John James Marshall thesis.pdf - OpenAIR @ RGU - Robert Gordon ...

The computer is being used as a tool for design, but also for making. This opens
the possibility of fabricated buildings such as the ‘Camera Obscura’ in Mitchell
Park, Greenport, New York completed in 2005 by Sharples Holden Pasquarelli
(SHoP). This structure is conceived, produced and assembled in much the same
way that a consumer product would be. It is more like a conventional product
development process than typical architecture.
“The camera obscura is the first building to be 100 percent digitally
designed and computer fabricated, SHoP's partners say. Every piece of
wood, steel, and aluminum - 750 in total - is custom-made and
completely unique…The firm has used this approach on parts of its other
projects but never for an entire structure. That makes the $185,000
camera a modest but important showcase for the firm's ambitious
process, which begins with 3-D modeling software and ends with
construction workers assembling the laser-cut pieces into their finished
form.” (Scanlon, 2004).
Scanlon (2004) points out that this process is distinct from Gehry’s not only in
that the process is digital from start to finish but that it is process-driven rather
than shape-driven. This allows the architects to substantially reduce costs and
means the building does not waste structural resources by creating functionless
forms – a criticism that can be levelled at Gehry. However, SHoP must also
assume greater liability for the finished construction since they are responsible
for the building design and its fabrication.
The scope of how these tools are being used has been extended beyond the
pragmatic aspects of merely assistive technologies. Computer-based
technologies are being used as autonomous, generative tools which increase the
opportunity for new architectural production paradigms, design vocabularies
and methodologies (e.g. biological simulation systems such as genetic evolution
and emergence). Zellner (2000) and Rahim (2002) examine the work of
experimental practitioners who use digital techniques and architectural
methods beyond technique-driven experiments. Similarly, Couture and Rashid
(2002) with their New York-based architectural design and research practice
(Asymptote) present projects that are concerned as much with light, speed and
the virtual as with physical geometries and building systems. Spiller (2002)
provides an overview of projects that use computer-based technologies to
explore the building as more than a static architectural object and terms this
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