Western Gateway Design Project-EOI Progress Journal

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ContentsPart I. Expression of Interest

I.1. Case for InnovationI.1.1. Architecture as a DiscourseI.1.2. Computing in ArchitectureI.1.3. Parametric ModellingI.1.4. Case for Innovation Conclusion:

I.2. Research ProjectI.2.1. Scope of PossibilitiesI.2.1.1. Input/Association/Output MatrixI.2.1.2. Reverse-Engineered Case-StudyI.2.1.3. Material EffectsI.2.1.4. Assembly MethodsI.2.2. Research Project Conclusion

I.3. Expression of Interest Conclusion: Competitive Advantage

I.4. Learning Objectives and Outcomes: Interim

Part II. Project Proposal

II.1. Project InterpretationII.2. Project DeliveryII.3. Project PresentationII.4. Project Proposal Conclusion

Part III. Learning Objectives and Outcomes: Final

III.1. Personal Background and Learning ObjectivesIII.2. Learning ProgressIII.3. Learning OutcomesIII.4. Future Work

We want to create a new, exciting and welcoming representation of the City of Wyndham and Melbourne through unorthodox use of orthodox elements.

We believe this design concept is relevant in providing identification to the City of Wyndham as being something more than just another suburb filled with houses.

We explored the idea of representation through a digital parametric design tool called Grasshopper. Grasshopper enables us to generate many differ-ent forms and patterns that are unorthodox and exciting using certain design drivers.

Week 1 – EOI: Case for Innovation:Architecture as a Discourse

Every Beating SecondDesigner: Janet Echelman Year: 2011Location: Terminal 2, San Francisco International Airport

The unorthodox use of an orthodox material.The use of nets to create installations that inspire.CONTRIBUTION TO ARCHITECTURAL DISCOURSEinnovation in materiality (engineering)use of coloured fiber to create interesting form (highly engineered and contextualised)virtual form finding using computer with gravity and wind simulations

CONNECTION WITH GATEWAY PROJECTinspiring, enriching form at a welcome point (airport gateway) exciting, eye catchingmultivalent in meaning, entry statement and arrival experiencee.g. evoke cloud, silhoutte of the Bay Area, Golden Gate Bridgereflect the local culture, backwards and forwards“drawing its color from the heyday of psychedelic music, the Summer of Love, and San Francisco’s promi-nence in the beat poetry movement”; “the contemporary Bay Area as a hub of innovation and interconnectiv-ity for the world of technology.”compare static past of Wyndham and wanting to move forward municipality celebrate multiculturalismalthough not viewed from motorway (fast), but has idea of dynamism: wind choreography“Computer-programmed mechanized air-flow animates the fluidly-moving sculpture at different intervals throughout the day, as if the wind could magically flow through solid walls.”the idea of floating, airiness, wind movement >> studio theme

IMPORTANCE OF CONTRIBUTING TO A DISCOURSEfrom Schumacher reading p.4 completed works have a double communicative role: they speak to commu-nications outside architecture and continue circulate within architecture. Important because the gateway would generate new discussion about Wyndham and Melbourne, the power of public art in representing the context. meanwhile continue to advance architecture discourse in innovative methods because innovation is key in the design (say maybe use of digital computation and new materials)

Week 2 – EOI: Case for Innovation:Computation in Architecture

AEGIS HYPOSURFACELocation: Birmingham, UK Year: 1999-2001Designer: dECOi Architects

The unorthodox use of an orthodox architectural element.The idea of a wall that moves according to stimuli.UNIQUE INNOVATION“autoplastic (determinate) to alloplastic (interactive, indeterminate) space, a new species of reciprocal archi-tecture” - able to transfer virtual architecture such as animation into a temporal physical formCRITICAL ANALYSIS: useful because an able to recognise and respond much faster than conventional static architecture, furthering the discourse of architecture needing to respond to the environment well.

CONTEMPORARY DIGITAL DESIGN TECHNIQUE“experimental speculation, embracing curiosity rather than determinate ideas, working ‘blindly’ with the computer, allowing its algorithmic, animating dynamic to create unpredictable sequences and material excesses.” (Milbourne 2002)use of trauma instead of shock, trauma disorientating by having excessive information (eye can’t capture so many movements of the pistonsCRITICAL ANALYSIS: while the use of computers can help generate complex patterns, i believe it need not disorientate and just being experimental. it should move on to generate dynamic and pleasing complex forms. excessive information can be more unified to reduce disorientation.RELATION TO GATEWAY PROJECT: this satisfies by creating a new and BRAVE idea.

SIMILAR INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO THE GATEWAY PROJECT BRIEFBy using a responsive mechanism and innovative material systems, a subtle (not traumatising, don’t want to cause accidents) response generated from the gateway can create curiosity. maybe something like how the sun always seem to be following the car window.

Week 3 – EOI: Case for Innovation: Parametric Design

MCCORMICK TRIBUNE CAMPUS CENTERLocation: Chicago, US Year: 2003Designer: OMA Architects

The unorthodox use of an orthodox signage.The generation of an image using smaller images.CONTEMPORARY SCRIPTING CULTUREBurry: p.25scripting experimentation to search for an “answer’designer wanted to cover the glass with a pattern.script experiments with various patterns, but obviously with an answer wanted to be found, e.g. how to represent a face image using patterns.scripting for productivity, lower cost

DESIGN PHILOSOPHYuse of patterns as ornamentationcitation?

CRITICAL STATEMENT OF THE DESIGN PHILOSOPHYpatterns are interesting, but possibly not too literal? like a human face straight on? more abstract patterns?

WHY TO BE CHOSEN FOR GATEWAY PROJECTfrom case 1: innovative materials and techniques can very well generate a new discourse about Wyndham and Melbourne and architecture.from case 2: innovative digital computation techniques can achieve new interesting outcomesfrom case 3: parametric design can help generate more complex patterns which are more easily manipu-lable. parametric design allows greater exploration than conventional plan and paper.

Case StudyMCCORMICK TRIBUNE CAMPUS CENTERT h e R e v e r s e E n g i n e e rStep by step process

In this mini task, I’ve gained the knowledge to reproduce an image where the defining resolution is determined through orientating different types of shapes/forms in association with an image sampler. In short, 3 different types of smiley emoticons were used to gen-erate the pattern on the surface.

In the next phase, I added an “Image Sampler” component into the canvas - in which I used Le Corbusier’s potrait as the image - to map the image on the base plane and reparameterized the Surface component in order to fit the size of the surface to 0 by 1. I then multiplied the math-ematical functions by adding a “multiplication” component.

An “integer component” was added to determine the list of data structures. The output of the integer component is connected to a “Create Set” component which creates a valid set from a list of items.

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In the following step, I created 3 different sets of emoticons in illustrator and imported them into rhino. I then referenced the emoticons into grasshopper using three different “Curve” components and grouped the sets of objects accordingly. In order to display the emoticons in proportion with the surface, I shifted their coordinates in rhino where the X and Y values equals 0. To extract the data paths of the group objects, a “List Item” compo-nent was used.

The Data Component displays the list of generic data of output by a number of sources, in this case three sources. The output of the data is then connected into the Base List of the “List Item” component.

The “Orient” component was added to orientate the list of emoticons creat-ed onto the surface plane. The final plane would be the rows and columns that were created on the surface which is the “Surface Frames” component and the “List item” is connected into the base geometry input.

Right clicking the Orient component and selecting preview would then dis-play the resulting image of the pattern. I experimented with the sliders to achieve varying outputs. I then proceeded to bake the geometry into rhino when a satisfied outcome was achieved.

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MatrixDesign idea:Common Element - Sticks can represent blades of grass or tall buildingsInnovative Use - Changing patterns responding to stimulus

Horizontal Pattern - pattern from the sky, not directly vis-ible, but embeddedchosen outcome wyndham logoVertical Pattern - pattern viewed by freeway userschosen outcome the cityscape

Detail look

Overall look from top

it can look like grass, while looking also like buildingsWhy transparent material?transparency as a new way of looking at the intensive relationship between natural environments and human settlement

Detail look

The Skyline Idea

Time Lapse Photography showing motion of the sticks

Overall look from top

Reflection

we had an interesting argument which is unorthodox use of orthodox elements . the outcome were how-ever disconnected from the argument . using the honking frequency to generate the pattern inorder to interact with the drivers is however not significant enough and also due to some restriction . the design was caried in 3 parts where each of the group mem-ber were assigned to focus on each which we felt stong at. This however also contributed to the reason why the connection between out outcome and argu-ment was disconnected. Our group therefore have to come up with a better outcome that could relate bet-ter with our argument.

despite the error we made , i do however think each of our members had contributed and came out with a good argument , matrix and an model with unex-pected outcome. we did had difficulties dealing with the model during the process and struggled with the material that could produce the result we wanted , also arranging the perspex slides in accordance was an big issue . this was hoever overcome . the next issue thats going to arise was that we are going to have problem producing a smaller scale model and work on the detail is going to be crucial .