Presented by:

Adeela Mushtaq

Seung Mhi Lee

Michele Zaneua

Charles Shen

Digital Revolution in 1990s:

The arrival of interactive animation software – previously only used in

Hollywood’s movie industry or by car manufacturers – caused a dramatic

change in the design and discourse of architecture.

Animation software – Alias and Softimage

Alias was founded in 1983, and created an easy-to-use software package to

produce realistic 3-D video animation for the advertising industry and

postproduction houses. It used NURBS (non-uniform rational basis spline)

technology producing uniquely smooth lines or surfaces. By 1989, many cars,

like those of BMW, Honda and Volvo, were being designed by Alias.

Softimage was founded in 1986 by the film-maker Daniel Langlois, who wanted

to create animated movies. This 3-D animation software was used to create

animation for feature films such as Jurassic Park, Titanic, The Matrix and Star

Wars, or for games like Super Mario 64, Tekken, Virtual Fighter, Wave Race

and NBA Live.

MicroStation Generative Components

MicroStation was originally developed by Bentley Systems in the 1980s for the

engineering and architecture fields: it was first used primarily for creating

construction drawings, but developed quickly adding advanced modelling and

rendering features. GenerativeComponents is the parametric plug-in used by

architects and engineers to automate design processes and accelerate

design iterations.

Source:

Information from Wikipedia

http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Products/MicroStation

Radial array of GenerativeComponents

Assembly detail

Greg Lynn: Calculus-Based Form

During the early 1990s most of the architectural forms moved

away from the fragmented, polygonal and rectilinear towards

the smooth, continuous and curvilinear. It was the time when

Greg Lynn, had just established his architectural firm FORM

(1992) and became one of the advocates of this dramatic

change.

Lynn has written extensively on his design philosophies, first

publishing the book "Animate Form" in 1999, funded in part by

the Graham Foundation. Lynn's New York Presbyterian Church

in Queens, New York (1999) is an early project which used

vector-based animation software in its design conception.

He has focused on the impact of calculus-based software and

computer supported modes of production on architectural form.

Source:

Calculus-Based Form: An Interview with Greg Lynn, Architectural Design.

Richard Lacayo, You Could Call Him Mr. Softee. Innovators, Time 100: The

Next Wave. July 17, 2000.

Model of Presbyterian Church, 1999

‘I have always tried to get out of the process-driven bubble within

which I found myself. I regret to say it hasn’t really worked, as I still

struggle to situate my work outside of the 1980s theoretical model of

justifying shapes by processes of analytic transformation.’

‘It is always more interesting to begin with an inventory of what

machines want to do to us before we start asking what we desire

from the machines.’

Greg Lynn, Calculus-Based Form: An Interview with Greg Lynn, Architectural Design.

Greg Lynn: Similarities with Peter Eisenman

Gregg Lynn inherited the obsession with form from his teacher

and mentor Peter Eisenman, who since the early 1970s had

worked mostly on process-driven explorations of form.

Despite many similarities, Lynn’s FORM tried to depart from

Eisenman’s modes of enquiry. Eisenman believes in the power

of architecture's autonomous ideology or 'interiority', Lynn

explores form as a result of external forces. Forces that were

impossible to calculate or represent before the use of

computers.

Second important difference between Eisenman and Lynn's

usage of computers is the way that Lynn continues to use the

machine until the final form is complete, instead of just the

initial abstracted diagram. However, they share interest in the

vector and the philosopjies of Deleuze and Foucault.

Source:

Calculus-Based Form: An Interview with Greg Lynn, Architectural Design.

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1450681 10/8/2007

Eisenman Process: Competition IIT Campus

ANIMATE FORM:

Greg Lynn’s Perspective

Animation - the evolution of a form and its shaping forces.

Virtuality - to abstract scheme that has the possibility of becoming actualized, often in a variety of possible configurations.

Animate design is defined by the co-presence of Motion and Force at the moment of formal conception.

Cartesian fixed point coordinates vs. Vector based interactions

Terminologies:

Virtual Force

Differential variations

Active Abstract Space

Dynamical Flows

Design Space: Static vs. Dynamic

Vector Forces in Design of Sailboat Hull

Previous Architectural Experiments:

Siegfried Giedion, Mechanization Takes Command (1948), Space, Tiem and Architecture (1941)

- Superposition of a sequence of frames produces memory in the form of spatio-temporal simultaneity.

Colin Rowe, Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal (1963) - phenomenal transparency is the tracing or

imprinting of a deeper formal space on a surface.

Kenneth Frampton’s description of Charles Gwathmey’s early work as “rotational” - used to describe the

movement between superimposed, formal moments.

The term, “trace” in the last twenty years - as a graphical notation of time and motion in architecture

Boccioni, Umberto

Dynamism of a Soccer Player - 1913

Fig 3, p.12 Animate Form

Superimposed snap-shots of motion imply time as a phenomenal movement between frames or moments

Modeling of Architecture in a conceptual field:

Stasis is a concept which has been intimately linked with architecture in 5 important ways;

1)permanence , 2) usefulness, 3) typology, 4) procession, 5) verticality

However, each of these assumptions can be transformed once the virtual space in which

architecture is conceptualized is mobilized with both time and force.

Orientation vs. Vertical:

Multiple interacting structural pressures from many directions (wind, uplifts, earthquakes,

other non-vertical conditions)

A reconceptualization of ground and verticality in light of complex of vectors and movements

would open up possibilities for structure and support that take into account orientations other

than the simple vertical.

Theories of gravity:

Stasis - the ordering system through the unchanging constant force of a ground point,

discreteness, timelessness, fixity.

Stability - the ordering of motion into rhythmic phases, multiplicity, change, development.

Descartes: create a steady-state equation where he eliminated time and force to calculate

precise position.

Leibniz: determined that a position is space can only be calculated as a vectoral flow.

If architecture is to approach this more complex concept of gravity, its

design technologies should also incorporate factors of time and motion.

N-body Problem and the Invention of Differential Calculus:

The n-body problem is the problem of finding, given the initial positions, masses,

and velocities of n bodies, their subsequent motions. (Wikipedia)

It was proved that no discrete solution for such a problem could exist.

Duration and sequence are integral to the spatial relationships being calculated.

The method by which these problems can be calculated is through a mathematics

that is sequential and continuous: thus the invention by both Newton and Leibniz

of differential Calculus.

N-body problem integration: one star, one heavy planet, one light planet with a satellite by Jean-Francois Colonna.

Genetic Space – Karl Chu

Computer as a conceptual and organizational tool:

Creative capacity of computers to facilitate genetic design – Karl Chu

Computer as a pet

Genetic processes should not be equated with either intelligence or nature.

Computer is not nature. It makes shapes that are open to deformation and inflection, those

shapes are not organic.

Like a pet, computer does not behave with human intelligence.

Use of Computers in Design Process:

Major Consequences

- A shift from Cartesian coordinates to Topological surfaces defined by U and V vector coordinates

-The predominance of deformation and transformation techniques available in a time- based system of flexible

surfaces

3 fundamental properties of organization in a computer :

Topology_Time_Parameters

Topology is characterized by flexible surfaces composed of splines.

Splines are vectors defined with direction.

Each section of the composite curve is defined by a fixed radius.

The connection between radial curve segments occurs at points

of tangency that are defined by a line connecting the radii.

A similar curve described using spline geometry, in which

the radii are replaced by control vertices with weights and

handles through which the curved spline flows.

1. A three-degree spline, where the curvature and inflection is determined by a sequence of positions of three points along the

motion of flow of the spline. 2. A seven-degree spline, smoother than the three degree spline 3. A two-degree spline,

determined by a sequence of positions between only two points. Appears to be a poly-line.

1. A superimposed series of splines sharing the same control vertices with different degrees of influences; a two-, three-, four-,

five-, six-, and seven-degree spline curves. 2. The splines showing the distributed effect of a change in one control vertex across

the length of the spline. 3. A spline surface, or mesh, constructed out of groups of splines whose control vertices are connected

across one another. The splines are grouped into U and V directions, where the control vertices of the U direction splines pass

through the control vertices of the V direction splines.

1. A spline surface that begins as a twisted mobius band and is stretched and joined aloing its

edges to form a self intersecting surface. Enclosed volumes are trapped within the surface by

both the joining and intersecting operations.

From Stephen Barr, Experiments in Topology (New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1964)

2. A transformation of a ring into a cup through the flexibility of a single surface.

From Stephen Barr. Experiments in Topology (New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1964)

Topology: Two Linked Principles

1. the immanent curvatures that result from the combinatorial logic of differential equtaions

2. the mathmatical cause of that curvature

Because topological entities are based on vectors, they are capable of systematically

incorporating time and motion into their shape as inflection.

Curvilinearity (contrast to Linearity)

Curvilinearity is a more sophisticated and complex form of organization than linearity in two regards;

1. it integrates multiple rather than single entities

2. It is capable of expressing vectorial attributes, and therefore time and motion.

These transformations can be linearly morphed or they can involve nonlinear interactions through dynamics.

Example of curvature by the situation

of a Frisbee chased by a running dog.

Analyzing time, movement and transformation:

D’Arcy Tompson’s analysis

Scottish zoolologist Sir D’Arcy Tompson analyzed variations in the morphology of animals using deformable

grids, which yielded curvilinear lines due to changes in form.

Thompson was one of the first scientists to notate gradient forces (such as temperature) through deformation,

inflections, and curvature.

Study of the transformation of

crustacean carapaces through the

deformation of a flexible grid or

‘rubber mat’ by D’Arcy Thompson.

Thompson's illustration of the transformation of Argyropelecus olfersi into Sternoptyx

diaphana by applying a 70° shear mapping

Analyzing time, movement and transformation:

Etienne-Jules Marey ‘s Study

Marey pioneered the study of curvature as the notation of both force and time.

Marey was one of the first morphologists to move from the study of form in inert Cartesian space, devoid of force

and motion, to the study of rhythms, movements, pulses, and flows and their effects on form.

Marey produced “phase portraits” by describing time as a continuous curvilinear flow.

Marey used pneumatic triggers to the joints of animals to

trigger camera exposures in rhythmic sequence. In this

way, the rhythm of photographic instances were

sequenced to the movement of the animal.

Marey would connect curved lines through these points to

describe a curvilinear continuity across the snapshots.

Flying pelican captured by Marey around 1882. He found a way to record several phases

of movements in one photo

Evolutionary Theories

The idea of Fitness Landscape:

Francis Galton described evolution in terms of fitness landscape; whereby a surface represents an external

environment across which a faceted sphere rolled. The faceted sphere represents an organism with its own

internal constraints, and the landscape represents its potential pathways of development.

Sketch of a fitness landscape by C.O. Wilke, 2001

In this schema, the object has actual force and motion, where the landscape has

virtual force and motion stored in its slopes.

Other topological landscape Isomorphic polysurfaces (blobs) skeletons (inverse kinematics networks)_warps_forces_ particles.

Spline entities are intensively influenced by their context due to the fact that they are defined by hanging

weights, gravity and force. The weights of one spline surface can effect those of another spline surface.

These resulting structures are called blobs.

Blob ( = Isomorphic polysurface, meta-clay, metal ball)

an alternative example of a topological surface exhibiting landscape characteristics.

Blob’s fusion

When two or more blob objects are proximate, they will Mutually redefine their respective surfaces based

on their particular gravitational properties or Actually fuse into one contiguous surface.

Disconnected primitives used to compose an

isomorphic polysurface.

Isomorphic polysurface with primitives

fused into a single surface.

Design Application:

Rather than an entity being shaped only by its own internal definition, these topological surfaces are inflected by the

field in which they are modeled.

If an entity is moved in space, its shape might change based on the position within gradient

space even though the definition of the entity remains constant.

Greg Lynn, Embryological House, 1999

The Embryological House is a series of one-of-a-kind houses that are customised by Greg Lynn FORM for individual

clients. The houses are adaptable to a full range of sites and climates.

The Endless House is called the ‘endless’ because all ends

meet, and meet continuously... It is endless like human body..

Theory of Raumplan – Continuous flow

of spaces and spatial structure of plan

Perhaps the best precedent for the unfolding of curved space is evident in the concept of

Frederick Keisler’s "endlessness" along with Adolf Loos’s concept of the "raumplan"

Reference from philosophy and Biology:

Henry Bergson:

This relationship between a force and the object which stores that force in its

form is reminiscent of the insight made by Henri Bergson in his book, Matter and Memory,

in which he argues for a nondialectical understanding of the relationship between

substance and energy.

Bergson argued that;

Matter could not be separated from the historical process of its

becoming

Lynne Margulis:

Margulis formulated the evolutionary hypothesis that micro-organisms evolve their

complexity by incorporating simpler organisms into larger multiplicities that

become capable of reproduction as a singularity.

Sand Patterns (left) Sound Frequencies (right) after Hans Jenny

Work of Hans jenny: in the 1950s and 1960s is undoubtably the best example of the study of how

oscillating, fluctuating, gradient fields of forces can produce not only patterns but forms.

Jenny argues that in the case of

"the vibrational field it can be shown that every part is, in the true sense, implicated in

the whole.“

He gave these structures the name "cymatics" meaning the "characteristic phenomenology of vibrational

effects and wave phenomenon with typical structural patterns and dynamics."

Video – Hans Jenny

‘The creative manipulation of a flow of parameters in time’- Lynn

Concept of ‘abstract machine’ and ‘concrete assemblages’

"A diagram is a map, or rather several superimposed maps." (Gilles Deleuze, Foucault, p.44)

‘The abstract machine is like the cause of the concrete assemblages that

execute its relations; and these relations take place 'not above' but within the

very tissue of the assemblages they produce.’ (Gilles Deleuze, Foucault, p. 37)

Etienne-Louis Boullee’s Cenotaph to Newton, is both an abstract model and a sign.

it represents the movements and organization of a centered and harmonically regulated

universe, is a concrete assemblage.

it is a diagram for centralized harmonic regulation, like a compass, it is an abstract

machine.

The effects of abstract machines trigger the formation of

concrete assemblages when their virtual diagrammatic

relationships are actualized as a technical possibility…

In order to bring these technologies into a discipline that is

defined as the site of translation from the virtual into the

concrete, it is necessary that we first interrogate their abstract

structure. Without a detailed understanding of their performance

as diagrams and organizational techniques it is impossible to

begin a discussion of their translation into architectural form.

Lynn, Greg. “Animate form”. Animate form. New York: Princeton

Architectural Press: 1999. 40-41

Greg Lynn Projects

Greg Lynn, Kleiburg housing project, Bijlmermeer, the

Netherlands, 2006

For the existing 500-unit social housing block, built in the

early 1970s on the outskirts of Amsterdam, Lynn’s design

proposes a diversity in both social and architectural

arrangement through the reduction of public space, the

division of the block into manageable neighbourhoods of

10 units, and the design of unit neighbourhoods with

distinct identities. A series of more than 150 parametrically

designed, uniquely shaped vertical steel trusses organises

the building through a semitransparent stainless-steel

fabric cladding.

Greg Lynn, Slavin House, Venice, California, due for completion 2007

The Slavin House has been developed using MicroStation software. The house folds inside and outside rooms into a

singular porous environment that occupies the entire triangular site. A single-storey occupiable structural truss defines the

mass of the house, composed of only two continuous extruded and radially bent steel tubes, braided and looped through

one another, which function simultaneously as horizontal and vertical members: beams and piloti. Each element of the

house does more than one thing at a time: material and surface continuities make volumes both voids and solids, inside

and outside, continuous fillets and radial tangents enable the curvilinear basket structure to both support and create hollow

courts. This flowing continuity of upper and lower levels, of roof and ground, and of voided hollow structural baskets and

mass, engenders a new kind of porous domestic space that folds together indoor and outdoor spaces, structural frame,

void lightwells, solid figures, a translucent bounding envelope and an undulating ground plane into a suspended mixture.