Architecture as a Discourse

About Myself

Hi, I m Ritik Babuta an international student from India. I m a second year student majoring in Archi-tecture. I want to become an Architect because my father is also an Architect and I want to take his busi-ness one step ahead.

Previous Studio Work

My favourite work at the designed studio was the last projects of the studio earth, in which we were told, make three discovery centres and a public stage on Herring Is-land. The first discovery centre should be based on pre colonisation, the second one should be based on the early colonisation and the third one should be based on the collaboration. My main aim was to create a journey and use my whole area. Firstly I made the re-ception/office area from where people can purchase ticket. Then I moved on to make collaboration one first and placed that one at the very top, in this I used as a wall so that the people can compare it which city. Then I moved on to make the pre colonisa-tion one, which I made in the form of hut basically I wanted to show how the houses of the people were build when the British came to Australia. Then I made early col-onisation one which I placed totally under the ground, my main motive behind that was to show how people live at that time because they don t have much architectur-al knowledge. They basically lived in caves or houses made from barks. Through this whole process I was able to show the jour-ney which means that people came to the place in the end from where they started. My tutor liked my idea but said it was bit simple I have to be more focus and think more about what is there inside the dis-covery centre. Moreover he also said that there was a lot of change in my drawing from my previous project.

Digital Architecture

Digital architecture is basical-ly construction of the complex structure using computer pro-grams or modelling. It basically allows an architect to create com-plex designs which were previous-ly difficult to draw. Moreover it also allows an architect to explore their imagination and think of something which has not been created before. I am aware about the digital architecture and have some knowledge of the comput-er software’s as well. I have used Rhino before in virtually environ-ment as well. In the beginning I found it difficult but end up with an interesting model. I don’t have much knowledge about the digital structure around the world but looked at some precedents but it was all online stuff and they are some bit similar to my model as well. The main example which I liked was the project by the Wadhwa builder of ‘’Cybertec-ture Egg’’ in Mumbai. I used this building because it was similar to my project as it also has the pan-elling patterns and the triangular opening. This project showed proper 3d effects as well as panel-ling. But there are many things to learn from this like 3d modelling and use of 3 d shape using com-puter software.

My Favourite Architecture

Da Vinci Mode Tower

Da Vinci is a rotating tower. It is still an un-built project. I was supposed to be build in Dubai. The project was inspired from the ‘’old post office tower’’ in Dubai. The old post office tower has only one object that moved usually the top and that too even in one di-rection. But whereas Da Vinci had 80 floors, hooked on the stable centre core and will be able to move independently in any direction. It is also an energy saver as the floor will be rotated through the wind turbines. According to the architects one floor would take approx-imately 90 minutes to take one whole round. The architects decide that the most of the work will be done in the factories and then will be taken on to the site. It was not build in Dubai because the market as done and that’s why now this project has been given to Lon-don.

I like is building because it is a dynamic ar-chitecture and the rotating of each floor will give different shape to the tower. Moreover it was rises many questions in mind and I am also keen to know how a lift will works in this type of a building and how the water pipe-lines would work.

Hagia SophiaThe second building which I like the most is ‘’Hagia Sophia’’. It is one of the great structure of the Byzan-tine Architecture. It is dedicated to holy wisdom. It was firstly build as a church and later on towers were added when it was under taken by the Islamic people and it became a huge mosque. The most important thing I like is that it has huge interior spaces and the area around the nave which is decorated with beautiful mosaics. The approximate height of the in-terior is 50 metres. And secondly I like it because it leaves a lot of question in the mind about dome. Undoubtedly it is great to know how the arches and the walls carry the load of the domes. But it is dif-ficult to understand why the centre dome was reconstructed again. The main reason which I think is that the material in the walls was not used properly that time which lead to create many cracks on the wall, which made it difficult for the wall to carry the weight of the dome. Moreover when the dome was con-structed again architects raised the height of the dome so the weight can easily flow into the walls.

References

1. G. Fossati, Aya sofia, Constantnonple, 1852 2. George Mansell, Anatomy of Architecture (Lon-don 1979, p 46)3. Swift, Roman Sources of Christian Art, p 424. Chamberlain, P. Engineering & Technology (17509637). 4/12/2008, Vol. 3 Issue 6, p18-21. 4p. 3 Color Photographs. DOI: 10.1049/et:20080614.5. http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=2361

Computing in Architecture

These days digital architecture cannot be imagine without the use of computer or digital technology. Computers are known as ‘‘engine of the building’’. If the computer is pro-grammed properly then it can help us in solve problem in the design process. For example it keeps tracks of the things which we are doing in the design making process and helps in going back and correcting that problem which is not possible if we are doing it by hand. The computer can help the designers to look for the precedents and find a better solution or provides an alternative to designers to solve their problems. Furthermore, the computer can easily help in fabricating and constructing a building. Once the design is prepared the designer can make a digital model of the project through computer to check does it work or not. Moreover if the designer is still facing the problem, he can easily communicate it to other people and ask for the better solution. (Yehuda E. Kalay )For example the Velodrome for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, by Hopkins Architects would not be possible without the computer programs. As the com-puter described properly how the construction would take place, especially in case roof as it describes how and where the joins should be connected to transfer the load of the whole roof.

The computers have changed design tech-niques in many ways such as geometry, fab-rication, sustainability and most importantly architectural theory. The Computer Air De-sign (CAD) has a great impact on the building design and has speed up the constructional drawings. Using a digital technology in com-pleting a design is a new thing in the architec-ture. These computer programmes help the designer to both three and four dimensional structures which contain all the information of about the design.Sustainability is big issue running in this world. Now the buildings can also be con-structed in proper sustainable manner. It is all with the help of the computer software which explain properly how much quantity material is required to construct a particular build-ing. Moreover designers can also reduce the amount of material later and can create some interesting design. This suggests us that the computer programmes are really helping us in active sustainability by consuming the amount of resources.The architects got the idea of construction of the complex geometry from the ship building industries as it is somewhat similar to archi-tecture. If we look at both of them we will find that both are complex and focused on curved geometry, moreover now a day’s both depend on the digital model making rather than constructional drawing for making and this allows the designed to achieve their main goal. There are many examples of building like Guggenheim museum by Frank Gehry. He designed the whole structure of the museum using a computer program CATIA. CATIA is the software which is used by the ship and plane builders. Gehry with help of the soft-ware was able to build a curvy and complex structure at that time.

It is great to see how the complex designs which were earlier not possible to draw even are now been constructed with the help of the digital technology. A specific discourse within the computational architecture is metamorphosis. A particular interesting temporal modelling technique is morphing, in which dissimilar forms are bend to produce a range of hybrid form that combines formal attribute to the base and target object. It basically helps the designer to mix different shape and come out with a complex design. (Yehuda E. Kalay)For example My Zeil is the shopping centre at Frankfurt designed by the ro-man architect. The whole structure of the building represents metamorphosis. The building describes how the different part are combined together to make a complex structure. The design of the My Zeil would not be possible with-out the help of computer programs as it described how the building should be constructed and what type material is required.

Referencing1. Velodrome for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, by Hopkins Architects, 20122. Yehuda E. Kalay, Architecture’s New Media : Princi-ples, Theories, and Methods of Computer-Aided De-sign (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2004), pp. 5 – 253. Kolarevic, Branko, Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing (New York; London: Spon Press, 2003), pp. 3 - 28