STUDIO AIR
D E S I G N
J O U R N A L
TSUN FUNG WONG #814229 SM2, 2017
CONTENT A. CONCEPTUALISATION A. 0 INTRODUCTION // P. 4 - 5 A. 1 DESIGN FUTURING // P. 6 - 7 A. 1. 1 CASE STUDY 1 // P. 8 - 9 A. 1. 2 CASE STUDY 2 // P. 9 - 10 A. 2 DESIGN COMPUTATION // P. 11 - 12 A. 2. 1 CASE STUDY 1 // P. 13 - 14 A. 2. 2 CASE STUDY 2 // P. 15 - 16 A. 3 COMPOSITION / GENERATION // P. 17 - 18 A. 3. 1 CASE STUDY 1 // P. 19 - 20 A. 3. 2 CASE STUDY 2 // P. 21 - 22 A. 4 CONCLUSION // P. 23 A. 5 LEARNING OUTCOME // P. 23 A. 6 ALGORITHMIC SKETCHES // P. 24 A. 7 APPENDIX // P. 25
A. 0 INTRODUCTION Hi, my name is Tristan, a second year architecture student studying in University of Melbourne. My interest in architecture has been developed since i was young. Lego was a great part of my childhood while it enhance my sensibility on three dimensional space as well as geometries. Also, watching my father, who is an architect himself, drawing plans on AutoCAD provide me a foundation of computation design. This further pushes me into the feild of architectural study. In my perspective, architecture is not only about forms and geometries. It is about the process of critizing and improving that aims to fully express the content of a building. Every aspect, including the impression and funtion, should be connected and designed percisely. Thus, it can only be seen as a whole. My facourite architect is Alvar Aalto due to his dedication to design buildings in user’s persepective. Every elements such as form, color, proportion and materials are finally link to the funtion of his design. Therefore, I believe that humanizing architecture is the way and direction for architects in every curcumstances.
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PART A CONCEPTUALISATION
CONCEPTUALISATION 5
A. 1 DESIGN FUTURING As it is presented in the reading “Speculative Everything”, the future is shaped by our designs. Will it leads to a predictable future? Or can we successfully build our preferable future? Sustainability is one of the main development direction for designers in the 21st century, responding to the disastrous global warming and all sorts of natural, environmental problems. Architects strive on designing buildings that can be describe as ‘ecofriendly’ as a protocall. All of a sudden, technologies such as green roofs, green walls and solar power is valued more so than ever. And this has became one of the mainstream for the futrue of architecture.
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A. 1. 1 CASE STUDY 1 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE Renzo Piano (2008)
The California Academy of Science designed by Renzo Piano is one of the famous representative of green building in 21st century due to its curvilinear green roof, materiality, application of natural light, rainwater recovery and usage as well as energy production. This LEED platinum certificated design is revolutionary at the time1, as a sustainable building that almost can be seen as a small ‘eco-system’. The green building is signified by its roof. The 2.5-acre merges into the landscape of the Golden Gate Park as Renzo Piano stated “lift up a piece of the park and put a building underneath”2. Although the green roof is well designed, it is not too surprising after all as the concept of a roof garden has been influencing long ago; on the other hand, the essence of this architecture is in its reduction of waste material and energy as well as its bio-diversity. Thus, it is a good design that influenced and inspired architects who pursue such sustainable architecture, as well as set up a whole new standard for environmental engineers.
1
“Our Green Building.” California Academy of Sciences, N.D.
2
“An Architect’s Vision.” California Academy of Sciences, N.D.
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A. 1. 2 CASE STUDY 2 GARDENS BY THE BAY Wilkinson Eyre (2012)
Gardens by the Bay in Singapore is another wellknown green architecture in 21st century, led by Grant Associates1. Compare to the California Academy of Science, the impact of the 250-acre garden is excessive. This project revolutionarily created the vision of ‘city in a garden’2, contradicted the concept of a roof garden that only brings limited impacts on the building. It also has impact on popular culture (reference for the movie guardian of the galaxy3), people’s life style and even the direction of the country; it has already become one of the signatures of Singapore as being the most visited site for tourists who travel to Singapore4. In other words, this project has truly shaped Singapore’s future.
1
“Our Story.” Gardens by the Bay, N.D.
2
“About the Gardens.” Gardens by the Bay, N.D
3
“The VFX of Guardians of the Galaxy.” Fxguide, 2015.
4
“gbtb Annual report”, Gardens by the Bay, 2016
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A. 2 DESIGN COMPUTATION Due to the development of technology, people has utilized as well as adopted to the new efficient and effective ways to work on their task in different field. The architectural industry is not an exception. Architects has been ‘evolved’ from writing a construction ‘recipe’ to technical drawings, from hand drawings to AutoCAD, from 2D representation to 3D modelling such as Rhino and Sketch Up. Presently, computation has become a great part in architectural design. Architects start using computer programs to document as well as acess and optimize their design, and this gradually becomes an unseperable part of the process of architectural designing.
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CONCEPTUALISATION 13
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A. 2. 1 CASE STUDY 1 HEYDAR ALIYEV CENTRE Zaha Hadid (2007)
Zaha Hadid is one of the famous architect in 21st century, and her architecture is well-known by its organic form. With computation, these forms can be easily generated as well as manipulated. The Heydar Aliyev Centre is one of her recognized design. The flow of the curvilinear lines continues to the landscape1. It is stated that it could serves as a device to welcome and direct visitors; the interior of the architecture is also flowed with the rhythm of the curve lines. It can almost be described as a poetic piece of sculpture, and it is undeniable that the elegant organic form is aesthetically pleasuring. However, as an architect, aesthetic factors are far not the only aspect we are pursuing. An architecture is not a piece of gigantic sculpture, and our job is not just to carve out an organic shaped machine. There are much more than art that we will have to consider. If computation is just a tool to present elegancy, it is beginning at a wrong end.
1
“Heydar Aliyev Center / Zaha Hadid Architects.� ArchDaily, 2013
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A. 2. 2 CASE STUDY 2 AL BAHAR TOWERS Abdulmajid Karanouh (2012)
In a performance-oriented design, architects can rapidly resolve complex problems by using different programs. The Al Bahar Tower is the headquarter of the Abu Dhabi Investment Council. Its location, Abu Dhabi, is considered as hot desert climate. Temperature can be extremely hot throughout the year, so a good shading system is necessary. In fact, the tower has an largest solar-responsive shading system in the world1. By applying computation during the process of design, the performance of the adjustable louvers can be programmed to a specific pattern throughout the year by calculating the algorithm of the sun path. Each piece of triangular shading is coated with fibre glass and programmed independently2. It will be closed and folded at night and seen more as a façade. During the daytime, the pieces will spread out and act as a shading device. It is estimated that this shading device can safe more than 50% energy usage of the building3. As the first project of computation oriented design that respond to solar and light conditions on a large scale, the Al Bahar Tower is a successful example of computation architecture. 1
“AL BAHR TOWERS.” Al Bahr Towers | Office & Workplace | AHR | Archi-
tects and Building Consultants 2
“Al Bahar Towers Responsive Facade / Aedas.” ArchDaily, 2012
3
Holloway, James. “Modernizing the mashrabiya: Smart-skinned Al Bahar
Towers near completion.” New Atlas - New Technology & Science News, 2013
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A. 3 COMPOSITION / GENERATION The designed form of architecture have had a pattern since the construction of ancient classical architectures: The geometric pyramids, the symetric Roman temples, the rectangular glass boxes of skyscrapers... Through the application of parametric design, architects nowadays can generate more complex pattern for the form of their designs, an algorithmic pattern perhps. Thus, more dynamic and organic form can be generated and documented in a efficient way. This leads us to the question: To what extend should designers design parametrically?
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A. 3. 1 CASE STUDY 1 WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL Frank Gehry (2003)
The Walt Disney Concert Hall, located in Los Angeles, is designd by famous post modernism architect Frank Gehry. This architect is well-known by his application of sweeping, metalic facade, which he also applied it onto the concave facade of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. At first glance the elevation of the building seems dynamic and interesting; however this vigorous facade once had reflection problems due to the combination of concave panels and highly polished material1. It acted as a parabolic mirror which concentrated sunlight and heating up the area severely; after complaint by the neibourhood, Gehry came up with the solution of sanding the metalic panels to decrease the impact of glare2. The incident perfectly demonstrate a possible problems that parametric designs may encounter. 1
Pogrebin, Robin. “Gehry Would Blast Glare Off Los Angeles Showpiece.”
The New York Times, 2004 2
Coates, Chris. “Dimming Disney Hall.” Los Angeles Downtown News - For
Everything Downtown L.A., 2005
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A. 3. 2 CASE STUDY 2 BEACH AND HOWE Bjarke Ingels (In Construction)
Beach and Howe is a project directed by Bjarke Ingels. It is under construction in Vancouver downtown. The triangular podiums that hold up the parametric residential tower is served as a multipurpose urban village including working, shopping and leisure programmes1. However the biggest focal point of the project falls onto the strang twist of the tower itself. The lose area of the tower forms a slender base supporting a wider top. It, to a certain extend, preserve the space for pedestrians while maximizing the volumn of the building2. The parametric aspect of the project not only create an intriguing form for the architecture, but also is designed for the specific location for a specific reason. This successfully presents the direction that parametric design should follow.
1
“Beach and Howe: BIG Draws a Curtain Aside to Usher in Downtown
Vancouver.” Archute, 2015 2
Arch2O.com. “Beach and Howe Tower | BIG.” Arch2O.com, 2016
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A. 4 CONCLUSION The world is gradually changing, so
also able to enhance one’s creativity.
do people. This change signifies new
However, we should not abuse such
challenges and new problems, and
powerfulness, to an extend when
we should not suppose that we can
we relies on it too much that we
overcome these new problems with
lost our primitive intention. Instead,
the old method. Thus, new ways, more
we should manipulate it as a usefull
effective ways perphs, is brought up
tool to make up our deficiencies.
and people must manage to master it before the old method is out of the way. Computation is the new way to solve problems and approach success. It not only assist human to complete repeatative labour, but it is
A. 5 LEARNING OUTCOME What sort of architect do you want
helps me to criticize my own work
to become, and what kind of
in the future. Last but not least, the
architecture do you want to design?
research deepen my understanding
This is an extremly simple yet critical
about computation design including
question that every architectural
its benefits and drawbacks. That
student should be able to answer.
demonstrates the importance of
Part A of the design journal helped
learning computation tools, and also
me to understand as well as to define
leads me to the right path during the
myself. It leads me to a favorable
application of such programmes
direction that I have never consider of. Moreover, the critical think during the case study analysis helps me to reflect architects that are seen as successful in a different perspective. This not only contribute to my knowledge about the possibility of architecture, but also
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A. 6 ALGORITHMIC SKETCHING
BLINK-BLINK NECKLACE Loft > Delauney Edges > Pipe
THE FLOATING LEGO Box Morph
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A. 7 APPENDIX 1. “About the Gardens.” Gardens by the Bay. Accessed August 18, 2017. http://www.gardensbythebay.com.sg/en/the-gardens/about-us/corporate-information.html. 2. ”Al Bahar Towers Responsive Facade / Aedas.” ArchDaily. September 05, 2012. Accessed August 18, 2017. http://www.archdaily.com/270592/al-bahar-towers-responsive-facade-aedas. 3. “AL BAHR TOWERS.” Al Bahr Towers | Office & Workplace | AHR | Architects and Building Consultants. Accessed August 18, 2017. http://www.ahr-global.com/Al-Bahr-Towers. 4. “An Architect’s Vision.” California Academy of Sciences. Accessed August 18, 2017. http://www.calacademy.org/an-architects-vision. 5. Arch2O.com. “Beach and Howe Tower | BIG.” Arch2O.com. November 23, 2016. Accessed August 18, 2017. http://www.arch2o.com/beach-and-howe-tower-big/. 6. “Beach and Howe: BIG Draws a Curtain Aside to Usher in Downtown Vancouver.” Archute. November 11, 2015. Accessed August 18, 2017. http://www.archute.com/2015/09/27/beach-and-howe-big-draws-a-curtain-aside-to-usher-in-downtown-vancouver/. 7. Coates, Chris. “Dimming Disney Hall.” Los Angeles Downtown News - For Everything Downtown L.A.! March 21, 2005. Accessed August 18, 2017. http://www.ladowntownnews.com/news/dimming-disney-hall/article_25f5eec5-339b-5f51-810e-1f1af7fcd361.html. 8. “Heydar Aliyev Center / Zaha Hadid Architects.” ArchDaily. November 13, 2013. Accessed August 18, 2017. http://www.archdaily.com/448774/heydar-aliyev-center-zaha-hadid-architects. 9. Holloway, James. “Modernizing the mashrabiya: Smart-skinned Al Bahar Towers near completion.” New Atlas - New Technology & Science News. February 07, 2013. Accessed August 18, 2017. http://newatlas.com/al-bahar-towers/26139/. 10. “Our Green Building.” California Academy of Sciences. Accessed August 18, 2017. http://www.calacademy.org/our-green-building. 11. “Our Story.” Gardens by the Bay. Accessed August 18, 2017. http://www.gardensbythebay.com.sg/en/the-gardens/our-story/introduction.html. 12. Pogrebin, Robin. “Gehry Would Blast Glare Off Los Angeles Showpiece.” The New York Times. December 02, 2004. Accessed August 18, 2017. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/02/arts/design/gehry-would-blast-glare-off-los-angeles-showpiece.html?mcubz=3. 13. “The VFX of Guardians of the Galaxy.” Fxguide. March 18, 2015. Accessed August 18, 2017. https://www.fxguide.com/featured/the-vfx-of-guardians-of-the-galaxy/.
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