STUDIO AIR 2015, SEMESTER 2, TUTORS STUDENT NAME
Table of Contents 3 A.1 Design Futuring
Introduction
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I am a final-year undergraduate majoring in Architecture, who has only now begun to appreciate for myself the potential of parametric design. In a prior studio, I have developed plans into rendered CAD and cardboard model using a computerised card cutter. From my lecturers, I’ve glimpsed into the uses of parametric design, as with Queensbridge tower in Southbank, where the Honeybee plugin was used to arrive at a shading solution, or with the Crematorium in Kakamigahara, where Toyo Ito’s concept for an undulating canopy was structurally optimised using genetic algorithm to iteratively evaluate batches of 50 options and combine successful options. These examples have left an impression with me and motivate me to find creative applications of computational design.
Part A: Conceptualisation
The value of computational approaches to creative design is that it extends our problem-solving ability to meet the exponential pace of our global ecological crisis, whose scale of complexity the design community is still unequipped for. The potential of cybernetic design was known even as MIT pioneered CAD in the 1960s. Design is a cycle of ‘creative’ and ‘mechanical’ moments, and computers would help humans visualise, digest and evaluate information otherwise beyond human scale. Computing machines will do the routinizable work that must be done to prepare the way for insights and decisions in technical and scientific thinking.” J.C.R. Licklider 1960 The MIT developers’ goal was using ‘abstract languages to make computational representations able to describe any design problem’ (Douglas Taylor Ross, Computer Aided Design: A Statement of Objectives (Cambridge, MA) 1960). From this comes the ability to generate construction information directly from design information.
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill are leaders in the application of computation towards exploring novel structural concepts. Standing out in particular are their improvements on standard FE (finite element) analysis software, whose algorithms can efficiently assess and visualise structural performance of complex structures. For the Yongsan office tower competition in Seoul 2009, SOM combined FEA simulation software to evaluate fitness of design with an in-house GA (genetic algorithm) to perform shape optimization on the tower. Within boundaries such as economical maximum and minimum dimensions for building floor plates and structural performance as the fitness function, GA arrived at a nonintuitive teardrop shape. For the White Magnolia office tower, SOM applied a similar algorithm to a pre-established building shape, to find the most efficient structural distribution. The firm is also experimenting with genetic algorithms which solve for multiple objectives, including definitions of ‘novelty’. If computational creative design is to make a more sustainable environment it must achieve economy and liveability on the small scale. The design-manufacture team at Facit Homes is a pioneer in the use of digital production methods to address waste and inefficiency in traditional residential construction. Their in-situ mobile digital manufacturing facilities streamline workflow translates computer models directly into physical components. By integrating design and manufacture. construction waste and timescale is reduced. Not only sustainable, but unlike traditional prefabricated homes, a digital tool can generate individualised parts just as easily as mass produced ones, enabling bespoke homes like the Hertfordshire house, completed within seven months.
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CONCEPTUALISATION
Fig.1: (explain here & reference at the end of your document)
CONCEPTUALISATION 5