ARCHITECTUREDESIGN STUDIO : AIR

CHEN WEI 531966

ABPL 30048 SEMESTER 1 2013

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CONTENTS

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CASE FOR INNOVATION 1.1 INTRODUCTION....................................................................... 5

1.2 ARCHITECTURE AS A DISCOURSE........................................ 7

1.3 PRECEDENTS.......................................................................... 10

2.1 COMPUTATION IN ARCHITECTURE....................................... 14

2.2 PRECEDENTS...........................................................................15

3.1 PARAMETRIC MODELLING......................................................19

4.1 CONCLUSION

DESIGN APPROACH2.1

2.2

2.3

C3

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Hello everyone.

My name is Chen Wei, born in the south east part of China. This is my third year of university for architecture learning. This is not my first time to build model with Rhino however Grasshopper is still a fangle for me to use. The first year of university we have learned about the panelling tool of rhino in the subject called Virtual Environments and used to build a lantern model which was really interesting and full of freshness. The night we represented our lan-tern was unforgettable. We turned all the lights off, so the lights of our lanterns were sprinkled in the dark which was like the boundless galaxies in the Milky Way. For me, it was one of the most interesting thing that I have done during my university life.

And this semester, I am also looking forward the study about using Grasshop-per to build some interesting models and maybe “architectures”.

A.1.1 INTRODUCTION

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My idea about architecture as a discourse starts from Franck Floyd Wright's organic architecture :

…architecture is life; or at least it is life itself taking form and therefore it is the truest record of life as it was live in the world yesterday, as it is lived today or ever will be lived.

- Franck Lloyd Wright

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A.1.2 ARCHITECTURE AS A DISCOURSE

I always believed architecture in the future is more about the relationship be-tween human and nature. Organic architecture, a word that describe an archi-tecture philosophy which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world through design approaches so architecture is not only about the building itself, but also surroundings, the environment and atmosphere it creates.

The works of Franck Lloyd Wright synthesize an emerging modern world with the natural world through the principles of organic architecture, such as his famous “Fallingwater”, and even the Guggenheim Museum. All his works are not limited by any architecture forms, they are very different in forms depends on different site surroundings. He’s not just “building the architecture”, but building the environment.

Organic architecture not only addresses environmental concerns but also ex-presses individuality. As each building is related to the variables like man, site & time so every resulting structure is unique & unrepeatable.

Kaufmann Residence designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

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“Architecture is not about form.”

- Peter Zumthor

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“Architecture is not about form, it is about many other things……The light and the use, and the structure, and the shadow, the smell and so on. I think form is the easiest to control, it can be done at the end.”

Based on the idea of organic architecture from Franck Lloyd Wright and also opinions from Peter Zumthor, to my way of thinking, architecture is not just a piece of artwork, it is not an independent existing thing but a comprehensive existence. It is important to see architectures that suit to the particular site that it stands as no one site is ever the same, so each piece of architecture would be unique and unrepeatable.

Architecture is not only about build the building, the material structure, but also build the environment, the atmosphere and a kind of experience that people can go through.

In my opinion, architecture should not be a single. It relates to time, place and people. A building relates to time so that the building will belong to the era when it was created. It can reflect the life-styles, social patterns and condi-tions at a particular time from the materials it used and technological methods that involved. A building related to place means it creates a harmony between itself and the natural environment surrounded. And particular proportions, ma-terials, design and technology will be used in order to suit to its site. And the reflection of humanity and different cultures is also important to a building.

A.1.2 ARCHITECTURE AS A DISCOURSE

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A.1.3 PRECEDENTS

Sydney Opera Househttp://www.wallpapers-place.com/nature/sydney-opera-house-2-hd-wallpaper/

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The Sydney Opera House is always one of my favorite architectures which is designed by Jorn Utzon. In the Sydney Opera House, Utzon realized the great synthesis of earth and sky, land-scape and the city, vista and intimacy, thought and the feeling.

It was designed and built in terms of unity of technology and organic form. So I would like to say it is also a gorgeous architecture that built with appropriate time, place and people. On one hand, it applies modern technology to achieve its structure, form and function. On the other hand, this building also echoes with the nature. The Sydney Opera House is so tied to its site that it takes upon itself the role of a symbol for the city and it also brings people special feeling and experience.

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PRECEDENTS

The Blue Planet Copenhagen

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The Blue Planet – Denmark’s new aquarium is one of my favorite architecture designs recently. It is designed by the architects of 3XN and it is located at Kastrup Yacht Harbour, Copenhagen. This new aquarium is still under con-struction and it is planned to complete in 2013.

The most anticipated part for me is that the new aquarium is surrounded by water on all sides as the architects want to give visitors an experience of em-barking on an underwater journey and this is also the reason that they use the shape of a giant swirl as an inspiration for this building. This design gives a feeling that it will suck visitors into it depths. It shows a strong connection with the water, the sea.

In this case, as the Danish have a special relationship with wind and water, when overlooking the Baltic Sea, “The Blue Planet” unites land, air and the sea in one massive, magnificent, metal-clad homage. In my opinion, it is a design that appropriate to time: modern technology is used to support so that it can build surrounded by water and complicated from and structure can also be done; It is also appropriate to place: the shape, the material, creates a combination and harmony with the sea, the wind, the land, which makes it “belonging” to this particular site; And also appropriate to people: it creates an opportunity that people can have further connection with the sea so that people can explore the greatest mystery of nature.

The Blue Planet Copenhagenhttp://www.e-architect.co.uk/architecture_news.

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A.2.1 COMPUTATIONAL ARCHITECTURE

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Digital technologies are changing architectural practices in ways that few were able to anticipate just a decade ago. In the conceptual realm, computational, digital architectures of topological, non-Euclidean geometric space, kinetic and dynamic systems, and genetic algorithms, are supplanting technological architectures.（Branko Kolarevic, p3）

For the past 10 years, computational tools and techniques are having a strong impact on architecture design however since the technology changed so fast, computational tools are not only treated as a tool or helper for designers, but also become a method for design process which can explore new possibili-ties and challenges occurring. They can be used to explore spatial, structural and geometrical conditions, leading to the emergence of abstract prototypes. Then such abstract prototypes can be further developed, which can be used to generate architectural solutions. Based on that, structural systems, typol-ogy, form, organization of program or detail solutions can be figured out as well. And Branko Kolarevic also mentioned in his paper that the use of digital modeling (three-dimensional) and animation (four-dimensional) software has opened new territories of formal exploration in architecture.

Technology is a symbol of the times and it helps us to achieve generate com-plex forms in design and solve some intractable design problems. Many of ar-chitecture designs nowadays are beneficial from the technology development. “…the processes of describing and constructing a design can be extracted, exchanged, and utilized with far greater facility and speed.” As digital data can be passed directly from designers to the implementer such as engineers, the design and construction processes become more efficient. And in Branko Ko-larevic’s paper, he used Gehry’s office as an example to show the “paperless” process of digital production.

And nowadays, digital programs are widely used in architecture design. Bene-fits of using digital technology in design area are easily to find however issues are also coexist with the development of technology. Two precedents I chose are both regarded as computational architectures and further discussion also will be made.

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Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi HotelASYMPTOTE

ABU DHABI, UAE

The 500-room, 85,000m² Yas Hotel is cen-terpiece, along with the new Formula 1 race circuit. This architectural landmark embod-ied key influences and inspirations, ranging from the aesthetics and form associated with speed, movement and spectacle to the art-istry and geometries that form the basis of the ancient craft traditions of Islam. The focal point of this design is the 218m expanse of sweeping, curvilinear froms, constructed of steel and pivoting diamond-shaped glass panel. And it is mentioned that when managing large model assemblies such as the Yas hotel in this case, high component counts are conve-niently maintained by using wire frame data

which is a Low level of Detail representation of a physical entity, these representations are not sufficient for investigating “assimilability” issues and misfits. A new model had to be built over the wireframe model, with a level of detail equivalent to the physical mock-up for conducting clash-detection, reachability, and swept volume analysis. In the case of Yas Hotel, the decision making engine was made possible by a high performance searching strategy, allowing fast lookups of data within the massive dataset controlling the nodes, beams and panels. By using computational, such a complex architecture can be easily control and edited and then finally making a gorgeous design.

Modelling strategy for digital mock-up

Yas Island Digital Mock-up, Highlighting panel clashes in red

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A.3.1 PARAMETRIC MODELLING

Parametric modeling represents change. It is an old idea, indeed one of the very first ideas in computer-aided design. Unlike most project management tools which focus on automating features or workflow, parametric, predictive modeling tools help organizations model and optimize project feasibility and ensure that projects meet established delivery guidelines. Parametric models are built from a set of mathematical equations. Designers are used to work-ing in this mode; add marks and take them away, with conventions for relat-ing marks together. Parametric modeling (also known as constraint modeling) introduces a fundamental change: “marks” , that is, parts of a design, relate and change together in a coordinated way. Parametric modeling (also known as constraint modeling) introduces a fundamental change: “marks” , that is, parts o f a design, relate and change together in a coordinated way. No longer must designers simply add and erase. They now add, erase, relate and repair. The act of relating requires explicit thinking about the kind of relation: is this point on the line, or near to it? Repairing occurs after an erasure, when the parts that depend on an erased part are related again to the parts that remain. Relating and repairing impose fundamental changes on systems and the work that is done with them.

Of all types of parametric modeling, propagation has the relative advantages of reliability, speed and clarity. It is used in spreadsheets, dataflow program-ming and computer-aided design due to the efficiency of its algorithms and simplicity of the decision-making required of the user. We can realize our pur-pose to control, draw or build some particular structures. It is an efficient way which is more easy to control. However, the disadvantage is that designers should learn about the program themselves and use special word to control their design. They need to be able to programmed the system as they like,not be programmed by the system. Unfortunately some of the system are hard and complex to learn so that it will take much time.

At present, parametric modeling is more and more popular in the world and more fantastic functions and approaches are added into. It is efficient and controllable although some hard skills are required. Almost all the modern architectures are based on this system. In terms of gateway project, the Brit-ish Museum Great Court and the Qatar Education Centre are two examples.

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British Museum Great CourtFoster + PartnersLondon, UK

The British Museum is located in London and the design for the glazed roof and circular Reading Room has proved to be highly influential.

“The geometrical definition of the Great Court roof was con-sisted of two parts, the shape of the surface and the pattern of steel members upon the surface.” Writes by Chris Williams demonstrated the roof’s surface geometry. In this case, the technique of NURB surfaces was used.

“Once a suitable surface is found, different options for apply-ing a structural grid can be explored. While software tools for draping grids over the subdivision limit-surface, or for itera-tively optimizing a grid for structure performance via dynamic relaxation or simulated annealing, are being developed, the most obvious choice is to use the subdivision mesh itself, which – as can be seen in these renders of the Great Court roof using subdivision grids – naturally leads to a smooth mesh with significant repetition of member lengths. Grids of various densities ca instantly be generated, corresponding to various level of subdivision from the initial mesh”

From the design process stated above, it is found that by adopting a subdivision surface modeling approach for the roof, many different options could be quickly generated and tested against many different criteria, such as structural efficiency.

However the design process overall that we went through, it is shown that knowing and controlling the program is impor-tant for achieving ideal shape of roof. Though it is convenient to use by these designer, it may be really difficult to use this technology in various areas.

LOUVRE ABU DHABIAteliers Jean Nouvel

Abu Dhabi, UAE

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The Louvre Abu Dhabi is a planned museum, to be located in Abu Dhabi, UAE. A large , shallow dome, floats above the collection of buildings, which only four support points around it perimeter truss. The design of the dome takes up the Islamic tradition of the perforated screen and the use of self-similarity and fractal organization of pattering to create a special micro-climate below.

The exploration an design development of the dome’s patterning and relationship to the environment it creates, as well as the light-ing levels, shading ,structural performance and variation of den-sity across the surface, is an interesting tale of integrated model-ing , analysis and optimization. As I mentioned before, said by Peter Zumthor, “Architecture is not about form, it is about many other things……The light and the use, and the structure, and the shadow, the smell and so on.” And this design is a nice approach to a perfect combination of those elements and architecture.

Within the parametric design model developed by SMART group, it is possible to play with the relative scale and rotation of each pattern overlay to vary the overall outcome. Based on a recti-linear grid across the dome surface, each layer (the structural space frame and the four layers of cladding) have a basic pattern schema. In each case, the orientation and scale can be varied.

The complex perforated dome is achieved, and it also emerges with nature. “This complex aesthetic is and expression of tis per-formance in occluding light and economy of support”, and it is designed to work in tandem with the natural environment.

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