Studio Air Design Journal

DESIGN JOURNALSUE WANG 542054

AIR

CONTENTS

Case for Innovation

INTRODUCTION

ARCHITECTURE AS A DISCOURSE- RHINO WEEK 1

COMPUATIONAL ARCHITECTURE.- RHINO WEEK 2

PARAMETRIC MODELLING- RHINO WEEK 3

CONCLUSION

LEARNING OUTCOMES

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Contents

WHO AM I?

I am Sue Wang, 3rd year environ-ments student majoring in Architecture.My hobbies include drawing, drawing and also reading. I have very little experince in regards to computer designing whether it be Photoshop or Rhino and I am keen to learn any new techniques that will help me in the future.

WHAT HAVE I DONE?

To the right you can see my lovely first year Virtual Environments project.

The brief was the create a working lanturn which could be worn and light up, and was to be based on the natural process.

INTRODUCTION

3Case for Innovation

VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS - 2011 SEMESTER 1

COMBUSTION

The lanturn was to be based on a natural process, and I chose to focus on combustion. Combustion I re-lated to fire, focusing me lanturn on flames, engulfing a person. The lanturn was to be located on the arm engulfing it in flames.

Fire, has the attributes of wild and uncotrollable. How-ever, in my project I explored flames/fire in a control-lable manner, making the flames spiral up in a sym-metrical and systematic manner.

COMBUSTION

Introduction4

BEIJING NATIONAL AQUATIC CENTREPTW ARCHITECTS, CSCEC, CCDI, ARUPBEIJING, CHINA2007

The structure of the Beijing Nation-al Aquatic Centre is based on the nat¬ural form of bubbles which was made possible through the use of the Weaire- Phelan structure. A complex 3-Diemen¬tional structure that represents ide¬alized form of equal sized bubbles.

Weaire-Phelan structure is a solution to create computer simulated foam struc-tures. The original problem was how can space be partitioned into cells of equal volume with the least area of sur-face between them, known as the Kel-vin problem. The original solution based on the bitruncated cubic honeycomb (Kelvin Structure) a convex uniform hon-eycomb formed through truncated oc-tahedron a fourteen sided polyhedron with six square faces and eight hexago-nal faces, which for the longest time was perceived as the only and best solution until the Weaire-Phelan structure was discovered. The Weaire-Phelan struc-ture used two finds of cells rather than the one cell type, the first an irregular dodecahedron with pentagonal faces with tetrahedral symmetry. The second is a tetrakaidecahedron, containing two hexagonal and twelve pentagonal faces being of antiprismatic symmetry. In both solutions all faces are curved to mimic the appearance of foam.

Over time we as humans have slowly started to discover new, better and more efficient solutions to problems which is this not what we are trying to achieve? Solutions to problems achieved in the most efficient manner.

This building could only have been made through the use of digital de¬signing tech-nologies. Digital fabrication allows for easy organization of each bubble segment and the precise mea-surement of each individu-al section which would not have been pos-sible through the use of traditional methods.

The precise measurement is also highly im-portant the sheer number and variety in bubble size means by tradi¬tional meth-ods would take a long time to calculate to perfection and also to make individu-alized in form, however, through digital fabrication it can be easily achieved.

The Aquatic Centre appears to be made from many individualized curved pan-els of glass, it however is made using Eth-ylene tet¬rafluoroethylene (EFTE) a type of plastic, a material rarely seen in Ar-chitecture even in modern times. The plastic allows for a light¬er alternative to glass and also has to extra benefit of easily being able to be fabricat¬ed to the precise dimension specifications.

Architecture as a Discourse6

Beijing National Aquatic Centre was originally conceived as a swimming com-petition ground for the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing, China. It has since been transformed to a water theme park, still retaining the theme of water.

“The project demonstrates in a stunning way, how the de-liberate morphing of molecular science, architecture and phenomenology can create an airy and misty atmosphere for a personal experience of water leisure”

— Quote from the Jury report of the Official Awards 9th International Architecture Exhibition – METAMORPH, Venice Biennale

READING BETWEEN THE LINESGIJS VAN VARENBERGHLIMBURG, BELGIUM2011While it is intended to be a sculpture rather than architecture it still employs a new way of thinking and causes one to think what defines architecture. Designed to be in the form of a church, emulating the church spire, dome, cross and arches as seen as common church elements. It borrows architec-tural ele¬ments in the form of scale and ground plan. However, it does not fulfil the ba¬sic requirements of architec-ture unable to provide a basic shelter, through the sculpture being completely transpar¬ent. Nor does it provide the ba-sic clas¬sical function of a church being too small in size for people to congregate under, and also the lack of solidity of the building. However, it does control how the light is shown through the building, similar to how traditional churches control light through the usage of stain glassed windows and positioning of windows, creating an atmospheric environment.

The sculpture is based on the idea to al¬ways be able to see the neighbour-ing sur¬rounding environment and seen through its transparency. In order to pro-vide a unique visual experience of ex-periment, reflec¬tion, a physical involve-ment with the end result and the input of the viewer; and also to provide a unique visual ex¬perience of experiment, re-flection, a physical involvement with the end result and the input of the viewer. Never before has there ever been some¬thing created to be transpar-ent in this manner, especially with-out glass. While not explicitly stated, the church must have some elements of digital fabrication spe¬cifically for each individual steel panel and column pre-emptively calculated to perfec-tion with the use of digital technol¬ogy and especially the exact placement of each steel layer, one wrong dimen¬sion could ruin the integrity of the piece.

While the building is classified as a sculp¬ture it quite clearly push-es the bound¬aries of how we de-fine architecture. Is it art? A habit-able living space? Or is even just the form able to classify Read¬ing Be-tween the Lines as architecture?

The church has be-come “an transparent

object of art"

- Architizer.com

CHURCH OF SAINT-PIERRELE CORBUSIERFIRMINY, FRANCE2006

The Church of Saint Pierre was the last major project made by Modernist Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier), completed after his death in 2006. Corbusier is well known for his five points of architec-ture, the pilotis, free façade, open plan, roof top garden and horizontal windows, that marked a new age for architecture, Modernism. The church uses some of Corbusier’s five points of architecture, mostly the usage of pilotis, free façade and an open floor plan; it also uses Corbusier’s signatures of ramps as the main method of movement throughout the building. It was originally designed as church however due to the local political issues, decreed that state funded projects could not be used for religious purposes and was thus converted into a cultural venue.While it’s outwards and inward appearance does not match that of a traditional church it does hold the key features used in traditional churches, the top two floors of the building is a large open plan that allows for mass congregation, which is necessary for churches to allow for large seating areas for people to hear the word of God. This large open plan can only have been achieved with the new technologies of the time of an open plan and a free facade; pilotis is used to support the building and the free façade is used in order to open up the space of the building, thus allowing for large open spaces. While the church seemingly does not hold the traditional dome and spire, it has actually been reinterpreted by Corbusier, the main building form seems to mimic that of a traditional spire and when looking inside the building, a dome like form appears inside similar to that of traditional churches. The church uses interesting technologies to control external light into different forms inside the building, creating waves of light or holes of light creating an effect of a star lit night. Controlling of light has been used throughout history in churches as a manner of creating mystical at-mosphere inside the church, using minimal light in order to darken the room and to feel the presence of God himself or using stain glass windows as a manner of communicating to the masses. The Church of Saint-Pierre is the same, using minimal lighting to create atmosphere similar to that of traditional churches darkening the room as to solely make the mass concentrate on the priest’s words.This thus brings up the issues of what is a church and should they all be the same? Most churches of the baroque or gothic period all follow the same formula all following the same plan, and same key techniques, only slightly altering the stain glass windows or outside façade. Yet the Church of Saint-Pierre is clearly different to majority of churches, and if no one had told me it was originally a church I would not have believed to be so. Despite its appearance, however, it does hold all the key function-al aspects of a church, making the Church of Saint-Pierre and interesting approach to the problem that is a church.This building is a contrast to Reading Between the Lines, Reading between the Lines, holds the ap-pearance of a classical church yet cannot be used functionally like a church. In contrast the Church of Saint-Pierre in appearance does not seem like a traditional church but can function as a church allowing for a large space for people to congregate to. However, both can control light in a unique manner creating an atmospheric environment to mimic that of a traditional church.

RHINO GRASSHOPPERORGANISED SPACES

11

The first trial with Rhino Grasshopper was to form a line of cubes that arrayed around a centre point. The cubes also must go from larger to smaller, however an extra chanllenged was made to make it so the faces of the cubes were just touching, that is so there were no gaps between the cubes

The first step was to make the cubes and set it to a curve. Then array the curves unto line evenly spaced. Then to array the line into eight parts even spaced to form a cir-cular formation. Then to make the cubes arrange into large to small from the centre to the ends of the lines.

The next and hardest step was to make the cubes to be “just“ touching, However, in the end I could not make the cube faces to just touch. I found many sources saying to try tessaltion, however that would lead to an entirely different form and still didn’t make the cubes to be just touching.

I find the cause for this is most likely due to the way the cubes were arranged on the line, making them evenly spaced, therefore limiting the control of the placement of the cubes. A solutio may have been to removed the cubes on the line then setting points of the surface of the cubes to then making the points on the surface meet.

This experiment was an interesting trial of Rhino Grasshopper to test the capabili-ties of the program. Discovering the basics of the program, finding how to make the most basic shapes and how they can be arranged and ordered.

This can be useful in designing the Gateway, to make a design through the ordering of shapes.

Case for Innovation

RHINO GRASSHOPPER EXPERIMENT 1

12

Arrangement of arrayed cubes on a series of lines, all cubes and equal distance apart and same sized.

Top: Wireframe of cubes ar-rayed on a line

Bottom: Rendered with no lines

End result of the cubes following the lines to form a vortex like appearance.

The cubes range from smaller to larger extending out from the centre point. Each cube significantly smaller than the previous

Architecture as a Discourse

WEAVERBIRD

Convoluted InferencesAndrea Graziano, Alessio Erioli, Davide del

Giudice, Mirco Bianchini and Alessandro Zomparelli

MIGZ Festival, Moscow2011

“WeaverBird gives architects more geometric control and al-lows them to create complex surface structures that join in orderly ways, yet in arbitrary configurations.”

Convoluted Inferences, was formed through the experimental Rhino Plug-In, Weaver Bird. WeaverBird is a topologi¬cal editor, focusing on creating hard to draw shapes that go beyond the estab¬lished tilling patterns. The project itself was an experiment to test the realms of the pro-gram, testing morphology, organ¬isation and how patterns can have dy-namic behavioural effects and how the inter-act with their surrounding environ¬ment to create an “organic complexity.”

WeaverBird refers to the real life animal the Weaver Bird, where the male weaver bird creates intricate nests to attract a mate. WeaeverBird hopes to emulate the “or¬ganic complexity“of their nest, cre¬ating a repeating pattern that is hard to hand create and complex sur-face structures that join in an orderly way.


The main usage of digital techniques is to fab-ricate designs that are hard or near impossible to create through traditional means. This proj-ect highlights one of the key results that can be achieved through digital design, and that is the ability to create precise infinite and continuous surface from any mesh. Through traditional tech-niques it’s hard to draw a constant and precise repeating pattern especially that of the com-plexity Convoluted Inferences exhibits, therefore demonstrating the ability of computation design, in its ease of helpfulness in regards to people.

A new advantage WeaverBird brings to digi-tal design is the ability to create com¬plex til-ing patterns that had were hard to achieve even by digital techniques and also the ability to be able to control the position of the tiling on the surface, allowing for greater interaction with the piece while during its conceptual phase. While through digital design we can create pre-cise uniform patterns and achieve complex forms not available through traditional methods. Pro-grams still cannot cal¬culate human error and the environment surrounding the project. While it may seem ridiculous to consider human error, the trans-fer over from digital to physical will have drastic changes, we as humans cannot make things as precise as a computer can, therefore the transfer over will not work as exact as the digital design. While there are ways of prefabricating materials it is still not perfect, but closer to in situ construction.

Also digital design creates designs in perfect condi-ons and do not con¬sider the local climate and sur-rounding environments, and is something we our-selves must consider when designing using digital methods, especial¬ly since the surrounding envi-ronment can have a large impact on the de¬sign. Therefore while digital computation is great at creating uniform com¬plex designs, it still cannot take calculate external factors into the designs.

16Computational Architecture

GECO

Case for Innovation

Shenzhen Border StationSPAN (Matias Del Campo and San-

dra Manninger with Federico La Piccirella and Filippo Nassetti)

HongKong, China2011

The HongKong Shenzhen Border Station is an en¬try to a competition regarding the new design of the Hong-Kong Shenzhen Border Station. The Entry to the contest uses new computing technique and program known as GECO, a prototype plug-in for Rhino. GECO is a com-puting device that allows us¬ers to “export complex geometries to evaluate the design performance of the project.” In using the GECO program, the architects were able to cre¬ate a building that interacted with its surrounding elements. Especially concerning itself with sunlight, how to maximize sunlight and how to control it.

Computation design is a new tool in which Archi¬tects have in expressing their art. Digital design is able to test the parameters on a digital medium without wasting resources, also able to create a re¬peating pattern along a surface, creating a uniform and pre-cise pattern that otherwise cannot be repro¬duced by hand or produced less precise. There are, how-ever, limitations to digital design, in using de¬sign we thus further limit ourselves in analysing and un-derstanding both the site and the design itself.

The main issue concerned with digital design is that the programs are making our lives easier, making it so that we think less about our design choices and rely more on the programs to do our work for us. This is not nec¬essarily true; we still put a lot of cognitive effort into our designs through digital design. We are still aware of what we are doing, how each element affects and in¬teracts with another element and we still place a high impor-tance on thoughtful/conscious design (planning each and every move we make) however, we no lon¬ger start considering the surrounding environment and how our design might interact with the surrounding site.

GECO is a program devised to combat this prob¬lem, we can now analyse our site through the use of digital technologies, making this a huge leap for-ward for digital design. But this still raises the ques-tion of how much cognitive effort we place in our designs and if we are just relying too heav¬ily on digital computation to do the work for us.

“GECO allows the user to export com-plex geometries, eval-uate the design’s per-formance in Ecotect, and import the re-sults back into Grass-hopper, without re-working the modelr e p e a t e d l y . ”


RHINO GRASSHOPPER

An exploration on the lofting capabilities of Rhino Grasshopper. Creating a pavillion consist-ing of interweaving and interjoing pipes.

The first one was a basic lofting of three semi circle curves in a straight line.

The end result was a basic pavillion in which the vertical and horizontal pipes interracted at straight angles, forming evenly spaced quadranal shapes between the veritcal and horizontal pipes.

The second was a more experimental to see how the interjoining pipes would interact if the pavillion was curved and in a circular or spiral formation.

The end result formed a less evenly spaced product, the pipes were more irregular and and more curvy, formatng a topological map sort of formation.

This was trialled twice, once just one arc and one spines, the other was trialled wiht two arcs at 90 degree angles from each other.

The singular arc had a lot less pipes than the pa-villion with two arcs, which resulted in more pipes in the seconds creating a more uniform organ-isation of pipes, and less empy space.

PAVILLION - PATTERNING



End result of the experimentation, ending with a form that seems silimar to the Beijing Bird’s Nest. I would have preferred to end up with a result that was similar to the first being more unified, however, the way the surface loops around causes much of the pframe pipes to intersect forming this end result.

First trial The first trial had only one arc spine which left some spaces lacking horizontal lines resulting in just vertical pipes.

Also nearing the top of the pavillion the pipes start to mimic the topograpical lines on a map.

Issues appeared in lofting, where the curves were selected incorrectly caus-ing the surface to intersct at some points.


MERCEDES-BENZ MUSEUMUN STUDIO’SSTUTTGARD, GERMANY2006The Mercedes-Benz Museum is recently built parametric building designed for the Mer-cedes-Benz company in order to show case their cars. The main form of the building is three overlapping circles layers over eight floors in a twisting spiral, the main bulk of the building forming a double helix. This double helix formation is based on the “Mobius Strip” and is an abstract design on the Mercedes-Benz Logo. The “Mobius Strip” is a 180 degree loop forming a continuous closed surface, the main concept behind the Mobius strip is to traverse both sides of the strip without ever having to cross over the edge. The concept of the Mobius strip fits the concept of a museum perfectly, a museum is made for view-ing, and the Mobius strip’s base concept is maximising space allowing for easy move-ment. Movement naturally plays a large role in museums, as it is required for people to move around the building looking at the sights. It’s also necessary to control the flow of movement in order to prevent customers from walking in the same area multiple times.

"The only solution was to control the geometry of the building as completely as possible using the latest computer technology...... Digitally controlling the geometry made it possible to incorporate any kind of change quickly and efficiently, immediately knowing the effects of that change on all other aspects of the building." - Ben van Berkel, UN Studio's co-founder and director.

Architecture was created as a means to resolve a problem and parametric model-ling is just another method we use to solve the problem. Traditional designs and some computational designs are rigid and are mostly based on just adding and erasing, however, with parametric design it isn’t about adding or erasing elements but also about relating and repairing; making it much more flexible than previous design methods, allowing for more control over the design of the building. The design of the Mercedes-Benz Museum was parametrically designed and according to the head architect of the building would not have been possible without the use parametric techniques. In using parametric modelling allowed for the reduction of the "labyrinth" into a single diagram or map, showing the capacities of parametric modelling which allowed for the easy control of the building, able to control the design of the building at every point. And if there were any problems it was able to be easily rectified or if any changes were made it can be shown in relation to its surrounding elements and how it affects the design as a whole.

Essentially parametric designing prevents “talkitecture” where people just discuss architecture* its theories and how we should approach problems, never actually picking up a pen and paper and designing. Never actually engaging in the prob-lem, finding or working a way to the solution, therefore we as designers must always engage in the problem. Parametric designing allows for a deeper engagement than some computational and traditional designs allow for, able to continually rectify the problem without just adding new things and erasing the old.

* I feel this is awfully ironic since here we are sitting here discussing/reading architecture instead of engaging in it…

CARPENTER CENTREPIERRE HUYGHECAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTSDATE: UNKNOWNThe Carpenter Centre Puppet Theatre was created in honour of Le Corbusier, whose only North American contribution was the Carpenter Centre at Harvard, where the puppet theatre is located inside of. As a reflection of Corbusier's work the naturally corresponds to Corbusier's five points of architecture. The main feature of the theatre is the ramp, a corresponding theme in all of Corbusier’s work. This project was para-metrically designed in order to highlight how parametric design can be used to solve problems regarding limitation in space and the surrounding environment.

Parametric Modelling

PUPPET THEATRE

25

Using parametric design in this project demonstrates the flexibility of parametric design as it can relate and consider its surrounding environment; in order to create a design that does not conflict with the existing surroundings but rather interacts and compliments it. This was heavily important for the theatre since it was to be placed under a existing structure, that was not allowed touch the existing structure either (so as to not damage the existing,) thus need to find a way to be self supporting, fit precisely under the existing building and not distract from the existing. Therefore using parametric design was able to figure out how it was able to sit under the build-ing precisely without damaging the existing and for it to be self supporting. This was achieved through the patterning of elongated diamond patterns, parametric design helped to formulate exactly how the panels would fit together and to make sure they would not separate (unless needed to.) The tight fit of the diamonds allowed for structural integrity and this was achieved through parametric design in order to create a design most efficiently and effectively. The parametric design allows for an interesting computational take on Corbusier’s key ideas, making something of this time using the ideas of the old.

The main issue concerned with parametric design is that there is no unification of style seen in the past where if one person developed a style it would be quickly adopted by all and replicated. However this has changed and there is no longer a unification in style, this is the cause of globalisation and new technologies. While glo-balisation may make it seem that it would be easier for a unified style to appear this is not the case, as globalisation allows for seeing another’s work and altering it making it their own and more innovative and everything differs based on our own personal experiential and the cultural that influences us, each time creating something new. New technologies allows for the abilities to try new things and the alternation of the old. While there is no unity in appearance we do hold the same sentimental values of striving towards innovation to always try to make new things to be innovative and this is expressed through our work.

RHINO GRASSHOPPERORIGAMIThis week’s task was to form an object that is defined purely by triangles that is inspired by the Japanese art of paper folding “ori-gami.”

Triangles are used being the only shape that no matter how much is modified always makes a surface completely flat. Any more points or curves on the surface and the form can be bended slightly; therefore using triangles on grasshopper it can simulate the appearance of origami. Triangles are also used in most com-putational designs as a means to create the closest appearance of a circular or smooth surface; this due to triangles being the only shape with the least amount of sides.

An example of this is the Aami Park in Melbourne Asutralia, as tri-angle panels are used form the appearnce of a rounded shape. For better smoothness of the shape much smaller triangle panels would be used, however this park was built to demonstrate the capabilities of computational designs.

MELBOURNE RECTNGULAR STADIUM

(AAMI PARK)Cox Architects and PlannersMelbourne, Australia2010


26Parametric Modelling

Revisitng week 2 computation design and using the set curves changed the surface from a pipped surface to that of a rgid, origami like surface.

Since the original pavillion was made up of eight curves it allowed me to play around with the length of the pavillion and how long each triangle panel is.The left demonstartes an elongated triangles, the points chosen at polar ends and a middle arc to add more depth to the pavillion. The right shows a slightly shorter but also highlights the triangular patterns on the pavillion.

This final origami was actually made on mistake I acci-dently reselected the second arc as the third arc result-ing in the jagged line ending in sharp triangles.

This was then joined with a shorter version of the two above pavilions, this could lead to an interesting design of repeating patterns altering between jagged and smooth ever repeating.

The final end result it through the combination of two dif-ferent baked experiments that were positioned together through the sharing of a similar arc to create this interest-ing experiment.

CONCLUSIONIn designing for the Wyndham City Gateway Project, the design will be formed through the usage of parametric modelling from Rhi-no Grasshopper. Parametric Design is about innovation, change and flexibility, which naturally should be a reflection of us as a so-ciety, and open minded society, open to change and search-ing for new and improved solutions, constantly moving forward.

All the research up until now has been to allow for the freedom of the mind and to understand the fundamentals of parametric design. It is necessary to understand the fundamentals and theories behind para-metric design in order to make conscious designs and to not just do whatever looks good. The design shall always be evolving and chang-ing until the final design to demonstrate how necessary change is to find the best possible solution to the problem and to always try new things.Therefore the Wyndham City Gateway Project will be a re-flection of our present like so much architecture before us has been; to reflect us as a society of innovation, cutting edge, con-nectivity and technology. So that when people of the future look back at the project, I want them to see how it is we were as a society and this project shall be a symbol of our present.


LEARNING OUTCOMESAt the beginning of the semester I held a negative view towards compu-tational design not from a bad experience with Virtual but just to me it al-ways felt lazy, that people were using it as a quick solution to their home-work. Especially since many of those people don’t know how to draw (which I always felt was a fundamental skill needed for architecture.)

However, through these past few weeks I have learned that compu-tational design is also another tool we can use to further improve our designs able to accomplish things we can’t do. Some people think computational design may limit our designing capabilities; however, it can also make our designs more flexible and fluid. Giving us an-other means to express our creativity, and through computation de-signs create buildings that previously could not been done so. While yes I do sometimes feel people use computational design as a lazy method for designing, (arguable as there are many people I know who last minute their designs by using CAD or Rhino.) I now have a better appreciation for computational and parametric designs.

For virtual environments it was more about developing the basics of Rhino, making a form transferring it to Rhino and applying a pattern and texture to the form then finally creating the end result. However, through these past few weeks Rhino and Grasshopper has shown far more capabilities than what was demonstrated during Virtual Envi-ronments. Grasshopper allows you to control every aspect of the de-sign, and thus see it in relation to other aspects of the design. This knowledge if I had earlier would have made my old work not so rig-id and would most likely be more fluid and free in form, creating a patterned work that was not so predictable and more interesting.


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