digital aptitudes - Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture

SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 2012 - 12:30PM - 2:00PM
Technology Continued
surrounding trees, and creating ‘rooms’ with existing site features.
The design of a computer based ‘system’ allows for continuous
tweaking of the complex geometry throughout the design process
- without having to remodel the form, for subsequent iterations.
The overall form of the project can be manipulated through the development
of a parametric system in the software program Grasshopper.
This allows variables such as the shape of the foot print,
height of arches, and dimension and orientation of the oculi to be
changed continuously throughout the design process.
Once a parametric solution is selected - a series of control lines are
output for each vault form. Following, a computer script - is run on
the control lines, generating a triangulated frame based on a second
series of variables including density of triangulation and pipe
dimension. Also from these control lines the skin of the structure - a
series of developable surfaces are produced.
A physical model is used in conjunction with the computer model
and software to explore different patterning techniques of the
structures skin - which will eventually be fabricated out of nylon
sailcloth. A wire-frame armature of one of the vaults is constructed
and used as a type of dress form. Variations of the covering are
patterned sewn and fitted to the model.
Molecular City
Roberto Bottazzi, Royal College of Art
Description:
Molecular City is an installation presented at the 2010 Future Places
Festival in Porto, Portugal. By taking advantage of Augmented
Reality technology, it challenges the tenets of contemporary planning
by collapsing real and virtual experience.
Concept:
As technology increases in computational power and user-friendliness,
portable devices will be completely tuned in people’s needs
and desires to their environment. The future of augmented reality
technology [AR] will be urban. However, if fields as diverse as music
or the military have already capitalised on such radical advancements,
architecture and urbanism are still largely unaffected by this
revolution. Architects still see themselves as the solitary creators
of static physical objects seeking to single-handedly control urban
experience.
Molecular City challenges this outdated vision by speculating alternative
modes of planning and experiencing the twenty-first century
city.
Similar to how simple molecules can be aggregated to form complex
organic compounds such as proteins, Molecular City imagines
a condition in which the overall complexity and richness of the urban
experience is the result of a multitude of diverse narratives and
singular gestures. The construction of such environment emphasises
contingency and discontinuity over exactness and stability.
By taking advantage of AR technology, Molecular City allows the
public to create their collective hybrid city by superimposing
virtual architectures onto the existing city of Porto via computer
projection. The physical space of Porto becomes a canvas constantly
connected to the endless possibilities provided by virtual
space. The role of the architect recedes to the background; the
city transforms into a gameboard where cultural desires and needs
can be seamlessly projected and negotiated. Conflations of place,
scale, emotion and history overlay to give rise to a hybrid (half real,
half virtual) urban condition. A library of digital architectural models
to play with will be provided via either ADS1 student models or
free downlodable models from the Internet.
Banking on the ongoing four-year research on the relation between
digital technologies and urban environments, Roberto Bottazzi has
a long experience in creative academic work that hybridise virtual
and actual domains. Our most recent exhibition – at the Royal College
of Art in February 2010 – utilised AR to invite the visitors to
play with students’ work to compose their own landscape of projects.
Performance-Based Generative Design
Ming Tang, University of Cincinnati
This project investigated a collaborative research and teaching
project between the University of Cincinnati, Perkins+Will’s Tech
Lab and nD group, and the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
The primary investigation focuses on the design and fabrication
of building components, derived from performance-based
parameters. The project examines various approaches including
theoretical investigations and proprietary software tools for parametric
design.
The project first gives a short historical and philosophical background
to performance-based design, then describes the technical
and algorithmic requirements, and concludes with the examples of
implementation. With two design courses taught in 2011, the authors
discuss the “shared body plan” as an essential element for
applying generative form-seeking methods in architectural design.
Design methodologies, such as use of building performance simulation
tools, genetic morphing, and fitness evaluations are discussed
as new paradigms in generative, performance-based design.
This project also investigates how the large quantity of iterations
can be filtered and selected based on the feasibility of fabrication
and materialization processes. Using several student projects in the
poster, the authors intend to demonstrate the methods of mass
customization and parametric iteration through physical prototyping.
The parameters related with fabrication have been implemented
to generate a large quantity of creative solutions, whereas
genetic algorithm functions are introduced as optimizers.
As a conclusion, this poster illustrated the formation process that
nature permits in order to sustain a generative system. The project
analyzes several design and prototyping procedures, and illustrates
how these performance-driven design approaches can be
used for innovative forms, utilizing benefits of performance-based
influences in architecture beyond formal assumption and aesthetic
experimentation.
Digital Apptitutes + Other Openings - Boston, MA - 57