Work Volume 2018-2019 by Nix Liu Xin

Work Volume

Architecture Filmmaking Photography Immersive Reality Animation Robotics

2018–2019

Xin Liu.

Diagram Drawing Writing Render Image Video

Contents

1

Statement

2GBX Studio / Spring 2019 DS1201 2GBX Design Studio

5

Augmented Library Aggregation VS4201 Visual Studies II

41

Become the Internet: Far West

2GAX Studio / Fall 2018 DS1200 Computational Design Studio I

61 63 79 95

Make-Believe Trilogy . Coexist . Engagement DTLA . Curiosities VS4200 Visual Studies I

111

Augmented Objects AS3200 Advanced Material and Tectonics

121

Elbphilharmonie Facade Transformation

Writings HT2201 Theories of Contemporary Architecture II

137

Ideaology, Technology and Formalism HT2200 Theories of Contemporary Architecture I

141

Different Approaches to Discreteness in Creating Built Environment

Personal Side Projects & Others Photograph Series

151

Cities and Deserts: A Visual Essay on a China’s Stillborn City - Ordos Kangbashi Homelessness Charrette Workshop

175

Cart Supply Depot IDD2018 Introduction to Digital Design

187

The Imagination World of Doraemon

Statement

Xin Liu is a future-facing architectural designer, film-maker, photographer, and 3D Generalist. His creativity and innovation spans multiple platforms. Based in Los Angeles, California, he is currently a Master of Architecture 2 candidate at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). Previously, he was an architectural designer at Sheppard Robson in the United Kingdom. He holds a Bachelors of Arts in Architecture with Honors degree from the University of Liverpool School of Architecture. His work has been exhibited many times in New York City, Liverpool, Beijing, and Suzhou. He is traveling around the world examining the notion of both natural and built environment through design, films, and photographs.

1

Stay curious. Stay humble.

3

Architecture / Motion Graphics

Augmented Library Aggregation – Mixed-Realities and the Form as Content –

Studio DS1201 2GBX Generative Morphologies Forms of Knowledge SCI-Arc Location Atlanta, United States Instructor Damjan Jovanovic In Collaboration with Nero He Teaching Assistants Julia Arnold, Akhil Mathew Tools and Techniques Cinema 4D, Redshift Renderer, Rhinoceros Video Link vimeo.com/331634391

Monolithic Building in Context

Spring 2019 5

2GBX DESIGN STUDIO // AUGMENTED LIBRARY AGGREGATION

Library as Information - Multi-layers of Realities

- 01 -

STATEMENT

A

s Robert Venturi mentioned, architecture is a communicative medium. Our design, the augmented library aggregation is a cloud of information contains multi-layers of realities. As we shift from the virtual/real dichotomy into augmented space, the physical manifestation of the architecture or city becomes only one of many parallel realities.

Our occupation of space no longer matches its built form. We need to be progressive in the design of man-made structures with the understanding that the built environment is just one among many layered realities.

In this library, there are three layers of realities: the first layer, solid structures, which provides tangible interface; the second layer, ambiguous objects bashing, which influences the spatial configuration; the third layer, virtual holographic, which is directly representing information. All these layers have interactions with people, by either tangible or intangible ways. Therefore, in this project, the notion of the fixed ideal space is replaced by a temporal, dynamic and interactive construction of reality.

Volume Bashing as Formal Devices Endless Greg Lynn mentioned: “Architectural form is conventionally conceived in a dimensional space of idealized stasis, defined by fixed point coordinates� which we could easily discover by opening up any of the mainstream architectural software.

However, as a new way of design, volume bashing is the formal device for this project.

Each program within is a world of itself made by the bashing of objects sourced from the various catalogs. This chaotic bashing process is able to create unlimited formal features which are dynamically changing, resulting in endless spaces without directions, without boundaries. This library aggregation contains the very old to the up to date version of itself.

Scalefulness Volume bashing operation also results in scalefulness. In large scale, objects become the architectural space containing human activities; in middle scale, objects are acting like furniture; and in small scale, they become pixels in order to locally generating aggregations.

Organization We speculate the future library would be a collective of science and humanity. The user group can be divided into humans and machines. Only interfacial machines would have been seen by humans and engineers, interfacial humans, who can manipulate interfacial machines to make the adjustment and upgrade for all machinery systems.

Programs varied from a temple with monks to stimulation studios with holograms which contain all library types from the origin to the possible future. The collision between old and new enhance the heterotopia identity of the library.

6

XIN LIU

Royal Library by Claude Nicholas Ledoux

- 02 -

Forms of Knowledge 7

DESIGN CONCEPT

Form is Content Sourced from Daily Objects

- 02 -

DESIGN CONCEPT

2GBX DESIGN STUDIO // AUGMENTED LIBRARY AGGREGATION

Catalogue of Objects 8

XIN LIU

- 02 -

1. Random Orientaions

2. With Rigid Body Simulation

3. Scalefulness

Various Bashing Methods 9

DESIGN CONCEPT

Volume Bashing as a Formal Device

- 02 -

DESIGN CONCEPT

2GBX DESIGN STUDIO // AUGMENTED LIBRARY AGGREGATION

Library

Event

Gallery

Future Experience

Data Center + Reading Rooms

Forum / Stage + Cinema / Auditorium

Exhibition Hall + Botanical Garden

XR Platform + Immersive Theater

Office

Leisure

Institute

Maintenance

Admin / Rental Office + Meeting Room

Cafe + Bar + Roof Balcony

Research Spaces + Reading Room

Engineering Room + Control Room

Programmatic Organization 10

XIN LIU

- 02 -

Places

Circulation 11

DESIGN CONCEPT

Circulation Elements

- 02 -

DESIGN CONCEPT

2GBX DESIGN STUDIO // AUGMENTED LIBRARY AGGREGATION

Solid Structure Reality

Reality–Virtuality Continuum 12

Objects Bashing Ambiguous

Holographic Virtual

XIN LIU

Solid Structure

Objects Bashing

Holographic

Tangible Interface Physical Reality

Ambiguous Interface Spatial Configurations

Virtual Interface Presentation of Information

- 02 -

Configuration Effector - Scale Scale objects down

Configuration Effector - Scale Scale objects along the normal direction of the solid structure surface

Objects Bashing

Configuration Effector - Rotation Rotate objects from one direction to opposite direction

Three Layers of Realities Creating Different Interfaces 13

DESIGN CONCEPT

Objects Bashing Objects Bashing

- 03 -

SCENARIOS

2GBX DESIGN STUDIO // AUGMENTED LIBRARY AGGREGATION

Reading Rooms 14

- 03 -

SCENARIOS

2GBX DESIGN STUDIO // AUGMENTED LIBRARY AGGREGATION

Data Center 16

- 03 -

SCENARIOS

2GBX DESIGN STUDIO // AUGMENTED LIBRARY AGGREGATION

Gallery 20

- 03 -

SCENARIOS

2GBX DESIGN STUDIO // AUGMENTED LIBRARY AGGREGATION

Forum 22

- 03 -

SCENARIOS

2GBX DESIGN STUDIO // AUGMENTED LIBRARY AGGREGATION

XR Platform 24

- 03 -

SCENARIOS

2GBX DESIGN STUDIO // AUGMENTED LIBRARY AGGREGATION

Engineering Control Room 26

- 03 -

SCENARIOS

2GBX DESIGN STUDIO // AUGMENTED LIBRARY AGGREGATION

Cinema and Auditorium 30

- 04 -

ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS

2GBX DESIGN STUDIO // AUGMENTED LIBRARY AGGREGATION

Axonometric Cutaway 32

XIN LIU

- 04 -

READING DATA CENTER

PLAN GALLERY 33

ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS

PLAN

ELEVATION 01

- 04 -

ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS

2GBX DESIGN STUDIO // AUGMENTED LIBRARY AGGREGATION

ELEVATION 02 34

XIN LIU

- 04 -

SECTION 02 35

ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS

SECTION 01

- 05 -

THE PHYSICAL MODEL

2GBX DESIGN STUDIO // AUGMENTED LIBRARY AGGREGATION

36

- 05 -

THE PHYSICAL MODEL

2GBX DESIGN STUDIO // AUGMENTED LIBRARY AGGREGATION

38

Interaction Design / Game Development

Become the Internet Far West – Collecting, Sampling and Mashing –

Studio 2GBX VS4201 Visual Studies II Become the Internet SCI-Arc Location Los Angeles, United States Instructors Damjan Jovanovic, Angelica Lorenzi Tools and Techniques Unity 3D, Platform Sandbox

Exhibition

Spring 2019 41

2GBX VISUAL STUDIES // BECOME THE INTERNET: FAR WEST

What is creativity in the age of content?

Content is not data, information or knowledge.

- 01 -

STATEMENT

Content is how all of that exists online, melted together in the regime of software.

It is an endless proliferation of objects and images without an original, with no regard to the referential, without an interest in the authetic. It is something like an endless landfill, accumulating to cover the last vestiges of modernity. Content infects, reprograms and makes obsolete classical modernist workflows based on clarification and abstraction. More importantly, content reprograms the congnitive and creative procedures of design, compelling us to construct new ones.

It takes everything, indiscriminately mixing between any genre and expression.

It does not cohere, it does not explain, it does not want to be easy, clear or smart.

Play is the only thing it responds to.

42

Platform Sandbox, a game-like software designed specifically for working with content is utilized in this project. The workflow includes sourcing material from online archives, playing with endless reconfigurations and producing an enormous amount of material.

All material (images and videos) comes directly from software, as raw, unfiltered edxpression of content.

This project has produced: ~ 120 GB of content ~ 1400 images ~ 6 videos And 12 apps.

XIN LIU

- 02 -

43

CATALOGUE

Far West Collection

- 03 -

SCREENSHOTS

2GBX VISUAL STUDIES // BECOME THE INTERNET: FAR WEST

Screenshots Collection - Scene 01 44

- 03 -

SCREENSHOTS

2GBX VISUAL STUDIES // BECOME THE INTERNET: FAR WEST

Screenshots Collection - Scene 02 46

- 03 -

SCREENSHOTS

2GBX VISUAL STUDIES // BECOME THE INTERNET: FAR WEST

Screenshots Collection - Scene 03 48

- 03 -

SCREENSHOTS

2GBX VISUAL STUDIES // BECOME THE INTERNET: FAR WEST

Screenshots Collection - Scene 04 50

- 03 -

SCREENSHOTS

2GBX VISUAL STUDIES // BECOME THE INTERNET: FAR WEST

Screenshots Collection - Scene 05 52

- 03 -

SCREENSHOTS

2GBX VISUAL STUDIES // BECOME THE INTERNET: FAR WEST

Screenshots Collection - Scene 06 54

- 04 -

THE BOOK

2GBX VISUAL STUDIES // BECOME THE INTERNET: FAR WEST

56

- 04 -

THE BOOK

2GBX VISUAL STUDIES // BECOME THE INTERNET: FAR WEST

58

1

2

3

1. Coexist 2. Engagement DTLA 3. Curiosities

Computational Design Studio I

Make - Believe Trilogy - Architecture Between Facts and Fiction Coexist / Engagement DTLA / Curiosities

The art of the plausible discloses consensus about the way things are; but it also can make a new reality sensible: accessible both to feeling and reason. It not only matches, but mobilizes Rancière’s model of fictions as ‘material rearrangements of signs and images…relations between what is done and what can be done.

- Carrie Lambert-Beatty

M

ake-believe – the action of pretending, feigning or imagining – suggests that things may be quite different from how we perceive them to be if, only for a moment, we suspend disbelief. Contemporary cultural and political dilemmas regarding the status of ‘real’ and ‘fake’ permeate our daily interactions, whether mundane or extraordinary, and exert unprecedented pressure on architecture’s historical identity as the locus of the real. The stability and immutability of Vitruvian firmitas has effervesced into innumerous bits of data that congeal in myriad forms to comprise, describe and construct various aspects of

our environment. Architecture is challenged to re-imagine and make-believe; to invent the new stories that demand new forms, aesthetics and ways of being in the world.

The 2GAX studio will make-believe through the design of architectures that respond to the question: “What if?”. We will perform acts of architectural duplicity that allow us to cut through the assumed real and discover the possibilities of the makebelieve. Our focus is on the aesthetic dimension of architecture and the possible production of new modes of being in the world. We take Los Angeles as our site of inquiry, action and architectural speculation.

61

Experimental Animation

Coexist

Studio Make-Believe 2GAX DS1200 Computational Design Studio I SCI-Arc Location Los Angeles, United States Instructors Angelica Lorenzi, Natasha Sandmeier In Collaboration With Manying Wang Tools and Techniques Cinema 4D, Octane Renderer, Rhinoceros Video Link vimeo.com/301813603

Real vs. Fiction

Fall 2018 63

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO // COEXIST

W

e were asked to use a hole to X-ray architecture. But what is a hole?

- 01 -

STATEMENT

In our opinion, the hole is not subtraction, but connection; the hole is not demolition, but creation; the hole is not empty, but occupying.

Our site is Walt Disney Concert Hall, only those people who have tickets can enter it and enjoy the music. The function of the concert hall is separated from the public, especially those people who are walking around the building. So we want to transform the facades into a couple of hole stages to make the building as a performer for the public in the world of augmented reality.

The form of the building is a series of organic surfaces. Every piece of the façade is a stage which can be used to show the performance. As the music plays on, the façades of the building will be extruded, elongated, hollowed and stages appear.

The instruments and activities will fly out of the building creating connections between inside and outside. People with mobile

64

devices can enjoy the same performance in their personal aligned perspectives.

Therefore, the fictional world and the real world overlapped with each other, this is the first meaning of the title - coexist.

We want to experiment with spatial forms primarily in the AR world. So we made our hole stages base on the form of original facade and created deception on it. For instance, different hole stages and objects occupy the same position; same drum kit with different appearances; same instruments in overlapped different holes.

That’s the second meaning of the title coexist.

Coexist aims to turn Walt Disney Concert Hall into a series of “Hole” stages in the world of AR to connect its function performance to the public. These stages are created by extruding, elongating and hollowing the original organic facade surfaces with music instruments dancing in them. Therefore, the fictional world and the real world, as well as adjacent stages overlap with each other - which are two layers of meaning of the title COEXIST.

XIN LIU

- 02 -

Every piece of the faรงade is a stage which can be used to show the performance. As the music plays on, the faรงades of the building will be extruded, elongated, hollowed and stages appear. The instruments and activities will fly out of the building creating connections between inside and outside.

65

DESIGN CONCEPT

Coexist Of The Real World And Fictional World

- 02 -

DESIGN CONCEPT

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO // COEXIST

Coexist Of Different Holes Occupying The Same Space Disney Concert Hall’s covex volumes are transformed to concave holes. Hole stages are created based on the form of original facade. Visual deception of spatial coexistence is created by having distinctive contents in holes which occupy same space. For instance, different hole stages and objects occupy the same position; same drum kit have different appearances across different holes; same instruments can be seen in overlapped different holes.

66

XIN LIU

- 02 -

DESIGN CONCEPT

67

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO // COEXIST

VIOLIN

- 02 -

DESIGN CONCEPT

VINYL

Hole Stages For Various Instruments Instruments Become The Performers Performing In Various Hole Stages.

68

FRENCH HORN DAFT PUNK

XIN LIU

TRUMPET GUITAR

CELLO

PHONOGRAPH BASS

PIANO

SPEAKERS

- 02 -

DESIGN CONCEPT

69

- 03 -

3D ANIMATION

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO // COEXIST

70

XIN LIU

- 03 -

3D ANIMATION

71

- 03 -

3D ANIMATION

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO // COEXIST

72

XIN LIU

- 03 -

3D ANIMATION

73

- 03 -

3D ANIMATION

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO // COEXIST

74

XIN LIU

Multi-pass for Background and Foreground 1. Building Render Image - background 2. Object ID - masks 3. Object Outline - light effects

- 04 -

1. Hole Rendering Image 2. Hole Mask 75

BEHIND THE SCENES

Individual Passes of Each Hole Stage

- 04 -

BEHIND THE SCENES

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO // COEXIST

Compositing Layers 76

XIN LIU

- 04 -

BEHIND THE SCENES

77

Architecture

Engagement DTLA – Discrete Architecture with Dynamic Textures –

Studio Make-Believe 2GAX DS1200 Computational Design Studio I SCI-Arc Location Los Angeles, United States Instructor M. Casey Rehm In Collaboration With Manying Wang Tools and Techniques Processing, Photoscan, Cinema 4D Video Link vimeo.com/307822788

Interior View

Fall 2018 79

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO // ENGAGEMENT DTLA

O

- 01 -

STATEMENT

ur project is a high-density LED housing for young artists in DTLA which acting as an interface between city and individuals.

It is located in a narrow gap between the Broad Museum and a residential apartment, the Emerson LA. Currently, there is a small plaza. Because of the rising rents and the commercialization of artwork, it is increasingly difficult for young artists to live and work in downtown LA. They have to live far away where the rent will be cheaper.

Only artworks by famous artists can be shown in downtown LA such as the Broad Museum. So we designed a high density housing system with dynamic LED façade.

High-density modular housing units allow buildings to be produced and assembled faster and cheaper. This will greatly reduce the rent and attract more young artists.

The LED facade is a dynamic interface which not only shapes the interior spaces but also displays young artists’ work for public. It redefines the relationship between architecture and city, the limitation of interior and exterior spaces, the boundary of publicity and privacy, as well as the connection of daily life and public display.

While there are no artworks on the LED

80

façade, the dynamic texture become a manipulation of the context, which allows the building to successfully disguise in urban environment. At the same time, it neither conflict nor harmony with the context.

The component is created by rotating three same units along the XYZ axis, which means the geometry is completely symmetrical.

They can be connected with each other no matter the directions. They can form different spatial compositions to fulfill different functions by rotating and moving themselves. Such mechanism ensures a building can be self-grown from a single unit and can adapt to limitless possibilities in the future. The dynamic textures are created by manipulating the building façade from context. Each texture is controlled by three layers of information: diffuse color, reflectivity and bump strength. They are projected to the building from the same direction as the façade of the source building. So the continuity is created across different building parts.

In summary, this project provides a bottomup system partially created by artist for artists, and partially created from the city for the city. In addition, we also made a AR app for this project.

XIN LIU

- 02 -

81

DESIGN

High-Density Modular Housing

- 02 -

DESIGN

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO // ENGAGEMENT DTLA

82

XIN LIU

- 02 -

DESIGN

83

- 02 -

DESIGN

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO // ENGAGEMENT DTLA

Geometry of the Single Unit 84

XIN LIU

- 02 -

85

DESIGN

Meta-Units

TEXTURE 01_THE EMERSON LA_NORTH FACADE

TEXTURE 02_THE BROAD_SOUTH FAC

TEXTURE_01_Diffuse Color

TEXTURE_02_Diffuse Color

- 02 -

DESIGN

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO // ENGAGEMENT DTLA

TEXTURE_01_Reflection

Manipulations of Contextual Facades 86

TEXTURE_01_Bump

TEXTURE_02_Reflection

XIN LIU

CADE

TEXTURE 02_THE BROAD_EAST FACADE

- 02 -

TEXTURE_02_Bump

TEXTURE_03_Reflection

TEXTURE_03_Bump

87

DESIGN

TEXTURE_03_Diffuse Color

- 02 -

DESIGN

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO // ENGAGEMENT DTLA

Texture Manipulations Applied to Unit 88

XIN LIU

- 02 -

89

DESIGN

Orthographic Views of Texture Manipulation on Unit

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO // ENGAGEMENT DTLA

Continuity Across Units in Different Directions 90

XIN LIU

91

Architecture

Curiosities – Sampling and Recreating –

Studio Make-Believe 2GAX DS1200 Computational Design Studio I SCI-Arc Location Los Angeles, United States Instructors Marcelyn Gow, Florencia Pita In Collaboration With Manying Wang Tools and Techniques Photoscan, ZBrush, Spray Painting, 3D Printing

The Tower

Fall 2018 95

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO // CURIOSITIES

W

e started by thinking of what is the originality of a work of architecture? What is the relationship between context and building, function and form, space and color? In this design, we took the buildings from DTLA as sources to create a new design.

First, we investigated and scanned building facades as assets of the new design. The reason why we did this is that we want to bring feelings and experiences and recombine them at a new place, in a new way, with new functions to create a new story.

- 01 -

STATEMENT

The form of the design can be divided into solid and frame part. The frames are mainly acting as circulation cores. Regarding the solids, there are two layers of information: photogrammetry facade from DTLA and surface colors.

To blur the original form and identity, these photogrammetry facades are cut, deconstructed, reconstructed, and masked with offset outlines of the original buildings, creating some interesting moments. For example, this staircase, which came from a park is new combined with the facade of the Broad Museum. People sitting here will have a direct view of the downtown, even its original building the Broad Museum. For example here, two arches on the different axis are aligned with each other.

The surface color is partially related to the functions. These two complementary color sets represent two types of functions: one is open to the publivc while another is dedicated to private users such as hotel guests or people working here. These analog color gradients look similar but are slightly different. They are assigned across different blocks to blur the identity of the 96

original facades. Therefore, the building can be read at various levels of details and by different means, giving people a journey-like experience to explore it with their memories of DTLA. These surface features, both formal and color, are not only exterior appearances but also part of the interiority. Take the example of this plan, the negative surface of this facade from a syncretism work of architecture became an indoor climbing wall. It allows people to have body contact and a closer view of the architectural features which they can’t reach if it is the original building. Regarding the of the blocks, they are organized not by merely stacking but intersecting, which also contributes to the blurring of the original identity and the making of new integrity.

In summary, whether it is the deconstruction of the original building or the re-application of new materials, the building itself becomes more and more difficult to distinguish. What is new? What is old? What is coping? What is creation? What is the facade and what is space? Let’s find the new possibilities of creating a place in its ambiguity.

XIN LIU

- 02 -

97

DESIGN

Building with Landscape

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO // CURIOSITIES

Facade Composition 98

XIN LIU

99

- 02 -

DESIGN

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO // CURIOSITIES

Physical Model Details 100

XIN LIU

- 02 -

101

DESIGN

A Typical Floor Plan

- 03 -

THE PROCESS

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO // CURIOSITIES

01. Photograpmatry of Facades in DTLA 102

XIN LIU

- 03 -

103

THE PROCESS

02. Digital Model

- 03 -

THE PROCESS

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO // CURIOSITIES

03. 3D Print 104

XIN LIU

- 03 -

105

THE PROCESS

04. Spray Painting Palette

- 03 -

THE PROCESS

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO // CURIOSITIES

05. Spray Painting with Masks 106

XIN LIU

- 03 -

107

THE PROCESS

06. Assembly

- 04 -

PRESENTATION

2GAX DESIGN STUDIO // CURIOSITIES

Print Details 108

Visual Studies / AR / Robotics

Augmented Objects – Interfaces between Physical and Virtual Worlds –

Studio 2GAX VS4200 Visual Studies I SCI-Arc Location Los Angeles, United States Instructors M. Casey Rehm, Andrea Cadioli In Collaboration With Manying Wang Tools and Techniques Unity 3D, Robot Arms, Cinema 4D

Rbototic Cinematography

Fall 2018 111

- 01 -

VOXELIZATION OF OBJECTS

2GAX VISUAL STUDIES // AUGMENTED OBJECTS

Photogrammatry of Flowers 112

XIN LIU

- 01 -

Various Densities 113

VOXELIZATION OF OBJECTS

Voxeled Object

- 01 -

VOXELIZATION OF OBJECTS

2GAX VISUAL STUDIES // AUGMENTED OBJECTS

Fictional User Interfaces of the Turntable Object Animation 114

115

- 02 -

ANIMATE SECTION

2GAX VISUAL STUDIES // AUGMENTED OBJECTS

Sections of The Object 116

XIN LIU

- 02 -

117

ANIMATE SECTION

Robotic Cinematography

Physical Object

Augmented Object via Mobile Application

Advanced Material and Tectonics

Elbphilharmonie Facade Transformation

Studio 2GAX AS3200 Advanced Material and Tectonics SCI-Arc Location Los Angeles, United States Instructors Randy Jefferson, Maxi Spina Team Members Xin Liu, Lawrence Yuan, Zepeng Gao, Jiaoyue Zhao Tools and Techniques Rhinoceros, 3D Printing

Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg

Fall 2018 121

2GAX APPLIED STUDIES // ELBPHILHARMONIE FACADE TRANSFORMATION

Foil Membrane With High Reflectance Properties And Cooling

Aluminium Sequin Panels With Deep-drawn Perforations - 01 -

ORIGINAL ENVELOPE

Rectagular Substructure

Thermal Insulation Water Proofing Waffle Plate

Sheet Steel Girder

5 ft

5 ft

5 ft

Floor and Roof Tectonics 122

XIN LIU

Solar-protection/thermal Glazing Window 8mm Solar-protection/thermal Glazing Window 6mm

Aluminum Frame With Black Durafon Coating In Ral 9005 Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GRP) 5 ft

5 ft

5 ft

- 01 -

Plywood Slab Reinforced Concrete Slab With Polish Finish Thermal Insulation

Wall Insulation Concrete Panel Walls Double White Pre-fabricated Concrete Wall Stainless-steel Mullion

Concrete Pile

Aluminum Covering With Fireproof Spray Interior Wall Panels

5 ft

5 ft

5 ft

Glazing and Floor Tectonics 123

ORIGINAL ENVELOPE

Glazing and Roof Tectonics

2GAX APPLIED STUDIES // ELBPHILHARMONIE FACADE TRANSFORMATION

Solar-protection/thermal Glazing Window 8mm Solar-protection/thermal Glazing Window 6mm

Aluminum Frame With Black Durafon Coating In Ral 9005

1 ft

- 01 -

ORIGINAL ENVELOPE

1 ft

1 ft

Glazing Facade Type A Double White Pre-fabricated Concrete Wall Reinforced Concrete Slab With Polish Finish

Reinforced Concrete Slab

Aluminum Covering With Fireproof Spray Concrete Panel Wall Plywood Slab Concrete Pile Thermal Insulation

Aluminum Frame With Black Durafon Coating In Ral 9005

1 ft

1 ft

1 ft

Glazing Facade Type B 124

XIN LIU

10 ft

5 ft

10 ft

10 ft

5 ft

5 ft

5 ft

10 ft

10 ft

01 Columns Strip On The Traditional Warehouse

5 ft

10 ft

5 ft

5 ft 10 ft

10 ft

04 Mounting Connecting Plate For Window Frames

10 ft

02 Constructing Concrete Slabs On The Concrete Conlumns

10 ft

5 ft

5 ft 10 ft

5 ft

5 ft

5 ft

5 ft

10 ft

03 Constructing Roof Grid Structure

10 ft 5 ft 10 ft

10 ft

05 Installing Prefabricated Window Panels.

5 ft

5 ft

10 ft

Assembly Process

- 01 -

06 Constructing Roof Memebrane, Sequins And Sub-structures.

Silicone Setting Blocks

Aluminum Frame With Black Durafon Coating In Ral 9005 1 ft

Solar-protection/thermal Glazing 6mm Solar-protection/thermal Glazing Window 8mm 1 ft

1 ft

1 ft

1 ft

Vertical Mullions

1 ft

Horizontal Mullions 125

ORIGINAL ENVELOPE

10 ft

5 ft

5 ft

10 ft

- 02 -

TRANSFORMED ENVELOPE

2GAX APPLIED STUDIES // ELBPHILHARMONIE FACADE TRANSFORMATION

2 ft 1 ft

2 ft

1 ft

1 ft

Main Chunk 126

2 ft

XIN LIU Cage Structure With Standoffs For Acrylic Panels

Vertical Fin Support Columns

Connector Slots Support Columns Connector

Aluminum Glass Mullion With Rubber Gaskets

2 ft

Steel Framed System

1 ft

UV Resistant Acrylic Sheeting

1 ft 2 ft

TRANSFORMED ENVELOPE

2 ft

Glazing Facade Type A Curved Acrylic Glasses

Connector Slots Vertical Fin Support Columns

Glass Railing With Aluminum Handrail Horizontal Steel Sub-Frames

Steel Attachment With Hollow Aluminum Blade Holders

2 ft

Glass Louver Blades

1 ft

Gradient Chromatic Dots

1 ft

1 ft

2 ft

Steel Grabbers 2 ft

Glazing Facade Type B Vertical Lourver Panels 127

- 02 -

1 ft

2GAX APPLIED STUDIES // ELBPHILHARMONIE FACADE TRANSFORMATION

Vertical Fin Support Columns Aluminum Glass Mullion With Rubber Gaskets Aluminum Glass Mullion With Rubber Gaskets

Vertical Fin Support Columns

Glass Railing With Handrail

Connector Slots

Steel Profiles

Aluminum Glass Mullion With Rubber Gaskets Sill Inlay Weather Seal

Solid Security Bar Steel Attachment With Hollow Aluminum Blade Holders Gradient Chromatic Dots

- 02 -

TRANSFORMED ENVELOPE

Glass Louver Blade

Glass Louver Blade Vertical Fin Support Columns Aluminum Glass Mullion With Rubber Gaskets

Steel Profiles

Connector Slots

Aluminum Glass Mullion With Rubber Gaskets Sill Inlay Weather Seal Steel Attachment With Hollow Aluminum Blade Holders

Detailed Tectonics 128

Steel Profiles Support Columns Connector Sill Inlay Weather Seal

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04 02

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Exploded Assembly

01. UV Resistant Acrylic Sheeting 02. Glass Louver Blades 03. Steel Attachment & Profiles With Hollow Aluminum Blade Holders 04. Cage Structure With Standoffs For Acrylic Panels 05. Oak Wood Plank Flooring 06. Steel Framed Flooring System With W18 I-beam Secondary Structure 129

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06

Parametrical Control Single Unit - 02 -

TRANSFORMED ENVELOPE

2GAX APPLIED STUDIES // ELBPHILHARMONIE FACADE TRANSFORMATION

Combinatorial Apertures and Patterns Continuity Across Different Facade Units 130

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PANELS AT THE FACADE UNITS

OPTIMIZED EXACT SAME PANELS FOR MASS PRODUCTION

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01. PREFABRICATION IN FACTORY

02. ASSEMBLY META-COMPONENTS

03. CONSTRUCTION IN SITE

Prefabrication Process 131

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Rationalization and Optimization of Vertical Panels

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THE PHYSICAL MODEL

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THE PHYSICAL MODEL

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Writing

Ideology, Technology and Formalism

Studio HT2201 Theories of Contemporary Architecture 2 SCI-Arc Location Los Angeles, United States Instructor Erik Ghenoiu Teaching Fellow Marko Icev Spring 2019 136

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I

n the 1990s, the emerging technology of computer graphics provided new toolsets for architects and influenced the theory of formalism. Especially, Greg Lynn’s writings - from Folds, Bodies and Blobs, and Animate Form, to Intricacy shaped the understanding of the free form for the new generation of architects in the digital age. In this evolutionary process, how have ideology, techniques, and forms affected each other? This article will explore the relationship and impact between the three with a specific focus on Lynn’s work, as well as try to answer the question: when technology can achieve most of our purposes, what the architect’s attitude toward technology should be.

Deleuze’s folding concept influenced Lynn’s thinking about formal generation logic and his proposal of the concept of Blob.

Deleuze believes that there are two ways of movement in everything: folding in and

out. They are not opposite, but different. In the difference, a thing can derive multiple things, which is a process of evolution with each state being an extension of the previous state. Folding is the notion used

by Deleuze to criticize the theory of binary opposition and to elaborate on the ideas of difference in order to promote the continuity in time and space. In terms of the formal logic of folds, Lynn emphasizes that the key is the variability and continuity brought by the generative process, rather than the formal appearance.1 It is logic, not a style. From philosophy to architecture, this process reflects how ideology influenced ideology across subjects.

The technology of computer graphics and the development of philosophy ideology influenced Lynn’s proposal of Animate Form.

Generative logic of folds involves dynamic changes. Lynn pointed out that the essence of animation lies in the evolution of form and

1 Greg Lynn, Folds, Bodies, Blobs: Collected Essays, (La Lettre volée, Bruxelles, 1998)

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plasticity instead of movement and action which associate with motion. Before Greg Lynn, there are two modes of architectural experiments in capturing motion: one is superimposition, which means a series of instances of the object are captured and superimposed simultaneously into the same space to constitute transcripts of time; another is phenomenology transparency, that is, the process of formal operation is traced and imprinted on surfaces. In both models, although the form is considered to be motion, it is only a concept attached to the object by the observer. Since the building is not moving, what does animate mean for Greg Lynn? As Deleuze mentioned: “difference drives changes.”

For architecture, Lynn described that differences are generated by external forces which are any conditions in the context such as the flow of people or traffic, weather factors, or abstract forces. There is some movement or vector forces at the position of bending, but this does not necessarily require the building to move. Regarding the technical aspect, the process involves key concepts from 3d animation software: topology, time and parameter. Topology solves why the form can be deformed; time is the axis where the deformation iteration occurs; and parameters control internal and external factors to determine how the deformation occurs.2 Animate form embodies Bergson’s philosophical views - matter cannot be separated from the formation process - and reflects how both ideological and technical concepts can

2 Greg Lynn, Animate Form, (Princeton Architectural Press, 1999) 3 Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory, (New York: Penguin Press, 2016) 4 Greg Lynn, Claudia Gould, Intricacy, (ICA Philadelphia, 2003)

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shape a formal system.3 The 2003 exhibition Intricacy shifted Lynn’s focus from ideology and technology to mass production models. In Lynn’s Embryologic House project, he explored the concept of mass production customization. By adjusting the parameters during the form generation process, the computer can generate a large number of forms based on the same logic, resulting in diversity on output forms.4 This process embodies how technological logic and formal systems can influence ideas.

For Lynn, he has been constructing cultural needs and content for digital technology, and they are systematic. Spatially, the precise and predictable Cartesian coordinate system is brought to a chaotic and unpredictable simulation environment, and time is introduced. Aesthetically, he focuses on logic rather than actual form. In terms of methodology, the computer acts as a tool to generate design. These together reflect Lynn’s attitude toward technology that technology is not an aid to design, but a logic that directly affects the form.

His research demonstrates the possibility of formalism that is jointly promoted by systematic methods and ideas.

Greg Lynn’s ideology has impacted both practice and discourse of formalism in architecture. In terms of practice, simulation tools are used extensively in the design process. Take the example of Winton Gallery

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by Zaha Hadid Architects, their statement said: “Conceived as a wind tunnel for the largest object in the gallery... space follows the lines of airflow around it in a stunning display of imagined aerodynamics”.5 The floor layout is influenced by the airflow, and the form of the illumination installation around the airplane is the explicit visualization of aerodynamics. Regarding the discourse, Lynn’s research methodology - external reference - impacted on architect approaches. For instance, inspired by the notion “big flat now” in the age of the internet, software designer Damjan developed a platform Sandbox - a design platform for quick volume bashing - as a response to content creation automation.6 Greg Lynn’s external reference is technology and philosophical ideology, while Damjan’s external reference is the global cultural context.

Jose Sanchez developed a digital platform The Polyomino with material constraints and pre-writing code for quick alignment to explore the combinatorial possibilities;7 Yaohua Wang’s workflow involves inventing and organizing a family of figures and giving meanings to form.8 In these processes, ideas, techniques, and forms influence each other and limit each other, reflecting the respect for technical and instrumental logic and limitations in the process of formal generation and manipulation.

Lynn’s research shows how technology provides a way for formal manipulation. His attitude toward technology has influenced one of the current design methodologies, which is people no longer pay attention to what form to make, but focus on the logic of the formal generation. The form he produced in the past reflected the limits that technology could achieve at the time. In recent years, technology products have become more and more easy to be mastered and manipulated by architects.

Based on this, many architects have shifted from sculpting form to designing tools and workflows to generate form. For instance,

5 Zaha Hadid Architects, Mathematics: The Winton Gallery, (2016), https://www.archdaily.com/801031/mathematics-the-winton-gallery-zaha-hadid-architects 6 Damjan Jovanovic, “Content Policy: Something Weird, Automatically and at Scale”, Offramp 15: Stuff, (Spring/Summer 2018), https://offramp.sciarc.edu/articles/content-policy 7 Jose Sanchez, “Combinatorial design: Non-parametric computational design strategies”, ACADIA 2016: POSTHUMAN FRONTIERS: Data, Designers, and Cognitive Machines, (2016): 44-53 8 Yaohua Wang, studio3 EXARCH M VO WS16/17. (2017), https://vimeo.com/205856526

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Writting

Different Approaches to Discreteness in Creating Built Environment

Studio Facts & Fictions 2GAX HT2200 Theories of Contemporary Architecture I SCI-Arc Location Los Angeles, United States Instructors Marcelyn Gow, Timothy Ivison Fall 2018 141

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The discrete came into architecture from two directions: computational principles and philosophical idea. (Trotter, 2019) There was a hope for the future how machines and technologies and new ways of thinking could liberate the formal ambitions. Since inception, architecture has struggled with the problem of putting together discrete elements to produce an illusion of continuity, and it spans from millennia to the most recent century. Architects lay the generic elements, such as bricks, to ultimately produce some illusion of the continuous like a curved wall. The current generation of architects are taking a hardcore step at the problem of computation, but the method of computation is discrete. There are several architects, designers, theorists practicing with focusing on the notion of discrete.

Based on their approaches, these practices may be divided into four categories: mereology, in which Daniel Koehler, Jose Sanchez, and Gilles Retsin’s work is involved; discrete data in computing, on which Casey Rehm is focusing; objectoriented ontology, at which Mark Foster Gage is looking at; and flat ontology, on which Tom Wiscombe’s work is mainly based. This paper aims to provide an introduction of their thoughts, researches, and possible philosophical origins, as well as to look at how these different approaches are applied to specific design projects.

Daniel Koehler

Mereological Urban Design Daniel Koehler’s work investigates in the field of aggregative architecture, 142

combinatorial ontologies and their possible upscaling and implication on urban design.

Regarding the notion of discrete, he refers to the representation of an entity in objectoriented programming. He points out that “the term discrete leans on the concept of encapsulation, which in its consequence defines an object as an interface between an internal description and its external access.

(Koehler, 2017) Internally, an entity is described as a pattern existing in stable relation to its properties, abilities, and methods. On the other hand, externally an entity is defined by the kind of access to its resources and abilities through other objects.” (Gamma, 1995) Instead of specific content, interfaces are formulated by a protocol which filters, group and nests. (Garcia, 2014) Take the example of freight containers; they are all designed with the same corner casting and twist lock. As interfaces under the same protocol, these shared features make sure the shipping containers could be globally coordinated, stacked and aligned. This mereological relationship provides a bottom-to-up way for architectural consideration. With specific protocols, small architectural units could be combined to create a larger scale aggregative architectural composition or urban design.

An example of this is the design project “Wa/onderYards” carried out by Chen Chen, Li Genmao, and Zixuan Wang. (Chen, Chen, Genmao Li, 2017) This project started by sampling the smallest parts from existing buildings at the scale between urban and architecture. These samples have digital descriptions in order to assume different performances depending on part-conditions. For instance, one of the samples could be mutually considered as courtyards and as compositions of stairs,

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windows, and floors. The dimensions of these samples are not constrained, but flexible, allowing greater flexibility in larger arrangements. The second step is arranging these parts. Mereological condition between two samples is used to formally describe common attributes of buildings such as floor connectivity, privacy, access. In order to arrange parts, the methods of assembly with point-to-point connections were chosen, and rigid body simulation was involved. The advantages of the latter include physical awareness thanks to collision detection and reduction of conceptual dependencies.

(Koehler, 2017) Beginning with the sampling of parts, the translation, and the extension of parts, mereological design can achieve accurate and diverse compositions through a careful mixing of different terms. Daniel Koehler’s research shows how complexities of compositions can be articulated with the metrological approach and their potential at the urban scale.

Jose Sanchez

Combinatorial Design While Jose Sanchez is also interested in the combinatorial design as Denial Koehler, his approach pays more attention to the differentiation through patterns instead of parts, and his work ranges from architecture to game design. Jose Sanchez defines combinatorial design as non-parametric design strategies that focus on the permutation, combination, and patterning of discrete units. (Sanchez, 2016) The past decades have seen the rapid development of parametric design from design techniques to a form of architectural style as elevated

by Patrik Schumacher. (Schumacher, 2011). With the consideration of strategies of serial repetition, the substantial difference between combinatorial design and parametric design is that the former does not operate under continuous number evaluations, intervals or ratios which are infinite but rather finite discrete sets.

Regarding part-to-whole relations, he emphasizes that the combinatorial design creates the generating system, which is “a kit of parts with rules about the way these parts may be combined,” instead of a “system as a whole” which focuses on holistic properties (Sanchez, 2016) An example of the former is the electronic DIY toy Braun Lectron while that of the latter is the Jigsaw Puzzle. For the latter one, every single unit is different with each other, resulting in unique topologies; while what combinatorial design strategy want to generate is a system where differentiation is achieved by rearrangement of finite units. This is what Jose calls: patterning. (Sanchez, 2016) Starting from the definition and individuation of parts, combinatorial design strategy describes an open-ended series of relations with between parts. The aggregation of parts generates assemblies on a larger scale. The configuration corresponding to different functions and performances. The resulted open-ended system is always remaining at a temporary state and allows for the replacement of parts within it. For a more precise understanding, the game “Block’hood” he developed is exemplarily shown. Block’hood is a city building simulation video game where players are going to build structures 143

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2GAX HT2200 Theories of Contemporary Architecture I

out of a catalog of more than 200 blocks to envision a neighborhood. (Sanchez) Regardless of the goal in the aspect of gaming, players are invited to create various configurations made of finite discrete units: block. Different configurations result in different functions and performances, such as the population or the consumption and production of resources. Like the logic of object-oriented programming, these blocks have certain inputs and outputs, and the blocks with insufficient required input will slowly decay and deteriorate to the point of collapse. This protocol-like feature makes sure the geometrically same cubic blocks are topologically different. Using game platform also allows multi-user participation to crowdsource patterns with collective intelligence. (Sanchez, 2016) Combinatorial design strategies provide not only affordable means of production, reduces the hierarchy of the creators, but also output open-ended, shareable and contingent propositions.

Gilles Retsin

Discrete Architecture in the Age of Automation Concerning fabrication, both parametric design and combinatorial design strategy can generate serial repetition of discrete units. As mentioned before, however, the units created by the former way are unique to each other. In order to establish the parametrical continuous overall form, digital fabrication methods like laser cutting, 3d printing, and robot arms are needed to produce parts. However, all these parts come into the world at the last minute of 144

the design-fabrication process, and they have no role in the design process. Though they are parts of a whole, they have no importance in the system, and they merely act as a kind of domestication of the whole.

Most of the current generation of digital architecture is based on the notion of mass customization. (Retsin, 2018) Gilles is interested in how to reintroduce discreetness into the design process and how this design approach can be developed with automation to increase the efficiency of mass production. As he mentioned: “Increased computational capabilities are able to push the modernist understanding of architecture as an assemblage of prefabricated, discrete elements into an unexpected new domain of previously unachievable detail, materiality, structure and aesthetics while remaining accessible and economic.” (Retsin, 2018) This is exemplified in work “ROBLOX” undertaken by Research Cluster 4 at the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture in London where Gilles is the program director. (Garcia, 2018)

This process assembles Lego-like same building blocks into complex forms. Rather than using a robot to crafty a complicated form with different elements, the complexity emerges from the combination of simple building blocks. In the beginning, a single tile is generated from seven regular triangles and extruded with the same length of the side, allowing it can be tessellated with itself. With a combinatorial rule, two same tiles are combined to test different topologies. Meta-tiles, which have the same

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Casey Rehm

Extensive Computing through Discretization of Data While Casey Rehm is also harnessing the power of computing like Daniel Koehler, Jose Sanchez, and Gilles Retsin, his research and practice are more extensive, as described by him as Extensive Computing though Discretization of Data. (Rehm, 2016) The term data here could refer to, i.e. pixel, voxel, agent. Like object-oriented programming,

the basic idea is that any given data is seen as discrete objects. Either in 2d or 3d, these data are manipulated discreetly to meet specific requirements. A notable example of its application in 2d is his ongoing research “Narcissism of Small Differences,” where pixels with certain properties, such as brightness, saturation or hue value, of a digital image are manipulated by adding, removing, duplicating or drawing strokes along certain directions, resulting in misappropriation and glitchy subversion effects. (Rehm) This application in architecture is further exemplified in the design project “Engagement DTLA” by Xin Liu and Manying Wang at SCI-Arc where Casey is the instructor.

Engagement DTLA, as a conceptual project, is a high-density aggregative housing for young artists in downtown Los Angeles which features dynamic LED facades and acting as an interface between city and individuals. It is located in a narrow gap, where currently there is a small plaza, between the Broad Museum and a residential apartment, the Emerson LA. High-density modular housing units allow buildings to be produced and assembled faster and cheaper. The LED facade is a dynamic interface which not only shapes the interior spaces but also displays young artists’ work for the public. It redefines the relationship between architecture and city, the limitation of interior and exterior spaces, the boundary of publicity and privacy, as well as the connection of daily life and public display. While there are no artworks on the LED façade, the dynamic texture becomes manipulation of the context, which allows the building to 145

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topological geometry as the tiles but at a larger modular scale, is then generated by the tiles. Like a fractal, this tile to meta-tile relation makes sure that any forms, in any scales, can be archived by combinations of the same single tiles. Subsequently, architectural elements such as slabs, columns, and stairs are generated with the help of automation process associated with structural optimization in the digital environment. These digital tiles can be assembled with a robot in an easy pick and place manner. Compared with 3d printing, which is a kind of customization, the assembly is inherently faster, and it reduces the cost as well as maintains a high level of formal complexity. At the same time, it also allows for different materiality. For instance, a tile can be made of solid timber, compression molded plastics, extruded plastics or metal wires. Whit the thinking of the building cycle, discrete architecture with the power of automation will allow the building materials to be recycled and reused while the continuous system with mass customization such as cast concrete or 3d printing does not.

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disguise in the urban environment. At the same time, it neither conflict nor harmony with the context. The discretization of data could be articulated in three aspects: 2d texture manipulation; the combination of 3d architectural modules; and the projection of the textures onto the whole building. First, the single pixel of the digital photos of the contextual building facades is the discrete data. , and selected pixels in a column or a row are sorted based on illuminance value from low to high or vice versa. Second, the single unit is as discrete data during the combination process. The component is created by rotating three same units along the XYZ axis, which means the geometry is entirely symmetrical. Therefore, they can be connected with each other regardless of the orientations. Different spatial compositions to fulfill different functions could be formed by rotating and moving themselves. The discreetness of these units allows the building to self-grown from a single unit and to adapt to limitless possibilities in the future. Last but not least, the manipulated textures and the aggregation of units are discrete entities. The texture is projected to the building from the same direction as the façade of the source building while regardless the orientation of the building itself, resulting in continuity across internal discrete parts as well as reduction of the distinct discreteness between cartesian geometries.

Mark Gage Foster

Object-oriented Ontology or the Value of Architecture at Present 146

In addition to mereology and computing, which are mainly acting as certain ways for design practicing, there is another approach, object-oriented ontology, which is mainly referred to argue the value of architecture as a discipline. Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO), a philosophical theory that belongs to one of the most discussed schools of thought during the current decade, speculative realism, which emerged about ten years ago. The reason architects started looking at object-oriented ontology is that we realized that architecture was starting to be justified because of its narrative, not because of its qualities, as stated by Mark Foster Gage. (Romo-Melgar, Carlos, 2018) This notion is interested in looking at objects for their qualities instead of their relationships. This notion against the idea that, for instance, says architecture is good because it looks like a bird; architecture is good because it is accessible for elderly; architecture is good because it has LEED certificate. Instead, architecture is good because its qualities that be produced.

This notion may be misunderstood as an opposition of parametricism since the latter places more importance on relationships while the former does not. (Gage, 2015) However, it is just an after effect. Regardless of the way how a work of architecture is generated, OOO focuses on the qualities of the final result as its own existence.

Regarding the term object, Harman explains that “An object is any unified entity, whether it has a reality in the world or only in the mind” (Gage, 2015). Considering the material practice of architecture, the equation of object with physical building could be a start point. (Gage, 2015) Attempts to examine an object-building through its external

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A well-known example with a tight bond with OOO is Mark Foster Gage Architects’ proposal for Guggenheim Museum. This project was designed to be constructed from randomly downloaded objects which have no intentional relationship with each other or with the external symbol. Through the kitbashing of components, which is a practice extensively used in entertainment design for quick iteration, the individual figures are intended to lose their meaning or symbolism and archive their value by sole existence. The result can be read at the various level of details, having a quality of vastness as described by Gage. (Gage) Considering OOO, any relational alibis are not involved in the design of this project.

However, one may ask why OOO is vital to architecture. The crisis of architecture lies in its intricate external relationships - socially, politically, technically, and environmentally. In the 21st century, with the fast pace of the worlds of technology, fashion, and entertainment, put aside all kinds of relationships, what is left in

architecture? In the final part of the paper, Gage writes: “This would free architecture from its invisible servitude as equipment designed for a functional solution to a limited set of perceived problems, thus allowing the discipline to engage in higher orders of speculation about how we might exist in a future that promises to be continually reconfigured by perpetual technological innovation.” (Gage, 2015) Architecture should give value to itself and leave external issues to be solved mainly by corresponding disciplines. It does not mean that the external economic, social, or political engagement with architecture has no value, but to say that they are considered as additional qualities rather than defining factors.

Tom Wiscombe

Flat Ontology While under the same philosophical idea of ontology, compared with the work of Mark Foster Gage, Tom Wiscombe’s work involves in a design approach described by him as Flat Ontology. Commonly, different elements of a work of architecture are treated with a hierarchy. Some elements are less important than others, and one is dependent on another, resulting in a subdivision relationship. For instance, the form of floor slabs is dependent on the initial mass, and the façade frame is dependent on the floor slabs, as well as the glazing system is dependent on the frame.

Parts are subordinated to the whole. The difference is expressed as a continuous variation. However, flat ontology refers to the autonomy of a project is archived by 147

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relations, even its relation to context, which first referred by Harman for object, then adopted by Gage for architecture, could be described as overmining, undermining and duomining. (Gage, 2015) In architecture, an example of undermine could be saying that a building uses recycled materials and have LEED certificate; examples of overmining could be either saying that a building is validated via their participation in urban context and social constructs or describe a building with a “big idea”, a “concept”, or a graphical diagram; and duomining is where both happen.

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2GAX HT2200 Theories of Contemporary Architecture I

equally but differently articulate different entities such as mass, interior, ground, and tectonics. The difference exists within the things themselves. Interiority is reinforced by giving interior objects the formal independence from the outer mass; mass and ground are separated, resulting in that mass are no longer contingent on the literal ground; surface articulation is released from total alignment with its underlying form, creating tension between them. The form is generated in four dimensions. In order to make clearer understanding, specific design strategies can be divided into three subgroups according to Wiscombe - “Objects Wrapped in Objects,” “Hovering and Ground Objects,” and ‘Tattoos’ – and particular examples are provided as follows. (Wiscombe, 2015)

Regarding the nested object, the relations between the container and contents are plastic. The latter is always partially revealed to outside, resulting in a separation between exteriority and interiority. Take the example of Sunset Spectacular in Los Angeles; the inner sculptural object can only be glimpsed briefly from outside.

Concerning the relations between building mass and ground, buildings are detached from the ground is based on an idea of ‘allowing the landscape to flow underneath,’ which strengthen the discreteness of the building from the world. A notable example is National Center for Contemporary Arts in Moscow where the mass is intersected with the ground plane, and the corners of the ground plane are bent up to distinguish it from the urban context, i.e., the world.

‘Tattoo’ is a rhetorical term used to describe surface articulation. Le Corbusier assumes 148

it is hierarchically below mass however Wiscombe believes surface articulation is a particular statement of autonomy and can significantly contribute to the tectonics of architecture, not technically, but culturally and aesthetically. For example, in the project Kinmen Port Terminal at Taiwan, the envelope is characterized by abstraction of the pattern of local brickwork. According to Marrikka Trotter, the entities in Wiscombe’s work ‘attain a level of discreteness via a discontinuous process of internal lag.’ (Trotter, 2019)

Conclusion The present study was designed to provide an overall introduction of different approaches of discrete and how they are specifically involved in architectural practice and research. The results of this investigation show that the discrete came into architecture from two directions: computational principles and philosophical ideas. For the former, Daniel Koehler took the mereological approach to investigate how an urban scale complex composition could be an element of architectural scale units; Jose Sanchez took the combinatorial design strategies to investigate the way how collective intelligence can participate in open-ended design process; Gilles Retsin envisions discrete architecture in the age of automation with consideration of efficiency and ecology; and Casey Rehm is doing extensive computing through discretization of data, providing a fresh way for cultural practice and a kind of new aesthetics.

For the latter division, Mark Gage Foster questioning the value of architecture at its

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most dangerous era and trying to answer it by focusing on the mere qualities instead of external relations; and Tom Wiscombe is practicing with the approach flat ontology to elements of an architecture equally in order to develop new aesthetic qualities.

Bibliography

Gage, Mark Foster. “Architecture That Challenges Your Concept of Realit.” Speech.

Accessed December 19, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v5hmQt57lc.

Gage, Mark Foster. “Killing Simplicity: Object-Oriented Philosophy In Architecture.” Log, Winter 2015, 95-106.

Gamma, Erich. Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-oriented Software.

Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1995.

Garcia, Manuel Jimenez, Gilles Retsin, and Vicente Soler. “RC4 - Roblox.” Vimeo.

December 18, 2018. Accessed December 19, 2018. https://vimeo.com/244329087.

Garcia, Tristan, Mark Allan Ohm, and Jon Cogburn. Form and Object a Treatise on Things.

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014.

Koehler, Daniel. “The City as an Element of Architecture - Discrete Automata as an Outlook beyond Bureaucratic Means.” ECAADe 2017 : Proceedings of the 35th International Conference on Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe 1 (2017): 523-32.

Rehm, Michael Casey. “Research: Narcissism of Small Differences.” Research: Narcissism of Small Differences - Studio Kinch. Accessed December 19, 2018. http://kinch-d.com/ Research-Narcissism-of-Small-Differences.

Rehm, Michael Casey. “Discreet.” Lecture, December 19, 2018.

Retsin, Gilles. “In Part Mereological.” Lecture. Accessed December 19, 2018. https:// cargocollective.com/ecometadiscreteparts.

Retsin, Gilles. “Bits & Pieces: Discrete Architecture.” Lecture. December 12, 2018.

Accessed December 19, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfWrPd2Klv8.

Romo-Melgar, Carlos. “Nobody Would Visit Paris If It Looked Like Dallas – Carlos RomoMelgar – Medium.” Nobody Would Visit Paris If It Looked Like Dallas – Carlos RomoMelgar – Medium. August 05, 2018. Accessed December 19, 2018. https://medium. com/@c31913/nobody-would-visit-paris-if-it-looked-like-dallas-696e7a403035.

Sanchez, Jose. “The Promiscuous Recombination of Parts.” Lecture. 2016. Accessed December 19, 2018. https://cargocollective.com/ecometadiscreteparts.

Sanchez, Jose. “Block’hood.” Plethora Project. Accessed December 19, 2018. https:// www.plethora-project.com/blockhood.

Sanchez, Jose. “Combinatorial Design: Non-parametric Computational Design Strategies.” ACADIA 2016 POSTHUMAN FRONTIERS: Data, Designers, and Cognitive Machines: Projects Catalog of the 36th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture, October 22, 2016, 44-53.

Schumacher, Patrik. The Autopoiesis of Architecture: A New Agenda for Architecture.

Chichester: Wiley, 2011.

Seward, Aaron. “Q&A with Mark Foster Gage and Patrik Schumacher.” Texas Architect Magazine. July 10, 2017. Accessed December 19, 2018. https://magazine. texasarchitects.org/2017/07/06/qa-mark-foster-gage-patrik-schumacher/.

Trotter, Marrikka. “The Discrete Charm of the Glitch.” In AD Discrete: Reappraising the Digital in Architecture, edited by Gilles Retsin. 2019.

Wiscombe, Tom, and Josh Freese. “None More Black.” In Hatch: On the State of Quick Images, 75-105.

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Chen, Chen, Genmao Li, and Zixuan Wang. “BPro Bartlett RC8 W(A)OnderYard Design Portfolio.” BPro Bartlett RC8 W(A)OnderYard Design Portfolio. August 29, 2017. Accessed December 19, 2018. https://issuu.com/benochen/docs/portfolio1.

Photography Series

Cities and Deserts — A Visual Essay on a China’s “Stillborn” City after a Decade —

Photography Series

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O

This photographic project is still ongoing.

Featured in Underscore Vol.05 Money 153

- 01 -

After a decade since the first report that called it a modern ghost town, and since the beginning of the Ordos 100 project, I visited the city for a few days and noticed a hybrid and contradictory situation not as pointed out by previous reports as a typical dead city. There is a substantial population there, as well as a considerable number of daily tourists who were visiting public buildings such as the Ordos Museum by MAD. At the same time, numerous area in the city looked “perfect” but had a little number of people in the “image.” The city is more like an urban painting rather than urban planning. The facilities and infrastructures, even the amusement park rides looked brand-new, but they were randomly scattered because nobody was managing or operating them. The CBD area, where weeds have grown from the seams of plaza tiles, and skyscrapers only have facade completed, had an office of a Chinese bank which was operating. The reasons, economically, politically or culturally, behind these situations are complex. This photograph series is as a documentary of the phenomenal after a decade as an update. It consists of two parts: Cities, which focuses on the “urban painting” and city life; and Deserts, which focuses on the topic “architecture without context” through examining of Ordos 100 project.

STATEMENT

rdos Kangbashi is a new city which was planned and built based on international standards on the barren deserts of China’s Inner Mongolia. It has world-class architecture, international scale stadiums, and brand new housing.

However, this new city soon gained negative reputations as a representative of such as ghost town, or stillborn city. The earliest reports about Ordos Kangbashi may be two stories by an Al Jazeera reporter and a Time Magazine photographer respectively in 2009. After then, this new city soon became a shining example of phenomenons in China such as housing bubbles, bankrupt developers, and local government staff artificially boosting GDP in order to get promoted. Most of the coverage is regarding its lack of people living in the new city; the planning of the city center which is not for human scale; as well as deceptive tricks while operating the city such as commercial office buildings whose facade which have lighting effects are completed resulting vibrant impressions on evening from a distance while its interior is merely brutal structure. At that time, the Ordos 100 project lead by Ai Weiwei and one hundred international architects was also at the center of public opinion. It was supposed to build one hundred different houses, but finally, only five building structures are at the deserts as a result of the negative economic situation of the developer, which was a local water treatment company.

PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES // CITIES AND DESERTS Part I

Cities

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Urban painting rather than urban planning.

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PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES // CITIES AND DESERTS Part II

Deserts

Architecture without context.

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Architecture / Sociology

Cart Supply Depot – Plugin Units System for Homeless People–

Studio Homelessness Charrette Workshop SCI-Arc Location Los Angeles, United States Instructor Damjan Jovanovic In collaboration with Nero He Tools and Techniques Rhinoceros, Cinema 4D

Existing and New Parts

Spring 2019 175

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T

he homeless shopping cart is a concentration of human daily essential products. One’s life is built around this compacted aggregation. Using the cart as a carrier, daily necessities have been ranked by the frequency of use and stacked accordingly in or attached to the cart.

Most of the carts have resources that are attached to the cart, such as card board and thick clothes or blankets. Meanwhile, other items are mostly consumable or replaceable based on daily needs.

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STATEMENT

Here, we are exploring a new typology of a homeless shelter: a motivation-based supply depot. Users could replace their supplies and activate housing units using their mobile furniture which shaped as a cart to create and nurture their own community.

Thus, homeless people are offered choices within certain guide lines.

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A new type of dwelling that is in between of being homeless and housed is incubated. It is a new type of Airbnb with not only people moving but also their “mobile furniture� which is an epitome of their lifestyles moving with them. Users bring their lives to empty housing units and activate them with the idea of being part of the bigger community. This method minimized the role of an architect in a systematic production.

This model is targeting on sloving the emergency problem of people who currently live on the street. By not imposing a specific and limiting dwelling and habitation model, the wills and lifestyles of homeless people are repsected. This model produces incremental options for homeless people to select, handing power to residents themselves to create a cooperative sharing system.

XIN LIU

Water

Toys

Hygiene Items

First Aid Kit

Blankets

Female Hygiene Items

Pillow

Food & Fruits

Garbage Bags

Dog Supplies

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Snacks

Suggestion 01

Suggestion 02

Suggestion 03

Suggestion 04

Standard Kit

Female Kit

Childern Kit

Dog Kit

Customized Supply Package User Guide 177

DESIGN

Socks

HOMELESSNESS CHARRETTE // CART SUPPLY DEPOT

Foldable Awning Can Be Detached To Form A Tent

Interface For Checking Availability Of Local Supply Depot

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Arranged Supply Packages

Mobile Furniture Unit User Guide To a human scale, a special mobile furniture unit is created based on the idea of homeless cart. With guidance, people can freely stack supply packages from a supply depot to their furniture unit based on what they need. The furniture unit is designed to offer a lifestyle with a sense of order if one lives on the street. Also certain feature as electricity and water could be recharged and refilled once the mobile furniture unit is plugged into a housing unit in a supply depot.

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Wires To Unlock Rooms In The Hub And Charge The Cart

Sliding Mat For Sitting And Lying

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Design Makes Packing Easy And Intuitive

HOMELESSNESS CHARRETTE // CART SUPPLY DEPOT

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DESIGN

Moblie Furniture Unit

Moblie Furniture Unit Plugin Track

Housing Unit User Guide To an architecture scale, the mobile furniture unit could use as a key to activate a housing unit in a supply depot. When it is plugged in, the mobile furniture unit is working as a fixed furniture with enhanced function. It gives homeless people a sense of seeking and contributing to their own community. Besides providing new supply packages and housing units, the supply depot also contains different types of public space to enhance the spirit of a community also provide mental and physical supports.

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Moblie Furniture Unit Plugs Into A Housing Unit To Unlock The Door And Activate Electricity, Water, And Heat

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Housing Unit

Sharing Community

Collective Community User Guide To an urban scale, the supply depot is constructed on or in existing structures with a certain range of influence. Ideally, the city could be covered by different depot centers. The main goal is to create an intermedia space for people slowly transitioning from homeless to sheltered condition. With respecting their lifestyle, this program offers them a choice to follow a certain guide line to form their own community with care and support.

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HOMELESSNESS CHARRETTE // CART SUPPLY DEPOT

ASD

Service Map in Downtown Los Angeles 184

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3D Design

The Imagination World of Doraemon – Scalefulness–

Studio IDD 2018 Introduction to Digital Design SCI-Arc Location Los Angeles, United States Instructors Rachael McCall, Jeff Halstead Teaching Assistants Asmaa Abu Assaf, Julia Arnold, Alayna Davidson, Andres Gandara Tools and Techniques Maya, ZBrush, Cinema 4D

Close Up View

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INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL DESIGN // THE IMAGINATION WORLD OF DORAEMON

Main View 188

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Time Machine 190

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Scalefulness Of Characters

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INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL DESIGN // THE IMAGINATION WORLD OF DORAEMON

Doraemon’s Facial Expressions 192

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Nobis’ Residence

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INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL DESIGN // THE IMAGINATION WORLD OF DORAEMON

Lighting Setup to Simulate Studio Environment 194

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Copyright Š 2019 by Xin Liu All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Xin Liu M.Arch Candidate Southern California Institute of Architecture info@liu-xin.com

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