STUDIO AIR2016, SEMESTER 1, Brad EliasZihao Guo 683552

FIG. 1 PROFILE PHOTO

2 CONCEPTUALISATION

SELF INTRODUCTION

My name is Zihao. I am currently in my third year of my bachelor of environment at the University of Melbourne, major in architecture. I was born and raised in Guangzhou which is one of the most beautiful and dynamic city in China. I am keen on traveling around the world and enjoy experiencing different urban space. I found architecture or buildings are the fundamental elements for the urban space. Such evocative and dynamic architectural design could make the city looks a way more different. That might be the reason why I decided to do architecture in the University.

In my last two years of study in architecture, I done some design studios like Studio Water and Studio Earth which gave me chances to design by working with the site and some functional requirement. They also improve my designing skills and logical thinking. However, a subject called digital design and fabrication is the one that actually make me experience how digital method can be applied to the design processes. I feel it makes my life much different when I took this subject in my second year. It lets me know how design processes and fabricate processes can work in a circle. Digital design can evaluate the potential design outcome and decide which fabrication method we are going to use. Then, feedbacks can be generated from the fabrication process which can be re-applied to the design to optimise the original design.

I am looking forward to getting more comprehensive understanding of the algorithm designing and improving my computational designing skill in this semester with studying in Studio Air.

FIG. 2 ILLUSTRATION OF FABRICATION COMPONENTS IN DDF

CONCEPTUALISATION 3

PREVIOUS DIGITAL DESGIN EXPERIENCE

I have done some digital design practise in the subject called Digital Design and Fabrication. In this subject, we were required to design a second skin for users to create personal space. This exercise gave us a chance to use data to generate the design outcome. In terms of personal space, the dimension of the space are measured and integrated to the design process. It is my first time for using such entry-level data-driven system to achieve design outcome. Even though Grasshopper has not been used during the digital design process, my partner and me still got a rough understanding of data-driven algorithm design process. More importantly, we started to explore the interaction between digital design and fabrication.

CONCEPTUALISATION

[A]

Content

A.1 Design Future 6 Asian Cairns by Vincent Callebaut

Burnham Pavilion by Zaha Hadid Architects

A.2 Design Computation 11National Stadium China

BMW Bubble Pavilion

A.3 Composition/Generation 16 Beijing National Aquatics Centre

Origami Pavilion by Tal Friedman

A.4 Conclusion 20

A.5 Learning Outcomes 21

A.6 Appendix 22

A.7 Reference 24

6 CONCEPTUALISATION

A.1 DESIGN FUTURING

CONCEPTUALISATION 7

In terms of design, most people think it is mostly about problem

solving. Undoubtedly our world are facing huge challenges such

as overpopulation, water shortage, and climate change. Designer

are empowered to fix them[1]. However, it seems to become

clear that lots of challenges we face today are unfixable unless

people change their values, belief, attitudes, and behaviour. It is

also a fact that those challenges make our world keep changing

in many aspects including our society and natural environment.

Then, there is a question, with the massive changing world, how

designer and architect are going to facilitate the flows and changes

to their design to make it fit in the future context. According

to Fry, design futuring has to struggle from slowering the rate

of defuturing and redirecting people towards more sustainable

living environment[2]. In effect, future design is about how

design can actually secure the future living[3]. In the past, due to

urgent need, people used to create fast developed living in such

convenient and unsustainable way. The way they did ignored the

relationship between creation and destruction. The design also

brought destructive cost to the society and environment when it

brought something into being. Therefore, the way of design need

to be reshaped to secure a sustainable living by facilitating the

flows and making connections between systems.

FIG. 3 ASIAN CAIRNS PROJECT

The Asian Cairns Project

The Asian Cairns project is designed by Vincent Callebaut who is a Belgian ecological architect. He is keen on planning and designing ecologic projects for the future. The Asian Cairns project has developed a concept of integrating natural ecosystem into cities. The concept of ‘farmscrapers’ is made from piles of giant glass pebbles. The project is made up of six towers. Some of them contain up to twenty glazed pebbles. The curve shape of the pebbles are created by a steel structure while solar panels and wind turbines would be installed on the outer surface.

Speculating The Probability & Possibility

There is no doubt that people in this planet are facing the challenge of overpopulation. And probably, this issue will last or get more serious in the next decades [4]. According to Mcdougall, the world population will climb up to 9.2 billion in 2050. Higher population means more habitation need to be constructed for accommodating more people. Meanwhile, the natural environment will be compressed along with the urban sprawl. With the expansion of urban, Vincent Callebaut is trying to reshape the current urban structure with the idea of embedding the natural environment into the high rise building and developing vertical ecological space. That is such way of future design that create things without bringing destruction. Despite this is not a built project, but the architect intent to build a new type of urban habitat which is completely contextualize the rule of natural world. Moreover, he also attempt to explore the possibility of harmonising relationship between human habitation and the ecological environment.

Energy Self-Sufficient

One of the concept behind the building is the philosophy from the architect which ‘the more a city is dense, the less it consumes energy.’ All energy are sourced from the sun and wind through solar panels and wind turbines installed on the outer surface. The self-sufficient community enable the sustainable and renewable living.

FIG. 4 ASIAN CAIRNS HABITATION

FIG. 5 VERTICAL ECOLOGICAL SPACE

CASE STUDY 1 Asian Cairns by Vincent Callebaut

Burnham Pavilion by Zaha Hadid Architects

Burnham Pavilion is a well-innovation in Millennium Park in Chicago. The pavilion is made up of a curving aluminum framework exceeding 7000 pieces and 24 custom-made fabric panels. Its bent-aluminum structure created an unique curvilinear form. The distinctively fluid shape is established by fabric skins wrapped tightly around the metal frame created a secret and private space to attract people to walk inside. The fabric skins also works as screens for video-installations in the pavilion.

Redirect People To Think About Future

The pavilion is described as resembling a “futuristic camping tent”. Hadid conceptualized how tension shaped appearance just as fabric is pulled taut or twisted, which resulted in the elliptical structure. The diagonal lines in the structure is aligned with Burnham’s 1909 city plan, which visualized a fanned grid of streets expanding diagonally from Chicago’s city center out into the suburbs. As part of the Burnham Plan Centennial celebrations, the Burnham Pavilion attracts the visitors’ curiosity and encourages them to consider the future of Chicago. In addition, the pavilion is designed and built to maximize the use of recycling and re-use material which can also be used in the future. Fabric is such lightweight and sustainable material that requires less cost and labor on site.

“Fabric is both a traditional and a high-tech material whose form is directly related to the forces applied to it - creating beautiful geometries that are never arbitrary. I find this very exciting.”

- Zaha Hadid

FIG. 6 EXTERIOR OF THE BURNHAM PAVILION BY ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS

FIG. 7 INNER ALUMINUM FRAME

10 CONCEPTUALISATION

CASE STUDY 2 Burnham Pavilion by Zaha Hadid Architects

“Computation augments the intellect of the designer and increases capability to solve complex problems”

- Brady Peters

CONCEPTUALISATION 11

A.2 DESIGN COMPUTATION

Location: Beijing, China

Client: National Stadium Co Ltd

Seating Capacity: 91,000 including 11,000 temporary seats for the Games

Gross Floor Area: 254,600m2

Height: maximum 69.2m (266.4ft) above pitch level

Design Consortium: Arup, Herzog & De Meuron Architekten AG, China Architecture Design & Research Group

Completion Date: Early 2008

FIG. 8 NATIONAL STADIUM CHINA IN NORTH BEIJING

12 CONCEPTUALISATION

CASE STUDY 1 National Stadium China

The ‘Bird Nest’ Project

The National Stadium in Beijing hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the 29th Olympiad, as well as athletic track and field events. It has a capacity of 91 000 seats, including 11 000 temporary seats. Architects intended to develop an architecture that will continue to be functional after the Games in 2008, in other words, to create a new type of urban site that will attract and generate public life in this part of Beijing. The building’s immense proportion and dramatic form make the stadium become a new icon for China and the City of Beijing. From the distance, the stadium looks like a vast collective shape, like a vessel while its undulating rim reflects the rising and falling ramps inside the stadium. Based on the appearance of the stadium, the Chinese crowd nicknamed the stadium “Bird‘s Nest” in the early stages of the project. Therefore, the architects essentially assimilating it before it had even left the drawing board.

Contextualization and Formation

Frank Lloyd Wright introduced his concept of organic architecture in the 1900s[5]. In his organic architecture, a building should be shaped to harmonize with its surrounding if nature is manifest in the environment. For instance, the prairie has its own beauty, hence building on it need to be shaped in low proportion and quiet skylines. However, the design methodology has developed so quickly in both evolutionary and subversive way in the past century with the booming development of economics and technology.

At present, a hundred years after the introduction of Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic architecture, ‘formation precedes form’ [6]. Designing processes are becoming the thinking of generation through algorithmic logic with the assistance by computation. For instance, instead of imitating the appearance of the organic, natural design now is learning from natural principle of how to produce form which is responded to the conditions of environmental context.

Back to The National Stadium, even though its structure is popularly described as the ‘Bird Nest’. The pattern was initially inspired by Chinese style ‘crazed’ pottery, and the randomness of the natural world. Of course, bird nest is also a representation of the organic randomness in the natural world. Despite the form of the ‘Bird Nest’ seems arbitrary while those steel members seem to be crossing each other randomly. The formation of the form is never arbitrary, and the pattern abides by complex algorithmic rules. Mathematical geometry and biomimetic algorithms have applied to the form-finding process of the pattern. The Parametric design in the project is a logic of associative relationship between the building and the context of natural randomness. Computation enables all the creation and modulation of this complex design.

FIG. 9 RHINO MODEL OF THE ‘BIRD NEST’FIG.10 ALGORITHMIC RULES OF THE ‘BIRD NEST’

CONCEPTUALISATION 13

Client: BMW Group

Location : IAA 1999, Frankfurt / Main, Germany

Project-Team :Bernhard Franken, Sonja Albrech, Nils-Peter Fischer, Kirstin Fried, Niklas Führer, Thilo Kurzemann, Hans-Herbert Kuss, Michael Lulay, Thomas Remdisch

Partner: IBZ+L,Bollinger + Grohmann

Status: realised 1999

Dimension: 260 m²

FIG.11 EXTERIOR OF THE BMW BUBBLE PAVILION

14 CONCEPTUALISATION

CASE STUDY 2 BMW Bubble Pavilion

Computation And Contextualization

As one of the leading automobile manufacturers, BMW intended to introduce their new brand image for the upcoming era through the 1999 International Auto Show took place in Frankfurt. Driving with clean energy from water and the sun was symbolized in the form of a drop of water. A drop simulation computation program was used to create this shape. The form of two water drops is consisting of an aluminum framework that supports the transparent Plexiglass skin. Three hundred different spherical plexiglass sheets were fabricated with CNC milled polyurethane foam mold thermoforming at 150 to 160ºC.

Computation and Performative Architecture

“The digital linkage also established an advanced environment for interactive digital generation and performance simulation as a paradigm of collaborative design between the architect and the engineer.”

- Rivka Oxman & Robert Oxman[8]

The Bubble Pavilion was one of the first structures in the world which was completely created with computational means, from the design to construction. Analytical computational technique based on finite-element method has been used in the project[9]. The geometry model was divided into small and interconnected mesh which can be used for performing structural, energy and fluid dynamic analysis for building. Besides, the wireframe cross-sections which are produced by contouring in computation process can be manipulated to construct an abstraction of the building’s structural framework[10]. Therefore, the construction process can be optimized and waste can be reduced.

FIG.12 THE FORM OF TWO MERGING WATER DROPS

FIG.13 STRUCTUAL FRAMEWORK OF THE BMW BUBBLE PAVILION

CONCEPTUALISATION 15

“Generative design is not about designing a building. It’s about designing the system that designs a building”

- Lars Hesselgren

16 CONCEPTUALISATION

A.3 CONPOSITION TO GENERATION

Composition and generation

With the development of computation and the continuous exploration of possibility, the design approach of architecture has shifted to generation from composition. For a long period, architects proceed their design with sketching concept and geometry forms. Unlike generation, composition is an one direction linear process which composition is the input and design or visual representation is the outcome. In contrast, generation is the outcome which generated by a set of rules and algorithm in the generative design process. Generative design is basically relied on the computation processes and parametric modeling. It is the process with scripts, algorithm and simulation. With generative design or computational design, multiple optimized design iterations can be generated if detail projected data and requirements are integrated into the programs[11].

CONCEPTUALISATION 17

Soap Bubble Ceiling

The soap bubble like ceiling of the Aquatics Centre used a complementary approach instead of using a series of versions to decide what is best on comparison. Architects used computation to find structural solution which are self-organizing by genetic algorithms.

Computing Performance And Simulation

The structure of the Aquatics Centre was optimized by analyzing a series of configuration of the thousand of steel members and connecting nodes. In order to manipulated such complex geometry system, Arup created a parametric software which is able to automated the drawing and analysis process. The algorithm of the computational design checked the forces distribution within the structure according to the member sizes, and provide feedback in 25 minutes. Therefore, a new design opportunity which is optimized based on the weight-to-strength ratio. Such alternatives generated by the parametric design save around $10 million on design cost compare to original design methods. It has also been argued by Peters[13], computation assists architects by simulating building performance , incorporate performance analysis and the materialism, tectonics and parameters of production machinery. These tools can provide performance feedback at various stage of a project and create new opportunities which can be used to improve efficiency.

FIG.15 SOAP BUBBLE LIKE CEILING

FIG.16 INNER STRUCTURE

“Using parametrics, I was able to investigate far more alternatives. We built version 34 because it was better. But version 1 would have worked fine. Generative design allowed us to get better results in a fraction of the time.”

- J Parrish, director of ArupSport

18 CONCEPTUALISATION

CASE STUDY 1 Beijing National Aquatics Centre

Parametric Fold Finding

The Origami Pavilion is a good example of generative design and parametric design. The entire structure is made up of eight aluminum sheets. The architect took the most noble function of parametricism which is structure optimization for the folding of thin rigid materials.

FIG.16 PARAMETRIC STRUCTURE OPTIMIZATION

FIG.17 ORIGAMI PAVILION

FIG.18 ORIGAMI PAVILION FOLD FINDING

FIG.18 ORIGAMI PAVILION FABRICATION

Shortcoming of the Generative design

One of the biggest challenges of the generative design is the problem of communication which is a process of sharing information between humans and computers[12]. It is easy to communicate information form computers to human. But it frustratingly difficult to work well in the opposite way when someone is lacking of the intelligence to interpret messages with script. In addition, some performance criteria such as human behavior, intuition and ‘feeling’ can not be rationally measured and integrated into the computation design.

CONCEPTUALISATION 19

CASE STUDY 2 Origami Pavilion by Tal Friedman

Conclusion The development of the design environment is moving as fast as a non-stop train, the design contexts are also changing continuously. We can still appreciating Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic architecture or Louis Sullivan’s ‘form follows function’. However, designer need to seek alternatives for the changing environment. Because human are facing a series of problems, and actions need to be made to secure our future. That requires designers facilitating the flows and exploring the possibility of future by contextualizing, and building connection between systems.

Computational design and generative design are the tools which are able to empower the architects by algorithmic logic. It provides architects more opportunities to explore design possibility and achieve more satisfied outcomes.

20 CONCEPTUALISATION

Learning OutcomesThe first three weeks study in Studio Air actually brings me into a new knowledge sphere or concept sphere. With the study in parametric design tool Grasshopper, I am gradually shifting from an one direction linear composition logic to a feedback looping algorithmic logic. I did have some previous experience in digital design and modeling, especially in Rhino and Sketchup. But I have never thought about using parametric design to achieve better design outcomes by manipulating with the parameters. Despite the application of parameter enhances the complexity and difficulty of the design processes at this stage. But somehow, I find it improves the efficiency of the design process as it enables users make changes in single component or parameter to achieve refined alternative outcome instead of making changes to the whole composition. I am looking forward to moving to part B for getting more familiar with Grasshopper and gaining more comprehensive understanding of computational design and generation.

CONCEPTUALISATION 21

22 CONCEPTUALISATION

A. 6 APPENDIX

CONCEPTUALISATION 23

[1] Dunne, Anthony & Raby, Fiona (2013) Speculative Everything: Design Fiction, and Social Dreaming (MIT Press) p2.

[2] Fry, Tony (2008). Design Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics and New Practice (Oxford: Berg), p3.

[3] Fry, Tony (2008). Design Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics and New Practice (Oxford: Berg), p6.

[4] Mcdougall, Rosamund. Too many people: Earth’s population problem, p1

[5] Wright, Lloyd Frank (1908). “In the Cause Of Architecture”, Robert McCarter, ed, On and By Frank Lloyd Wright: A Primer of Architectural Principle, London: Phaidon, 2005. First Published in The Architecture Record.

[6] Oxman, Rivka and Robert Oxman, eds (2014). Theories of the Digital in Architecture (London; New York: Routledge), p3

[7] Oxman, Rivka and Robert Oxman, eds (2014). Theories of the Digital in Architecture (London; New York: Routledge), p8

[8] Oxman, Rivka and Robert Oxman, eds (2014). Theories of the Digital in Architecture (London; New York: Routledge), p4

[9] Kolarevic, Branko, Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing (New York; London: Spon Press, 2003) Suggested start with p24

[10] Kolarevic, Branko, Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing (New York; London: Spon Press, 2003) Suggested start with p25

[11] Generative Architecture – Transformation by Computation, Retrieved 17/03/2016 From http://www.builtr.io/generative-architecture-transformation-by-computation/.

[12] Kalay, Yehuda E. (2004). Architecture’s New Media: Principles, Theories, and Methods of Computer-Aided Design (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press), p3

[13] Peters, Brady. (2013) ‘Computation Works: The Building of Algorithmic Thought’, Architectural Design, 83, 2, p13

Case Study:

Asian Cairns by Vincent Callebaut

http://vincent.callebaut.org/page1-img-asiancairns.html

http://www.dezeen.com/2013/03/21/asian-cairns-by-vincent-callebaut/

Zaha Burnham Pavilion

http://www.archdaily.com/33110/burnham-pavilion-zaha-hadid

Beijing national stadium

http://www.archdaily.com/6059/inside-herzog-de-meuron-beijing-birds-nest

http://www.e-architect.co.uk/beijing/birds-nest-beijing

24 CONCEPTUALISATION

A. 7 REFERENCE

http://www.dezeen.com/2008/07/30/national-stadium-beijing-by-herzog-de-meuron/

https://libertecture.wordpress.com/2014/01/28/algorithmic-boogie-beijing-olympic-stadium-case-study-gsapp-adr-i-13/

https://www.herzogdemeuron.com/index/projects/complete-works/226-250/226-national-stadium.html

Bmw Pavilion

h t t p : / / w w w . f r a n k e n - a r c h i t e k t e n . d e / i n d e x .php?pagetype=projectdetail&lang=en&cat=0&param=overview&param2=21&param3=0&

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=kJEMWde-REYC&pg=PT117&lpg=PT117&dq=bmw+BUBBLE+PAVILION&source=bl&ots=iuEFMOMSQZ&sig=ZobM0JcnPNAtDWudrCdjxdL5-74&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiUtsS-zcfLAhUEW6YKHYwyA-sQ6AEIPzAJ#v=onepage&q&f=false

http://www.noveformy.cz/blob/blob-reference/the-bubble-bmw-pavilion/

Beijing National Aquatics Centre

http://www.cadalyst.com/cad/building-design/generative-design-is-changing-face-architecture-12948

http://www.dezeen.com/2008/02/06/watercube-by-chris-bosse/

Origami Pavilion

http://www.archdaily.com/781664/origami-pavilion-creates-shelter-with-just-3-folded-aluminum-sheets

CONCEPTUALISATION 25