ADS 3: AIRJournal

Madeleine Hodge

‘Growth & Movement ’

ARCHITECTURAL DISCOURSE

Blur BuildingDiller & ScofidioSwitzerland, 2002

The Blur Building in Switzerland expands architectural discourse as it is known through several ground-breaking techniques.

It has a steel support structure but is clad in high-pressure water creating a cloud or mist around the structure.This new form of building is experiential and changeable beyond what has been done before.

“Entering the Blur Pavilion is akin to stepping into a habitable medium; one that is formless, featureless, surfaceless and dimensionless” - Lakshmi Sandhana, journalist.

The building is does not conform to traditional building methods which is what makes it some remarkable. As Usan Haque remarked, it really questions the very nature of what architecture is and how it could evolve in the future.

“[The Blur Building] proposes new ways of thinking about architecture, opening up our minds to what architecture can be...” - Usam Haque of Pletts Haque.

Guangzhou Opera HouseZaha HadidGuangzhou, China 2010

As mentioned in Richard Williams’ article ‘Architecture and Visual Culture’ architecture can act as a symbol, being an icon of a particular city or area.

Guangzhou Opera House, has helped to establish the city of Guangzhou as a city of art and culture. Predominantly an industrial and trade city to present, the aim of the project is to create something to represent the change within Guangzhou. This identity change was possible because of its beauty, grand scale and poise - something very unique to this area.

This building extends the architectural discourse as it uses forward-thinking techniques that have not been used in China before. This has led to some problems with the construction of the building (mainly to do with unskilled labour).

“A lasting monument to the New Millennium” - Zaha Hadid.

“It is a magnificent example of how a single building can redeem a moribund urban environment.”- Nicolai Ouroussoff, journalist for the New York Times.

ARCHITECTURAL DISCOURSE

Wyndham Proposal:After studying the Western Gateway Design Project Brief, several key points have been noted.

1. The gateway needs to symbolise the growth and increasing art/ culture of the district.2. The design needs to be iconic and easily linked to the area.3. Several readings of the gateway to be preferred - so there is something for everyone.4. The gateway will be viewed at high speeds (up to 100km/ hour. This means that the gateway needs to be high impact and easily read.5. The design will need to cater for several different times of day (ie. day and night).6. The gateway needs to appear dynamic without moving parts.

Precendents:Precedents as mentioned before could be used for this project for several reasons, these ideas will be further explored.

The Blur Building is a unuique building, using new technology to create a new type of building. The Wyndham proposal is the perfect setting to explore new techniques and ideas, because the gateway needs to be forward-thinking and dynamic to show the increase in culture and technology to the area.

Guangzhou Opera House is also an important example as it shows what an icon can do to increase the cultural identity of an area. This is exactly what what Wyndham is seeking to do. Because of this, similar ideas can be used, such as parametric design, use of new materierls or materials in new ways.

The Virtual Environments Project by Madeleine Hodge shows that by removing performance functions such as weatherproofing that form can be explored more explicitly allowing for more fluid and dynamic designs.

COMPUTATION DESIGN TECHNIQUES

“[The] computer is only a tool, not a partner - an instrument for catching the curve, not inventing it.”

- Frank Gehry

Experience Music ProjectFrank GehrySeattle, USA 1997

Experience Music ProjectFrank Gehry Seattle, 1997

This project by Frank Gehry uses CATIA software that is often used for designing aeroplanes and cars. It allowed for Gehry’s analog designs to be enhanced digitally. Gehry designed the building by hand before entering it into the program and manipulating it. This manipulation allowed for mechanical and electrical systems to be tailored to the form.

It also allowed for increased organisation which is particularly important due to the nature of the build (21,000 shingles over 3,000 panels) - all differing from one another. GPS technology was used to verify the location of the panels on site, allowing for construction to work soundly.

This design would not have been possible without computation. It is also clear that digitising Gehry’s model did not limit the design and form. Most importantly, it allowed for fabrication to be precise and be executed well.

COMPUTATION DESIGN TECHNIQUES

COMPUTATION DESIGN TECHNIQUES

Kunsthaus GrazPeter Cook + Colin FournierGraz, Austria 2003BIX media facade: realities: united.

“Kunsthaus Graz moves beyond other contemporary examples of ‘biomorphic’ architecture... by exploring the organic surface not only as iconic form but as a new type of ‘intelligent’ skin capable of displaying information and relating interactively with users.” - Colin Fournier

The Kunsthaus Graz is a physical representation of Ron Herron’s vision of the Walking City (1964). The design is considered biomorphus, affectionately known as “The Friendly Alien”1. Like Herron’s for-ward thinking design, this building uses many new technological systems such as the BIX media facade by Berlin Architects, realities:united.

The form was created by hand before being entered into Rhinoceros. It was then altered in Microstation, so that all the design elements could be put togeth-er2. These programs were vital for the creation and fabrication of this building as they helped to grasp the complex geometry of the building as well opti-mizing the design to create the most efficient form possible3. Once again, this is an example of computa-tion, only there was arguably more computer in-volvement in this project than Gehry’s EMP.

Relating Computation to the EOI: Computation should be used for the Gateway pro-posal as it allows for better structural performance, easier fabrication, efficiency and organisation making the construction and design process easier and in turn more successful and creative.

1 “Kunsthaus Graz” Museum Joanneum, last updated 2012, http://www.museum-joanneum.at/en/kunsthaus2 Colin Fournier & Peter Cook, Reseach Outputs 1 & 2: Kunsthaus Graz (UCL: London 2003) 32.3 Ibid 32

COMPUTATION DESIGN TECHNIQUES

CONTEMPORARY SCRIPTING CULTURES

Seroussi Pavillion Alisa AndrasekExhibited in Paris, 2007

This unique project by Andrasek uses computer software to create biologically influenced forms. Below, is the technical explanation of how the form was created.

“Seroussi Pavilion was “grown” out of self-modifying patterns of vectors based on electro-magnetic fields (EMF). Through logics of attraction/repulsion trajectories were computed in plan and than lifted via series of structural microarching sections through different frequencies of sine function.” - “Seroussi Pavillion / Paris / 2007” Biothing; Repository of Computational Design, last updated March 24 2010, http://www.biothing.org/?cat=5

To put this is layman terms, maths functions and scientific information was inputted into computer software to create a form based on biologi-cal structures. In this case, “design is understood as genetic inscription”1.This is particularly interesting as it is a very different process to tradition design approaches.

1 Mark Fornes “Biothing” Scripted By Purpose, last modified April 12 2012 http://scriptedbypurpose.wordpress.com/participants/biothing/

Critique & Justification of Scripting CultureThe design appears to grow out of the script - forming and morphing in a limited fashion. This style of design could be considered to be computerisation, with no real design input due to all the equations and functions. People often view scripting as limiting the creative process by limiting the designer to follow particular techniques.

This critique of this scripting culture is a shallow one. If one looks deeper into this culture, they will understand the role of the scripter is vital for a wholesome and creative result. The scripter has alot of control over the design outcome, as they write and adapt them according to their interest and intended result. Robert Aish explains that scripting requires control and therefore is as fruitful as other forms of design.

“The designer who wants to be completely in control of the results must be in control of the process. To be in control of the process, the designer must be in control of the tools. The tools are computation, therefore the a designer who wants to be in control must also be a scripter.” - Robert Aish, cited in Burry, Mark (2011). Scripting Cultures: Architectural Design and Programming (Chichester: Wiley), pp. 67 - 69

Scripting makes it possible to create complex, efficient forms that could not be imagined without it. If one has control of the tools, scripting is an effective design technique.

CONTEMPORARY SCRIPTING CULTURES

BOOLEANPATTERNING

ATTRACTOR POINT

OVERLAPPINGPATTERNS

CURVEATTRACTOR

WEEK 4 - MATRIX

STANDARD OUTPUT

STANDARD OUTPUT

STANDARD OUTPUT

STANDARD OUTPUT

INCREASE DENSITY

INCREASE DENSITY

INCREASE DENSITY

INCREASE DENSITY

INCREASE SIZE

INCREASE SIZE

INCREASE SIZE

INCREASE SIZE

TURN ON ALL BOOLEANS

TURN ON ALL BOOLEANS

CHANGE ATTRACTOR POINT

INVERSE MIN & MAX VALUES

TURN ON ALL BOOLEANS

TURN ON ALL BOOLEANS

CHANGE ATTRACTOR POINT

INVERSE MIN & MAX VALUES

ADD TO CURVED SURFACE

ADD TO CURVED SURFACE

ADD TO CURVED SURFACE

ADD TO CURVED SURFACECHANGE CURVE FORM

CHANGE IMAGE SAMPLER

CHANGE TO RED INPUTS(IN IMAGE SAMPLER)

Components and Maths function

Components and Multiple Maths Function

Components and Sets

Rotation with Polygons

Shape and Curve Attractor

Surface Normals & Remapping Attractor Points`

ADDITIONAL EXPLORATIONS

Shape and Curve Attractor

Surface Normals & Remapping Attractor Points`

Using Grasshopper, various different results were achieved using a variety of provided definitions. The Matrix (on the page before) was an initial exploration of what the various definitions could do.After this, the inputs, outputs and associative techniques were used to create new equations resulting in some unique surfaces and patterns.Currently interested in using attractor points or curve attractors in the EOI proposal. Some of these patterns are beautiful but would be hard to cut through a surface.

A selection of other interesting results

INFLUENCES ON THE DESIGN

growth

arts

population

in the-

&The Wyndham City Gateway Project focuses heavily on the growth of the population and growth of interest in the arts. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that for the 2010/ 2011 period of study, Wyndham City experienced the largest increase in residents, increasing by 12,200 period (7.8% growth). For these reasons, growth is one of the major influences of the design’s form and perforations.

Interest in the arts within Wyndham is also growing, as outlined in the Wyndham City Gateway Project Document with many sculptures being added around the area.

RESULTING PATTERN

EXPLORATIONS OF GROWTH IN GRASS HOPPER

- Image sampler density map of Melbourne- Exploration of anamorphic forms- Direction of triangles explored, the rotation of triangles according to their proximity to Wyndham was explored but was not successful because their shape did not fully show the rate of rotation.

This was the fi rst attempt to recreate the Spanish Pavilion. To create the irregular shapes, a graph mapper was used with a Bezier curve. This did not suceed because the hexagons only changed according to the curve, meaning the ones near the line shrank whilst the others did not.

METHOD ONE - UNSUCCESSFUL

REVERSE ENGINEERING

Spanish Pavilion, Expo 2005 [ Foreign Offi ce Architects]

REVERSE-ENGINEERING TASK:Rather than exploring the ideas of selective perforations or image mapping, during this exercise the idea of creating the irregular hexagonal shapes was explored. Various different techniques were used for fi nally discovering how to change this shape.

METHOD TWO - SUCCESSFUL

After the fi rst method did not work, the building was examined further so as to pertain how the hexagons morph. It was quickly realised that the so called ‘irregular’ hexagons followed a particular pattern (as shown in the image on far left).To achieve this, the grid was changed by morphing where the three vertices meet. This creates the desired distortion. The other image of the left shows the replicated design using method two.A Small Section of the Design

Patterning achieved with Method

Pattern with colour added

ANAMORPHIC EXPLORATION

PATTERN & SHADOW EXPLORATION

PATTERN AND PENETRATION EXPLORATION

FABRICATION MODEL MATRIX

INITIAL EXPERIMENTATION

After the initial brainstorm and form finding, physical models were made so as cuts and forms that were successful/ failures could be quickly identified, before being explored further in Grasshopper. Ideas such as anamorphism and dynamism were explored in term of form as well as overlapping patterns - to investigate ideas of penetration and visibility.

Major issues to arise include: loss of structural stability with increasing size and number of penetrations (resolved by increasing thickness of material) and

GRASSHOPPER EXPLORATIONS

After creating some physical models, grasshopper was used to create parametric cuts upon a surface. The density map of Wyndham and the greater Melbourne area were imputted in the Image Sampler to create cuts that are relative to the area.A variety of shapes, such as hexagons, circule and triangles were all explored. Triangles were chosen as they appear as arrows. The direction of these arrows was explored, as it was attempted to make these arrows point to Wyndham city.The final cut design was added to the form and then unfolded in Rhino to create a 2D shape (left) which then could be fabricated.

NUIT BLANCHE LIGHT INSTALLATION

By Robert StadlerThis installation is a successful example of anamorphic design. Anamorphic art, is a plan on the idea of space. From one angle the art may appear as one thing, while from another, it appears to be completely different.Robert Stadler, plays with this idea well. Whilst coming down the aisle, the bride or visitor to the church see the lights form a giant question mark - which is quite poetic despite its controversial na-ture. From any other angle, this question mark is not visible - instead appearing to be a random selection of points.This serves as inspiration for the Wynd-ham Gateway, the idea of things appearing different as one moves past it would cre-ate interest and would be a good way of portraying a series of ideas.

PRECEDENTS - Anamorphism

PRECEDENTS - Dynamism

Nigel Peck Centre for Learning and LeadershipJohn Wardle Architects

The sign in front of the building was the element of this building that is most relevant to the gateway design. The sign is an abstracted unfolding world sphere. The form of this is particularly interesting as it appears to change as one walks past it.

Like this sign, the gateway is aimed at symbolizing Wyndham and signify entering/ exiting Wyndham.

FINAL MODEL

If chosen to continue this project, these ideas of dynamism, anamorphism and icon will be further explored. Adding a thickness to the planes so create affects as seen as Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp du Haut will create more interesting cuts. The form would also be explored further, taking more reference from natural growing systems like cells and tree roots.

POSSIBLE LOGOS FOR WYNDHAM

MODEL IN CONTEXT

The final design builds on the ideas of anamorphism, dynamism and change that were explored throughout the EOI.From the approach, the gateway will appear as a crown, a literal interpretation of entering the city of Wyndham. This view responds to the brief, in the sense that it is monumental and could be the symbol for Wyndham. Below are some possible letterheads/ logs that Wyndham could use with the gateway as the new symbol for Wyndham. As the viewer drives past this gateway they will reach a point where the point of the crowns become a 2D plane which appears to rise. This is symbolic of the growth of the population of Wyndham but also the increasing interest in the arts of this area also. The cuts on this plane, work like the anamorphic precedents as from this spot, one can see all the way through the planes as the cuts are projected onto each plane so that they match up. As the driver continues to drive past the gateway, the cuts will appear random and will not line up (such as Robert Stadler’s light installation). The interest at this point will be the dynamism of the form, as it appears to change shape as one moves past it.