STUDIOA R

WU KING YING, KIRA606658

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My name is Kira. I am a third year Environ-ment Student major in Architecture. Actu-ally this is my first year in Melbourne Uni as I am a transfer student from City University of Hong Kong. It is exciting to do explorations in a different environment. In Hong Kong, I have touched SketchUp, 3Ds Max and Revit such digital tools that help in design process. The education in HK is relatively practical and technical. So, I am interested to do more re-search on architectural theory in MelbUni.

I have studied some architectural theories such as Modernism, Postmodernism, Metabolism, Neoclassi-cism, Functionalism, Deconstructism, High-tech. Also, architectural history from Romanesque architecture to Contemporary architecture. I do think history is very important as it acts as a base for development and we never can ignore it.

HI

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Architectue as DiscourseComputational DesignParametric Modelling

Algorithmic ExplorationsConclusion

Learning Outcomes

CONTENT41016202223

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DISCOURSE1

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A great architect is not made by way of a brain nearly so much as he is made by way of a cultivated, enriched heart.”

- Frank Llyod Wright

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Architecture is not only visually sensitive but also functional and perceptional.

Architecture is no longer a space for shelter but a space for spirits and emotions. The most important thing of architecture is to provide an experience that evokes inhabit-ant’s perceptual investigations. The Weather Project is the best example to demonstrate architecture as an experience, not an object1.

Olafur Eliasson did a series of installations which treat the inhabitants as both subject and object of the environment. The Weather Project was installed in Tate Museum in 2003; he made use of monochromic yellow lamps and mist machines1, created a sunrise or sunset-like environment. There is no out-side or inside, what is the difference between the place outside and inside the museum?

Inhabitants become part of the project, as they evaluate and interpretate it. Also, they participate in it. This is what I think what architecture stands for, a subjective psy-chophysical experience and a imagistic exchange. Some viewers are lying on the ground, looking upwards and using their bod-ies to make different shapes, the images are reflected on the mirrored ceiling. Respon-sibility falls on both artist and inhabitants. Inhabitants or viewers have a responsibility to understand that they are a part of what they are evaluating. A perceptual interaction between the art project, artist and viewers.

Eliasson’s earlier project such as Room for one color (1997)1 demonstrates the relation-ship between color and sense. According to Eliasson1, yellow is easier to detect and less information have to be processed by the brain so inhabitants will have a sense that they see more and be more conscious of oth-er inhabitants, or say, inhabitants are a part of project, they evaluate each other’s as well as themselves. It is a very subjective percep-tion and a kind of imagistic conservation.

PERCEPTION

Room for one color (1997)

Beauty (1993)

Beauty (1993), the name “Beauty” is very perceptual and individual, de-pends on the viewers’s location, as different locations will have different angle of view to the rainbow effect produced by refraction of water droplets waterfall2, a matter of rela-tionship between viewer’s location, moisture and angle of light source.

ARCHITECTURE =

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The Weather Project (2003)

Architecture is a kind of an experience to evoke people’s perception and evaluation by interpretation consciousness and phenomenon in different angles. It is seeing oneself seeing, a subjec-tive and objective exchange.

Olafur Eliasson

1 Kaneko Gemma 2010, “An Argument Against Timelessness”, [Online], no. Mercer Street, pp. 3 April 2013. Available from: http://www.nyu.edu/cas/ewp/kanekoar gument11.pdf.2 Tiffany Rafael 2008, “Seeing Oneself Seeing “The Weather Project”: Notes on Olafur Eliass on’s Institutionalized Critique”, Anamesa, [Online], no. The Perception Issue, pp. 3 April 2013. Available from:http://www.nyu.edu/pubs/anamesa/archive/fall_2008_perception/seeing_oneself_seeing_the_weather_project.pdf.

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Teshima Art Museum is lo-cated at a remote countryside island - Teshima Island in Japan. This spreading water-droplet shaped museum is a successful example of ar-chitectures dissolving in the environment by pushing the boundary between natural and man-made.

The free curves create a dynamic space inside which stretches low and horizon-tal. Two big oval openings let light, sky, clouds, woodlands, birdsong to fill the interior3, I think, in other words, the two openings are frames and all

natural stuffs are exhibits. It really integrated the architec-ture itself with the surround-ings, and to evoke visitors’s interpretations and evalua-tions of “where am I?” They participate in the idea of the architecture and this is what makes architecture alive and memorable.

It reminds me an artist James Turrell which has similar ideas with Olafur Eliasson. He makes use of light and space to create spiritual space to evoke visitors’s imagistic and perceptual conservation with the space, nature and them-

selves4. Skyspace (fig. 1)is one of his most ambitious work, observers look at the sky in a way as it was framed.

Teshima Art Museum (2010) Ryue Nishizawa

Fig. 1 Skyspace

3 db erica 2010, 17 December 2010-last update, Ryue Nishizawa:Teshima Art Museum [Homepage of designboom], [Online]. Available: http://www.designboom.com/architecture/ryue-nishizawa-teshima-art-museum/ [2013, 04/03].4 Trachtman Paul 2004, “James Turrell’s Light Fantastic”, Smithsonian, [Online], , pp. 2 April 2013. Available from: http://www.paultrachtman.net/pdfs/turrell.pdf.

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The harmonica linkage of all things, the infinite connections between human and nature, will create a spiritual space “matrix” to elicit visitor’s childish wonder and evoke their perceptions. Architecture is a matrix space which provides different angles on theories or questions for people to view evaluate and perceive.

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COMPUTATIONALARCHITECTURE

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Before the Renaissance, buildings were constructed but not designed. A concept of separating the con-ception and construction of a building began devel-oped during Renaissance. Architecture becomes an individual professional that separated from engineer-ing. Architects do sketches and drawings on paper to communicate ideas, but there is a deficiency that unnoticed design errors may occur and lead to con-struction failure5.

In 21st century, using computers as a design tool become a global trend. It is much accurate and time-efficient. There are two modes of operations: 1. Computerization 2. Computation

Computerization is about automation and realization. The ideas and concepts in human designer’s mind are being translated into digital data through a series of reasoning and instructions called program, it is lack of creative abilities and limited design solutions are given6.

Computation is more about sharing information and communication between humans and comput-ers. Computation controls the relationship between smaller to larger parts of the design process, allows alternative solutions which could be further devel-oped by designers. Computation is more about an exploration in design process6.

Nowadays, computational system becomes a main design tools in architectural design. As it allows ra-tional design variations such as curvilinear formation, folding, morphogenesis, which are very difficult to realize in computerization. Also, it generates a wide variety of rational alternative options for designers to explore the complex relationship between different elements and further develop it. As there is no rights or wrongs in architecture, instead of giving one defi-nite answer, exploration of options is more important.

5 Yehuda E. Kalay 2004, “Architecture’s New Media : Principles, Theories, and Methods of Computer-Aided De-sign”, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, [Online], , pp. 03 April 2013-5-22. Available from: http://app.lms.unimelb.edu.au.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-3815742-dt-content-rid-11838999_2/courses/ABPL30048_2013_SM1/ABPL30048_2013_SM1_ImportedContent_20130121032620/Pages%201-25%20from%20Kalay%20-%20Architec-tures%20New%20Media%20%282004%29%20COMMENTED%20-%20SR.pdf.6 Dunn Nick 2012, “Algorithmic architecture” in Digital Fabrication in Architecture, 1st edn, Laurence King Publishing Limited, Britain, pp. 60-65.

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Algorithmic DesignAlgorithm is a kind of medium to gen-erate and develop architectural design ideas, a procedure to a solution to a problem. It involved a finite number of steps and accurate instructions. Al-gorithm acts as an universal solution procedure, which consists of rules, and generates multiple versioning, the output of an algorithmic procedure is always unknown and open. The basis of algorithmic design is that under the same rules and procedure, design-ers can produce different speculative forms.

It allows designers to explore mul-tiple possible solutions unknown. The working principle is like natural processes such as genetics, it creates randomness and even algorithms are able to generate new algorithms6. Very different from conservative design tool which solutions are preconceived, predetermined and well defined.

I am very interested in the pattern-ings that generated by algorithm, as I believe the best will always survive in options and through a series of devel-opments between different variations. I am really fascinated with the concept of “All is One, one is all”. The infinite possibilities that generated from one golden rule.

Arum (2012) Zaha Hadid

6 Dunn Nick 2012, “Algorithmic architecture” in Digital Fabrication in Architecture, 1st edn, Laurence King Publishing Limited, Britain, pp. 60-65.7 Zaha Hadid Architects 2012, 04 October 2012-last update, Autumn Review: Arum Installation and Exhibition by Zaha Hadid Architects at Venice Architecture Biennale. Available: http://www.zaha-hadid.com/ [2013, 04/04].

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Zaha hadid’s works is well-known for its use of algorithmic design to generate form. The installation “Arum”, the self-supporting light-weight pleated metal evolved on the basis of algorithmic form generation, it follows a finite steps and instructions7. The evolution of pattern is guided by rules. The design process is com-putational and clearly each step is an explora-tion between multiple variations. It creates a perceptual and emotional space. And what the most fascinating thing about this is the possibil-ity of computational design allows the explora-tion of the variations in patterning, as I believe the best survive in options.

Arum (2012)

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MorphogenesisMorphogenesis is a concept and a group of methods, an evolutionary development of form in an organism, for the derivation of form and its transformation. The living or-ganisms are a kind of system that evolves their complex form and behavioral patterns as a result of growth and adaptation. The interactions between different components over time, it is a dynamic, biological growth and transformations.

Digital morphogenesis in architecture links to a number of concepts such as emer-gence, self-organization and form-findingb. It is a result of computational method which uses a series of logical steps to do emergent transformations and rearrange-ments.

In design process, morphogenesis can as-sist the emergence of speculative designs by exploring possible scenarios that relat-ed to different parts, known as “differentia-tion“ and numerous connections between them, a degree of “integration“. Therefore, morphogenesis shifts the design process from “making of form” to the “finding of form”8. So it really makes architectural design process as an exploration between variations and development.

Morphogenesis provides infinitive unknown possibilities between differentiation and integration, which interested me, the most. Patterning is not only in 2D but also 3D, how one pattern to emerge from 2D to 3D can and how to deal with the relationship inside are the most interesting topics I would like to explore.

8 Dunn Nick 2012, “Morphogenesis architecture” in Digital Fabrication in Architecture, 1st edn, Laurence King Pub-lishing Limited, Britain, pp. 66-73.9 Popp Trey 2009, February-last update, An Architect Walks Into the Lab. Available: http://www.upenn.edu/ga-zette/0109/feature1_6.html [2013, 04/04].

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Branching MorphogenesisSabin+jones labstudio

Branching morphogenesis is an experiment to explore natural process-es in living organisms. The project investigates the relationships of part-to-whole during the generation of branched structures by interaction of lung endothelial cells. It records the force network exerted by vascular cells in their matrix environment. The pattern generated is the result of overlapping 5 time records. “There’s a perception of artists as flakes and scientists as geeks, and never the twain should meet. And there are certain places I’ve presented where it’s considered to be sort of play, rather than product.”9 This is exactly what I think what architecture is, to evoke viewer’s perception and evaluation by showing them different angles to theories and phenomenon. Also, I like the fact that the pat-tern created really acts as a 3D space that allows visitor to go inside and explore, the designers successfully integrated 2D into 3D.

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PARAMETRICMODELLING

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Parametric modeling is a design tool that enables designers to define relationship between ele-ments or groups of elements. It is very different from conventional design tools that each parts re independent, separated and no communications. Instead, in parametric design, everything is con-nected and interdependent.

Designers input data and information to paramet-ric design tools and data will flow through the in-dependent to dependent parts, known as propaga-tion. The more data propagates the dependencies such as surface and defining curve, become more complex and generate explicit and editable form.

In order to easily organize and define the relation-ship, divide-and-conquer strategy is applied that the whole design is divided into parts. By manag-ing the interactions among the parts, establishing an understandable link from part to part, a hierar-chical model is well organized

In general, many designers are interested in para-metric design as infinitive variations will generate during design process, by varying the relationship between each interdependent part. The depen-dencies influenced one another and combine to give an entire new variation. It gives a broader design process and multiple realizations10.

However, the relationship-definition task is quite time-consuming and hard for the inexperienced. Parametric design involved a series of steps which need to be input very precise, one misplace may not work11.

I like the concept behind it very much “everything is connected and defined by the relationship between”. This is exactly what I think architecture should be, such as how the patterning of facade connects to the pattern of visitor’s behaviors as well as the building plan. I would like to do more explorations in it.

10 Dunn Nick 2012, “Parametric and generative design” in Digital Fabrication in Architecture, 1st edn, Laurence King Publishing Limited, Britain, pp. 54-59.11 Woodbury Robert 2010, “How do designers use parameters” in Elements of Parametric Design, 1st edn, Routledge, , pp. 23-48.

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Bloomburg PavilionAkihisa hirata makes use of parametric design to make unfolding pattern roof planes. An equilateral triangle acts as a base; each side of the tri-angle is added a pleated plane composed of hyplane triangles which has two different angles. Therefore, each hyplane triangle in the plane will have different inclined angles. And so the direction of each plane is different side by side. Then, each side of the hyplane triangles in the edge of the pleated plate will further attach to a smaller scale of pleated plane with same composition. Repeat the steps twice12.

The form generated is dependent by the relationship between hyphane triangles and pleated plane. It follows a series of instructions and rules, if you alter one step, the form generated will be different.

Akihisa Hirata

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12Lauren 2011, 13 December 2010-last update, akihisa hirata architecture office: bloomberg pavilion [Homepage of designboom], [Online]. Available: http://www.designboom.com/architecture/akihisa-hirata-architecture-office-bloomberg-pavilion/ [2013, 04/03].

I think this is a very good example of showing how para-metric patterning evolves from 2D to 3D, from a pleated plane to a perceptual space. Exploration is always the most interesting part in design process, for example, if I make change in the angle or size of the triangle, or even change the geometry, multiple variations will be gener-ated.

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Algorithmic Explorations

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I take reference of the design process of Zaha hadid’s “Arum”. The intersecting points formed on free-form curve are being extracted and fur-ther developed into triangular folding. I am very interested in curve shape as it provides continu-ous and dynamic space which I believe it is very emotional and perceptional. But also, the pattern of folding fascinated me a lot, so I explore a lot in the relationship between curve and straight lines, to demonstrate many pattern variations which can create a spiritual and perceptual space to evoke visitor’s wonder and imagistic conserva-tion.

Algorithmic Explorations

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Conclusion

“Every great architect is - necessarily - a great poet. He must be a great original interpreter of his time, his day, his age.” – Frank Llyod WrightComputational design is a global architec-tural trend and it can broaden our explora-tions in architecture. I am very fascinated with the parametric patterning, what im-pressed me the most is not the iconic and impressive skin, but the relationships and rules behind that generate variations. Everything is connected. How’s the pattern generated in 2D can be further developed into a 3D space? It would be a very interest-ing question.

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Learning Outcomes

This is really my first time to investigate deeply in the theories of architectural theory. In the beginning, I was really con-fused as my previous education did not talk about this and no readings were required. But after I read through all the theoretical readings, it opens my eyes and makes me realize computation is a new way to do the design process. I think self-creativity is still very important, although computational design is a great tool in design development by generating multiple variations, but it relies on human mind to do further develop-ment and decide the possibilities in different options. What computational design really helps is to broaden the space for explora-tion. I would like to investigate more and hope to see the different angles and visions.

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Bibliography1 Kaneko Gemma 2010, “An Argument Against Timelessness”, [Online], no. Mercer Street, pp. 3 April 2013. Available from: http://www.nyu.edu/cas/ewp/kanekoar gument11.pdf.

2 Tiffany Rafael 2008, “Seeing Oneself Seeing “The Weather Project”: Notes on Olafur Eliass on’s Institutionalized Critique”, Anamesa, [Online], no. The Perception Issue, pp. 3 April 2013. Available from:http://www.nyu.edu/pubs/anamesa/archive/fall_2008_perception/seeing_oneself_seeing_the_weather_project.pdf.

3 db erica 2010, 17 December 2010-last update, Ryue Nishizawa:Teshima Art Museum [Homepage of designboom], [Online]. Available: http://www.design-boom.com/architecture/ryue-nishizawa-teshima-art-museum/ [2013, 04/03].

4 Trachtman Paul 2004, “James Turrell’s Light Fantastic”, Smithsonian, [On-line], , pp. 2 April 2013. Available from: http://www.paultrachtman.net/pdfs/turrell.pdf.

5 Yehuda E. Kalay 2004, “Architecture’s New Media : Principles, Theories, and Methods of Computer-Aided Design”, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, [Online], , pp. 03 April 2013-5-22. Available from: http://app.lms.unimelb.edu.au.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-3815742-dt-content-rid-11838999_2/courses/ABPL30048_2013_SM1/ABPL30048_2013_SM1_ImportedCon-tent_20130121032620/Pages%201-25%20from%20Kalay%20-%20Architec-tures%20New%20Media%20%282004%29%20COMMENTED%20-%20SR.pdf.

6 Dunn Nick 2012, “Algorithmic architecture” in Digital Fabrication in Archi-tecture, 1st edn, Laurence King Publishing Limited, Britain, pp. 60-65.

7 Zaha Hadid Architects 2012, 04 October 2012-last update, Autumn Review: Arum Installation and Exhibition by Zaha Hadid Architects at Venice Architec-ture Biennale. Available: http://www.zaha-hadid.com/ [2013, 04/04].

8 Dunn Nick 2012, “Morphogenesis architecture” in Digital Fabrication in Ar-chitecture, 1st edn, Laurence King Publishing Limited, Britain, pp. 66-73.9 Popp Trey 2009, February-last update, An Architect Walks Into the Lab. Available: http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0109/feature1_6.html [2013, 04/04].

10 Dunn Nick 2012, “Parametric and generative design” in Digital Fabrication in Architecture, 1st edn, Laurence King Publishing Limited, Britain, pp. 54-59.

11 Woodbury Robert 2010, “How do designers use parameters” in Elements of Parametric Design, 1st edn, Routledge, , pp. 23-48.

12Lauren 2011, 13 December 2010-last update, akihisa hirata architecture office: bloomberg pavilion [Homepage of designboom], [Online]. Available: http://www.designboom.com/architecture/akihisa-hirata-architecture-office-