ACHITECTURE STUDIO
AIR
YANGYANG HE 367353 STUDIO 4
CONTENT INTRODUCTION
PAGE 1
EXPERIENCE
PAGE 2-3
CASE STUDY
PAGE 4-7
INTRODUCTION YANGYANG HE I am an international student which major in architecture in University of Melbourne. My hometown is a little city which called Guilin in the southwest of China. Because my father is an architect, I was growing up with seeing his work in my hometown. It is incredible when we were walking in the streets and he said the building on the opposite side is his design. And my dream during that time is being an architect like my father, and then I received a lot of drawing training from school which he said is the foundation of being a good architect. But I am planning to study urban design in the future since the work can contribute to more people live than a single building in my concern I thought architecture is just about designing a beautiful building that satisfies the customer and me, but after 2 years of learning in the university, it is more complex than what I was thinking before. It is not only what Richard Meier¡¯s believe that it is “the mother of arts” which “connects the present with the past and the tangible with the intangible” but also...
“Achitecture is really about well-being. I think that people want to feel good in a space...On the one hand it’s about shelter, but it’s also about pleasure” by Zaha Hadid It is a language that communicates people and the environments. And I believe a good architecture design should contribute to the environments and people in a variety of perspective such as culture and social. And I will argue that even though digital design is not the only way to produce a nice result but it is necessary for architects since it can help them to express their idea which cannot simply draw by pen and paper.
EXPERIENCE Beacause of those previous drawing trainings, I rather do my design by hand drawing before leaning the digital design software. Sometimes it is quite hard for me to visualize my idea in the computer instead of just drawing it by pen and paper. But I know it is necessay to be familar with the comtempary design software if I want to get a job when I graduate.
hand drawing
University is the first time that I am getting touch with digital design. Since I took another subject which is Mapping Environments instead of Virtual Environments, the first design software that I am more familar is Sketchup which is easier to learn as a beginer of 3D modeling. And I usually use it as the tool of visualize the space and refining my design. While I was just knowing a little bit of Rhino from the workshop of Visual Communication which only require some simple stuffs.
poor skill of transforming 2D to 3D
Poor start of Rhino in Visual Communication
practice of knowing those tools
practice of rendering
But I also got some experiences in Sketchup
ARCHITECTURE AS DISCOURSE BEIJING 2050 PROPOSAL
TWO CASE STUDY
BY YANSONG MA
Because of my background and future interests in urban reforming, Ma’s Beijing 2050 proposal is really impressed me with his “madness” of destruction and creation. The proposal includes three main parts which are accentuating green space in the People’s Park, expanding vertically with a floating island over the CBD building, and updating traditional housing with futuristic bubble space. When he starts thinking of this large proposal, the main idea is trying to serve the urban residents and solve the problems that Beijing is facing in the future. In my opinion is a kind of discourse that the architects communicate with the future instead of keep referring to the past. Even though the idea of floating island is mainly come from his famous proposal of rebuilding the World Trade Centre in New York which can concern as the past, his strategy is more likely to be considered as the future model. In general, all of these three aspects are promoting one main idea which is creating new space experience for the people with remembrance of the traditional culture. It can be seen from the updating traditional housing aspect that he is trying to create a mixture of traditional and modern with those bubbles sitting in the Hutong in Beijing. In addition, the floating island is also transforming the horizontal spreading urban space into a vertical space which may solve the problem of growing population in the urban area. In my opinion, even though this proposal cannot be built in the future, the idea of this proposal will also impact the urban planners and reformers to consider what Ma is thinking of. And the parametric design that use in this proposal is not only look beautiful or strange in others’ thoughts. It is a result of a systematic thinking and designing which may be the answer of future. And I think the idea that architecture or urban designing is a discourse of past and the future may help my design in this course.
CASA DA MUSICA
BY REM KOOLHAAS
Rem Koolhaas as the “last” architect of modern architecture is quite different from Le Corbusier and others in the architecture history. As an architect who still produces a lot of work from his OMA, Cassa da Musica is one that I like the most from his practices. The project is sitting in the Porto which is the city of European culture in 2001. The starting point of this project is creating an odium which opens to the urban. In this perspective, Rem’s architecture is a discourse between the private to the public. He always tries to make communication from interior to exterior environment. In this building, he not only design the building itself but also a large square which surround the building to making living space for the public. Every angle of this design is referring to the surrounding local build environments. From the bird view, we can see the building itself is separate from the large context by its form and material. But when we further consider this project by looking at the influences on the environments, it creates a different life style and experiences for the residents. Since the site originally has a very high density of building which is lack of space for people meeting with each other and having recreational activities. The square provides the space for those usages and the opening on the ground floor is also connecting the private musical practice with the normal urban life together. Additionally, in terms of transportation, the site is centralizing people’s movement towards the building and creating conversation with themselves and the building. From my point of view, the design is destructing the traditional grid building form set by Corbusier which transforming the box into something more comfortable for the visitors. And it also shows that form making in architecture is not just cube or rectangle, it is more about how to create unique experience and making contribution to the people.
COMPUTATIONAL ARCHITECTURE 1.ARCHITECUTURE IN THE PAST
Architecture as a professional practice in contemporary world is very different from the time before the 1450s when the Italians evolutionally transformed the original building process into principles of architecture. Designing in architectural practice was more likely based on construction experiences in the ancient time without any specific principles. It is highly limited to the builder’s knowledge and their life experiences. Different from those craft men like builders, architects were separate from the actual construction process after the renaissance period. They are more focusing the design itself rather than trying to solve the problems that engineer are more familiar with. The design process is change from design in site when construction is processing in the same time to having the design complete before construction. In this kind of new design process, architects are planning and designing the building rather than constructing it. However, there are still many problems will appear to this method of design such as incorrect communication between the architects and the engineer as well as the builders which may have side-effect of the building design to the site environments. Even though architects are trying to communicate with the other professionals in each steps of the designing process though scale drawings and models, the results can be very different from the original design by the architect.
2.THE TWO FACILITIES OF DESIGN PROCESS
In current world or even earlier in the modern history of architecture, the invention of computer is revolutionary not only affecting the design process and appearance but also influenced people’s world in almost every parts of their life. Computer can evaluate and store set data in the speed that human cannot achieve. In addition, it is hardly mistake if the program and human inputs are correctly since the process is straight forward. A metaphor of the difference between human thinking process and computer process can be a complex geometric comparing to one single line. Which means the computer is the perfect tool that architects can use in terms of the analysis and evaluation of the design process with the combination of human creativities. In addition, computer is providing the easy and fast way for the architects to communicate with their partners and clients. For example, the 3d rendering picture of the design can communicate with the clients and the detail modelling is also useful for the constructors to understand how thing should be done in order to perform the way that architects wants to achieve.
Secondly, there are two main facilities in architectural design process which are the analytical facility and the creative facility. Both of them are equally important to a well resolution of the goals that an architect want to achieve. The analytical facility is associated with fixing problems that the design facing. For example, the topography and climate of the site is one of the major components that architects cannot change much because of variety of reasons such as building code and build budgets. In general, all this analytical data can be systematically evaluate if the designer has enough knowledge and time to deal with. But in real practice, sometimes it is impossible for architects to analysis all of those data without any error forever. On the other hand, human are the only animal in the world that can creatively design and think to solve problems. With critical and creative thinking, human can generate a large range of solutions to problems. An in architecture practice, the design Moreover, architecture is still changing due to the may achieve different requirements and express the rapid development of technology. New material and creativity of the designer in the same time. This kind construction possibilities are developed that architects of creativity should and can only be done by humans. can design some impossible shape and nurb that cannot A good resolution of an architectural project should be constructing or even create by human’s pen and paper. combine systematic analysis as well as designers’ The opportunities of well resolved design are open to creation. 3.WHY COMPOUTATIONAL ARCHITECTURE more people. Computational architecture is more easily communicate with other professional as well since the program language is the same that engineer and builder can get the information directly from architects with the possibility to upgrade and refined the design during the design and construction process.
PARAMETRIC MODELLING WHAT IS PARAMETRIC MODELLING ? WHY PARAMETRIC Parametric modelling is defined by Robert Woodbury in his article as computational designs generated thought mathematical algorithms. Even though the start point of parametric design can be traced back to the Sketchpad period or further to the architectural practices done by Antonio Gaudi, this new kind of style is accepted and be constructed in reality in the recent decade. From the perspective of the changing history of architectural design, each period has its own architectural style due to the cultural, political and scientific contexts of that time. In my opinion, parametric design should be the style of the future or it can also be described as the style of the contemporary world. Like the rise of modernism, the development of technology, the invention of new material and the important usage of computer, parametric design is developing and spreading all over the world just like the international style occupied in the post-war period. I have to say it is the time to change the design. When discussing parametric modelling, it is usually related to algorithm and complex outcome of it. Before all of those knowledge and technology is available to architects, the form is restricts by the material as well as the simple geometric mind of the architecture education. For example, the most famous architecture practice in Australia which is the Sydney Opera House by John Utzon has its problem of unify the optimal architecture form and the optimal structural design because lack of technology and knowledge during that time. Architects are very hard to modify and change their design once their drawings are all done when they facing the engineering problems. And in order to find the solution of this kind of problem, architects and engineer need to work corporately and it is quiet time and money consuming. (eg. It takes 16 years to construct the Sydney Opera House) We can also observe some parametric design concept in the SOH, as the pattern of the construct elements of the roof as well as the nurb shape that Utzon want to achieve.
However, parametric modelling can help architects and engineer to solve this problem in a more sufficient method, or even avoid the existence of this problem since the structural system is also considered during the design process of parametric modelling by architects which is done by computer and it will take less time for the builder or the engineer to find the perfect way to transfer this design into reality.
CASE STUDY: Guangzhou Opera House By Zaha Haidid Architects As described the Arch Daily, the new Guangzhou Opera House which is sitting on the riverside of the Pearl River in the Zhujiang new town of Guangzhou is “like pebbles in a stream smoothed by erosion. “ The whole project is a combination of two components with the exoskeleton which cover the solid interior space. The design is using the analogy of the transformation of rocks in the river by erosion. In this project, Zaha and her partner Patrik Schumacher is obviously using the parametric design and modelling to express their idea and make discourse between the building and the city itself. As we know, rocks are not a geometric object that can simply defined as cube or some other geometries. With the idea of cooperating the building with the landscape or create new landscape by the building, the two main components of the Opera House is design like an extension of the dock and the bank. In the larger contexts, it also response to the other building in the area with its unique parametric design comparing to the other modernism style building as well as the large mass sitting on a low density area comparing to the high density of buildings in the surroundings. It is not hard to see the whole building is using parametric modelling since the most notable feature of the building is the triangular pattern which in the exoskeleton, the structural members, as well as the interior space.
When we look back to the start stage of this design, the original concept is more smooth and evasive. But due to the construction problems in China, it is transforming into what we see today, two large buildings with 64 big surfaces and 47 corners. The transformation is one of the typical transformations that happened in the Rhino which is transforming a nurb to polygonal mesh. And within the mesh, we can see that triangular shape that I mention before because when transforming the nurb to the mesh, triangle has the most advantages in the computer modelling as reliability, speed and clarity which is also features of parametric modelling.
From the perspective of embryology, the triangle can be seen as the key gene combination that propagates to the whole project. Studying from the nature and using their natural pattern is related to parametric design as well. By using the basic unit, the expression is infinite like the biodiversity of the nature.