Trans-Material Diversity - SAC APD_Booklet

Trans-Material Diversity

SOA - Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy Vinay Shekar S Architecture and Performative Design 2015-16

Contents Agenda Architecture and Performative Design

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5

Brief Deep Research ...

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APD First semester Weekly design exercises

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8

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14

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40

APD Second semester Crystal Growth

APD Master Theses SOA - Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

SAC Architecture and Performative Design The specialisation Architecture and Performative Design (APD) is build on the premise that the world around us is working in processes. Getting an understanding of processes in general and developing a sensibility to think in procedural relations is the ambition of the programme. It leads towards an approach in design that is centred around the construction of systems which are the mediator and enabler for creating architectural artefacts. This is a shift in what is generally considered intuition. Instead of acting directly on a given design one builds, changes, and tweaks a underlaying system. This not only delivers an architectural product but along with it a meaningful evaluation of the performance criteria considered.

These criteria could range from material, construction, manufacturing to environmental, technological and cultural factors. The performative value of an architectural design is conceived in its potential to orchestrate requirements so they lead to meaningful articulations of space and tectonics.

The specialisation tries to find answers on how computational techniques as well as physical processes are changing the methodological and strategic make-up of architectural design. This could only be done by embedding projective and analytical feedback into the work.

APD Specialisation Lead: Guest Professor Mirco Becker Studio Tutor: Moritz Rumpft

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Deep Research APD reverts to work on material without neglecting the computational aspects established under the 2014 15 agenda of Trans Scalar Diversity. The agenda is build on the premise that digital design strategies allow us to address all scales from the fibers and particles of the material make-up to larger programmatic and infrastructural elements. Computation offers the direct control of each element without any abstraction, allowing for an unprecedented resolution in detail and material. At the same time computation provides methods to deploy this control.

This impacts the act of designing as well as the role of the designer deeply. During the first 6 weeks each week a design task is given to equip the master thesis candidates with techniques and hands-on design experience.

Task #1: Impress me!

Take one idea and execute it very well. Show your talent and ambitions and demonstrate what you can do in 4 days. A drawing, a detail. a building, a city Task #2: Color Analysis Select a color image and design your own method to analyze, filter and reshape the color information of the image.

Task #3: Scale and shape analysis Select one of the buildings below and create 3D models of 6 key architectural elements. It is up to you to identify these. Keep in mind to include a wide range of scal.

Task #4: Generative flatware set Design a three piece flatware set in 6 variations. This means that each of the 6 knife (forks and spoons) is different but still clearly belongs to the same family.

Task #5: Design a headline font Design a headline font to use in your future APD panel and booklet design. This is as much an exercise in self learning as it is in design and variation studies.

Task #6: Design with complexity this is about the relative difference of elements and how these form a greater whole. Aim to use a minimum of 3000 elements, the more the better.

Task #7: Light cave Light cave is a prototype which acts like an oversize headset to experience its interior space and material effects. Only the experience on the inside counts.

Color Analysis By selecting a color image and designing my own method to analyze, filter and reshape the color infomation of the image. This is a work about shape an color with reference to a chosen image. Useing GH and Illustrator and VRay. The aim is to create diversity in shape and color by simple computational techniques.

Details

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Face by Artist Eric Lacombe

Voxel pattern

etamorphosis ethod: tessellated pattern udent: Vinay Shekar ate: 30/10/15 ersion: 1.0

PD / TASK02/ VINAY SHEKAR / COLOR ANALYSIS

Histogram: Hue Channel

Mesh Color Palette

Scale and Shape Analysis of Architectural Elements Selecting one of the museum around frankfurt and create 3D models of 6 key architectural elements.

In my case its Sclpture museum, Frankfurt am Main. And trying to include a wide range of scale from a small element like a door handle to a staircase. And Rendering the models and extract hidden line drawings.

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

The things used are photographs, tape measure and good estimation to create the 3D models. Relative precision is more important than absolute precision.

The task aims to build an understanding of the complexity and design precision of the selected elements. It questions how the relate to each other and to the overall design of the building. The building selected was Liebighaus, Frankfurt. It is a sclpture museum.

Generative Flatware Set Since symmetry was the strong language in the last exercise, I am using the same symmetry logic to continue design. Designing a three piece (knife, fork, spoon) flatware set in 6 variations. This means that each of the 6 knife (forks and spoons) is different but still clearly belongs to the same family.

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

This is an exercise on generative / parametric variations. And to balance the range of changes well so they are not too subtle but also not too far apart. Work in mm as that also gives you a better sense of the resolution.

As with earlier task this is much more interested as the effects of the final results than in the complexity of the design process.

Headline Font Design Design a headline font to use in your future APD panel and booklet design. The headline font was to be used in our future APD panel and booklet design. The font should be used for headlines only, english alphabet 26 characters no numbers. Part of the challenge is that it gathers all knowledge and tools for the task by ourselves.

After designing I tested with the PANGRAM TEST with different sentences and tried to identify qualities in it. Questions: What is the process of designing a font? Wich letter do you start with and how do they relate to form a consistent style? Do you sketch first? When do you digitize the design? What is the terminology used in font design?

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Vertical Symmetry

HorizontalSymmetry

Angular Symmetry

Failed Letters

Favourite Letters

Design with Complexity Material Granularity and Resolution Design and make a material sculpture that fills / fits a A3 size area.

My material was different sizes and shape of sticks which relatively differentiate the elements and how these form a greater whole. Aim to use a minimum of 3000 elements, the more the better.

The 3000 single elements starts combining with few similar looking elements to create a figure, I am calling it as a word, and with that creating a composition (poem/story).

Tried to make it an architectural project. This is a sculpture at 1:1 scale! and photographed with well chosen light and presented it on the A1 panel.

Grammar

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Composition

Details

Light Cave Light cave is a prototype which acts like an oversize headset to experience its interior space and material effects.

A lot of crystals might seem to look alike at first glance, but what elements the crystal is made out of will make it a unique shape and color.

Even the same element can make different crystals, though, based on conditions such as temperature and light and what other elements are around.

The selected technique was sodium chloride (table salt) crystal growth.

Seizure by Roger Hiorn, London 2008

Seizure by Roger Hiorn, London 2008

Mendenhall Ice Caves, Alaska U.S.

Mendenhall Ice Caves, Alaska U.S.

Antelope Canyon, Arizona U.S.

Antelope Canyon, Arizona U.S.

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Details

Crystal Growth A crystal is a hard, solid substance made of molecules that bond together in specific patterns to form an interesting shape that has straight edges and flat surfaces. As a crystal grows, the pattern that makes it a certain shape will be repeated over and over, so the crystal will always keep the same shape as it gets bigger! The chemical elements that a crystal is made of are what tell the crystal what shape it will be.

Salt Crystal growth with arteficial colors

Different Scale - Salt Crystal

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

sodium acetate crystallization

Crystal Chair Crystal chair is a prototype which acts like an realistic chair to experience its presence in the space around the exhibition and material effects produced at the different parts.

The salt crystals shapes are generated by a process of accretion over time. They are gradually grown by simulating the paths of millions of cubic crystals growing by the gradual accumulation of additional layering. Over time they build on top of an initial crystal surface to produce structures of immense complexity. In the process exploring universal archetypal forms that can come from growth processes rather than top-down externally engineered design.

Top View

Bottom View

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Leg/cup detail

Hanging detail

Substratum suspension detail

Blending with substratum detail

Growth blending 2 different substratum detail

Blending with substratum detail

Growth around the substratum detail

Elevation, Size - 2M x 1M x 0.75M

Blending with substratum detail

Growth inside the cup detail

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Leg detail

Leg surface detail

Crystal growth on Substratum- Thread

These works come from a series of studies on crystallization process and there procedural transformations. In physical model, the crystal accretion on substratum happens gradually and solidifies, Between tightly spaced layers of shale, the aggregate was forced to grow in a laterally compressed, radiating manner. Under normal conditions, it would form crystal cubes.

The supersaturated solution is poured over the objects over the couple of weeks depending on the required crystal size. Through capillary action salt crystals are drawn out of the container on to substratum. Crystals can be found grouped together as lots of small crystals or as huge individual crystals. They vary in size from those at the microscopic level all the way up to crystals that are meters in length.

The thickness of structure can be controlled through parameters such as airflow, temperature and the consistency and flow of salt solution.

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Crystal growth on Knitting Technique

Crystal growth on Knitting Technique

Crystal growth on Felting

Crystal growth on Felting

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Crystal growth on Felting

Crystal growth on Felting

Crystal growth on Balloon wrapped with thread as substratum

Crystal growth on Balloon wrapped with thread as substratum

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Crystal growth on Knitting

Crystal growth on thread - Family

Crystal growth on 3D printed window handle detail as substratum

Crystal growth on 3D printed staircase handrail detail as substratum

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Crystal growth on 3D printed false ceiling with CCTV camera detail as substratum

Crystal growth on 3D printed coffee mug as substratum

Crystal growth on 3D printed cone as substratum

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Crystal growth on 3D printed frames detail as substratum

Crystal growth on paper as substratum with back light

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Crystal growth on paper as substratum with back light

Crystal growth on glass cylender as substratum

Crystal growth on glass cylender as substratum with back light

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Crystal growth on glass cylender as substratum with back light

Thesis Project Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy

External View 01

The thesis explores formation on a per molecule level. It introduces a design method where the willfully precise forming of a substratum is overwritten by the dynamics of crystal formation. The pioneers of form finding designers of 70s are Buckminster Fuller and Frei Otto. Unlike Louis Kahn’s inquiry into architectural elements “What do you want brick?” they regarded form as the interplay of material and forces.

The inner structure is very simple, the molecules want to attache in the same way time and again.

The complexity of the crystal is a function of the imperfections in the lattice. A perfect large crystal is one with a very regular lattice structure over thousands of molecules in all directions. As the crystals develops the structure becomes extremely curved, therefore hard to recognize the direction of growth but fundamentally retains the shape. The crystal growth on substratum becomes embellishing ornament.

Spectral - Substratum, Ornamentation - crystal grown on substratum, Alchemy - Crystallization process

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

The work comes from a series of studies on crystallization process of sodium chloride / table salt, it’s a prototyping material, other crystals can be used to if studied in a similar method and their procedural transformations. In physical model, the crystal accretion on substratum happens gradually and solidifies, between tightly spaced layers of shale and the aggregate was forced to grow in a laterally compressed, radiating manner. Under normal conditions, it would form crystal cubes. The supersaturated solution is poured over the objects over the couple of weeks depending on the required crystal size. Through capillary action salt crystals are drawn out of the container on to substratum. Crystals can be found grouped together as lots of small crystals or as huge individual crystals. They vary in size from those at the microscopic level all the way up to crystals that are meters in length. The thickness of structure can be controlled through parameters such as airflow, temperature and the consistency and flow of salt solution.

Exploded view showing Substratum

The digital investigations happen through the layering, carving, and manipulation of interior space, a new coherency between architectural conditions can be explored where space is created through the excessive layering of mass and volume and the envelope is a bi-product of the hyper-articulation of the crystal. The use of an envelope as an initiator of the design process has been constantly in flux, always trying to blur the line of inside and outside in order to produce ambiguous space.

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Exploded Floor Plans

This proposal for a new Städel Residency Program on Städelcampus, explore the use of figurative elements in multiple performative scales and conditions at a micro level to produce architecture which defies totalistic readings. The residency program is as much for personal development as it is a lab for exploring future conditions of how we want to live with/inhabit technology.

Sectional View

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Interior View

As the program is temporary in response to a cultural shift towards the narcissistic and the production of self referential portraiture, the project looks to introduce the salt crystal growth into the material of the built environment.

A lot of crystals might seem to look alike at first glance, but what elements the crystal is made out of will make it a unique shape and color.

Even the same element can make different crystals, though, based on conditions such as temperature and light and what other elements are around.

Concerning illustration a last expressions of thesis, we can say that the visual multifaceted nature for fine art. Affords the chance for tasteful exploration, However excessively could a chance to be dull, and excessively.

The ground floor moves between hypostyle and poche based spaces while eschewing a clear delineation between the two conditions.

A secondary scale of figures allows the bodies to mutate, branching their crystal growth, to better produce both structural frames and surface responsive ornamentation.

The spaces engage in diverse uses and host the range of temporary residence.

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Crystals Growth on painting

Zoom in Detail

Window Detail

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Roof Detail

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Window Detail

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Window Detail

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

External View 02

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

External view 03

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

Nignt View from Städelschule Directors Window

APD / Spectral Ornamentation Alchemy / Vinay Shekar S /2015-16

STÄDELSCHULE ARCHITECTURE CLASS Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste-Städelschule Dürerstrasse 10 60596 Frankfurt am Main T +49 69 6050 0869 F +49 69 6050 0878 www.staedelschule.de/architecture