STUDIO AIR2015, SEMESTER 1, Alessandro LiutiYuchen Ye

Table of ContentsIntroduction

Part A CONCEPTUALISATION

A.1. Design Computation

A.2. Composition/Generation

A.3. Conclusion

A.4. Learning outcomes

A.5. Appendix - Algorithmic Sketches

Part B CRITERIA DESIGN

B.1. Research Field

B.2. Case Study 1.0

B.3. Case Study 2.0

B.4. Technique: Development

B.5. Technique: Prototypes

B.6. Technique: Proposal

B.7. Learning Objectives and Outcomes

B.8. Appendix - Algorithmic Sketches

Part C DETAILED DESIGN

C.1. Design Concept

C.2. Tectonic Elements & Prototypes

C.3. Final Detail Model

C.4. Learning Objectives and Outcomes

REFERENCE

3 Introduction

Kevin Yuchen YeThird Year Architecture Major University of Melbourne

My father used to be an interior designer, and he would spend hours pouring me the knowledge of designing in architecture during the weekends. I believe that is why I am here studing architecture.

We haven’t got any architecture related cources in Chinese high school, thus my interests of architecture came from the magzines my father bought. The beauty of architecture just easily switched me up and since then, becoming an architect has became my dream job.

I love drawing and painting, but I’m not very good at computer. When I started my architecture major, I was so nervous because all these softwares are so new to me and I was just too comfortable to drawing thus rejecting using softwares. Then in the second year I realized that this is not going to work, because software design is the architecture future for sure. There is no way I can deny this fact.

So I started with rhino and photoshop. However I am still not pro using them. There is still a lot to learn and other softwares to try. I believe through this subject I can have a great opportunity to experience the use of Grasshopper in Rhino.

Introduction

Introduction 4

FIG.1: YEAR 1 LANTERN PORJECT

This is my first year peoject that I have done in Virtual Environment. It was my first time to use digital software to design. It was an great introduction for me to the digital design environment as I have learned how to use Rhino for the first time. What is more important is that It shows me the protential of what digital design can do nowadays which is fansanating.

My design started from a small plant that was just like the bottom left photo. Its leaves twisted and seems like process into itself. It was a small plant but it seems have unlimited space in it as its leave grows. This leads me to my design which is a lantern, and you can still see the original plant from top and bottom, the light shines through its “leaves” and engage viewers to imagine the space in side.

However the journy of learning was much harder than what I expected. The software takes time to get used to it. And there are just so many commands that I have to try in order to get the right command I wanted. It was great that I had so many helpful friends and tutors who sorted me out all the problems thus I can finish this project in time.

I think it was an great course for students like me to have an opportunity to study digital design from groud up. What I want to say is that through this assignment I started to get interested in this way of design bec0ause there are just create so many possibilities for design. 3D modeling has become the way I do my work because it is just s convenience and dynamic.

Part A CONCEPTUALISATION

A.1Design Futuring

Design Computation 6

7 Design Futuring

When I saw Frei Otto’s work, the first thing I think of is nuture. It was just after World War II and Germany was experiencing lack of material and an urgent need for housing. Frei Otto decided to take the approach of designing houses with just basic function: providing shelter. He was mastering engeering thus his design contain a lot of engineering concept using steal web structure to create vast space which is also very strong. Otto specialised in light weight tensile and membrane structure, he control the light flow in his design by using different materials.

His tent design is like a skin peel from the ground, it is amazing that these wide span web structure creats dynamic spaces and provide opportunities for activities which is an very important adavance in the architecture history as we follow a change from function to process.

It was very sad as that Frei Otto passed away just after he recieve the 40th Pritzker Prize. Munich Olympic Stadium was designed by him and another architect Gunther Behnisch. It was one of my favourtie design as it was built in 1940s, and the lightweight tent construction was just so futuristic at that time.

FIG.2 ROOFING FOR MAIN SPORTS

A.1.1Design Computation

RECEDENT PROJECT 1MUNICH OLYMPIC STADIUM, 1972FREI PAUL OTTO

Design Futuring 8

It is not only the designs that Frid Otto created are beautiful, it was his concept of seeing structure as part of the design that is important. It was said that “Throughout his life, Frei Otto has produced Imaginative, Fresh, Unprecedented spaces and constructions. He has also created Knowledge. Herein resides his deep influence: not in forms to be copied, but through the paths that have been opened by his research and discoveries.”

The Stadium was valued as one of most beautiful stadium in the world because of the lightweighstructure brought liveness into the game and it provide shelter while provide great amount of light to the stadium.

FIG.3 ROOFING FOR FOOTBALL STADIUM

In the upcoming Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum, Jean Nouvel Translates the vertical screen into a horizontal roof element where multi layer skins transform light into different still patterns which travel through the whole building as time goes. These several layers of metal optimize the thermal situation for the space as well.

He explains that:” Sunlight passes through two holes, then it is blocked by the third. But this soon changes as the rays move and we get spots of light that appear and disappear, enlarge and shrink...it’s a kinetic effect that is visible to the naked eye because in 30 to 40 seconds you’ll see that one spot is getting bigger and another is disappearing.”

Jean Nouvel is another one of my favourite architect who recieve the Pritzker price. Louvre Museum ABU Dhabi is one of the project he is currently working on. It will have a surface area of approximately 24000 square meters, of which 6000 square meters will be dedicated to permanent collections and 2000 square meters to temporary exhibitions.

I was so excited because so far his work has always amuze me. I love the way he treat about the light and how they translate into the form of the design. For example his newer buildings in the Middle East have transformed the oriental window technique into double facades, which reduce the cooling loads and also create fascinating interior lighting effects.

FIG.4 LOUVRE MUSEUM ABU DHABI

10 Design Futuring

PRECEDENT PROJECT 2LOUVRE MUSEUM ABU DHABI (UNITED ARAB EMIRATES)JEAN NOUVEL

Jean Nouvel is one of the leading architects who has strongly influenced the debate about modern mashrabiyas. His Institut du monde arabe in Paris was only the precedent to two buildings he designed for the harsh sun of the Middle East: The Doha Tower, which is completely wrapped with a re-interpretation of the mashrabiya, and the Louvre Abu Dhabi museum with its luminous dome.

The delicate mashrabiya has offered effective protection against intense sunlight in the Middle East for several centuries. However, nowadays this traditional Islamic window element with its characteristic latticework is used to cover entire buildings as an oriental ornament, providing local identity and a sun-shading device for cooling. In fact, designers have even transformed the vernacular wooden structure into high-tech responsive daylight systems.

FIG.5 LOUVRE MUSEUM ABU DHABI

Design Futuring 11

Part A CONCEPTUALISATION

A.2Design Computation

In Yehuda Kalay’s article “Architecture’s New Media: Principles, Theories , and Methods of Computer-Aided Design” he mentioned that “Computers, by their nature, are superb analytical engines. If correctly programmed, they can follow a line of reasoning to its logical conclusion. They will never tire, never make silly arithmetical mistakes, and will gladly search through and correlate facts buried in the endless heaps of information they can store. They will do all that quickly and repeatedly, by following a set of instructions called a program, which tells them in m inute detail how to manipulate the electrical impulses in their circuits. They can present the results of these manipulations in the form most suitable for hum an comprehension: in textual reports, tables of numbers, charts, graphical constructions— even in dynamically changing images and sounds. But while they can follow instructions preciselyand faultlessly, computers are totally incapable o f making up new instructions: they lack any creative abilities or intuition.

I totally agree with him as computers these days are still not “alive”. They are still tools and had does not has any creative abilities which is the only thing needed for design. Just like what Yehuda said, computers can do things we can not do, things like simulate the deconstruction process of a skyscraper. Computers can do things much faster with minimum resources used. But it never create anything, by saying creating, I mean something that has not been created before, drawing a line is not create, line has already been created before. however, doing a painting is creating, becase this new painting has never been created. People may argue computers do create, some designer even do not know what they are going to get when they do concept modeling in the softwares, they just simple type in a program and input numbers, then they wait for the results computers “created” for them. I would question that does design need a command to generate ideas? Or do designers get ideas from others

13 Design Computation

Anyway, computers are still a perfect tool, and their being has already changed the way we design and construct. They provide cheap experiments withing digital world which could not been done or may cost a lot in real world. This is important because it has proved so many possible designs that were doubted or unable to manufacture

Design Computation 13

PRECEDENT PROJECT 4HAESLEY NINE BRIDGES GOLD CLUB HOUSESHIGERU BAN

14 CONCEPTUALISATION

The Haesley Nine Bridges Gold Club House designed by Shigeru Ban in 2010. Shigeru Ban once said in one of his interview that he had so many possible ideas but this is the one he has always want to design, because it is a window for him. This building is pure structure focused design, if you look at it, it is very simple, however, the structure are formed as a whole, colums are ceiling structure are manufactured together. It is pure beauty for me and it is not possible to manufacture or construct decades ago because it is almost impossible to calculate the angle of each arch, the point of connection, and also the weight it can hold. By computers it becomes possible and even much easier to design.

15 Design Futuring

CONCEPTUALISATION 15

PRECEDENT PROJECT 5THE HABITAT ‘67 MOSHE SAFDIE

Another major benefit that digital design has brought us is that the way we construct these days, which is pre-fabrication. Although if we look back the history of pre-fabrication, it started since the first Industrial Revolution in 1800s. It is computer that make this idea shine as the design process if much faster, calculation is done in seconds. The method was widely used in the construction of prefabricated housing in the 20th centiry, many houses in Australia were prefabricated in the UK in the mid 19th and brought to Australia. But they are still different from what pre-fabrication is about today.

16 CONCEPTUALISATION

Take the Habitat ‘67 by Moshe Safdie as a perfect example. It is a model community and housing complex in Montreal, Canada. The beauty of this design is that it is prefabricated and constructed on a long narrow bay. It would be very hard to construct on site becasue the limited space and soil quality. However, pre-fabrication has provided this key and Moshe Safdie has used it wisely. This 12 storeys high residencial urban apartment building is complex but incradibly large in size. It contained 158 apartments and each unit is connected to at least one private terrace which can range from approximately 225 to 1,000 square feed in size. As one of the major symbols of Expo 67, which was attended by over 50 million people during the year it was open. Habitat 67 gained world-wide acclaim as a “fantastic experiment”. I believe it is a milestone in architecture as pre-fabrication has really become a method of design.

CONCEPTUALISATION 17