7. To articulate a basic set of drawing instructions based on a tridimensional model 8. To develop an individual creative process that is capable to use a feedback communication between user and generator, essential in a reflexive system
Objectives On completion of this course, students should be able: 1. to acquire fundamental architectural design skills 2. to understand the role and standard of vertical residential buildings. 3. to associate the care for experimentation with precision and attention to design representation 4. to synthesize as in graphic information, the organization of orthographic representation of tridimensional information according to architecture and design conventions 5. to develop a culture that the experiential qualities of a space can rely on the articulation of its spatial tectonics and the integration of building components 6. to evaluate and combine two or more building components to drive the generation of new living experiences capable to motivate the creative process 8. to develop an ability to associate subjective and phenomenological parameters
Evaluation Criteria 1. Number of students in the group 2. Site analysis 2 boards 3. (general view 1/2000, infrastructure, other buildings ecc‌. (autocad + illustrator) view 1/50, mapping demographics, people, cost area, elevation 1/500, plan 1/500, 4. Integration of Project in the Site. 5. Aggregation Studies: how the aggregation of different units create a urban quality. 6. Geometry exploration and editing according to the use of space . How geometry is adapting to human needs, site, flow, circulation and environmental conditions. 7. Typological studies focused on the quality of the research and typology selected (I gave 2 extra points for student which engaged on typological studies that were different from individual family house) 8. Quality of Space. 9. Control of Architectural Standards 10. Quality of Representation in 2D drawings 11. Quality of Representation in perspective drawings, 3d sketches and renderings 12. Presentation of the pritzker prize selection
Assignment 1:
To design a small residential unit. We are going to discover the relation between the geometry and the space habitability.
Step 1: Who is leaving in the house you are designing Describe and draft the list of the inhabitant of your unit. Who are they? Why do they leave together? What do they need? What do they do? Which activities do they share with the other member of the house? Which activity do they do by themselves? How big is the house?
Step 2: To design a house by editing primitive geometry
Design a residential unit by editing a primitive geometry. 1. To select a primitive geometry a cone, a cube, a cylinder, a sphere, a pyramid and hexagon 2. To draft a primitive geometric: plan, section (hand drawing or AutoCAD drawing or rhino drawing ), and 3d model 4. To insert a human figure in your drawing to see how does it fit. 5. To design an house by only using your original primitive. (you can copy, scale it, rotate it) 6. To develop a plan including humans, furniture, entrances, stairs. 7. To develop an elevation including humans and furniture 8. Scale them give them the right proportions 9. Locate the member of you family in the plan and elevation you are designing and see how the space is reacting. 10. To adapt the geometry requirement you can copy your original primitive (6 to 10 times). While you copy it you can move it on the (X,Y,Z) , you can scale it on the axe XYZ.
Deliverables: due by Tuesday march 12.
Student will work in small groups 2-3 persons and will develop the following deliverable. 1. Family members draft and representation. A set of drawings to the scale of 1/50 drawing describing the inhabitants of your unit. Draft and represent their activities during the day. Draft and represent them in different positions (4 position for each member). (AutoCAD, Rhinoceros or hand drawing)
Deliverable format A4 document AutoCAD, Rhinoceros or hand drawings saved as pdf file Please make sure you are respecting real scale and proportions. Proposal for a small residential unit deriving from an aggregation (6-10 elements) of your original primitive geometry 1. Plan scale 1/50 including furniture 2. Sections scale 1/50 including people, furniture and vertical connections. 3. Small 3d digital model or physical model with human figures inside To write few lines about how you think your primitive geometry responds to design standards? How is it efficient? What do you like about it and what you don’t like? NB: The class evaluation criteria will be based on the concept, application of the concept to the space, technical solutions, representation techniques. the use of 3d modelers (rhino) and image editors (Photoshop) are strongly recommended but not mandatory
week 4
Final Assignment A1 Boards – prof. Starico A1-1 -several plans of the site from scale 1:10000 to 1:500 -density analysis A1-2 -layers of the urban structure (see prof. starico’s teaching materials) Layer of the city: main and secondary roads commercial buildings residential buildings empty spaces green area hospitals, schools and universities A1-3 -site section 1:500 (project elevation with urban context) -site plan with aggregation 1:500 (search magazine for graphic representation) -renders of the aggregation, and integrated in site
A1 Boards – Prof. TIazzoldi A1-4 (aggregation board) - concept of the aggregation+ flow and circulation system (general concept - schematic images) - aggregation in detail + public and private space - closed view of 3D renderings with people - 4 elevations with the surrounding (site section), 2 sections of the 6 unites aggregation in scale 1:200 or 1:100 - all the plans of the aggregation A1-5 (sun slice building) - plan, section and elevation in scale 1:50 A1-6 (typology, material and 3D) - material analysis of the building - research of the typology - renderings Models - model in scale 1:1000 (your project models + the shared model of the surroundings) - model in scale 1:200 Previous project board - 1 A3 board contains the most important features of your previous project
A1 Boards Prof. Sassone A1-7 - structure analysis in plans (2 or 3) in scale 1:50/1:20 - structure analysis in sections (2 or 3) in scale 1:50/1:20 - schemes of bracing system - structural analysis: diagrams>loads>actions>1 calculation (have all these steps in your analysis)
Syllabus ZOOM IN/ZOOM OUT: Inside the Street, Beyond the Superblock Tuesdays 1:10 – 5:40pm Thursdays 9:40am - 11:10pm, 1:10 – 5:40pm Attendance is mandatory unless an absence is discussed via email prior to the start of class. However, it is extremely important that students who are sick do not come to class. Students are requested to work in two people-groups formed from students of different department. In this interdisciplinary studio, we will develop methods for creating human-scaled environments within, “megalithic design,” a term we are using to describe multiblock urban environments controlled by a single owner. Megalithic design offers designers the potential of considering the entire composition of a neighborhood but challenges us to do so without losing control of the specificities required to support and inspire human experience. We will consider the street as an outdoor “interior,” to transform and perform differing urban domesticities. The zoom studio will iterate between the procedures and representation techniques of landscape architecture and interior architecture to bring the orientation of each discipline to bear on the challenge of design at an overwhelming scale. We will undertake a series of simultaneous scale exercises that will force flexibility into our design thinking. Using these tools, we will turn our attention to Atlantic Yards, a 22-acre, 7.6 million square foot redevelopment underway in Brooklyn, New York. The site is a formal industrial rail yard trench—a multi-block hole in the city. The location is served by the Long-Island Railroad and adjacent to the third-largest hub of the New York City subway. Here, a new arena and the first of 16 residential and mixed-use towers are rising on constructed ground above the rail yards. In the urban planning rhetoric of transit-oriented development (TOD), this site is
In the urban planning rhetoric of transit-oriented development (TOD), this site is the right place to build dense new housing to minimize its impact on traffic congestion. For the neighbors living in 19th-century townhouse neighborhoods surrounding the site, the proposed change has generated unprecedented, sustained opposition. We posit that scale is at the core of the conflict. This studio will ask students to determine how to accomplish the scale shift from 4 stories to 18 and 40 stories, from the 19th Century public realm to the 21st Century. We will explore the site and its context to understand how residents engage with their city in space and time, for differing activities and ways of moving through space. We will learn how to use our bodies to investigate and measure the city and develop methods for describing and communicating the nuances of urban space. We will establish iterative readings of the city at alternating scales from the specifics of human to human to the overarching redefinition of the street hierarchy and composition of the skyline. We will learn how minimal interactions at the human scale can impact the experience of the city. We will employ physical and digital models, large-scale sections, full-scale mockups and other means to keep our design proposals and evaluations in scale.
Vanderbilt Ave
Narrow, passive
Broad, 4 lanes
9F
60F
Delicate, Welcoming, Broad pedestrain 20F
PROTOTYPE OF PATTERN
PATTERN 3-DIMENSION
80’ Rotate 30 degrees
20’
Rotate 45 degrees
Rotate 30 degrees
160’
Rotate 45 degrees
Rotate 60 degrees
Rotate 90 degrees
Rotate 60 degrees
40’
Tilt Axis by 45 degrees
Iterations
Tilt Axis by 45 degrees
Rotate 60 degrees
Rotate 60 degrees
SKYLINE URBAN CONTEXT SKYLINE
VIEW FROM SOUTHWESTERN
VIEW FROM SOUTHWESTERN
URBAN CONTEXT SKYLINE VIEW FROM WESTERN
VIEW FROM WESTERN
MICRO VARIATIONS
MACRO ITERATIONS
1_ MASS
4_ VOLUME FOR COMMECIAL
2_ FORMATION BY CONNECTIONS
5_SKYLINE
3_LANDMARKS ACCESSIBILITY
ENTRANCE
TOWER
COURTYARD
ROOF GARDEN
to downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan
SITE ANALYSIS one flow of getrification comes from north and reaches the site’s “pedestrian end”
moderate 5 min’s walk
M
M
Fort Greene Pratt Institute
strongly connected with metro station
the corner is a joint of six neiborhoods due to hisoric reasons
M
the two getrification trends will eventually impact on the last gentrified place on the north-east through our site
Potential natural oriented users
Brooklyn Academy of Music
awkward corssing angle stops gentrification pushing north
strongly influenced by traffic flow
M
Potential cultural oriented users
Artlantic avenue is in fact a barrier for the flow from south to north
pedestrian mixture parking area
vehicle
our site as the core of those factors, and the potential place to strenthen the network, lacks connectivity
another flow comes along the blocks and Washington St. on the south
two most flourishing street in the neighbor
Museum District
larger accessible range by car than by feet
one of the most gentrified street in the surrounding area
Prospect Park bike way network
Lower Income
Traffic Flow
Boundary of Different
Metro Line
M
CONCEPT
Higher Income Neighborhoods
Metro Station
CIRCULATION & PROGRAM
Empire State Building
Normal Circulation System: Flat, unidirectional and easy to be intervened
Normal Program Layout: Layered, Flattened, Regionalized, Juxtaposed and crowded
Folded Program Layout: Balanced, Connected and spacially abundant
Hyper-dimensional Circulation System: Stereo, Intersectional, Hierarchic and shifted angle
residential towers
intimation hostel
System 1: Basic Connectivity
offensive facade friendly facade response connectivity
System 2: Hyper-dimensional Circulation
connection and event spaces
System 3: Folded Programs
daycare catering and recreation music institution and performance offices
introduction
chain stores retail spaces arts and exhibition
mediation
Ground Level Open Space
Residential Towers and Joint Floor
Horizontal Level Space and Vertical Open Space
immersion
Spring 2013 GSAPP Columbia University
INSTANT INSTALLATION
Syllabus Instant Installation explores architecture’s capacity to adapt and be reconfigured for different uses and locations with a unique spatial experience and a highly innovative yet cost efficient assembly type. It is a product reinventing the material, social, and educational possibilities of temporary exhibit spaces, creating visitor involvement into the space. Designed as a maze of colored rubber wires, Instant Installation can be twisted in different ways to create different spaces each time it is utilized. It explores the idea of physical enclosure and the relationship to social interaction and challenges the boundary between a product and architecture with its capacity to generate, articulate, and transform spaces. The environment in which the configuration of geometry and layering of materiality are conceived to encourage and to solicit visitors’ curiosity and reaction. In this way, Instant Installation is a spatial generator; a playful environment inviting visitors to play with the vibrancy of rubber layering, to move in an exhilarating non-orientable space continuously revealing and hiding the presence of other people. As a space articulator, Instant Installation defines and organizes public and semipublic spaces, creating an adaptive boundary between spatial interiority and urban exteriority. It is a customizable product allowing for each user to select a nesting technique for the strings, and define their own level of transparency, enclosure and privacy. In this way, it can adapt itself as a meeting room or lounge room for a public event. Realized with a parametric technique and a computer numeric control manufacturing process that quickly produces prefabricated customized rails, Instant Installation seeks out the architectural capacity to adapt and be reconfigured for different uses and locations. It was conceived of as an “almost pocket”, it can be carried in a wind surfing bag and is quick to install and.
Spring 2013 GSAPP Columbia University
Workshop: design / built: Instant Installation Critic Architecture: Caterina Tiazzoldi GSAPP Columbia University, NSU Teaching Assistant: Amy Maresko
Syllabus The Non Linear Solution Unit (NSU) at GSAPP Columbia University and Interni Magazine feature the project Instant Installation, winner for the University of Memphis Art Museum in the occasion of the Art Lab Installation. Developed by a group of international students and guided by Caterina Tiazzoldi, Instant Installation explores architecture’s capacity to adapt and be reconfigured for different uses and locations with a unique spatial experience and a highly innovative yet cost efficient assembly type. It is a product reinventing the material, social, and educational possibilities of temporary exhibit spaces, creating visitor involvement into the space. It is a space articulator which defines and organizes public and semipublic spaces, informing the space with an adaptive boundary between spatial interiority and urban exteriority. Realized with colored rubber strings and CNC fabricated wooden rails, the Instant Installation configuration is a spatial generator which moves for an exhilarating adjustable space, continuously revealing and hiding the presence of the other people. The form enables a playful engagement with the visitor and the space where visitors are absorbed by the geometry and layering of materiality, conceived to encourage and to solicit the visitors’ curiosity and reactions.
Students: Pablo Costa, Katia Marie Davidson , Della Krantz, Sanhoi Lam , Elham Morovvati , Trent Oatman , Mehemt Doruk Ozdemir, Yang Shu, Yeh-Sen Su, Lanxi Sun, Iris Wang, Jiaqi Xu, Shu Yang, Sun Yifu, Ruomei,Zhang, Chen Zheng, Fabio Ullasci, Andrea Sapei, Zach Chapman, Giulia Franchello, Eugenio Rubbo Aknowledgments: Alessandra Orlando, Laura Kurgan, Nicola Twilley, Carlos Solis Coordination: Christos Constantinou, Eleni Gianpapa, Andriana Marie Koutalianou Collaborators: Fabio Ullasci, Andrea Sapei Zach Chapman, GIulia Franchello, Eugenio Rubbo Partner: Interni Magazine Technical Sponsor: Associated Fabrication
Instant Installation explores the idea of physical enclosure and the relations the social interaction it can implies. It challenges the boundary between a product and architecture while having the capacity to generate, articulate and transform spaces. Quick to install, Instant Installation is realized with parametric techniques and a computer numeric control manufacturing process permitting to quickly produce prefabricated customized rails. The installation is a customizable product which can be easily carried in a bag. Each user can select a nesting technique of the wires and can therefore define its own level of transparency, enclosure and privacy.
Spring 2013 GSAPP Columbia University
Seminar in the Instant Installation: Interdisciplinary Dance performance in the Instant Installation Critic Architecture: Caterina Tiazzoldi, NSU Critic Dance: Kim Jones
Event Partecipants: Kim Jones, Davis Sanella, Yung Yung Tsuai Lerner, Xiao Chuan Xie, Zhiwei Zha, Yahui Lu, Gunaglei Hui, Megan Curet, Krystal Butler, Carrie Ellmore Tallistch, Martin Lofnes Director of 360 Dance http://www.360fullcircle.net, PeiJu Chien Pott, Justin Tornow, Melinda Faylor, Aquila Theater http://aquilatheatre, Josephine Yeh, Gaby Rendon, Rafael Molina, and Edgar Cortes, director of the Edger Cortes Dance Theater
Syllabus A dance seminar and performance was held within Instant Installation, on view during New York Design Week. Co-Curators Caterina Tiazzoldi, architect and director of the Non Linear Solutions Unit at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University, and Kim Jones, choreographer and Assistant Professor of Dance at University of North Carolina at Charlotte and former dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company, created a Forum for Architecture and Dance at StudioX NYC. Several NYC-based choreographers, dancers, and musicians, and actors were offered a platform to interact with the architecture “Instant Installation”. This was an opportunity for artists to workshop, test, try new material, explore new possibilities, perform and to meet future collaborators. Artists brought their creative ideas as material and improvised within the installation and space. image on courtesy of NSU
Spring 2013 GSAPP Columbia University
Conference Organization: INSTANT INSTALLATION Opening Talk at New York Design Week
Syllabus Opening talk for Instant Installation during New York Design Week The interaction between product design and the future of the cities A conversation moderated by Mark Wigley, Dean Of Columbia University’s GSAPP, with Marva Griffin (Curator of Salone Satellite), Gilda Bojardi (Editor in Chief, Interni), Paola Antonelli (Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, MoMA), and Caterina Tiazzoldi (Director of the Non Linear Solutions Unit).
Event Speakers: Mark Wigley, with Marva Griffin, Gilda Bojardi, Paola Antonelli and Caterina Tiazzoldi
Spring 2011GSAPP Columbia University
Workshop design / built Body Reactant Video Installation :
an interactive platform for a pavilion designed in occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Milano Furniture fair Critic: Caterina Tiazzoldi GSAPP
Students: Alvin Shim, Cristina Handal, Courtney Pope, Dionysis Kaltis, Evan Bauer, George Valdes, Jevin Dornic, Kelsey Lents , Michael Gonzales, Sanny Ngy Coordination: Christos Constantinou, Eleni Gianpapa, Andriana Marie Koutalianou
Syllabus Development of parametric programming allowed this year’s graduate class, to create an adaptive design set to determine the physical envelope used for the Social Cave. Designed within the context of Non Linear Solution Unit’s research lab, the Social Cave was selected as one of 5 projects to be exhibited at 50 + 50 Designing the Future, a show curated by Marva Griffin in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Milano Furniture Fair By developing an adaptive design strategy, the class engaged architecture’s capacity to respond to human-environmental conditions. This parametric approach challenged the students to create a reconfigurable assembly of 500 polystyrene polygons both 100% recycled and recyclable. Modulation of a variety of parameters informed the resulting architectural configurations, reinforcing the Social Cave’s contemporary reinterpretation of physical and digital intersection.
Spring 2011GSAPP Columbia University
Workshop Site Reactant Pavillon: design / built workshop parametric formal exploration of a foam aggregation to design a pavilion for the 50th anniversary of Milano Furniture Fair Critic: Caterina Tiazzoldi GSAPP, NSU
Students: Allen Robinson, Andrew Kim, Alvin Shim, Benjamin Brichta, Courtney Pope, Elena Kapompasopoulou, Evan Bauer, Florence Schmitt , George Valdes, Georgina Lalli, Hye Lee Oh, Jeohg-in Choi, Katherine Thorn, Michael Gonzales, Youmi Kim Teaching assistants: Javier Zaratiegui, Bryce Suite, Daniel Cashen
image on courtesy of NSU
Fall 2008 GSAPP Columbia University
Studio, Parametric Furniture, Advanced Architectural Design: Critic: Caterina Tiazzoldi GSAPP with Phillip Anzalone
Students: Brian Brush, Samuel Grenader, Junichiro Horikawa, Yong Ju Lee, Naser Madouh, Karen Bechara Mitri, Gabriel Nichols, Eleni Petaloti, Jay Sikes, and Heath West Assistants: Dora Kelle, Joseph Vidich
Syllabus This project explores the connection between advanced computational design techniques and the engagement of reality in the production of a piece of architecturally embedded furniture. Processes I explore how contemporary modes of digital design to production including parametric exploration, performative design, solid modeling, computer numerically controlled fabrication and material studies contribute in the setting up of a flexible design strategy responding to the needs of nowadays customers. The skill to craft material has traditionally been the realm of expression of individuality in the design process. Through the use of more direct forms of simulation this has become easier to engage, but had removed the physicality of craft from the process. Contemporary involvement in CNC and parametric techniques has facilitated the potentials of the user to become more involved in the process while simultaneously collapsing the traditional designer and craftsperson duality. This potential is the mode of conceptual exploration in the studio.By actively engaging the physical and material through all aspects of the development of a design thesis through a multilayered and iterative digital fabrication exploration, a healthy mutual relationship can be cultivated between material and the immaterial. The class will simultaneously work in the conceptual and abstract of computer design while testing physical implications through digital and analogue craft. Therefore, students will work simultaneously on a design model based on parametric conditions simulated on the computer, a solid model intending to accurately model physical materiality and architectural experiments working up to a full-scale prototype of the project of a quality for exhibition. The goal is to rethink the relationship between design and construction and engage a dialog through the production of furniture objects that engage an Architectural space.The project intends to explore the complete process of the design of a piece of architectural furniture from it’s conception to it’s realization through the production of a full-scale prototype. This prototypical example will be presented by the GSAPP for inclusion into the 2009 Milano Furniture Fair , at the Advanced Architecture Biennal and at the International events Beyond Media.
Summer 2008
Design / Built studio: Torino World Design Capital Summer School Designing Connected Place, Torino World Design Capital
Critics: Caterina Tiazzoldi GSAPP Columbia University Cesare Griffa Politecnico di Torino Claudia Pasquero and Marco Poletto Architectural Association
Students: Bello Angela Maria, Feng Jinming, Rizzo Federico, Lee Yong Ju, , GiampĂ Bruno, Raj Ravi, Gkoliaris Panagiotis, Kelle Dora, Brush Brian, Scripelliti Elena, Di Iorio Federica, Pianosi Monica, Pollicini Francesca, Leoni Pietro, Eduardo Juliana, Xie Haiwei, Brissette Samuel, Zak Jacub Johnson Emily, Gindro Gianluca, Fassino Mauro, Campo-Ruiz Ingrid, Sirombo Elisa, Bezerra Lia Maria Dias, Wen Yinghua, Yi Yuxing, Wong Cheryl Wing-Zi, Gaioni Manuele , Beltracchi Carlo, Guerra Mariachiara, Marchis Elena Teresa Clotilde, Vozzola Mariapaola, Marom Liat
Syllabus Who The Design Studio “Prototyping the city” is a workshop born from a collaboration between Torino 2008 World Design Capital, the Architectural Association, the NSU research Lab at the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation at Columbia University, and Denaldi Legnami. “Prototyping the city” was conceived as a catalytic event in which 32 students from all over the world drew up, proposed and built an installation. What The task was to design and construct the information desk of the six summer school workshops Designing Connected Places that will be held in Pollenzo. Where Between the two exhibitions «Flexibility» and «Torino 011». It was situated in the site connecting the former penitentiary building “Le Nuove” and the “Officine Grandi Riparazioni delle Strade Ferrate” building ii. theme Prototypes The concept of a design prototype is traditionally linked to industrial design and the related fields of manufacturing. Architecture has traditionally lacked forms of serial production and mass production and, as a result, prototyping sensibilities have evolved in relatedfields of design. In modern times, new architectural ideas have frequently been developed and then tested in relationship to an idea of an architectural type. The idea of an architectural type is today undergoing a radical redefinition owing to the obsolescence of historical models which are being radically reconfigured by new urban conditions, lifestyles, economic transformation and technological innovation. Prototyping has gained an invigorated architectural relevance and prominence in contemporary architectural culture, education and debate. This resurgence of the architectural type and contemporary architectural prototyping will serve as the context of this design workshop.
Fall 2007 GSAPP Columbia University
Workshop Applied Responsive Device 4: Light Mitigating Algorithmic Patterns Formal Modulation for Light Performance in Residential Design Critic: Caterina Tiazzoldi GSAPP, Christopher Whitelaw
Syllabus The problem presented in the class was based on a real case study ap- proached by Maire Engineering (ex Fiat engineering) in the context of the development of an urban residential area in the city of Torino, Italy. Students were asked to develop projects that responded simultaneously to interior programmatic shifts as well as external site information (1A-B). This task is achieved with an algorithm connecting the pattern of the facade window framing to functional and technical requirements (2-3). Projects were developed as parametric responsive devices, capable of de- veloping a new modularity based on fractal logic. The goal was to obtain a system that would respond to the programmatic requirements of the building (3A) by innovatively combining standard building elements of a façade (tiling, framing, structures). The research project was developed as a partnership with Impresa Rosso. This collaboration created a direct connection between the advanced computational design techniques studied in an academic setting and the reality of professional practice, allowing students to apply their research to professional constraints and solve challenging architectural problems. Each project focused on the qualitative, and quantitative, understanding of algorithmic responsive devices as applied to the constructed reality of a women’s hospital façade system. The goal of this study was to develop a project responding, simultaneously, to interior programmatic shifts as well as to external site information. This task was achieved by implementing an algorithm to connect the pattern of the window facade framing to the func- tional and technical requirements of the building program. From a method- ological point of view, the solutions were combined and mediated between mathematical performance data and empirical architectural applications. The goal is to refine the tool previously developed by implementing it in the constructive reality of Rosso Costruzioni.
Students: Yu-ju Huang, Boris Ignatov, Yi-ling Tteng, Jegdic Yandic, Po Chen, William Tracy, Luping Yuan, Sponsor: Impresa Rosso
Fall 2006 GSAPP Columbia University
Workshop - Applied responsive device 3: Light Mitigating Algorithmic Patterns Copertura, a finite element model derived from a parameterized agent based model-organizing sets of kalzip tiles Critic: Caterina Tiazzoldi GSAPP, Christopher Whitelaw
Syllabus The project Copertura was developed by using the Pilot Model, “Applied responsive Device�, to design an alternative solution for a tensile membrane roof structure developed for Maire Engi- neering and Norman Foster (1A) The goal of the project was to develop innovative and cost effective techniques for employing standard flat kalzip panels in order to obtain the same range of shapes that Maire Engineering was able to achieve with a tensile membrane structure. (2A) In the first phase, the physical properties and the engi- neering limits of the material were translated into a set of attri- butes that affect the digital model. (2B-C-D) In the second phase the physical attributes of the material were used as constraints in a parametric computer model that responds to the engineering limits of the Kalzip panels through geometrical deformation. (2E) In the last phase, NSU researchers developed a simple arti- ficial intelligence that was embedded in the computer simulat- ed panels, allowing each panel to interact with its surroundings in order to configure and duplicate, resulting in an intelligent accumulation. (3A) By simulating different environments , it was possible to test the range of forms of the standard panels.
Students: Jeffrey Taras, Ken Tracy Sponsor: Maire Engineering
Syllabus The research started from the results of the projects Cer- esiosaurus (Ceresiosaurus), Desailopontès (Desailopontès), and runninghami (runninghami) developed by the Ecole d’Architecture de Grenoble, Cresson and Blue Office Archi- tecture. These projects explored the problem of engineering a formal solution for bridge acoustic panels in response to a given set of requirements. Their proposal consisted of a for- mal modulation based on acoustic performance obtained by means of manual interpolation between engineering data and acoustic tables (1A). The methodology proposed by NSU consisted of the integra- tion of part of the acoustic constraints in the digital modeling process. The volumetric model is linked to the acoustic param- eters and proportional requirements by the empirical perfor- mance formulas affecting the definition of the form (2A/2B/2C).
Fall 2005 GSAPP Columbia University
Seminar, Applied Responsive Device 2: Formal Modulation for Acoustic Performance of a Bridge Critic: Caterina Tiazzoldi GSAPP, Christopher Whitelaw
Students: Peter Albertson, Aaron Bowen, Sang Hoon Youm, K. Chan zoh Partner: Nicolas Tixier Ecole Architecture de Grenoble, Blue Office Architecture, Le Cresson
Fall 2004 -
Studio: Form and Structure: Project for a tensil-structure Critic Architecture: Pierre Alaine Croset with Caterina Tiazzoldi GSAPP
Spring 2004 GSAPP Columbia University
Studio: The Potlatch Institute in Shanghai Formal Modulation for Light Performance in Residential Design Critic: Yehuda E. Safran with Caterina Tiazzoldi GSAPP
Syllabus The project will be located in the heart of Shanghai, where numerous projects are currently transforming vast urban landscape. We will collaborate with Qingyun Ma and his office MADA who are involved in the planning of the organism, and new habitation typologies without ignoring the potential and suitability of existing urban materials and details. This studio will focus on issues of hospitality and the gift among other practices of unproductive expenditure and unconditional donation. We will explore the gift as generous and perverse, sincere and malicious, disinterested and strategic: in short, as a symmetrical or asymmetrical act. Both gift hospitality denote practices that involve the encounter with the other, the definition of one’s subjectivity and territoriality, bringing into play o gratitude and the challenge, freedom as well as contrast, condition self interest, expectations.  We shall program the project as a place which participates simultaneously domains of the market and of the gift, and insert itself into broader law of giving, receiving, and giving again, of offering and hosting. Architecture gift. This studio is inspired by the belief that we are capable of responding with emerging forms of life which require their own specific and necessary communicating vessels in the magnetic field that is architecture.
Students: Ethan Timm, Lizmarie Esperaza, Kile Matheus, Peyton Freeman, Joe Simma, Si-yzon
caterina@tiazzoldi.org Via Fratelli Calndara 6 Torino +1 6469434057 +39 3456133730