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R Edited by David Gerber, Alvin Huang and Jose Sanchez Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture ACADIA 2014 DESIGN AGENCY USC School of Architecture, Los Angeles

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Page 1: ACADIA 2014 DESIGN AGENCY - Philip Beesley Architect · ACADIA 2014 DESIGN AGENCY USC School of Architecture, Los Angeles. R. ... Moritz Dörstelmann Stefana Parascho Marshall Prado

R Edited by David Gerber, Alvin Huang and Jose Sanchez

Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture

ACADIA 2014DESIGN AGENCY

USC School of Architecture, Los Angeles

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R

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

ACADIA (Conference) (34th : 2014 : Los Angeles, Calif.)ACADIA 2014 Design Agency : Proceedings of the 34th annual conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture, October 23–25, 2014, Los Angeles, California / editors, David Gerber (University of Southern California), Alvin Huang (University of Southern California), Jose Sanchez (University of Southern California).

Conference hosted by the University of Southern California School of Architecture.Includes bibliographical references.Issued in print and electronic formats.ISBN 978-1-926724-47-8 (pbk.).--ISBN 978-1-926724-49-2 (epub).--ISBN 978-1-926724-50-8 (mobi).--ISBN 978-1-926724-51-5 (pdf)

1. Architecture--Computer-aided design--Congresses.I. Gerber, David, 1970-, author, editor II. Huang, Alvin, 1975-, author, editor III. Sanchez, Jose, 1980-, author, editor IV. University of Southern California. School of Architecture, host institution V. Title. VI. Title: 2014 design agency. VII. Title: Design agency. VIII. Title: Proceedings of the 34th annual conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture, October 23–25, 2014, Los Angeles, California.

NA2728.A318 2014 720.285 C2014-906244-3 C2014-906245-1

© Copyright 2014ACADIA and Riverside Architectural Press

The individual authors shown herein are solely responsible for their content appearing within this publication.

No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means – graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems – without the prior permission of the copyright owner. An electronic copy of the paper in .pdf format will be stored in the CUMINCAD database.

ACADIA 2014 DESIGN AGENCY

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ACADIA 2014DESIGN AGENCYPROCEEDINGSProceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in ArchitectureOctober 23 – 25, 2014Los Angeles, California

University of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of California, Los AngelesSouthern California Insitute of Architecture

Editors David Gerber University of Southern California Alvin Huang University of Southern California Jose Sanchez University of Southern California

R

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PREFACEMichael Fox ACADIA President

INTRODUCTIONDavid Gerber University of Southern CaliforniaAlvin Huang University of Southern CaliforniaJose Sanchex University of Southern California

KEYNOTES & AWARDS

CONFERENCE KEYNOTESWill WrightCasey ReasMarc FornesGreg Otto

2014 ACADIA AWARDSZaha Hadid 2014 ACADIA Lifetime Achievement Award

Neil Gershenfeld 2014 ACADIA Award of Teaching Excellence

Jenny Sabin 2014 ACADIA Digital Practice Award of Excellence

Nancy Yen-wen Cheng 2014 ACADIA Society Award of Excellence

Martin Bechthold 2014 ACADIA Innovative Research Award of Excellence

Scott R. Marble 2014 ACADIA Innovative Academic Program Award of Excellence

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ACADIA 2014DESIGN AGENCYPROCEEDINGS

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ACADIA 2014 DESIGN AGENCY

EVERYONE IS AN ARCHITECTClaudia W. Otten

POLYOMINO Reconsidering Serial Repetition in Combinatorics

Jose Sanchez

DESIGNING WITH GRADIENTS Bio-Inspired Computation for Digital Fabrication

Daniel Richards Martyn Amos

MULTI-SCALAR AGENT-BASED COMPLEX DESIGN SYSTEMSThe Case Of Climatic-Ecologies Studio: Informed Generative Design Systems and Performance-Driven Design Workflows

Sina MostafaviSoungmin YuNimish M. Biloria

INTERACTING WITH ALTERNATIVESAlt.Text

Maher Elkhaldi Robert Woodbury

EUCLID’S WEDGEMark Ericson

MESH AGENCYGwyllim Jahn Tom Morgan Stanislav Roudavski

EMERGENT INACTIVITIESFrom the Primitive Hut to the Cerebral Hut

Neil Leach

DESIGN AGENCY

SESSION INTRODUCTIONRoland Snooks Session Chair

IGEOAlgorithm Development Environment for Computational Design Coders with Integration of NURBS Geometry Modeling and Agent Based Modeling

Satoru Sugihara

BOUNDED AGENCY Integrating Informed Multi-Agent Systems with Architectural Subtractions

Joshua M. TaronMatthew Parker

AGENT-BASED MODELS FOR COMPUTING CIRCULATION

Renee Puusepp

IMPERATIVE / FUNCTIONAL / OBJECT-ORIENTED An Alternative Ontology of Programmatic Paradigms for Design

Kyle SteinfeldCarlos Sandoval

THE AGENCY OF EVENTEvent Based Simulation for Architectural Design

Martin Tamke Paul NicholasJacob Riiber

PRODUCTIVE HYBRIDS Folding Social Media as Urban Analysis

Alexander Webb

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CONTEXT-AWARE MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMSNegotiating Intensive Fields

Rodrigo Shiordia Lopez David Gerber

FABRICATION AGENCY

SESSION INTRODUCTIONMatias del Campo Session Chair

CENTENNIAL CHROMAGRAPH Data Spatialization and Computational Craft

Adam Marcus

BEHAVIORAL STRATEGIES Synthesizing Design Computation and Robotic Fabrication of Lightweight Timber Plate Structures

Tobias Schwinn Oliver David Krieg Achim Menges

SNAP-FIT JOINTS CNC Fabricated, Integrated Mechanical Attachment for Structural Wood Panels

Christopher Robeller Paul MayencourtYves Weinand

CARET 6 AND THE DIGITAL REVIVAL OF GOTHIC VAULTS

Kory Bieg

NEARLY MINIMALHow Intuition and Analysis Inform the Minimal Surface Geometries in the Pure Tension Pavilion

Alvin HuangStephen Lewis

INTEGRATIVE COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN METHODOLOGIES FOR MODULAR ARCHITECTURAL FIBER COMPOSITE MORPHOLOGIES

Moritz DörstelmannStefana Parascho Marshall PradoAchim MengesJan Knippers

FORM COMPLEXITY - REWIND‘God’s Eye’ Sukkahville 2013

Michail GeorgiouOdysseas GeorgiouTheresa Kwok

MASS REGIMESGeometrically Actuated Thermal Flows

Dana CupkovaNicolas Azel

A FRAMEWORK FOR LINKING DESIGN AND FABRICATION IN GEOMETRICALLY COMPLEX ARCHITECTURE

Heinz SchmiedhoferMartin ReisFlorian RistGeorg Suter Simon Flöry

INTRICATE STEREOTOMIC ASSEMBLIESHollow Masonry From Buckled Surfaces

Justin Diles

POST-FORMING COMPOSITE MORPHOLOGIESMaterialization and Design Methods for Inducing Form through Textile Material Behavior

Sean AhlquistAli AskarinejadRizkallah ChaaraouiAmmar KaloXiang LiuKavan Sha

PARAMETRIC AGENCY

SESSION INTRODUCTIONKris Mun Session Chair

HARVEST SHADE SCREENS Programming Material for Optimal Energy Building Skins

Jonathan GrinhamRobert Blabolil Jeremy Haak

ILLUSTRATED PROGRAMMINGAntónio LeitãoJosé LopesLuís Santos

DIGITAL WALLPAPERTiles of Proliferation and Continuity

Sabri GokmenDaniel Baerlecken

SMART NODESA System for Variable Structural Frames with 3D Metal-Printed Nodes

Kristof Crolla Nicholas Williams

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ACADIA 2014 DESIGN AGENCY

CASE FOR AN ARCHITECTURAL SINGULARITYSynchronization of Robotically Actuated Motion, Sense-Based Interaction and Computational Interface

Güvenç Özel

SEEING IS DOINGSynthetic Tools for Robotically Augmented Fabrication in High-Skill Domains

Joshua BardMadeline GannonMauricio Contreras Zachary Jacobson-WeaverMichael JeffersBrian Smith

PERISTALSISA Real-World Lesson in Adaptable Space

Michael FoxJuintow LinEran Shemish

ADAPTIVE PNEUMATIC FRAMEWORKSFrank MelendezMadeline GannonZachary Jacobson-WeaverVarvara Toulkeridou

PNEUSYSTEMSCellular Pneumatic Envelope Assemblies

Mary O’Malley Kathy VelikovGeoffrey Thun

INSPIREIntegrated Spatial Gesture Based Direct 3D Modeling and Display

Teng TengBrian R. Johnson

CASTING NON-REPETITIVE GEOMETRIES WITH DIGITALLY RECONFIGURABLE SURFACES

Brad BellNathan Barnes Austin Ede T. Cord Read

ARCHITECTURE IN THE ERA OF ACCELERATING CHANGE

Manuel Kretzer

LE CUBE D’APRÈSIntegrated Cognition for Iterative and Generative Designs

Pierre Cutellic

DIGITALLY DESIGNING COLLABORATIONComputational Approaches to Process, Practice, and Product

Andrew HeumannRyan Mullenix

SIMPLEXITYUnitized FRP Façade Systems

Mark CabrinhaJeff Ponitz

PARAMETRIC PLANTINGGreen Wall System Research + Design Using BIM

Danelle Briscoe

EASY TO USE YET NOT NECESSARILY USEFULNew Technology in the Architectural Schematic Design Process

Eliel De La Cruz Martin TomitschMary Lou Maher

INTERACTIVE SHAPING OF FORCESCorentin Fivet Denis Zastavni

REVERBERATING ACROSS THE DIVIDEBridging Virtual and Physical Contexts in Digital Design and Fabrication

Madeline Gannon

COMMUNICATING CLIMATE-SMART SCENARIOS WITH DATA-DRIVEN ILLUSTRATIONS

Nancy Yen-wen Cheng Brian Lockyear

FABRICATION AWARE FORM-FINDINGA Combined Quasi-Reciprocal Timber and Discontinuous Post-Tensioned Concrete Structure

Iain MaxwellDave Pigram Ole Egholm PedersonNiels Martin Larsen

TEMPORAL AGENCY

SESSION INTRODUCTIONNeil Leach Session Chair

THIS IS NOT A GLITCHAlgorithms and Anomalies in Google Architecture

Jason JohnsonMatthew Parker

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ONE AND MANYAn Agent Perspective on Interactive Architecture

Henri Achten

AUGMENTED AGENCYReorienting Trompe l’Oeil in the Age of Google Earth

Joshua M TaronMatthew Parker

MATERIAL AGENCY

SESSION INTRODUCTIONAlisa Andrasek Session Chair

THE SOCIAL WEAVERSConsidering Top-Down and Bottom-UpDesign Processes as a Continuum

Paul NicholasDavid StasiukTim Schork

COMPUTATIONAL SAND PILE TECHNIQUES FOR DIFFUSEACOUSTICAL CERAMICS

Rhett Russo

ADDITIVE FORMWORK3D Printed Flexible Formwork

Brian Peters

TEXTILE EFFECTSSemi-Riged Concrete Formwork

Kenneth TracyChristine YogiamanLavender Tessmer

BUG-OUT FABRICATIONA Parallel Investigation using the Namib Darkling Beetle and Incremental Sheet Metal Forming

Ammar KaloMichael Jake Newsum

4D PRINTING AND UNIVERSAL TRANSFORMATION

Skylar TibbitsCarrie McKnellyCarlos OlguinDaniel Dikovsky Shai Hirsch

TOWARDS A DIGITAL ANISOTROPIC MATERIALITY

Daniel Rhomberg Peregrine Buckler Andrei GheorgheMaya PindeusClemens PreisingerStefan Thanei

ROBOTIC FABRICATION OF ACOUSTIC BRICK WALLS

Maximilian VomhofLauren VaseyFabio GramazioMatthias Kohler Stefan BräuerKurt EggenschwilerJürgen Strauss

COMPRESSION BASED GROWTH MODELLING

Christoph Klemmt

FROM SURFACE TO VOLUME An Approach to Poché with Composites

Nazareth Ekmekjian

ROBOTIC PRODUCTION IMMANENT DESIGNCreative Toolpath Design in Micro and Macro Scale

Sigrid Brell-Cokcan Johannes Braumann

CONFIGURATIONS OF INTENSITYMirco Becker

DATA AGENCY

SESSION INTRODUCTIONKyle Steinfeld Session Chair

ABSTRACTION VERSUS CASED BASEDA Comparative Study of Two Approaches to Support Parametric Design

Anastasia GlobaMichael DonnJules Moloney

ACOMODATING CHANGE IN PARAMETRIC DESIGN

Robert VierlingerKlaus Bollinger

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ACADIA 2014 DESIGN AGENCY

INTERACTING WITH THOUSANDSA Parametric-Space Exploration Method in Generative Design

Halil ErhanIvy WangNaghmi Shireen

HIERARCHICAL PLANE EXTRACTIONAn Efficient Method for Extraction of Planes from Large Point Cloud Datasets

Naveen Anand SubramaniamKevin Ponto

VACUUM INSULATED TUBESModular, Self-Supporting Exterior Enclosure Systems

Aybars AsciElizabeth Boone Gary HaneyChristopher OlsenTeresa Rainey

ROBOTHERMODONAn Artificial Sun Study Lab with a Robot Arm and Advanced Model Platform

Mehrnoush Latifi KhorasganiDaniel ProhaskyJane BurryAkbar AkbarzadehNicholas Williams

IMPROVING GENETIC ALGORITHM FOR DESIGN OPTIMIZATION USING ARCHITECTURAL DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE

Zhouzhou SuWei Yan

FIBER COMPOSITE FABRICATIONExperimental Methodsof Architectural Applications

Marco CorazzaViral DoshiAxel KörnerMehnaj Tabassum

UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL BEHAVIORS IN THE INDOOR ENVIRONMENT A Complex Network Approach

Mani WilliamsJane BurryAsha Rao

BIM AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FOR ARCHAELOGICAL HERITAGE

Davide SimeoneStefano CursiIlaria ToldoGianfranco Carrara

USING PHYSICAL TESTING TO DESIGN AND EVALUATE THE ACCLIMATISATION OF KINETIC FAÇADES FOR DAYLIGHT AND THERMAL HEAT PERFORMANCE

Kamil Sharaidin

‘ATTACHMENT’ AS AGENCY IN OFF-SITE AND ON-SITE INDICATORS OF PHENOMENA IN GEOSPATIAL URBAN ANALYSIS TOOLS

Philip Speranza

SYNTHETIC ECOLOGIESProtocols, Simulation, and Manipulation for Indeterminate Landscapes

Bradley Cantrell Justine Holzman

SELECTIVE INTERFERENCEEmergent Complexity Informed by Programmatic, Social and Performative Criteria

Christopher WelchJules Moloney Tane Moleta

ACADIA 2014 CREDITSCONFERENCE CHAIRS

SESSIONAL CHAIRS

ACADIA ORGANIZATION

CONFERENCE MANAGEMENT AND PRODUCTION CREDITS

PEER REVIEW COMMITTEE

SPONSORS

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Michael Fox President, Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture

Our architectural world is one that is not only increasingly digital,

but also seamlessly networked and connected. As we continue to

embrace a world where the lines between the physical and dig-

ital are increasingly blurred, we are beginning to see a maturing

vision for architecture that actively participates in our lives. Our

architectural environments are becoming so inextricably tied to

our technological living trends that they are defining each other

in a corresponding manner. How architectural design integrates

and reconciles the digital in our contemporary context it is nothing

short of reciprocal innovation.

While there are approximately 1 billion websites, and about 5

billion mobile phones, there are approximately 50 billion smart

devices. It is the goal (and responsibility) of the Internet of Things

(IoT) to connect them in a meaningful way. These intelligent

things are everywhere in our lives and many of them are already

seamlessly embedded into our architecture, even if at the time

being most of them are weakly connected at best. The protocols

are confusing to say the least and while today’s internet supports

hundreds of protocols, the IoT will support hundreds more. The

service industry alone for such environments projected to reach

almost 11 billion by 2017 in just the arena of the smarthome. The

point is that while the connectivity issues may not be architectur-

al, our profession needs to realize that the promise of ubiquitous

computing has secured a permanent foothold in our lives and

has begun to infiltrate not just our devices and objects but our

buildings, our neighborhoods, our cities and entire environments.

What is important is that architects understand the potential of

the connected world as a catalyst for designing how our buildings

and environments can truly impact our lives.

In a sense, such a connected world is in a unique position to re-

position the role of the architectural designer. In the paraphrased

words of Gordon Pask, the role of the designer should be not so

much to create a finished design as to catalyze a design; to ask

that it may evolve. What has made the ubiquitous phone so pow-

erful is not that it is a connected device, but that it is a platform for

the creation of applications. It has become a catalyst for design

and ideas that were never intended. Perhaps ironically it positions

the act of designing architecture in a connected world as much

more of an ego-less, emergent endeavor that lies in not designing

the future, but designing the platform for the future. Such a posi-

tion is both noble and profound, for it means the architect must

understand people well enough to not only design for them but to

design the interfaces and tools for them so that they in turn can

become designers.

The ACADIA community has always been about innovation with

respect to the use of computation in architecture, in particular with

respect to design creativity and education. When the organization

was founded in the early 1980’s the concerns were on software,

hardware and pedagogy in education. The annual conference every

year puts forth an amazing collection of work that is indeed innova-

tive in terms of typically pushing the boundaries of what is possible

in architecture and computation. It has for years been a premiere

forum for pioneering work in terms of designing and making.

Looking at CES this year however, we are starting to see all of the

smart-home, smart kitchen projects of academia in the 90’s have

made their way into mainstream. The disconnect lies in the realiza-

tion that almost none of these projects (academic or corporate) are

being done by architects and yet the context is architecture. Young

architectural students are starting to realize that it is possible to at

least prototype anything that they can imagine. Sensors available

today can sense nearly anything from complex gestures to CO2

emissions, to the color of your hair. In addition to sensing, an in-

terconnected world digital world means that data sets can also be

drivers of an interactive building or environment which range from

internet usage to traffic patterns, to crowd behaviors. Courses are

commonly taught within schools of architecture today that cover

behaviors and interaction with contextual subjects ranging from

social urban issues to practical sustainability.

I was optimistically intrigued at the past ACADIA conference

to find so few peer-reviewed papers at a conference themed

around “adaptability” that actually dealt with adaptability, and yet

almost all of the student poster projects had integrated robotics

PREFACECATALYST DESIGN IN A CONNECTED WORLD

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2ACADIA 2014 DESIGN AGENCY

and kinematics of some sort. I suspect it is a consequence re-

flecting the maturity of real research that is subject to a peer-re-

view process; a consequence whereby the annual conference

typically stands as a barometer of the state of architecture and

computation. It makes me ask if there is a mechanism by which

the organization can lead and direct the future of architecture

and computation rather than reporting on it, and makes me all

the more supportive of student initiatives as a long-term, per-

manent installment to the conference agenda if only for their

pioneering sprirt with respect to innovation.

The foundations of architecture in a connected world stretches

back to cyberneticians nearly 40 years ago and is only now seeing

a renewed growth due to both technological and economic feasi-

bility. The “Internet of Things” has quite rapidly come to define the

technological context inclusively. The context can be defined as

one that affects essentially everything, from objects to buildings to

cities. To use an appropriate analogy, the theoretical “foundations”

now have a “structure”, which resides in the connected worlds of

web, mobile and spatial interfacing and they are also still evolving.

The early theories of a connected architectural world existed long

before mobile devices and web interface technologies changed ev-

ery aspect of our lives. While the first wave connectivity focused on

human to human communication, the current focus is on connect-

ed things and devices which extends naturally to buildings, cities

and global environments.

Architectural applications are iterative in such a connected context.

The sensors and robotic components are now both affordable and

simple enough for the design community to access, and everything

can easily be digitally connected to everything else. Designing in

particular is not inventing, but understanding what technology exists,

and extrapolating it to suit an architectural vision. In this respect, the

designers of buildings, cities and larger interconnected ecosystems

has a lot to learn from the rapidly developing world of Tangible

Interaction, which was developed as essentially an alternate vision for

interfacing which brings computing back into the “real world”.

Although Tangible Interaction typically deals with the interfacing of

objects and artifacts, the connected capabilities has opened up a

wealth of possibilities, not only at the scale of the building, but also

the city and beyond. It is impossible to predict how quickly architec-

ture in the connected world will be widely adopted, and executed,

and what standards and protocols will work their way to the fore, and

yet it seems that this area of design is becoming an inevitable and

completely integral part of how we will make our objects, buildings

and cities in the future. The platform is ripe to foster unique applica-

tions that are tied to our living trends which are both affected by and

affect digital technology. In addition to the amazing and innovative

work done in architecture and computation related to designing and

making, I urge that the community recognize this area as a fertile

field ripe for our input. I urge that we ask not how a building was de-

signed, analyzed or made, but rather, what does it do.

NOTESi Neil Leach (ed.), Urban Architecture (UA), No 97, September 2012, p. 8.

ii Behnaz Farahi, Alloplastic ArchitectureL The Design of an Interactive Tensegrity Structure, Proceedings to ACADIA conference, 2013.

iii Pask, G. “Architectural Relevance of Cybernetics.” Architectural Design, September 1969, 494–496.

iv Frazer, J. An Evolutionary Architecture, London: Architectural Association Publications, Themes VII, John Frazer and the Architectural Association, 1995.

v Adam Greenfield, Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing (Berkeley, CA: New Riders,2006).

vii Understanding The Protocols Behind The Internet Of Things:

http://electronicdesign.com/embedded/understanding-protocols-behind-internet-things

viii Understanding The Protocols Behind The Internet Of Things:

http://electronicdesign.com/embedded/understanding-protocols-behind-internet-things

ix Jennifer Stein, Scott S. Fisher, Greg Otto, IOT2010 Workshop, University of Southern California, LA, CA, 2010.

x Jennifer Stein, Scott S. Fisher, Greg Otto, IOT2010 Workshop, University of Southern California, LA, CA, 2010.

xi Ishii, Hiroshi and Ullmer, Brygg (1997): Tangible Bits: Towards Seamless Interfaces between People, Bits and Atoms. In: Pemberton, Steven (ed.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 97 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference March 22-27, 1997, Atlanta, Georgia. pp. 234-241. Available online

xii Hornecker, Eva (2009). Tangible Interaction. Retrieved 16 August 2013 from http://www.interaction- design.org/encyclopedia/tangible_interaction.html

xiii Data cycle: Behind MIT’s SENSEable Cities Lab http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2011/04/features/data-cycle/page/3

xiv Behnaz Farahi, Alloplastic ArchitectureL The Design of an Interactive Tensegrity Structure, Proceedings to ACADIA conference, 2013.

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The theme of the 24th annual ACADIA conference is DESIGN

AGENCY, a purposeful instigation of work that looks at re-de-

fining the term “Agency” through the lens of computational

design strategies such as simulation, fabrication, robotics, and

novel integrations from science and the media arts. The confer-

ence theme is intended to highlight experimental research and

projects that exhibit and explore new paradigms of computing

in architecture. It is a title that has proven to be provocative

and even controversial in the understanding of how we define

the term ‘Agency’ within the discipline of design.

The term ‘Agency’ implies the capacity of an agent or actor to

act in a given environment. Perhaps the most obvious question

is who or what represents this ‘agent’, and in turn what defines

the world in which they are operating.

For some, the word agent connects directly with concepts

found in computer science and automatas; agents as algo-

rithmic entities that have a certain autonomy to act in a virtual

environment. This autonomy is derived by the use of both

intrinsic and extrinsic data allowing a designer to ‘model’ the

artificial intelligence of a multitude of entities to discover the

emergent behaviours produced by their interactions. This

notion of an agency that is able to produce complex global

behaviours through simple local interactions was originally pop-

ularized by the groundbreaking contributions of Craig Reynolds

with Steering Behaviours and John Conway with the Game of

Life. More recently, platforms like Processing, created by one

of our keynote speakers Casey Reas, has made the concepts

of computational emergence and complex adaptive systems

more accessible and potentially more relevant.

However, within the context of ACADIA 2014 the term “Agency”

needs to be understood in a much broader sense. What is abso-

lutely critical in our definition of the term is the understanding that

design processes are enabled by the autonomy of a given process

or discipline to operate within a given world or environment in a

non-linear fashion. It is through this perceptual lens that we have

defined 6 sub-categories describing varying agencies, each exert-

ing their own capacities to simultaneously exert action and produce

reaction within that domain.

These sub-categories are defined as Design Agency,

Fabrication Agency, Parametric Agency, Material Agency,

Temporal Agency and Data Agency.

What this implies is that each one of these agencies has a

certain autonomy and a particular feedback between designer,

agent, and environment. The designer in this sense, engages in

a dialogue with the given material, fabrication or data structure,

discovering its capacities and enabling them to operate. Often,

as we can see in many of the papers, the designer is someone

that mediates between multiple agencies.

There is something critical to be understood here: ‘DESIGN

AGENCY’ suggests that Design itself has a certain autonomy

over the designer. It suggests that there are internal rules to

the articulation of form and variables that also establishes a

dialogue with a designer.

As such, DESIGN AGENCY interrogates the idea of control,

perhaps redefining not only the term design but the culture of

design itself. Are we the designers of spaces and things, or

the processes and experiences that produce or are produced

by these spaces and things? Can we ever truly consider some-

thing to be designed ‘Top Down’ or ‘Bottom Up’? DESIGN

AGENCY implies that there is always a feedback, an interde-

pendence between the designer and the designed.

Looking back to models Like Simcity developed by ACADIA

2014 Keynote speaker Will Wright, we can see a very con-

temporary design strategy. A strategy that is enabled by sys-

tems thinking and that produces a weak form of authorship.

INTRODUCTIONDavid Gerber University of Southern CaliforniaAlvin Huang University of Southern CaliforniaJose Sanchez University of Southern California

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4ACADIA 2014 DESIGN AGENCY

DESIGN AGENCY is encapsulated in software while thou-

sands of players explore a vast search-space. The desire and

perseverance of the community is in perpetual dialogue with

the constraints of the system.

The recent emphasis on fabrication in the architecture pro-

fession has proven that the algorithmic notion of agency is

also true for fabrication, materials and systems of production.

Architectural practices encapsulate an organization of knowl-

edge that can operate to not only mediate the constraints of

form and perfomance but also those of economy and feasi-

bility. The work of ACADIA 2014 Keynote speaker Zaha Hadid

demonstrates how DESIGN AGENCY is both, the organization

of Labor inasmuch as it refers to the organization of Form.

DESIGN AGENCY will bring together the spectrum of research

and creative practice currently occurring within the ACADIA

community through the combined support of the research

networks of the University of Southern California, University

of California Los Angeles and Southern California Institute

of Architecture. Questions the capacity for computation to

inform or challenge traditional design processes; computa-

tion as design operation - the capacity, condition, or state of

acting or of exerting power, and/or computation as design

instrumentality - the design mechanism through which power

is exerted or an end is achieved.

Image credit: SimCity 2000 Maxis, Will Wright

Image credit: Galaxy Soho, Zaha Hadid, Photography by Iwan Baan

Image credit: Casey Reas