STUDIOAIR VICTOR WONG 391192
01. UNEARTHING. DESIGN STUDIO EARTH PROJECT
“UNEARTHING” is a first year design studio subject involving Herring Island. The concept bands around a site that is an urban escape to the secluded bushland of the manmade island on the outskirts of the central business district. The concept for this design stems from the abstraction of graphing the conflict between nature and man. The jaggered exterior shows the physical non-linear relationship of humans (Through human intervention) and then nature striking back (In the form of natural events). The building’s concept comes alive through computation. With the design intention to take a literal approach and extrude the graph into a snake-like structure that would be built on the edge of the island and take the visitors through the journey of discovery. This discovery is physical and as you walk through it, you experience and feel the conflict between humans and nature. Each jaggered end point becomes a node of discovery for the visitors.
Architectural discourse exists within the use of computational tools to translate the data which became the layout of the structure. The discussion was if computation was suitable for this project. It was sucessful in that it translated the concept strongly, that the complex geometry was brought alive by the use of computational tools such as Rhino and Grasshopper. An example of this is above where sized aperture holes were punched through the skin of the building to control the amount of light in the building. As visitors walked through the site, they would experience from dark to light from one end of the building to the other. It controls the experience of the visitors and shows how the building opens up to nature.
The project was presented in 2011 to a jury of two judges including the tutor, Michael Macleod. Although the presentation was presented well, the jury seemed to be in conflict in their feedback. The discussion was not direct to the project, but rather if the jury’s preconcieved ideas and bias towards computation. The argument was towards if computation was a suitable expression for this concept. Regardless of their feedback, the design was chosen to represent the studio at Open Day 2011.
Coordinator: Janet McGaw Tutor Michael Macleod Designed by Victor Wong
02. CASADAMUSICA DISCOURSE AS A DISCUSSION
Richard Williams writes: “Architecture is as much a philosophical, social or professional realm as it is a material one” (2005) Casa Da Musica by Rem Koolkaas and OMA amplifies the social realm of architectural discourse than it does as a built form. Although the main function of the building is a concert hall, it breaks the conventional confinement of what Koolhaas calls the “Shoebox” concert halls and creates a dynamic solid structure in the heart of Porto. The architecture itself is a heavy contrast to the sorroundings of Porto in Portugal but creates an ideal social driver in the busy streets of Porto. This building breaks the cultural normality of the local architecture and contrasts between the colour render of the small residential flats of Porto with a white concrete mamomth structure in the center of the city. The source of the discussion of discourse is derived from this contrast. The building is much more than a concert hall but has become the central hub of the city. The social aspect of this architecture comes through with its sorrounding public space, opening up the building to the fabric of the city, invites youths to use its facilities and caters for community activities. An amatuer video catches this discourse by asking the residents of Porto their opinions about the building. They all agree that the building is a large contrast, but are also signifying the social importance of a facility in Porto. The video shows the public’s need to engage with architecture, a requirement of the Wyndham Gateway Project. There are complex levels of social engagement that needs to be addressed and the Casa De Musica shows us it can be achieved. In the context of the Wyndham Gateway Project, we can draw another comparison with the buildings symbolism. Porto commissioned this design competition to revive its port-industrial city that have long been in decline (Ouroussoff, 2005). Like the Gateway project, a sense of reviving interest in the city of Porto. See Community Discourse on Youtube
“10 years from now it might be sitting here quite perfectly, but right now it’s a bit of a contrast, but contrast is good” Architect Firm Completed Awards
Rem Koolhaas OMA / AMO 2005 Royal Institute of British Architects, European Award 2007
03. TREE OFLIFE DISCOURSE AS AN INNOVATION
The Evolo Skyscraper project is an innovative initiative tat attracted hundreds of different designs from all around the world. The architectural discourse exists within these competitions, as they encourage people to think beyond architecture as a practical structure and focus on conceptualising ideas and refining them into innovations in the architectural field. The mindset is liberating in a design sense and the hope is to find designs that are original with concept technology for the future. The ‘Tree of Life’ by Denis and Anastasiya is a depiction of a tree-like skyscraper. This is no new invention, as it famously can be derived from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Price Tower and the Johnson Wax Building. Wright uses the ‘Tree’ as a decorative and load bearing structure inside his buildings. The difference between Wright’s tree and this Tree of Life is that the use of computation has changed the outcomes of the basic seed of idea. By using computational techniques, the outcomes for design are increased with the opportunities for complex form and the integration of dynamic systems (Kolarevic, 2003). In the Wyndham City Gateway Project, there is a call for an innovative and prominent indicator for this portal into the city. This innovation exists within the discourse of architecture. The discussion of the way innovation occurs happens in this discourse and the ability to use computation can aid this process to undertake an image for the Wyndham Community.
Architect Completed Awards
Syirid Denis Gudzenko Anastasiya 2005 Short listed winner Evolo skyscraper competition
Left: Tree Of Life Right Top: Wright’s Johnson Wax Building structural ‘tree’ columns Right Bottom: Concept for Tree of Life
“What do you call an architecture firm that draws inspirations from the most extreme aspects of nature and human psychology?�
Princeston Architectural Press
Architect Firm Completed Published
R&Sie(N) Francois Roche 2005 Princeston Architectural Press: Bioreboot
04. HYPONOSIS ROOM UNIQUE INNOVATIONS THROUGH COMPUTATION
The Hyponosis Room by Francois Roche is a conceptual hypo chamber brought to life through the innovations and advancements in CNC milling. The life size modular fliud structure breaks away from the conventions of architecture and branches off into a new idea stemming from sleep. The structure is an indoor chamber where hypnosis sessions occur and help the person experiencing the space escape from their alienated social condition. The project shows how broad the field of discourse exists. This rather extreme example shows how innovations and new technologies can come together to combine for different outcomes. Although this form may not be suitable for the site (As it is too hard to translate), we can use this point as inspiration into more conceptual methods that may have been thought to be impossible to achieve. In many ways the Wyndham project brief encourages to propose new, inspiring and brave ideas to generate a new discourse. This is clearly in the direction of computational field.
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Firm Completed Awards
Nex Architecture 2011 Winning Design Competition for Eureka Pavillion
06. LIVING MORPHOLOGIES
Expressing contemporary scripting/programing cultures ‘Living Morphologies’ is a hundred-square meter conceptual proposal designed by David Pigram of Supermanoeuvre. The project is based in New York, a 1.5 billion dollar project that is a future interpreation of apartment dwellings defined by Parametric modelling. The project intergrates the use of morphogenetic algorithms, a technique where an element in space continually changes its state based on the states of those around it, giving rise to emergent patterns. The series of scripts run based on simple rules that give rise to these emergent patterns. These rules defined the site response and the topology of the dwellings, giving life to the expansive form stretching from New York’s dense urban infastructure into the water. A example of this rule is that the script would act like a bird and this bird could know a good smell from a bad smell, a reference to New York’s industrialisation and polution of air. This would later influence the views, ventilation and built court yards of the concept.
Architect Firm
David Pigram Supermanoevure
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world”
Ludwig Wittgenstein Philosopher 1922
References: Ouroussoff (2005) - http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/10/arts/design/10ouro. html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=casa%20da%20musica&st=cse&scp=1