digital aptitudes - Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture

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SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 2012 - 12:30PM - 2:00PM Open Biomimetic Explorations Susannah Dickinson, University of Arizona “The waves of the sea, the little ripple on the shore, the sweeping curve of the sandy bay between the headlands, the outline of the hills, the shape of the clouds, all these are so many riddles of form, so many problems of morphology, and all of them the physicist can more or less easily read and adequately solve.” D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson On Growth and Form This submission focuses on a ‘Biomimetics’ Seminar Class held in the spring of 2011.Biomimetics is the study and application of biological principles as essential design parameters. This study needs to go beyond a metaphor; it is not about mimicry, but about understanding the nature of the material itself, looking at our environment and its interconnections as a way to move forward. Negotiating design and performance with engineering and fabrication is one of the central topics of architectural discourse; driving this is a growing awareness of ecology and sustainability which this course intended to address. The main areas of focus were: i. Understanding the concepts of nature and technology and their connection. ii. The study of generative design strategies for complex geometry; parametric design, emergence, self-organization, swarm intelligence, data integration and agent-based design. iii. Research in the area of how architecture can perform more ecologically; integrating performative tools and simulation into the design process to ensure more appropriate environmental adaptivity. iv. ‘Material is an active participant in the genesis of form’ (Manuel De Landa) - studying options of how materiality becomes one of the design parameters. Linkages between digital technology, biomimetics and sustainability were made as all stem from the same aspiration in the study of systems. This was fundamental in the use of parametric modeling tools where students began to think in terms of relationships verses single objects. Ecological, inter-connected systems in the natural world have no separation of form, structure and material: they all act on one another and cannot be predicted by the analysis of any one separately or in a different context. Isn’t this how architecture should be; critically sensitive to its region and holistic? The goal of the course was to focus on process, recursive design and experimentation; technologically and environmentally, looking at ways to ‘find form’ rather than ‘make form’ and create valid feedback loops. The course became a research lab, initially studying precedent work and processes in this field, but culminating in two group projects which created original, collective fabricated work. Of the fifteen students most were third and fourth year undergraduates, with two Master of Science students. One group created ‘Data Scape’; a biomimetic surface installation, while the other group created ‘Performative Porosity’; a research project, designing an evaporative cooling wall for an arid climate with ceramic foam. 48 - ACSA 100th Annual Meeting Entrepreneurship in Architecture Nathan Richardson, Oklahoma State University Architects often frame their professional identity with almost exclusive respect to the buildings they design. In reality, few architects have ventured far from a common conception of practice in which they provide design services to a client who intends to build. However, the changing nature of society and the issues it confronts should compel more architects to reconsider their expertise and the manner in which it is deployed. Given the current economic distress, environmental strain, and geopolitical unrest, there is growing pressure on societies to find creative solutions to vast, complex, and acute issues that transcend the design of the built environment itself. Clearly, the built environment and those that shape it are critically important, but it isn’t the only venue for architects and designers to make meaningful contributions to society. One key to exploring enhanced productivity for architects may reside in the profession’s self-conception and its relationship to entrepreneurship. 1 Consider the following. “Entrepreneurship is a process by which individuals… pursue opportunities without regard to the resources they currently control.” 2 While this definition was conceived in a business oriented body of research, it bears a striking resemblance to the activities of an architect. In other words, architects are adept at pursuing opportunities to shape the built environment without much deference to their relatively limited control of the capital resources employed in building. Another commonly cited definition of entrepreneurship frames it as the process of creating value by bringing together a unique combination of resources to exploit an opportunity. 3 This statement can likewise be understood in the context of architectural practice; architects are no doubt skilled in leveraging opportunities by bringing together a diverse combination of resources to create value through architecture. Even though architecture can be understood as an entrepreneurial endeavor, entrepreneurship isn’t often an explicit part of architectural practice or education. As such, architects rarely view themselves as active entrepreneurs or leverage their entrepreneurial potential in any venue other than architectural practice. This poster explores cases of entrepreneurship in architecture and corollary industries. Not only does an expanded understanding of architecture and entrepreneurship promise to make architects more effective within standard modes of practice, but it also represents latent opportunities for architects to pursue unconventional methods of practice to address an expanding array of societal, economic, and disciplinary challenges. 1. Robert Gutman argues a related point in an essay included in: Dana Cuff and John Wriedt eds., Architecture from the Outside in: Selected essays by Robert Gutman, “Architecture: The Entrepreneurial Profession,” (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010), 32-42. 2. H.H. Stevenson and J.C. Jarillo, “A Paradigm for Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial Management,” Strategic Management Journal, no. 11 (1990): 17-27. Quoted in, Vesa P. Taatila, “Learning Entrepreneurship in Higher Education,” Education + Training, 52 (1), 48-61. and Heiko Haase & Arndt Lautenschläger, “The ‘Teachability Dilemma’ of Entrepreneurship,” International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 7 (2), 145-162. 3. H.H. Stevenson and David E. Gumpert. “The heart of entrepreneurship,” Harvard Business Review 63, no. 2 (March 1985): 85-94. Retrieved from EBSCO host (accessed September 6, 2011).
SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 2012 - 12:30PM - 2:00PM Open Continued NYC 2 LV: Shifting Pedagogies Between Park and Playground Glenn Nowak, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Andrea Limpede, University of Nevada Las Vegas To get at something provocative requires us to take a carefully scrutinized projection of the near future and extrapolate it far beyond its initially intended scope. PlanNYC 2030 was created (by Mayor Bloomberg and 25 City agencies) to improve the infrastructure of New York City as well as enhance the daily lives of its residents. It is estimated that by 2030, NYC will accommodate an additional 1 million people, yet by 2111 there will be an additional 12 million in NYC. Recognizing that daily living in the Big Apple is enhanced by the park system and, most notably, Central Park; this poster questions the toll population growth and land value metrics will have on such spaces of the built environment. While analysis suggests that parks will not disappear, an architectural ebb and flow may see development encroach on such real estate. Displaced park space may then be re-appropriated or constituted in fashions that address evolving definitions of hospitality, proximity, and priority. As cities evolve (and in many cases cycle through extended periods of growth and decay) other cities across the country or around the world may adapt to take advantage of shifting markets or mode of making. Though the poster presents this notion through the specific example of park space (structures supersede Central Park, and Las Vegas capitalizes on yet another icon), the idea may be extended to any archetype, urban fabric, or design discipline. Projections Rami el Samahy, Carnegie Mellon University Adam Himes, Carnegie Mellon University Question If all design can be read as attempts to predict and shape the future, then no specialization looks further into the future than urban design. The timeframes common to the field are often so long—up to a hundred years or more—that they can at best provide a robust framework for future decisions. So how are projections made this far into the future? The material here represents the initial stages of a research and design project to gather as many sources as possible pertaining to predictions of the future. Cataloguing, cross-referencing and visualizing this archive has allowed us to speculate with regard to the future and our relationship to it. In making sense of these competing visions of tomorrow and how they relate to cities, we have posed a series of questions: What are the likely parameters of ecological, technological and social changes to come? What can past conjectures tell us about our present? Where will future design opportunities lie? Method The project not only looks to the future of urban design and architecture, but also examines how recent technologies can be used to drive design research through an interrelated process with multiple feedback loops whereby several efforts are used to move the project forward. It intelligently utilizes an everyday tool—the blog—to organize research so that it reveals trends and potential avenues for further investigation. Similarly, the open source tool of Processing literally makes visible some of the trends uncovered through research, temporally positioning each to make apparent the visions for and fears of the future as they developed through successive eras. The blog creates an opportunity for open-source research via an undergraduate college seminar that allows students to build upon existing avenues of research in potentially new directions. The course also acts as a first pass at applying the themes developed via the blog to architectural and urban design projects, thus leading the way to the eventual generation of design parameters based on a number of projected criteria that could be applied in the development of future cities. Preliminary Findings Technological changes will have a profound effect on the way we will live, from the growing ubiquity of information technology, to the increased reliance on automated processes (robotics), to the remarkable potentials of nanotechnology. But will the cities of the future look like the ones we live in today, except more connected to a greater number of people, or will these technological changes necessitate a more substantial morphological and programmatic evolution? It’s also evident that the future promises significant environmental and sociological change. While the extent of either’s impact remains unclear, it’s impossible to deny that significant transformations will occur in both areas. There is no shortage of design opportunities as a response to either outcome, whether the goal is to mitigate a worst-case eventuality or to adapt to a soon-to-be situation. ROPE Pavilion Kevin Erickson, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign In Winnipeg, the Assiniboine River Trail is the worlds longest naturally frozen skating rink, beginning in the city center it stretches nearly 10km west. With an estimated 450,000 visitors annually, the trail provides an alternate route to access downtown by foot, skates, and skis, while events such as hockey, curling, and sledding take place on the river and along it’s banks. Each year the City of Winnipeg sponsors a competition to design and build a series of warming huts, located every kilometer along the trail, ROPE pavilion was selected for construction in January 2012. Through the combination of simple materials, ROPE pavilion, creates a highly articulated form and space while nestling itself into the Assiniboine River Trail’s landscape. Its relationship of skin – manila rope and structure – birch frame, merge to form a warming hut whose dense shell blocks winter winds while still being perforated for light and views. The wood interior creates a sense of warmth through color and texture and it’s multilayered rope exterior collects snow, further embedding it within the site. The hut’s domelike form is optimized for heat retention, bifurcating only for an entry threshold and oculus to the sky above. Digital Apptitutes + Other Openings - Boston, MA - 49
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