STUDIO AIR | DESIGN JOURNALABPL30048 Architecture Design Studio: Air

Semester 2, 2015 Studio 6Gabriel Carlo Matining (540424)

INTRODUCTION

I was born in the Philippines but grew up in the Western Suburbs of Metropolitan Melbourne. Throughout my elementary years and secondary years, I had always shown interest in design, though my earnest fascination in architecture came during my adolescent years.

I was extremely fortunate to find myself enrolled in the University of Melbourne where I was introduced to a new paradigm of design and conception. Whereas in secondary school; we were primarily taught to design by hand, relying on the common “cookie-cutter” design trends of the time.

My early years in university has taught me to approach architecture and design in a more critical manner, making sure to question the ideas and concepts that surround me. Eventually, I was also introduced to new tools that surpass the limitations of ink on paper such as CAD, Revit and Rhino which I have learned to use extensively as I progressed

through the years.I have had experience in using

Rhino 3D during my time in the subject, Virtual Environments, where I was tasked with manipulating NURB surfaces and creating meshes for fabricating wearable designs.

The design process had always been a linear process to me. It would all begin with research, then conception of ideas, followed by design refinement and, finally, production of final product. But I am eager to discover, through this subject (Architecture Studio: Air) new avenues of thought on how to approach a design task. And above all, I am looking forward to, all the more, expand my knowledge in the use of digital technology in design and the utilization emerging fabrication techniques.

A.1 DESIGN FUTURING

A | C O N C E P T U A L I Z A T I O N

A | C O N C E P T U A L I Z A T I O N

Aiming to re-define the gestation or the model for creating living spaces and cities is the aim of Phillipe Rahm architects in the revolutionary ideology of looking to the natural atmospheric phenomena that surround us at every moment.

This approach to conceptualizing space opens up the possibilities of tackling the excessive use of mechanical cooling and heating, the mechanics and by-products of which contribute to the enhanced greenhouse effect that bring about the undesirable climate change.

Meteorological Data“Meteorological Architecture”

seeks to make use of metrological data and atmospheric principles as tools for conceptualizing architecture. Whereas conventional building practices result in frozen forms of spaces which conform to existing social and political customs, meteorological architecture takes

away the idea of the built space as architecture and replaces it with the idea of atmosphere as the essence of space.

Rahm’s concept can be seen in his installation, “Digestible Gulf Stream”, constructed at the 2008 Venice Bienalle. The exhibit simple features two metal planes of contrasting thermal qualities - one raised horizontal plane heated to 28 degrees Celsius, the other planted plane cooled to a chilly 12 degrees Celsius. This results in their creating a movement of air that imitates the effects of the Gulf Stream by directing a cyclic flow of warm and cold air. By this, inhabitants are physiologically encouraged to move around this invisible space defined by the “built” atmosphere. It breaks down the conventional barriers of the built and opens up our physiology and bodily chemistry to the microscopic functions of the human anatomy are segregated and protected from the external, macroscopic forces of the

INVISIBLE ARCHITECTURE

Lally, S. (2009) Energies: New Material Boundaries. London: John Wiley and Sons LTD, United Kingdom. pp32-43

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLBCRhYlXZQhttp://www.metropolismag.com/November-2014/Philippe-Rahm-Climate-as-Architecture/

Social and Ethical WallsArchitecture like this in wide-spread, functional, and even domestic

use is beyond our current political and social understanding. Since the dawn of human civilization, enclosed spaces have become such a anthropological need that pronounce as part of our human necessity the need to have a “roof over our head”. But this revolutionary idea of the “invisible landscape” provokes the thoughts on futuring technologies that negate the excessive use of building material and the use of mechanical cooling and heating to satisfy our physiological demand to regulate our body temperatures for us to function effectively as human beings.

natural climates. Meteorological architecture suggests the creation of invisible landscapes built upon the physics of thermodynamics and meteorology, thus taking away the built, visible structures that we are used to; essentially, and literally, invisible architecture. An effective application of this concept can make obsolete the need to wear clothes within these invisible architectures.

GROW YOUR OWN HOME

Building architecture has, for centuries, been the fundamental concept of creating the habitable world around us. We seek out materials and compose them to create structures that envelope us and separate us from the external environment.

But MIT’s Mitchell Joachim seeks to turn this concept upside down by proposing:

“Don’t build your homes, grow it.”

Mitchell Joachim is an architect from MIT’s Media Lab

Smart Cities group. He and his colleagues were able to further develop a 2500 year-old technique, called “pleaching”, in which trees are woven together into specific shapes and are encouraged to maintain their specified shape and position for a long period of time, similar to developing rose-archways and vine walls. It’s almost surprising that an age-old technique has only made its place into architecture recently when we witness its architectural potential on a daily basis.

Joachim and his team coined their project the “Fab Tree Hab”, which begins with a resuable, computer-generated plywood structure. Then, plants are allowed to grow over the framework and allowed to mature overtime until they are formed into a hardened, stable building envelope. Although this process may take time - faster in tropical regions and slower on higher latitudes - the finished structure would be a highly sustainable piece of architecture that is fully integrated into its surrounding ecosystem.

Ecological CommunitiesThis technology of pleaching

vegetation to create enveloped habitats can be used to create whole suburbs of highly sustainable homes. Communities can begin by “growing” these neighborhoods before allowing residents to move in. Walking through these “grown communities” would be an ecological and architectural

http://www.newsweek.com/terreform-building-houses-out-living-trees-101019http://www.archinode.com/bienal.htmlhttp://www.canada.com/story.html?id=6a9be8a7-f32e-4ca6-8446-a23a28dd4594http://www2.technologyreview.com/player/06/07/mit_house/1.aspxhttp://www.technologyreview.com/article/406046/house-and-garden/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw9s0ivfn3w

wonder, and would like walking through a forest or a park as much as a neighborhood.

The grown homes would also present the potential for sustaining the surrounding fauna by providing shelter and potential food source.

A whole neighborhood of Fab Tree Habs would also act as carbon sinks to “suck in” high quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Sustainable PropertiesBecause Fab Tree Hab

structures are made of trees, they are made with 100% natural resources and have almost no embodied energy since the building material is literally sourced from beneath the building site.

Instead of the conventional rain water system of drains and gutters, these grown homes would utilise the natural drainage system of trees to collect water, and at the same time maintain the health of

the enveloping tree structure.But one of the most important

features of Fab Tree Habs is that they are carbon negative, or absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide instead of emitting it.

ChallengesUnfortunately, Joachim and his

team have yet to seen any full scale application of their concept because of long-term challenges.

Zoning for councils and municipalities would be difficult with the integration of grown structures because they are ever changing and their growth are fundamentally unpredictable.

There are also the uncertainties of the growth cycle of certain species of trees and their potential succeptability to plant diseases as well as their potential to develop deadly agents for the human biology if people were exposed to certain vegetation for long periods of time.

And don’t forget the risk of the wildlife not only finding food from

the trees, but from the people who live in them!

A.2 DESIGN COMPUTATION

Before engaging in discourse regarding the use of computer and digital technology in Architecture and design, it is first important to clarify the difference between computerization and computational design.

Computerization & Computation

Computerization concerns the use of drafting and modelling systems, such as AutoCAD, in which a human designer interacts with a computer in constructing visual elements such as lines and geometry to represent a preconceived concept and design. Whereas computational design involves the use of digital programs and analytical systems to further support a design intent, and drive the form of a design. Computerization differs from computational design in that the computer is limited to supporting the intention of the designer by simply constructing manageable comprehensible data in the form

of textual information and even dynamic, graphical constructions.

Computational design takes digital design to a whole new level by creating an effective symbiosis between the human designer and the computer.

By their nature, computers are superb analytical machines that can follow a line of reasoning inputted by a human being. Computers can process large amounts of data without losing focus or feeling boredom. Computational design makes use of the computer’s highly effective analytical capabilities by allowing a human designer to input algorithms and parameters into a digital program. What should be noticed here is that the creativity and intuiting is sourced from the human designer, who has analyzed, to an extent, the design task or problem at hand. The computer complements the design process by handling complex and repetitive processes otherwise impossible or strenuous

to conventional design methods such as pen-and-paper and even labour-intensive to computerize with software such as CAD. Computational design allows the designer to explore possibilities and analyze the performance of different design outcomes and possible solutions.

This part of the journal explores the benefits and profound effect computational design has brought to the current understanding of the design process, as well as examples of unique approaches to utilizing the advantages of computational designs to built, as well as conceptual, projects.

FABERGE EGGS AND THE PARK

Computational designs opens up avenues of form-creation almost impossible to conduct by hand drawing or, even inputting manually into AutoCAD. It allows the realization of concepts that can be considered alien or structurally unstable.

Design and architectural firm, Xefirotarch, founded by Hernan Diaz Alonzo, are well known for the mutant-like and seemingly unearthly forms found in their concept designs, with the intent of breaking contextual norm and evoking some sort of emotional and experiential response from people within and without the architecture.

Helsinki LibraryDescribed as a “cinematic

game”, the proposed design for the library was an experiment in geometric performance on a very tight and restricted rectangular site beside a park. The form of the design can be described like that of bubbles and strings of slime. Almost impossible

http://www.architectural-review.com/view/interview-hernan-diaz-alonso-and-marcelo-spina/8646930.article

http://xefirotarch.com/current/index.php/helsinki-library

to describe with words, the project is a great example of the emerging possibilities and visual wonders that can be produced by computational design.

Impossible By Hand?And indeed, impossible to

computerize. These very intricate and complex forms are only possible by the automated functions of computational design, not to take away the design work from the human designer, but to provide support and somewhat

act as an uncomplaining, efficient drafting assistant to the architect.

Re Imaging The CityXefirotarch described the

project as an embodiment of the complexity of Helsinki, as city, and its social, architectural and historical aspects. Computational architecture has the opportunity to be the defining tool of a new era of architectural and urban experience.

IMPOSSIBLE BY HAND?

IMPOSSIBLE BY HAND?

A.3 COMPOSITION& GENERATION