STUDIO

[A]I R

ExprEssion of intErEst

personal project

new czech national library

haesley nine bridges golf club

CAsE for innoVAtion

pErsonAL proJECt

Last semester’s architecture design studio water required us to place ourselves in the shoes of another architect’s shoes. I was assigned to study Frank Lloyd Wright throughout the whole semester. Naturally, I became very familiar with his works; particularly his organic designs. Organic architecture is primarily focused on nature and therefore growth, His Fallingwater design, pictured above, is the very epitome of organic architecture.

The result of placing myself in Frank Lloyd Wright’s shoes is the design pictured below. My design is based on his ideas of what organic architecture is, but instead of just using pen and paper to design, I used SketchUp to facilitate me in the design process. What really interested me when working with SketchUp was the ability to freely move planes around. This gave me a chance to play around with the geometry and manipulate it freely.

With the new era of technology, I believe the parametric design is a very fertile field. I would like to embrace this technology to take what I already know about modelling one step further. Parametric design is generative and computational based design and is responsible for opening new doors and rein-venting the limit that existed with the conventional way of paper and pen that architecture once was. I believe parametric design is advancing design to a new architectural discourse for this reason.

Fallingwater designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Pennylvania, USA.

nEW CZECH nAtionAL LiBrArY

The metaphor presented in this design is something that should be strived for to give designs more meaning, and therefore, more soul. In this respect, this design very much relates to the Wyndham which is looking for a design that celebrates its urban growth. This sort of analogy is some-thing that I would very much like to incorporate in my pro-posal. This reason, along with the use of parametric design makes this a worthy precedent for the design of the Wynd-ham City gateway. The success of this design can be meas-ured in its entry in the international New Czech National Library competition in which it obtained relative success in that it managed to progress to the second round of the com-petition where only 59 out of 355 were left. [1] Its success is another reason why it is a worthy precedent for our design proposal.

The New Czech National Library shows the great potential of parametric design. Para-metric design allows for the complexities in geometries to be formed which are exacted in the branches of this design. It is only through parametric design that such com-plexities can be formed, and this is where it overtakes the existing means of conven-tional design in terms of raw possibilities. Also neatly incorporated in this design is the metaphor; a lime tree, which in Czech, symbolises life. Likewise, the lime tree also symbolises growth, evolution and cultural progression.

1. http://www.nkp.cz/competition_library/docs/proceedingsStageI.pdf

HAEsLEY ninE BriDGEs GoLf CLUB

Another difficulty within such a design project is that it is actually im-possible to reduce the building to a few standardized parts, as it is the wrong way to rationalise a freeform project or parametric design in general. A better approach is to find common rules for all individual parts and to program those into a parametric 3D CAD model. This is be-cause parametric programs allow the possiblity to generate hundreds of detailed components and drawings at the click of a button. Overall, this building allows us to understand the unique advantages that para-metric modelling offers to us because it teaches us how it is valuable when there is an abundance of individual parts which have common rules with one another.

The Haesley Nine Bridges Golf Club located in Seoul, South Korea. The building itself that shelters the Club House is comprised of a canopy of woven timber girders and slender columns that support 32 roof elements. Whilst this may seem relatively simple, the real challenge is to develop parametric details which are easy to fabricate and assemble while performing well in thousands of dif-ferent shapes, orientations and loading conditions.

1. http://www.nkp.cz/competition_library/docs/proceedingsStageI.pdf

promise of computation

Computers, as their name implies, are made to compute, and unlike humans, their abil-ity to store and recall memories are not limited. They are also able to process thousands of sequences of information much more quickly and more efficiently than humans can and without error. They are able to represent the results of these manipulations in the form most suitable for human comprehension: in textual reports, tables of numbers, charts, graphical constructions. Computers are there for humans when our brains ca-pacities fall short when it comes to these tasks.

Although computers are spec-tacular at carrying out in-structions, they cannot form instructions for themselves; this is their only major flaw. However, humans on the other hand, although we cannot per-form complicated calculations like computers can, we pos-sss both rational and creative abilities that can come up with instructions for computers to carry out the complex algo-rithms to formulate our design. In other words, humans and computers can form very po-tent symbiotic design systems capable of amazing designs by complementing each others’ limitations.

innovations of parametric modeling

One of the many contempoary innovations associated with parametric design was the ability to play with the parameters of the design to tightly control shape, form and size. An example where this innovation is used is in the Aviva Stadium located in Dublin, Ireland. There were many constraints associated with the boundary conditions of where the statdium could be placed. Parametric modeling allowed variations in constraints to be accommodated and then communicated between the architects and engineers. The parametric technology allowed for the building geometry to form a dynamic cross-disciplinary link between architectural and structural design at the detailed design phase of a complex project. This allowed for architects to retain a lot of geometrical control over the stadium through the use of these constrains in the parameters.[2] This innovation that parametric modeling provides will be a very neat addition when it comes to generating the proposal for the Wyndham City gateway compe-tition because there are boundaries that exist on the site that we must be mindful of.

Another contemporary innovation provided by new computa-tional design techniques is FEM (finite elemental method). The method involves the geometric model being divided into small, interconnected mesh elements which are then used to accurately perform structural, energy, and fluid dynamics analyses for de-signs.[3] An example of this innovation being put into use is for the ‘Kunsthaus in Graz’ by Peter Cook and Colin Fournier pictured below. The original blobby shape of the design was altered af-ter digital structural analysis revealed that the structure overall could be improved by making minor changes in the shape of the design. This kind of technology will go a long way in architecture because it isn’t just important for the architectural design stage of the project, but also potentially improves the design in the real world to make it more stable and more functional.

2. http://populous.com/project/aviva-stadium/3. Kolarevic, Branko, Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing (New York; London: Spon Press, 2003), pp. 25.

contemporary design

The Brussels airport connector project is a design that was realised through contemporary scripting and programming means. It was designed by the architecture firm UNStudio and as its name implies, the project is an airport connector meaning that it connects to part of the existing airport.

The design philosophy of the group when it came to this design was to come up with a de-sign that fits in with the existing architectural style that was already present with the airport. Contemporary scripting and programming cre-ated the opportunity and satisfied the condi-tions for a design to be fit physically between the existing airport structure. It allows this through the allowance of setting parameters to deal with physical constraints when it comes to dimensions and space.

+ scripting cultures

Another motive for the group to utilise scripting and programming techniques is that it allows for deeper engagement between computers and users by au-tomating routine aspects and repetitive activities and hasten the overall design process and thus lower production costs.

cut definitions:

This first batch of matrices is made with the combination of at-tractor curves and data driven rotation. The result of these two combinations is something very interesting as observed in the following matrices. The already interesting effect of attractor curves when in a matrix is enhanced when I threw the data driven rotation output into the mix. It allowed for much more random geometries and forms to result from the experimenta-tion with these two definitions.

I have found this process of designing to be very experimental which, not to say is not a bad thing or anything, but it is quite a different approach to me. The task given to us was to generate at least 30 definitions, and quite frankly, I thought this to be ridiculous at first. However, after consideration of Kalay’s design principle, it did not seem to be too much to ask of us. According to Kalay, search processes involve two steps: firstly, producing lots of candidate solutions for consideration; and secondly, choosing the right solution for further consideration and develop-ment. [4] The requirement to produce lots of possible designs means that there is a great amount of experimentation which means the eventual mastery of the cut definitions. Moreover, it means that there are more possible designs to choose from to eventually further develop the chosen few designs.

rEsEArCH proJECt

attractor curves + data driven rotation

4. Yehuda E. Kalay, Architecture’s New Media : Principles, Theories, and Methods of Computer-Aided Design (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2004), pp. 18.

cut definitions: matrices

What I did here with this batch of matrices was use the simple attractor points/curves definition. Instead of us-ing a combination of definitions, I played around with the parameters and shapes of the original circles. The reason why I played around with these definitions was because I believe that although they were simple, they produce interesting patterns and were easy to manipu-late.

These matrices were the result of using the im-age sampler definition and the streaming text files definition. Both definitions produce interesting forms, especially when it comes to the streaming text files definition. The streaming text files defini-tion effectively pulls data from a text file and inter-prets it in defining the radii of circles or whatever other shape that is used. This is potentially a very powerful definition since there are so many ways of generating these streams.

attractor curves + data driven rotation

attractor curves

image sampler and streaming text files

cut definitions:

The following set of matrices was cre-ated by using the overlapping patterns definition. With it, I was able to gener-ate interesting patterns. The alteration of parameters is also used here to show the effect of increasing/decreas-ing the shapes sizes and its effect on the overlapping pattern of the matrix. I also played with colours as seen in the bottom two matrices to further dem-onstrate the result of the overlapping patterns. .

overlapping patterns + changes in parameters

cut definitions: matrices

With the multiple maths functions definition, I found that I was able to create many interesting matrices. The thing with this definition is that there are many different things that I could do to affect the form of the matrix.

An important thing to note is that because there are many possibilities of forms that can be achieved with this definition, the resultant matrices from changing the maths function within this definition is very much random and very different each time. This allows for a chance to experiment heavily with this definition.

This was why I spent so much time on this definition to come up with these intriguing shapes. I found that there were no limitations on what could be done with this definition in terms of what forms could be created; I was surprised by the forms I created ev-erytime.

multiple maths functions

case study: banq restaurant

The BanQ restaurant situated in Boston utilises a parametric modeling system on the interior that integrates a wooded-slat-ted system pattern that hides the ceiling whilst also not inter-rupting any air circulation which is essential to any restaurant. It was one of the more important precedents in our design be-cause it deploys angles and perspectives as the ceiling height increases and decreases. Hence, such wave elements created by the wood in a parametric design model can be likened to a puzzle; only one possible location for each unit, formulating the continuous member.

We chose this design as our case study because of the inter-esting angles that result of the vertical timber planes. We have decided that our main primary focus would be on interesting angles and perspectives so this case study just made sense.

case study: banq restaurant reverse engineering

Using the case study project: the BanQ Restaurant, we reverse engineered the physical design back to the grasshopper form shown below.

fabrication

This is the grasshopper defi nition that we came up for the prototype of our design. Note that the image used in the image sampler will not be used in the fi nal design. The image of the tree is used only to demonstrate progress, and to show that an image can in fact be seen when you view the model from certain angles. The image of the tree was chosen as a metaphor for the ever development state of cultural growth that the city of Wyndham is currently undertaking.

physical model

As with our focus on interesting angles and per-spectives, our physical model holds true to that. Nothing can be seen from this orthogonal angle, whereas;

from this angle, the image of the tree is clear. This shows potential for our final design and this is something we would like to further experiment with and develop.

physical model:

pictures

CoMpEtitiVE ADVAntAGE

At the start of the semester, we had no idea what parametric design was and were taken aback by the very idea of it upon our first introduction. However, these last 8 weeks have been very enlightening for us and I feel that we have come a long way. Our research about grasshopper has taught us the great potential of grasshopper in the field of parametric design and we would like to use this new-found knowledge to help advance the city of Wyndham’s iconic monumental collection by designing an interesting and eye-catching installation. Our brief time with Grasshopper as a design tool should not be seen as a lack of experience on our part, but should be seen as a new starting point and per-spective that will lead to innovative ideas that will give rise to concepts that surpass contemporary design ideas.

Our focus is also is to display the recent influx of cultural growth within in the council of Wyndham. To display such growth, the imagery of the tree is utilised to illustrate this. The thriving nature of the tree is therefore one of the main concepts within our design phase to highlight the cultural growth of Wyndham council. Hence, we are not only are we aiming to create a proposal that is interesting and eyecatching, but also to provide an impression that lasts long after the first experience.

For the city of Wyndham, we want to design a gateway that is not only eye catching from the outside, but also from the inside. We have come up with this idea after considering both the driver and the passengers. Our logic is that the driver can only see what is ahead of them, whereas passengers are more drawn towards the sides of the vehicle. Keeping this in mind, we coincided with the idea that we can design a parametric model that is specifically aimed at the driver who looks ahead, and in doing so, sees a visual pattern that. The passengers on the other hand, will be able to see through the slits as the car passes travels through the gateway and see the surrounding landscape and other interesting displays caused by the patterns in the parametric model. Essentially, what we want to do is to create an experience for both the driver and the passengers.

As it is evident, we have played around with, in one respect, endless possibilities in parameters and matrices. Our experimentation with matrices along with support by strong precedents and unique ideas will ensure that the proposal for the gateway will bring success to Wyndham City. In the end we are not only designing something exciting and eye-catching, we are also focusing on the context of the gateway in terms of the social and cultural growth of Wyndham city.