STUDIO AIR

CHRISTOPHERMARINOPOULOS539374

SEMESTER 1 2013

GWYLL AND ANGELA

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

My name is Christopher Marinopoulos, and i am undertaking my third year iin the bach-elor of Environments, majoring in architec-ture. This journal wll how progress of my work throughout the subject, starting from existing knowledge and developing it into a more developed skill set of moedlling, computata-tional deign and many ways of completing design tasks. I have completed three studios, get-ting insight into design decisions, problems and briefs, although more design tasks will be helpful in developing design skills which can be hard to understand in theory, and only leaarnt through practice. I have always had an interest in geography and places, and i am learning to combine new skills in design with existing knowledge.

Previous Design Skills Throughout the Bachelor of Environment’s first 2 years, i have developed some new skills, es-pecailly in computer modelling, fabrication and some rendering. Through Virtual Environemnts, there was majority of design through Rhino, including lofting, panelling tools, fabrication and construction of a model (see top picture), in the form of a weara-ble head sculpture. Through other design sub-jects introductions to AutoCAD (bottom picture) and rendering of models (3DS Max), (2nd bottom pictire) have given widespread exposure to digital processes that can help in designing and visually presenting ideas. I have had exposure and some shallow knowledge of dig-ital architecture, through seeing precedent such as the Guggen-heim museusm in Bilbao’s process of computerisation of sketch into model, as well as concept mod-els of high rise buildings, such as the Eureka Tower in Melbourne. I however have not been shown the in depth processes of compu-tational design before attending university.

Top: Final Model, Virtual Environ-ments2nd Top: Rhino Panelling Tools, Virtual Environments2nd Bottom: 3DS Max Rendering, Site TectonicsBottom: AutoCAD Drawings, ADS Water.

Part A. EOI I: CASE FOR INNOVATION

A.1 ARCHITECTURE AS A DISCOURSE Architecture is a vital part of society, impor-tant in its cultural ans social value, the most public form of artwork, that can achieve discussion that nothing else in a place can do as well. By address-ing architecture as a discourse rather than just a building.

“Architecture is the most public of the arts. It is inescapable of anyone living in urban society.

Works of architecture frame our lives”Richard Williams. Architectural and Visual Culture

The ideas generated can also be considered a form of architecture, addressing issues and estab-lishing new forms and ideas. This can be shown by the group Archigram, whose ideas of how cities could work through visual diagrams and drawings allowed for discourse for society and allowed for discussion, such as the Walking City (1964) and Plug-in City (1964). These ideas were never actu-ally built or put into real cities, but gave ideas that challenged the exisiting thoughts of what a city has to be.

Projects that use forms and concepts in a creative and imposing way can create greater connection between the structure and the users, creating a conversation that is positive to a place’s image and intrigue.

Archigram, A Walking City (1964). Source: http://www.theuniquecreatures.com/archigram-60s70s-architectural-avant-garde/

Ordos Art and City Museum of Inner Mongo-lia (2011). Source: http://entertainmentdesigner.com/

news/museum-design-news/the-ordos-art-and-city-museum-of-inner-mongolia/

Archigram, Plug in city (1964). Source: http://va312ozgunkilic.wordpress.com/2010/12/07/archigram-plug-in-city/

PRECEDENTUNStudio, Burnham Pavillion, Chicago, 2009

The Burnham pavillion by UNStudio is small temporary pavillion that is an indi-cator a key example of how programs such as Grasshopper can be beneficial to the city’s aesthetics. It contributes to an augmented experience of the users, relating to Daniel Burnham’s 1909 plan of Chicago, and expresses it using a new form of construction and experience. The fact that it was temporary does not change the grand effect on the site and the interaction between person and building, incorporating new technologies and simple geometry to create a stream-line but complex structure. Its legacy is the memory of how a pavillion can add to a persons experience, and make people understand how new software can create new ideas and aesthetically pleasing sturctures for the public to use.

PRECEDENTsoma Architecture, White Noise, Salzburg, Austria, 2010

The White Noise project, used as the Salzburg Biennale Music Pavillion, expresses a different form of pavillion to the public, using new programs to create a structurally stable and intriguing structure. The use of geometry and exposing the structural rods leaves a strong impres-sion on the surronding are, when compared to the rectalinear buldings in the square. The pavillion draws people to it, and creates a feeling of exploration and wonder, and leaves a legacy of how structures builit similarly can be built on a larger scale. The achievement of Bollinger and Grohmann Engineers, by using new pro-grams to understand the loads and stuructual elements of the type of geometry, causes a positive approach to new ways of designing and constructing, allowing for a change in global perception of computational design and show that remarkable results can be achieved.

A.2 COMPUTATIONALARCHITECTURE Architecture and the design process is an evo-lutionary process, with many changes occuring or the time of mankind, and a rapid shift in recent history, such as the new found prominence of computational design. From the creation of the “architect” seen in ancient greek period, to Renaissance masters of de-sign such as Bruneleschi and Alberti, and to current expectations of architects seen by modernist and post modernist such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. The process used by current archi-tects has greatly changed. The current rapid shift to computerisation as well as computational design, which involved the process of problem solving as well as a discussion with the problem (see Kalay’s design process diagram). New techniques to maximise design potential and time reduction can be motviated by the great analytical of computers, and seen currently, the design aspects that computer programs can achieve with the coop-eration of the designer.

“Such a symbiosis is predicated on communica-tion, the ability to share information between com-

puters and humans”Yehuda E. Kalay, Architectures New Media.

The focus on a symbiotic design process, that allows a positive interaction and can produce better designs and a more organised process of designing and fi-nalising ideas. This communication of architects using programs can utilise the benefits of both humans and the software used.

Yehuda E. Kalay, Architecture’s New Media: Principles, THeories and Methods of Computer-Aid-ed Design.Top and bottom are two differ-ent design processes that show the relationship between goals and solutions.

PRECEDENTHerzog & De Meuron, Messe Basel-New Hall, Basel, Switzerland, Completion 2013

The design process of Messe Basel New Hall is a clear example of how the digital technology group Herzog & De Meuron can use many computational methods to determine the form and structure of the the building. By incorporating random gener-ators to establish a change in the facade, and using technology to narrow the premis-es fo the design, therefore allowing a more focused and concise process to occur. The development of the software by the digital technology gorup allow specif-ic form making for such parts as stairs and facades and deliver clearer results, such as the 3D facade using panels to give a more exciting sheel, also using computational ideas to facilite different openings and fea-tures.

Top: Outside perspective of the hallMiddle: Random generation helping in deisigning facadeBottom: 3D Panelling of the Facade

PRECEDENTFoster + Partners and Buro Happold, Thomas Deacon Academy, Peterborough, Uk, 2007

The use of simulation and experimenting with move-ment played a key role in decisions regarding move-ment areas’ placement and dimensions, such as walk-ways, stairs and corridors. This was done by using simu-lation software and allowing the potential movements of over 2000 students and staff, and critical to allow a successful learning area to be contrusted. It also was driving key decisions and detecting high traffic areas and “hotspots” that could be a problem later if consid-ered in the design process.

Thomas Deacon Academy Interior hall space.The structure realted to the movement of thousands of pupils and how it can be maximised in one building.

Thomas Deacon Academy, Simulation of movementThis program above simulates movement and allows for seeing patterns in real world situations, and how it would happen in the proposed design.Yellow is light traffic, Red is heavy pockets of traffic.

The use of the simula-tion program is a way of how computational data and ideas can be reflected in architecture, being able to see how it could work, and consid-ering it in the process of design. This would have been too expensive or time consuming in a real life experiment. The part-nership between Fos-ter + Partners anf Buro Happold, specialising in digital simulation, can represent a symbiotic relationship between design and computer programming.

A.3PARAMETRIC MODELLING

“Parametric modelling (also known as con-straint modelling) introduces a fundamental

change: marks,that is, parts of a design, relate and change in a coordinated way”

Robert Woodbury, Elements of Parametric Design.

The idea of parametric modelling in design is to set parameters and therefore limits in the idea, using equations and formulas to determine a set of numbers that can help in the process of idea genearation and conviction. It is not a com-pletely new process, used in designs by Gaudi and Moretti, using a mathematical process to help develop ideas. Is however has come to the forefront of design through the incorporation of computers in architecture, and the benefits which have been documented and spread to archi-tects around the world. The efficiency that parametric modelling can have on the design process can reduce costs of changes thorugh the known parameters that need to be changed, as well as the ability to decrease costs of designing thorughout all stag-es. This is very helpful to all architects, who can now formulate goals and solutions in a more clear form.

Gaudi’s hanging chian model.Source: http://cerebrovortex.com/

AIA California Council, comparing project phases..Source: Studio AIR Lecture, Slide 30

PRECEDENTCenter for Information Technology and Architecture (CITA) andSpatial Information Architecture Laboratory (SIAL), Dermoid,Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, 2011

The design of the shell-like structure was estab-lished by the process of emulating ecosyatems, and changing parame-ters though Grasshopper to allow the form to be made. This method of design creates a hierachy of scripting modules, that helps create the Dermoid design environment, and allows this interesting form to be constructed.

This computational design process allows the creation of the design environment by the designer’s domain, al-lowing parameters that can control the result, and allow change to be done efficiently. This example is among other new tools that have shifted the design process and can allow new forms to be shown in ane be easily con-nected to other architects and designers by easy net-working.

Top: Dermoid final structureLeft: Experimenation using Grasshopper and some steps shown in the processBottom: Grasshopper Output of the Dermoid design

PRECEDENTMVRDV, Bastide Niel, Bordeaux, 2010

The design of this Bor-deaux land has many constraints and difficulties that need an analysis of the site to show how a de-sign can be incorporated. MVRDV has used Grass-hopper to set up param-eters and make it easier to set limits for design and create a more in depth analysis of the proposed design. This incorporates physical and environental constraints.

Some of these parameters include sunlight constraints of the specific site (see diagram below), and using para-metric design programs can be helpful in decision making and selecting the most correct option. It allows an end-less stream of configurations that be easily changed and manouvred.

Middle Right: Computa-tional process of creating a volumetric analysisLeft: One proposed scheme for the areaRight: Setting paramters of 45 angle of sunlight shows the change to the design of the site.

Bastide Niel, Final Volumetric AnalysisThis is the final result of experimentation and changing parameters to allow an in depth analysis of the site and its attributes to be shown,

A.5 CONCLUSION

The architecture now constructed may no longer be just a building, but a important asset socially to a place, allowing for discourse as well as discussion. This is a newer concept in designing, and innovative design can be a great creator of discourse. The role of computers and its programs is an important one, a new innovation in architecture in recent history that can allow “impossible” ideas and designs to be constructed, something that older practices would not allow, epecially with the possibili-ties of 3D Modelling over orthogonal views. My design approach will be more open to ideas and forms that might have been unable to realise previously, incor-porating new skills in programs such as Grasshopper to fulfil a concept’s potential. By using computational design and not just computerizing an idea, positive changes can be ah-cieved,some which might not have been thought of before, completing a discussion between goals and solutions, that is a more innovative way of approach-ing design, and being able to communicate through out all stages to create the best possible forms.

A.6 LEARNINGOUTCOMESFrom the start of the semester to the conclusion of discovering a case for innovation, the exposure have given greater appreciation and an in depth expla-nation to parametric modelling, the advantages of computational architecture and architecture as a discourse, a new way of expressing design. The readings have given an more thought pro-cess of design, especially when it discusses the evo-lutionary changes that has happening to the process of designing and the role of computers in the last 20 years, written by Yehuda E. Kalay, and how the prom-inence of problem solving and puzle making is im-portant, a two way discussion between problem and solution. The idea of architecture being a discourse, being soically and culturally important as well as functional has changed previous ideas of what archi-tecture is, and how the computational processes and programs have incluede more discussion of architec-ture in society.

Part B. EOI II: DESIGNAPPROACH

REFERENCES