AIR Architecture Design Studio
JUN LI 526496
CONTENT
Part A. EOI: Case for Innovation
01 Introduction: Architecture as a Discourse
02 Computational Architecture
03 Parametric Modeling
04 Algorithmic Explorations
05 Conclusion and Learning Outcome
PART A. EOICASE FOR INNOVATION
I am a third year architecture student of
Melbourne University. I am from China and
this is my third year in Melbourne.
Obtaining of my first-hand experience about
computational design from learning Virtual
Environments in my first year. By using the
software, Rhinoceros, I became to acquire
knowlege about NURBS, which had further
impacts on my design concepts and percep-
tions about forms and repetitive patterns.
I basically focused on the golden ratio and
iteration of geometry in the project and
used Rhino and Paneling tool to generate
some interesting forms. The program helped
me to establish the basic knowledge about
computational design and ligh effects.
In Air studio, I expected to accumulate
more knowledge about tessellation and pat-
terns by using Grasshopper, hence, have
further understanding about heterogeneity
and homogeneity.
INTRODUCTION: ARCHITECTURE 0 1Architecture is not just about building. It is ubiquitous as it has become our ‘third skin’ and we spend most part of our life within it. Besides, Schumacher argues that the inclusive books, m a g a z i n e s , p h o t o g r a p h s o f b u i l d i n g s , d r a w i n g s , d i s c u s s i o n a b o u t d e s i g n and all that communication associated with architecture should be regarded as part of architectural discipline.1 Architecture is complicated, and hence it stands in need of different theories and cooperation and criticism from multidiscipline to engage with constantly changing world.
Among the discourse of what architecture is, the topic
that is most accepted by the public and the discipline is architecture as a form of art.2
However, simply classifying architecture as art can limit the latent possibilities and ignore opportunities f o r a r c h i t e c t u r e t o w o r k e f f e c t i v e l y u n d e r urban context. Regarding architecture as a form of art or as a solely personal work of architects can exaggerate the power of architects, i g n o r e t h e c o m p l i c a t e d socioeconomic factors and limit the later understandings and interpretations about projects and its impacts on society as art historian interpreters only focus on architects’ visions rather
than studying the actual space.
T h e d i s t a n c e b e t w e e n architects’ illusion and the reality can diminish the role of architecture in today’s constantly shifting urban environment. Ito argues that “modernist architecture was intended to change society, i t c o n s i s t e n t l y t o o k a negative stance towards social realities. Moreover, being rejected by society was always seen as a virtue.”3One example is Modernist’s antagonistic v i e w a g a i n s t u r b a n i s m . They kept concentrating on criticizing city’s lack of forms and seeking the order in the city while ignored the fast-changing environment
AS A DISCOURSE
1. Patrik Schumacher, 'Introduction : Architecture as Autopoietic System', in The Autopoiesis of Architecture (Chichester: J. Wiley, 2011),1 - 28.
2. Richard Williams, 'Architecture and Visual Culture', in Exploring Visual Culture : Definitions, Concepts, Contexts, ed. by Matthew Rampley (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), pp. 102 - 116.
of the city. 4 They were
influenced by Georg Simmel’s
phenomenological depiction of
city life that was filled with
strangeness, oppression and
avoidance of contact while the
nowadays reality is that we
spend most of time with ‘masses
of strangers in public space
has not necessarily resulted
in a proportional increase in
urban angst’.5 The mentality
and society may have some
differences from the past
and thus it appeals that
architecture should learn more
about the way of thinking the
‘real’ rather than holding
authoritarian view to the
city.
T h e r e f o r e , r e g a r d i n g
architecture as a discourse
that the public and people
from other disciplines can
p a r t i c i p a t e i s p i v o t a l
t o c r e a t e o p e n n e s s t o
the constantly changing
environment and think about
the impacts of projects
from the lens of users. In
this way, it strengthens
architecture’s engagement
to the urban environment,
engagement to technology,
a n d i m p o r t a n t l y , t h e
engagement to the users. This
engagement will also assist in
rationalizing decision-making
during design process and
shorten architects’ vision to
the built environment. It will
also help to create dynamic
urban space for people so that
their everyday life experience
and visual perception can be
stimulated.
In Western Gateway Design
Project, the Wyndham City
C o u n c i l a s k e d f o r t h e
innovative design that has
eye-catching form and can
create significant impacts. The
high speed movement of traffic
is another crucial factor to
think about. To achieve these
requirements, the visual
perception, the movement of
users and engagement between
projects and users in visual
and spacial relationship
should be studied at the early
stage of design process to
enhance the visual impacts and
create latent possibilities.
Computational design and
stimulation are important to
test and realize the desired
impacts effectively, which is
innovative in architectural
discourse and can further
encourage discourse about the
project.
3. Toyo Ito, shedding the modern body image: is a house without criticism possible? Jutaku Tokushu 149 (September 1998): 21.
4. Alexander Eisenschmidt, Stranger than Fiction: A Mission Statement,Architecture Design, 219 (2012), 14-15.
5. Caroline Bos, 'Phenomenology and Topography of the Megacity', Architecture Design, 2(2012), 139.
"The Modernist topography is one of straight lines
and limites perspectives. Unlike in a landsacpe,
people move through it as if their necks were
screwed in place and their eyes unable to roll."5
T h e r e s e e m s t o b e t h r e e
different modes of Japanese
architects’ responses to urban
context, to retreat and isolate
from the urban life, to reflect
the chaotic urban environments,
to blend architecture with
surroundings, which can also be
used to classify their different
views towards the relationship
between architecture and
nature.5
For Toyo Ito, setting out from
the natural forms and letting
architecture returning to the
nature is extremely important
to articulate his concept about
architecture and architectural
effects on the social and
cultural contexts, evidence can
be found in his work, Island
City Central Park,
This entirely artificial park
seems to reflect the site, an
artificial island, and Japanese
traditional culture, ‘harmony
with nature’. Ito chose the
image of circles radiating from
the park to the whole city,
reinforcing the relationship
between architecture and
urban space. The continuous
spiralling shapes merge with the
undulation of the topography,
manifested the complexity and
variations of the projects. The
interior sometimes scrolled and
became the exterior, which
"GRIN GRIN", ISLAN CITY CENTRAL PARK
FUKUOKA, JAPAN, 2005
TOYO ITO
6. Thomas Daniell, After the crash: Architecture in Post-Bubble Japan,Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2008
Top: Structure of the park
Middle: Undulating forms integrate into surrounding
Bottom: Roof Plan
blurs the boundary and creates
dynamic and instable feelings
about the forms. This also
generates various paths for
people to experience and they
can even walk on the exterior
to get interesting views of the
park. It can create spaces for
people walking through, sitting
and chatting with others, which
reinforce the connection of
people in the community.
Relied on the computerized
structural optimization method
developed by engineer, the
asymmetric concrete shells with
uniform stress distributions
can be generated and optimized.
Remodelling and testing about
the individual parts of the
concrete shell is crucial
during the modification of
the final form. Engineering
plays important parts in the
designing and construction
process. It provides new
prototype for architecture,
as it gets rid of the simply
using repetitive grid system
to arrange different spaces,
Cartesian axis and basic
static geometry. Ito advanced
the architectural discourse,
especially the discourse
on tectonics, in terms of
his ambition to explore the
new architectural order. He
declares that architects should
have a desire not to create
joint, beams, wall... and all
that universalized tectonics.
The generalized typologies of
structure and construction
always separate different
elements and set the rules for
architecture.6 In contrast,Ito
argues that the grid system
which is an order that was
s e t u p b y M o d e r n i s t f o r
architecture has degenerated
people’s sensation to the
heterogeneity and complexity
in natural forms, dulled their
everyday life and isolated
human beings from nature.
6.Lynn, Greg "Why Tectonics is Square and Topology is Groovy", in Fold, Bodies and Blobs: Collected Essays ed. by Greg Lynn (Bruxelles: La Lettre volée, 1998), 169-182.
"It is a park like a building as
well as a building like a park."
Top: Green house and cafe
Left: Roof has automatic window to control the temperature of interior
Designers can attain their new
order by using algorithm to
define the rule and externalize
it by using parameters of
external factors, such as
natural environment, history
and community thus using
‘bottom-up’ method to find
the unknown results within its
contexts. The project not only
has eye-catching in terms of
its scale and form but also
strengthens the community and
becomes a landmark of the
city, as it generates various
vaulted spaces below and above
the area and demonstrates
that architecture is not
just about building instead
the topography, vegetation,
light, roads, community and
multidimensional experiences.
The project definitely reshapes
the whole area and improves
the image of the city.
"STRANGE ATTRACTOR"
NAMBA PARKS
JERDE PARTNERSHIP
OSAKA, JAPAN
2005
Namba Parks designed by Jerde
Partnership in Osaka, Japan is
a mixed use of commercial area
and garden. The sinuous walls
and greenery on the sloping
roof of the mall quickly hit
the news and became a hot
topic among the public as
from the aerial photo, it
looks like a hanging garden,
w h i c h e v o k e s c i t i z e n s’
interests. It is successful
in terms of its important
natural intervention function
in the dense and harsh urban
condition. 8 Osaka is lack
of open space and parks in
that the land is extremely
expensive. Namba Parks is
a good solution for the
city as it has eye-catching
forms and high visibility
of water and trees on the
sloping roof that appeal to
residents and consumers,
which becomes a centre of the
city for community gathering
and further strengthens
communication, community
culture and interactions.
Its greenery is also pivotal
to relieve extremely high
temperature during summer.
However, the project seems to
be monotone inside in that
visitors realized that it was
just a mall with gardens on
roof top rather than what they
expected from the photos.9
Jerde’s analogy is ‘canyon’
and the interior and curved
wall that encapsulates paths
8.Rocket News, 'Namba Parks Gets Rave Reviews from Overseas',<http://en.rocketnews24.com/2012/09/08/namba-parks-gets-rave-reviews-from-overseas/> [accessed 3 April].
9.Rocket News, 'Namba Parks Gets Rave Reviews from Overseas',<http://en.rocketnews24.com/2012/09/08/namba-parks-gets-rave-reviews-from-overseas/> [accessed 3 April].
a r e a t o t a l l y d e c o r a t e d
with different ‘canyon-
like’ colour to symbolize.
Why would he choose canyon
as analogy and what is the
relationship between canyon
and Osaka’s gateway and
city image? Some visitors
think that they felt that
the ‘American-canyon’ like
design gave them this kind
of image that Japan used to
copy western culture and
its westernization.10 The
public always perceives some
different ideas from the one
that designers intended to
impart. The park seems to
be a strange attractor in
Osaka, which isolates itself
from surrounding community
with curved walls. It is
unusual that as shopping
mall, the shops are lack
of visibility and even
windows. The circulation does
not work quite well from
residents’ point view that
they spend a lot time to
find a store. The area mixed
with different functions
should always be designed
carefully with circulation
and the arrangement of space.
Simply focusing on the
garden feature and raise up
a topic among the public but
to ignore the function and
users’ views cannot be an
innovative project. Hanging
garden may be an attractive
title for the mall, but the
design is lack of diversity
of special experience for
people so that visitors
feel the space is simply a
shopping mall.
For Wyndham city gateway
project, it is important
to consider the project
not only in architectural
scale but also to establish
the relationship between
the project and the whole
c o m m u n i t y . I t o’s p a r k
project is an innovative
one that can be learned in
the gateway project. The
simple geometry and its
variations link the park, the
topography, the surrounding
environment and the whole
island. For gate project,
it is crucial to consider
the symbol meaning that
architecture can carry on
so that it can create and
articulate the new image of
the Wyndham city. It is also
important to think about the
effects of the project on the
public. Rather than a park
that can be experienced and
observed slowly, the strong
visual effects of project
should be highlighted and
even exaggerated so that it
can be eye-catching in forms.
Interior of shopping mall, http://www.pics-site.com/wp-content/uploads/Namba-Parks-Lifestyle-Commercial-Center-Japan-11.jpg
10.Rocket News, 'Namba Parks Gets Rave Reviews from Overseas',<http://en.rocketnews24.com/2012/09/08/namba-parks-gets-rave-reviews-from-overseas/> [accessed 3 April].
References:
Alexander Eisenschmidt, Stranger than Fiction: A Mission Statement,Architecture Design, 219 (2012), 14-15.
Caroline Bos, 'Phenomenology and Topography of the Megacity', Architecture Design, 2(2012), 139.
Lynn, Greg, "Why Tectonics is Square and Topology is Groovy", in Fold, Bodies and Blobs: Collected Essays ed. by Greg Lynn (Bruxelles: La Lettre volée, 1998), 169-182.
Patrik Schumacher, 'Introduction : Architecture as Autopoietic System', in The Autopoiesis of Architecture (Chichester: J. Wiley, 2011),1 - 28.
Richard Williams, 'Architecture and Visual Culture', in Exploring Visual Culture : Definitions, Concepts, Contexts,, ed. by Matthew Rampley (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), pp. 102 - 116.
Rocket News, 'Namba Parks Gets Rave Reviews from Overseas',<http://en.rocketnews24.com/2012/09/08/namba-parks-gets-rave-reviews-from-overseas/> [accessed 3 April].
Thomas Daniell, After the crash: Architecture in Post-Bubble Japan,Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2008
Toyo Ito, 'Shedding the modern body image: is a house without criticism possible?' Jutaku Tokushu, 149(1998), 21.
COMPUTATIONAL
ARCHITECTURE
Computation is different
to computerization that
h a s b e e n a p p l i e d i n
architectural representation
to increase efficiency
of drawing and share of
d r a w i n g c o m p o n e n t s i n
the last decades, which
has been integrated into
the architectural design
processes. Even if some
people are suspicious about
its impacts on architects’
designing methods and the
creations of some ‘uncanny
forms’ that were driven
by ‘fake creativity’,
I s t i l l b e l i e v e w h e n
computation encountered
architecture, creativity
c a n b e a r o u s e d , 1 t h e
rationalization of design
process can be articulated
and the distance between
architects’ own views and
reality can be shortened.
Computational architecture
can be a method to combine
architects’ sensitivity
and subjectivity with the
objectivity. As design is
filled with uncertainties
and can be determined
b y p e r s o n a l h e u r i s t i c
decisions, it is a ‘puzzle-
solving’ process rather
than ‘problem-solving’
process.2 Personal influences
play an important role in
the process and hence it is
prone to generate errors and
limitations particularly
when requirements from
clients, society and the
public are complex.Complex
projects, including large
scale, mutable environments
and designers’ desire
to create dynamic built
environment for users,
necessitate the integration
of computation into design
processes. One example
is UNStudio’s project,
Arnhem Central Station,
t h e i n t e g r a t e d p u b l i c
transportation area. It
combines different functions
and different stops for
different vehicles into one
area. It is a place where a
lot of people pass through
and keeps changing as the
increase of travelers.
Therefore, it is pivotal
t o o r g a n i z e d i f f e r e n t
information as input to be
considered into the project.
0 2
1. Kolarevic, Branko, Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing (New York; London: Spon Press, 2003), pp. 3 - 28.
2.Yehuda E. Kalay, Architecture's New Media : Principles, Theories, and Methods of Computer-Aided Design (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2004), pp. 5 - 25
However, computers and tools can definitely not dominate the whole process as they lack the ability to decode sensibility and inspirations of human’ mind. Architects are still important designers as their discerning about non-geometric parameters: social, economic, political and material, which is hard to transform into quantitative data to be used as the input of the algorithmic design but these factors impact the design idea and designers set out their processes based on them.3Architects use software to set up the criteria to optimize their projects. Computation play important role to stimulate the real situations and set constraints such as wind, solar path, circulation and other environmental factors in the designing process to assist in decision-making of architects.
The Knowlege Centre of Masdar institute of Science and Technology has semi-circluar shape roof to regulate and shade the sunlight. The designers are familiar with computer-programming and can create programs by themselves so that the design process was efficient and generated more variety. Computation also generates innovation in construction process and breaks away from traditional building methods.As designing in computation can directly caculate the precise positions and materials for the building.
F i g u r e 1 . T h e Knowledge Centre, Foster + Partners’ SpecialistM o d e l l i n g G r o u p ( S M G ) , M a s d a r Institute Campus, Abu
Figure 2. The Knowledge Centre, Foster + Partners’ SpecialistModelling Group (SMG),Masdar Institute Campus, Abu Dhabi(2010)
Rather than concerning about the details in modernism and the time during art and craft movement, computation focuses on the relations between different parts.
Figure. 4 Andrew O Payne/L I F T a r c h i t e c t s , A i r Flow(er) facade prototype, 2009
Computation also allows architects to test and stimulate their design under different circumstances. From Greg Lynn's concept about 'motion-form' that it is important to participate in the flow and forces that shape the built envionment to liquefy the Cartesian space.4 Computation provides opportunities to conncet ideas with real and let real factors to shape the
design. In the facade prototype designed by A n d r e w O P a y n e / L I F T
architects, computation is critical to realise the idea to create direct interconnection between building and surrounding environments. By using Rhino and Grasshopper, the facade can react to the heat that generated by pedestrian from them, which is directly transformed into the variet of the forms.5The architects focus on the design of prototyping tools for designers to stimulate their design and shorten the distance between real world and architects'
views about design. It is a more integrative approach of using prototype t o h e l p c o m m u n i c a t e a r c h i t e c t s ' i d e a s .
3.Xavier De Kestelier,Recent Development in Fosters+Partners' Specialist Modeling Group, Architectural Design, vol.83, p. 23.
4.Michael Meredith,After after geometry,Architectural Design, vol.83, p. 92-94.
5.Andrew O Payne and Jason Kelly Johnson,Firefly Interacting Prototype for Architects, Architectural Design,
vol.83, p. 140.
Figure. 3 Andrew O Payne/LIFT architects, Air Flow(er) facade prototype, 2009
References:
Andrew O Payne and Jason Kelly Johnson,'Firefly Interacting Prototype for Architects', Architectural Design, 83 (2013), 140.
Kolarevic, Branko, Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing (New York; London: Spon Press, 2003), 3 - 28.
Michael Meredith,After after geometry,Architectural Design, 83 (2013), 92-94.
Xavier De Kestelier,Recent Development in Fosters+Partners' Specialist Modeling Group, Architectural Design, 83(2013), p. 23.
Yehuda E. Kalay, Architecture's New Media : Principles, Theories, and Methods of Computer-Aided Design (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2004), 5 - 25
PARAMETRIC
MODELING
Sketching is regarded as a basic skill that architects
should acquire so that they can express their ideas quickly
and effectively, provide problem-solving methods and even
obtain inspirations from sketching. Through sketching, the
projects can be personal and carry architects’ visions
of the final project from which may have distance to the
reality.1 Even in nowadays, architects still have dreams
to design ‘a pure space that is created within oneself and
extremely personal’, which is like painting and other forms
of art, abstractly and conceptually.2
However,architectural design should be propagated not only
from ‘top-down’ process that is conceptually driven but
also from ‘bottom-up’ method to consider different factors.
It is a way to minimise the errors when the projects have
become more and more complex and the requirements for
the diversity and dynamic environment are more and more
important. During the fast changing world, architects can
learn from nature and use 'algorithm' to optimize their
design and increase adapability of architecture.
0 3
1. Woodbury, Robert. Elements of Parametric Design (London: Routledge,2010), 7-48.
2. Riken Yamamoto, The Discovery of Process, Toyo Ito, (New York: Phaidon, 2005), 28.
The 2011 Pavilion at the University of Stuttgart, designed by the Institute for Computational Design (ICD) and the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE), was inspired by the bionic principle of sea urchins’ skeleton morphology and emerged through the parametric modeling.
The pavilion is formed by repetitive plywood hexagon panels that were connected by using finger joints, representing the method in which urchin’s shell links with each other. The two interlocking domes create openings and blur the boundary between interior and exterior. The small dome allows people to have a look at its logic joints and structure. Even if it is a small project through using extreme light ‘paper-like’ material,it represents the idea of the wholeness of designing,
manufacturing, fabrication a n d i n s t a l l a t i o n . T h e folding and joining of plywood cells blur the d i s t i n c t i o n b e t w e e n s t r u c t u r e a n d s k i n .The hexagonal geometries provide rigidity and every three cell edges always join together to transform forces, which further strengthens the form and avoid deformable shape.
Figure 1.
Figure 2.Finger joints
Figure 3.Sea urchin's hexangular pattern.
Moreover, the dynamic s i z e o f h e x a g o n a n d perforations on cells create variations of light effects and diversity. Parametric modeling plays an important role here, a s i t o p t i m i z e s t h e pattern sizes and their positions by considering transferring of loads and curvature in different parts that determines the heterogeneity of individual cells.
The bionic principle sets out the initial ideas and the requirements of
structural rigidity and high load bearing capacity set the tone of constraints of the design, which translates into input of the parametric modeling process.
Therefore, the form finding and structural design were combined together during the early process by using computational design. The final project is different from the normative tectonic a r t i c u l a t i o n s , w h i c h embodies the wholeness and complexity of the form.The relationship among
d i f f e r e n t i n d i v i d u a l cells and the integration between individuals and the whole are interesting in this project, which highlights the important role of parametric design that defines and analyzes the heterogeneity and complexity logically by optimizing the individual characteristic and their relations with others.
"Parametricism aims to organize and articulate the increasing diversity and complexity of social institutions and life processes within the most
advanced centre of postFordist network society." The Meaning of MAXXI – Concepts, Ambitions, Achievements P a t r i k S c h u m a c h e r 3
Through parametric design,
dependencies and connections
between different parts in
the project are captured,
articulated and communicated
with other designers and
builders, which is critical
for precision and efficiency of
fabrication and construction.
UNStudio’s work, Galleria in Cheonan, South Korea is a mixture of different functional areas, which combines commercial stores and public space for social and cultural aspects. Based on their research about Asian users in commercial departments, architects consider the project as a highly social area, hence, the project should address its role to provide platform for the communication between users and also the interaction between building and the public. The change of skin of the building becomes the most straightforward way to communicate with the public. Parametric design provides more opportunities to approach the diversity in terms of function and interwoven spaces, which is different from the way in which Post-modernism or deconstruction uses fragile and chaotic elements to communicate with the public. The project sets the start
the research of pluralism which can be addressed by the parametric modeling. As parametric design concentrates on the relationship and constraints between different parts rather than separation, it is more than a style from aesthetic view. Parametric design provides different ways for architects to think about the process and relationship between different parts. The skin of project has double layers to create dynamic effects.
Figure 4. Silk screen
Another interesting approach in this project is the study of nowaday's human motion and their ambulatory vision to connect the spacial design directly to the users.
The linear forms that emphasizes the horizontality and verticality can restrict vision and focus. In contrast, the dynamic forms can stimulate visual perception of being moving around the object and differnt experiences. Based on the study of how people experience the visual and spacial relations when they are walking, a central space that including way-finding and orientation is created,which is a main attractor and connector of the building.
F i g u r e 5 . Atrium
References:
P a t r i k S c h u m a c h e r , ' T h e M e a n i n g o f M A X X I – C o n c e p t s , A m b i t i o n s ,
Achievements',<http://www.patrikschumacher.com/Texts/The%20Meaning%20of%20MAXXI.
html>, accessed on 3 April, 2013.
Riken Yamamoto, The Discovery of Process, Toyo Ito, (New York: Phaidon, 2005), 28.
Woodbury, Robert. Elements of Parametric Design (London: Routledge,2010), 7-48.
ALGORITHMIC
EXPLORATIONS 0 4
Comparing with the Paneling tool plug in I used before, Grasshopper give me more control on the patterning. Contour and Box morph function are important to create modularity of the patter. Decomposing of vectors function is also critical to manipulate the direction of patterns and create more diversity in terms of changing their size and localising their conditions.
The example here is using point attractor to change the pattern positions. As I am interested in tessellation area. It is important for the each pattern to reflect the different conditions comparing to the whole so that the relations and diversity between each pattern can be enhanced.
CONCLUSION
Learning Outcomes
As architecture’s position in public realm is unique and the society keeps changing, the
discourse needs to be advanced and expanded. How architects can positively engage with the
fast changing world is crucial to generate more dynamic space for people within urban context.
To regard architecture as a discourse will definitely generate new ideas about designing,
tectonics and the communication and relationship between architecture and the public. To regard
architecture as a discourse also means that it can be participated by the public whose voice
should be heard and understood by architects. Even if the later interpretation about projects
are variable and architecture experienced is never constant, using new design method such as
parametric design may lead to more dynamic space for the citizens or at least it tries to enrich
the discourse with the public. Importantly, from the previous analysis of successful and well-
known projects, computational design shortens the distance from designers’ vision about the
project to the reality by using stimulating, prototype testing and rationalizing parameters to
control the project.
Toyo Ito’s park provides dynamic visual and spacial relations between people, people and the
built environment and people and city. It enrichs people’s sensory experience of being in
movement along the curvy paths to gain all-around views of the park. Therefore, it is important
for architects not to create projects only within their world and from their vision. Instead,
they should have responsibility for the public and society by considering external factors, in
Wyndham case to consider impacts on the users and the city at the start of the design process.
To achieve Wyndham City Council’s expectation about ‘creating a new identifier’ and ‘generating
a new discourse’, the computational design, especially parametric modeling is necessary to
rationalize the decision making during the design process and optimize the project. Using
computational design is within an architectural discourse and hence will create a new discourse
for the community.
0 5
By learning architectural computing and the projects designed
through parametric modeling, it provides a different way to
think about design process and the role of designer. The
important understanding about architectural computing is
the algorithm thinking that can rationalize design process
by considering the relations between different parts, which
makes design more reasonable and persuasive. However, it
still depends on designers’ perceptions to make decisions
on the final projects as parametric modeling always provide
large amount of different outcomes. I started to play around
different components in Grasshopper and find the different
relations between input and output. It is still hard for
me to understand some types of input due to the lack of
scripting and mathematic knowledge. I will try to acquire
some knowledge about these areas as they are important to
generate more diverse outcomes with logic relationship
between input and output.
PART B DESIGN FOCUS
Our group focused on tessellation and geometry areas, especially the interconnectedness of
individual parts and the integrity of the whole without sacrificing the heterogeneity of individuals.
The relation between heterogeneity and homogeneity is an interesting topic in architectural
discourse, which can be extended to ubiquitous questions in everyday life, the relation between
individuals and community. Under rapid urbanism, both individuals and community are undergo-
ing different changes in terms of social relations, life-style and propagation to the public.
We chose tessellation area as a start of our explorations of architectural computation because
tessellation stems from interconnectedness and generates diversity. The individual heterogeneity
is articulated by these repetitive patterns’ properties, their relations with surrounding patterns and
their orientation relative to the whole, which reflects the relation between residents and commu-
nity in the reality. Therefore, we think that, through using tessellation in our project, it can possess
the feeling of variety and change that can create positive image for Wyndham city. The proper-
ties of geometric shapes assist us in understanding the relationship between different parts and
obtaining more control of the result. We wanted to achieve three specific effects:
• effects of subtle change and drastic contrasts in patterns
• creating irregular shapes based on regular grids
• localising each individual parts to amplify the effects of change and motion, and articulate
complicated surfaces
The relatively identical patterns can impart sense of subtle change, which also provides great ef-
ficiency to produce individual parts and assemble them. This is the main reason that we choose
this area to study at the beginning. We are also interested in drastic change that is formal be-
cause it can create strong visual impacts and can be easily understood by people within a short
time, which is essential to achieve ‘eye-catching’ effect in the Wyndham city gateway project.
VoltaDomSkylar Tibbits
CASE STUDY 1.0
Designed by Skylar Tibbits for MIT’s 150 year anniversary, the installation decorates the corridors of buildings in campus. By using parametric design, it is an successful example to achieve diversity of shapes, various depth of forms, interesting views to outside and inside and quick installation methods by using simple strips.
The project has strong visual impacts in terms of organic distribution of different individual parts and shad-ows that it creates. From the outside, the organic complicated vault like individual parts seem to be released from the bonds of controls and regu-lations. However, from the inside, the individual vaults are located relative-ly in order and can be connected easily.
‘Meshsplit’ component in grasshop-per program played an important role to reshape the individual cone by trimming the intersection parts, which we found inspiring and is rele-vant to our design concept.
Random
Regular
opening size
expression
polygon
input curve
box morph
input grid
ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
ORDER
Random
Hex grid
Zig zag grid
Rectangular grid
CONCLUSION
The first one show the sense of motion as cones are located according to the curve and intersecting with each other. The repetitive patterns seem to have more strong visual im-pacts. The relations between each cones form the grid pat-terns. They can be used in the wall paper or as surface.
HARESH LALVANI STUDIOCASE STUDY 2.0
Lalvani’s design concept is based on understanding about natural force and material and analysis of its formal codes of geometry and generative principles from mathematics.
In his sculpture work, he used laser cutting to produce triangular shallow etches on steel plates. Then push the surface manually to create convex and concave form. Due to the difference of external
forces conveying to different parts of surfaces, interconnected parts can react to the external factors differently so that the gaps between different parts will be created. Interestingly, the patterns of gaps look regular and the subtle change between different parts in local scale can also be observed.We found this effect inspiring and relevant to our idea about the relation between heterogeneity and homogeneity.
His work is successful in terms of form-finding approach and the diversity and unexpectations that generates.
Then we began to transfer his idea into parametric design by using Kangaroo plug in to simulate the impacts of natural forces on the planar grid.
Flat Surface Set grids and orders
Surfaces react to external forcesExternal forces
Parameter Parameter Input Output:
Gaps (negative spaces)
New patterns
PROTOTYPE | SUBTLE CHANGE
ANALYSIS
At the beginning, we concentrated on his form-finding method as it provides great variety and direct interactions between external factors and our own systems, which can help us to further analyse the relationship between heterogeneity and the whole.
At start, we thought there were changes of connectivity between different individual parts as forces adding on the flat surface.
However, the grids and numbers of vertices are fixed and therefore the identical patterns can only be achieved by adding limited range of directions and quantity of
forces.
Some unexpected patterns were generated when the original grids are stretched and reoriented by the forces. Thus, we realised that the pursuing of identical patterns at the early age of design process can definitely limit other possibilities. What we learned from this process is the importance of grid and geometry that creates strong visual impacts and possibilities for diversity of patterns. The various positions of individual cells through ‘folding’ is also critical for us to think about how to create heterogeneous properties of single part.
I did prototype of the simple folding pattern. As in kangaroo plug in, we added forces on the surface quite randomly, during the model making process, the paper cannot follow the folding line in grasshopper.
The result is like ‘origami’. The pattern and subtle change of dark and light patterns look interesting, which extended our design space.
From this point, we thought we could focus on the patterning generation to explore other opportunities.
Techinique Development|Patterns
Local scale:grids test
Local scale:relative item
Regional scale: point attractor
Regional scale: line attractor
Regional scale: cull pattern
Characteristic of Voronoi Patterns
Voronoi diagram has certain stability and regulation with small change in the shape of Voronoi cells when it is distorted.
The end points of one cell shares three edges for a given set of points, which implies the connection method between different single cell.
The Voronoi cells can be optimised through the desired distribution of seeds to achieve more control of cell sizes and layout. Due to using of rectangular distribution of seeds, the Voronoi cells that we generated are mod-ular but not repetitive, which creates sense of subtle change and can be produced quickly.
Techinique Development|Voronoi
Through technique development process, we practiced different methods to acquire complete control of the patterns. We can localise them by using tree and list com-ponents in grasshopper to access group of points, which enriches the patterns and provides more possibilities. We finally chose Voronoi patterns to further develop for our project due to several rea-sons:
Edges: angles at different vertices are equal
Patterns and gaps
Symbols|Form-finding
The gateway project is like a link connect Melbourne city and Wyn-dham city area. Therefore, we use intersecting circles as symbols to combine them together.
In the program, one circle is locat-ed on the xy plane the other is on xz plane. When loft them, the un-expected shape was generated. It represents the connectivity between two areas.
Voronoi project-ing on surface
Bounding box &Box morph
Hexgonal grid
Trigular grid
Bounding box &Box morph
Prototypes
The prototype process made us realise the distance between real world construction and what we expected by modelling in pro-grams.
One issue is about the bending capacity of materials as our form is like Möbius loop that has double curved surface. The two different materials we used for prototypes are polypropylene sheet and ivory card. The two material cannot bend and twist as what we expected. Therefore, we should rethink about our form. To maintain the two inter-secting curve line from the section view, we can trim the bottom part to anchor it on the ground.
Another issue we should further develop is the ‘unroll’ method of our surface. Since form is complex, we should try to separate them into different parts then to unroll and assemble.
The polypropylene sheet is not complete opaque so that the shadows it creates are blurred. The ivory card model creates more contrasting shadows. Therefore, we may use opaque material in the future to create strong visual contrasts between light and dark.
As we imitated Lalvani’s concepts, Voronoi cells were cut through shallow etches. As a result, we can fold cells by hand and ad-just their angles. This created unexpected effects of rotation and de-materialisation, which extended our ideas to combine subtle change and formal elements together to create lightness and freedom of form.
Prototypes
Opening Sizes experiment
Then we reworked our model in the program to determine the opening siz-es of each flipping panel. The method I used is to use “rotation” component and use each short edge of the cell as axis. The angles are determined by the curvature of the surface.
We will further analyse the interaction between sun path and the opening sizes to optimise the project.
The seeds of Voronoi will be deter-mined more explicitly to maximise the visual impacts that Voronoi cells can create.
Connections & Joints
We tested several connection methods that can use the advantages of voronoi cells’ characteristics.
The tap connection takes the advantage of the equal angles of which three edges form, which is easy for mass production. However, the effects are not what we expected. The continuity of the edg-es is highlighted in our design concept while taps create visible circle nodes.
The other connection method learned from ‘strip morphology’ by using three intersecting edges as modular to join the different parts. It achieve some extent of the continuity of the voronoi edges.
Connections & Joints
Another precedent we were looking at is Beijing National Stadium. The steel strips that have structural func-tion and surface decoration inter-weave the stadium, which creates the smooth appearance and illusion of continuity due to the successful use of welded connection between steel lattice.
In our project, we can also use weld-ed connection to connect inter-secting Voronoi edges. The flipping panels can also be welded on the Voronoi edges.
We may further develop the Voronoi edges as both pattern and structure.
Algorithmic Sketches
Using “explode tree” to access each tree data and using “jitter” and “weave” components to obtain effects of continuity and weaving.
Using ‘section’ component to gen-erate different layers.
Learning Objectives and Outcomes
The learning objectives is to expand the knowledge of computational technique and practice them into the project, especially to use them to understand repetitive patterns and obtain more possibilities to generate diverse outcomes. I think through the technique development and design process, I really learned a lot about data flow and extract specific points, curves through using ‘list items’ ‘relative items’ and other methods, which realizes some extent of control in the program.
The precedent we found enriched our ideas about designing methods. The inspira-tion from nature and mathematics can quantify the parameters we used in design and provide some regulations that we can use to control our projects. The com-putational design also provides many unexpected design outcomes. Through our design process, we changed our ideas and found more opportunities by using the program to generate extensive range of models. At first, we stick to our precedent and wanted to realise it. Even if we did not success in reconstruct his work, we can imitate his concept and applied it in a different way, which also results in some un-expected patterns and effects.
Feedback
From the critic’s feedback, the realisation of our project in the real world will be critical challenge for us in the following approach. This reminds us to think about the real world construction methods and to be site-specific when we are exploring the 3D models.
For the opening of our project, we will quantify the sun path as an important pa-rameter to determine the angles of flipping panels so that interesting shadows can be created.
We should do more research about Voronoi diagram as it is sophisticated system that has been used to find the closet region based on the desired seeds. I think we can specify the seeds’ locations in the following design process.
Refereneces
Friedrich, E. (2008) ‘The Voronoi Diagrams in Structural Optimisation’, UCL.
Herber J. Gans (1961), ‘The Balanced Community: Homogeneity or Heterogeneity in Residential Areas?’, Journal of the American Insti-tute of Planners, vol 27, p. 176.