Shengran zheng air studio journal parta 2 (1)

STUDIO AIR Mimesis SHENGRAN ZHENG (DAISY) 2017(SEMESTER 1) TUTOR: CHRISTOPHER FERRIS

CONTENT PART A CONCEPTUALIZATION

PART B

CRITERIA DESIGN

PART C CRITICAL DESIGN

PART A CONCEPTUALIZATION

PART A CONCEPTUALIZATION

A.0 INTRODUCTION A.1 DESIGN FUTURING 1.1 CASE STUDY 1 1.2 CASE STUDY 2

A.2 DESIGN COMPUTATION

2.1 CASE STUDY 1 2.2 CASE STUDY 2

A.3 COMPOSITION GENERATION

3.1 CASE STUDY 1 3.2 CASE STUDY 2

A.4 CONCLUSION A.5 LEARNING OUTCOME A.6 APPENDIX

A.0 INTRODUCTION

I am Daisy, a third year architecture student in Melbourne University.

Through three years study, architecture gradually become part of my life.

In my opinion, Architecture is not only about forms and functions but also about how ideas can shape the world and how to understand the world through different methods. I really enjoy the poetic and dramatic aspects of architecture. Architecture to me is not a cold and static object but a living creature or and dynamic system.

I believe architecture is a complex field. It is about spatial arrangement and organization. It is also about material, emotions, social issues and construction techniques. It allows individuals to have distinctive perception towards to the design and idea.

Earth Studio Final

Water Studio Final

AA visiting school Project

AA visiting school Project

Digital Design and Fabrication Project

Super studio competition

Designers

should become the facilitators of flow -- John Wood

A.1 DESIGN FUTURING As the development of technology and increase of human population, the planet we live in is treated as an infinite resource. Human has significant impact on the Earth’s ecosystem. Our anthropocentric mode has influenced the habitation of all species. Having extractive and materials processing technologies of absolutely enormous capacity coupled with an economy with an insatiable appetite, we are confronting our nemesis – a defuturing condition of unsustainability. 1 Design as a crucial and creative part of human’s world should look forwards to a new sustainable future. The future we discuss here is hard to predict also impossible to pin down.

However, using deign, we can open up all sorts of possibilities that can be discussed, debated and used to collectively define a preferable future, moreover, through those possibilities we can better understand the present. 2 As the lecturer said in class, “Designer should become the facilitators of flow” 3

1, Tony Fry, Design Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics and New Practice (Oxford: Berg, 2008), p. 1-16 2. Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, (2013) Speculative Everything: Design, Fivtion, and Social Dreaming.. (MIT Press) pp. 1-9, 33-45

3. Wood, John (2007). Design for Micro-Utopias: Making the unthinkable possible (Aldershot: Gower)

Image source:http://www.arcspace.com/

A 1.1 CASE STUDY 1 Project: National Aquatic Center (Water Cube) Location: Beijing, China Architect: PTW Architects & CSCEC International & Arup Date: 2008

Water Cube, as known as The National Aquatics Center, is built in 2008 for Beijing Olympic Games. It is a revolutionary and radical design at that time. The structure is made of thousands of geometric cells covered with sustainable ETFE membrane as the façade with high energy efficiency.

The sustainability Water Cube has not only shows in the material and structures, but also the social impact after Olympic Game. With the adaptable and flexible interior structure, the use of Water Cube is changing through the post-Olympic period. Now it is worked as a concert house, Water Park, swimming training center, and even recreation facility for citizen in Beijing. The Water Cube itself become a small city with many different functions, which contribute to its site and the inhabitants living around. It is not only seen as an Olympic stadium but a urban center of Beijing. In 2020, the Water Cube will be redesigned and transform into “Ice Cube” for Beijing Winter Olympic Game. It brings a new question for other design of Olympic Stadium that how the large stadium influence the city after the game.

Using deign, we can open up all sorts of possibilities that can be discussed, debated and used to collectively define a preferable future and through those possibilities we can better understand the present.

(1) In Water Cube, the high adaptive and flexible structure gives more possibilities to future design and reconstruction. People are no longer value Water Cube as its original purpose. The valuation is changing through the development of its potential. In my opinion, good design and should be adaptive, flexible, sustainable and future-orientated.

1.Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, (2013) Speculative Everything: Design, Fivtion, and Social Dreaming.. (MIT Press) pp. 1-9, 33-45

Water Cube reuse and redesign as a water park for the public Image source: http://www.architectweekly.com/2013/06/architect-of-week-arup.html

Water Cube Stadium during Beijing Olympic Games Image source: http://www.architectweekly.com/2013/06/architect-of-week-arup.html

Interdisciplinary studies of the Pavlion Image Source: http://www.archdaily.com/770516/icd-itke-research-pavilion-2014-15-icd-itke-university-of-stuttgart/

A 1.2 CASE STUDY 2 Project: ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion Location: University of Stuttgart, Germany Architect: ICD / ITKE University of Stuttgart Date: 2015

The ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion demonstrates the architectural potential of a novel building method inspired by the underwater nest construction of the water spider. It is a complex form abstracted from nature. Through a novel robotic fabrication process an initially flexible pneumatic formwork is gradually stiffened by reinforcing it with carbon fibers from the inside.1 The ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion is an innovative practical prototype of robotic fabrication, which is a radical construction method. The robot is assembly and scripting by architects and engineers. Similar to the spider, a digital agent navigates the surface shell geometry generating a proposed robot path for the fiber placement. Robotic fabrication is an efficient and adaptive construction method, which influenced architecture industries profoundly.

With the use of robot and computing technique, the construction process could be improved by efficiency and precision. The error during constructing process can be minimized by computing the path and action for robot precise data. Moreover, human can be free from the repetitive labor. Robotic fabrication has influenced the traditional technical workflows of architects and workers.

Not only the construction method applied made the pavilion revolutionary, but also its innovative potential of interdisciplinary research and teaching. The pavilion was developed at the intersection of the two institutes’ research fields, using knowledge from architecture, engineering, computer and natural science. Design is about problem solving. It is becoming clear that many of the challenges we faced today are unfixable and complex. The only way to overcome them is by changing our values, beliefs, attitudes and behavior. (2) Collaborating knowledge and experiment across disciplines can help to solve complex issues and bring new solution to solve problems.

Image source: http://icd.uni-stuttgart.de/?p=12965

1.University of Stuttgart , “ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2014-15”, < http://icd.uni-stuttgart.de/?p=12965 > [accessed 14 March 2017] 2.Dunne, Anthony & Raby, Fiona (2013) Speculative Everything: Design Fiction, and Social Dreaming (MIT Press)

Surely what the world of computation promises is not merely a new style, but a radical new way of approaching design.

---Neil Leach/University of Southern Califonia

A.2 DESIGN COMPUTATION To some extent the term, “parametric”, has become a short hand way of bracketing much digital design that seems to be curvilinear in its aesthetic expression for a new style in architecture. The result forms may look similar, but the techniques for generating them are radically different. 1Design computation is different from computerlization. Design computation is a bottom up design process, which defines the structure by changing individual components and did not know the result at the beginning. Design computation is not only a tool to generate complex forms, but a system and continuity from design to production, from form generation to fabrication and evolve as a medium that supports a continuous logic of design thinking and making. 2

1. Neil Leach and Philip F. Yuan .(2012) Scripting the future (Tongji University Press) P9-P13 2.Oxman, Rivka and Robert Oxman, eds (2014). Theories of the Digital in Architecture (London; New York: Routledge), pp. 1–10

A 2.1 CASE STUDY 1 Project: Wozoco’s apartment Location: Amsterdam Architect: MVRDV Date: 1997

MVRDV has design the Wozoco’s Apartment to solve the problem of high population density in Amsterdam. The “extruded” boxes facade made the apartment unique in appearance and function. Wozoco is a prime example of a specific need for housing in the country, providing answers for needs of their time.

This is a good precedent examples of designers using generative digital tools. The design is challenged by forces and information from social, cultural, political and economic influence. In order to harvest the informational potential of the complexities inherent in various forces and complex web their intersections, MVRDV came up with the concept of “datascape”, which are visual representation of quantifiable forces that could influence and impact the conception and development of design projects. 1 This informational “datascape” affect the design process by help the designers to better understand how complex parameters influence the design and built environment in order to generate better solution and more performative form. The complex spatial envelop and the unique “extruded box” form is generated from the information digital model built by designers.

1.Kolarevic, Branko, Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing (New York; London: Spon Press, 2003) Suggested start with pp. 3-62

Image source:http://www.arcspace.com/features/

Although the project is built 20 years ago, it still valued as a radical architecture and revolutionary attempt now. Nowadays, the problem that designers need to solve become complicate and has no direct answer. The context become more and more complex and intricate. As a result, analyzing parameters that influence the formation of architecture and computing the possibilities with the influential factors can give architecture an open future.

Image source: http://www.archdaily.com/115776/ad-classics-wozoco-mvrdv/

Image souce: http://www.archdaily. com/335887/3-d-printing-protohouse-1-0-andprotohouse-2-0-softkill-design

A 2.2 CASE STUDY 2 Project: ProtoHouse Architect: AA DRL Date: 2015

ProtoHouse is a series projects explored the boundaries of Selective Laser Sintering Technologies by designing a program that “micro-organizes” the printed material through computer algorithms and produces the high-resolution nearfull-scale ProtoHouse 1.0 pictured here. Different from traditional compression-based 3-D printing, which is produced by layered thin layers of material to build up a form, this prototype produces elements that are lightweight, highly defined, modular and compactly scaled for ease of production and assembly. The process embeds a consistent tectonic strategy from the design process through the building process.(1) In this case study, computation technology have been use through both design process and building process. From its design process, the innovated structure is created by analysing the load and support, transforming into “stresslines” through stress calculation and construct the “stresslines” with fine delicate line components.

For the building process, influenced by computation and algorithm, there is no columns and beams in this structure. The structure is working as a whole system instead of traditional grid system with load bearing columns and beams perpendicular to each other. It reveals that computation has the potential to proceed new spatial system and develop a consistent tectonic strategy from the design process through the building process.

Computation and new material technology influenced both design process and building process with deep algorithmic logic and analyse.

Referring to week one about sustainable architecture, design computation should explore more possibilities in aesthetic, structural, material and construction aspects and collaborate all the aspects to an integral and performative design, instead of creating an aesthetic expression for a new style in architecture.(2)

1. Irina, Vinnitskaya, “3-D Printing ProtoHouse 1.0 and ProtoHouse 2.0/Softkill Design “, Archdaily, (2015),< http://www.archdaily.com/335887/3-d-printing-protohouse-1-0and-protohouse-2-0-softkill-design > [accessed 14 March 2017] 2.. Oxman, Rivka and Robert Oxman, eds (2014). Theories of the Digital in Architecture (London; New York: Routledge), pp. 1–10

Image souce: http://www.archdaily.com/335887/3-d-printing-protohouse-1-0-and-protohouse-2-0-softkill-design

Picture of the Turning Pavilion Image source: http://www.biothing.org/?p=449

A.3 GENERATION/COMPOSITION Generation has become a new way of composing architecture. In the Peter suggested that we are moving from an era where architects use software to architects create the software.1 Computation tool are not only a tool to realize architecture, but also to generate architecture by algorithm and rule. With the development of architectural algorithm, we can see through the architecture to its essence and rebuilt the architecture from the start.

The traditional ways of design, construction and fabrication will be challenged.

Peter claims computation tools should not be a new tool to generate unusual forms or expression, but should be integrated as intuitive and natural way to design. Computation is a way to of testing new possibilities of design process and design method, not only a tool of rendering a complex form create by architects.

1. Peters, Brady. (2013) â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Computation Works: The Building of Algorithmic Thoughtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, Architectural Design, 83, 2, pp. 08-15

Image source: https://thefunambulistdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/trabeculae28529.jpg

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Image source: https://thefunambulistdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/trabeculae28129.gif

A 3.1 CASE STUDY 1 Project: Trabeculae Architect: Supermanoeuvre Date: 2013

Image source: https://thefunambulistdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/trabeculae28429.jpg

Trabeculae is project design by Supermanoeuvre. It is defined as projects, research and teaching which aimed to generate architectures related to variable “social, cultural and ecological” parameters. Replacing the traditional normative flat floor surface, a branching system actively seeks out those areas within the zoning envelope with greatest access to daylight. The forking and swelling structure is in response to the algorithm of varying light conditions. In the atrium, a second order proliferation of the same system at a finer scale develops a structural mesh work - ---the trabeculae. The swellings part forms the meeting, bridges, and communication stairs as well as supporting the atrium glazing. (1)

Traditionally, architecture is defined by grid system, which is a composition of floors and columns. However, in Teabeculae, we can see form is generated from the computation that computing protosynthesis process with algorithm, which challenge the traditional idea of composition and also challenge the grid system with the dynamic atrium blurring the boundary of levels. Generation is a bottom up process that affecting the complex outcome using simple rules (2), in this case study, the rules of light condition affecting the forking and swelling of structure and the shift from composition to generation is by algorithm and computation.

This case study is a great example of the shift from composition to generation. An application of the protosynthesis algorithm in this project embraces the specific heterogeneity of a given scenario. (3) With generation and bottom-up design process, architecture could evolve into a more performative structure and provide more possibilities and opportunities regenerate as system instead of a simple assembly of component.

1. 3 Dave Pigram, “TRABECULAE/PROTOSYNTHESIS BY SUPERMANOEUVRE”, The Funambulist, 2013< https://thefunambulist.net/architectural-projects/trabeculaeprotosynthesis-by-supermanoeuvre > [accessed 14 March 2017] 2. Peters, Brady. (2013) ‘Computation Works: The Building of Algorithmic Thought’, Architectural Design, 83, 2, pp. 08-15

A 3.2 CASE STUDY 2 Project: Turning pavilion Architect: AA DRL & Biothing Date: 2012

Turning pavilion is an experimental project explored

by AA DRL and Biothing. The theoretical start point of the pavilion is reaction-diffusion algorithm. The pavilion is implemented with a reaction-diffusion algorithm (Belousov-Zhabotinsky reation), where points in a grid configuration interact with each of their neighbors. This interaction constitutes a non-linear chemical oscillator where each point transfers and receives chemical data. Chemical data as an additional information of our point cloud represented graphically as color. This was implemented as a 2D algorithm that would extend upwards in space. (1)

This project has shown the variation and mutations which could be achieved by reaction-diffusion algorithm. The generation process of Turning Pavilion provide itself the potential to rearrange and interact overtime, because it is generated from the interaction between points and neighbors at the start point. With computation method, we can zoom the structure and material into points and set the rules of its generation to create more innovative geometries and forms. It cannot be achieved by simply assembly the classic geometries and materials we have. Only by abandoning traditional way of composition and representation can we address the question of complexity and specificity in architecture. (2) Nowadays, we shouldn’t see architecture as a static composition, instead, it should be a dynamic system that can rearrange and interact overtime achieving by computation and algorithm.

1.Alisa Andrasek , Jose Sanchez, “////TURNING PAVILION”, Biothing.org, <http://www.biothing.org/?p=449> [accessed 14 March 2017] 2. Jose Sanchez, Scripting Geometries: Beyond Geometry, (2012 Tongji University Press) P181-P185 3. Peters, Brady. (2013) ‘Computation Works: The Building of Algorithmic Thought’, Architectural Design, 83, 2, pp. 08-15

Image source: http://www.biothing.org/?p=449

Architects now are moving from an era where architects use software to architects create the software.

(3) Computation tool are not only a tool to realize architecture, but also to generate architecture by algorithm and rule.

Generation process Image source: http://www.biothing.org/?p=449

Protohouse 1.0 by Softkill Design Image source: http://www.solidsmack.com/cad-design-news/on-location-out-of-hand-digital-fabrication-exhibit-at-the-museum-of-arts-and-design/

A.4 CONCLUSION Innovation: Design is facing a new sustainable future.

The future we discuss here is hard to predict also impossible to pin down. However, using deign, we can open up all sorts of possibilities that can be discussed, debated and used to collectively define a preferable future, moreover, through those possibilities we can better understand the present.

Computation: Computation is a revolutionary designing tool. Design with computation should follow a algorithmic logic and rules to create a project as an integrity. Design computation should explore more possibilities in aesthetic, structural, material and construction aspects and collaborate all the aspects to a integral and performative design, instead of creating an aesthetic expression for a new style in architecture.

Generation: Generation is a bottom up process that affecting the complex outcome using simple rules. It is a process of developing and creating. With computational and algorithmic tools like Grasshopper, we can explore the more possibilities to generate forms.

Design Method In our brief, we aim to design a house to inhabit both human and one other species on Merri Creek with the technological tools like Grasshopper, Unity and VR Dive. According to the brief, we are facing to two clients, human and one specific species.

The design should begin with deep research of living condition of the other species. Natural forms on Merri Creek could be a great inspiration.

By analyzing the natural form, we can build the algorithmic logic with the data and information collected from site and research of clients. Parameters can be tests and modified to generate the structure. Possibilities should be discuss and argue to provide better to solve the designing problem.

This design method is a logic and achievable way to develop the design. It is not aimed for a simple result, instead, a list of possible solution to discuss and argue with. It is not important to get the best solution, but to develop a achievable and rational design process.

Project from Biothing Image source: http://protohouse.tumblr.com/post/13675465133/embedding-agency-within-a-system-of-matter

figure 1

water studio project

A.5 LEARNING OUTCOME 1.Architecture is a discourse to suggest an idea. It can be inspiring and speculating.

2.Design with computation is a bottom up process, without knowing the result at the beginning.

It is process of developing, generating, discussing and arguing.

3.Collaborating knowledge and experiment across disciplines can help to solve complex issues and bring new solution to solve problems.

4.Computation in architecture is not simply create a new style or new patterns and expression.

Design computation should explore more possibilities in aesthetic, structural, material and construction aspects and collaborate all the aspects to an integral and performative design. Take my water studio work as an example (as shown in figure 1). My design is more focus on the pattern and form, which is quiet superficial. It should be improved by rethinking the relationship between design and site. What is the logic inside the design? Will this design influence the way of living for the inhabitant on the site? Give out more possibilities to develop and discuss.

5.At the beginning, with little knowledge of algorithm and computation in architecture, I found using parametric and algorithmic design is dramatic and fiction. It does not focus on the real problem in practice, but create fancy form with no function and meaningless. Through the first part of learning in air studio, I gradually get the meaning of computation in architecture. It is not about the form, but about the logic and experimental process under the design. With experiment, more possibilities and potentials in architecture can be discovered and argued.

A.6 ALGORITHMIC SKETCHBOOK

“Parametric Vase” Moving, scaling and rotating the sention line along the z axis to create the dynamic figure of vases.

Changing the parameters result in different shape and pattern.

Key functions: MOVE

ROTATE SCALE GRAPHIC MAP

LOFT

“Point Curve Surface” Create two curve and rebuilt with control point Loft the curves into surface Divide the surface with ”divide domian” Set twist boxes along the surface Using “Morph“ Function Set different Geometry, Target and Refernece KEY FUNCTION: Morph

Create Square points and force feild (linear field & sping field) Set the strength and radius

“Point Curve Surface” practice 2 Evaluate the feild and using feild strength as the parameters of Gradient Using “Costom Preview“ to show the color at the end

Merge and Evaluate the force field and create Feild Line

Patterning List: Desgin a self-shelving unit with point list Using diivide surface and range to create non-uniform cells to shape the shelve

Bibliography 1 , Tony Fry, Design Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics and New Practice (Oxford: Berg, 2008), p. 1-16 2. Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, (2013) Speculative Everything: Design, Fivtion, and Social Dreaming.. (MIT Press) pp. 1-9, 33-45 3. Wood, John (2007). Design for Micro-Utopias: Making the unthinkable possible (Aldershot: Gower) 4. University of Stuttgart , “ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2014-15”, < http://icd.uni-stuttgart. de/?p=12965 > [accessed 14 March 2017] 5. Dunne, Anthony & Raby, Fiona (2013) Speculative Everything: Design Fiction, and Social Dreaming (MIT Press) 6. Neil Leach and Philip F. Yuan .(2012) Scripting the future (Tongji University Press) P9-P13 7.Oxman, Rivka and Robert Oxman, eds (2014). Theories of the Digital in Architecture (London; New York: Routledge), pp. 1–10 8.Kolarevic, Branko, Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing (New York; London: Spon Press, 2003) Suggested start with pp. 3-62 9. Irina, Vinnitskaya, “3-D Printing ProtoHouse 1.0 and ProtoHouse 2.0/Softkill Design “, Archdaily, (2015),< http://www.archdaily.com/335887/3-d-printing-protohouse-1-0-and-protohouse-2-0-softkilldesign > [accessed 14 March 2017] 10. Oxman, Rivka and Robert Oxman, eds (2014). Theories of the Digital in Architecture (London; New York: Routledge), pp. 1–10 11. Peters, Brady. (2013) ‘Computation Works: The Building of Algorithmic Thought’, Architectural Design, 83, 2, pp. 08-15 12. Dave Pigram, “TRABECULAE/PROTOSYNTHESIS BY SUPERMANOEUVRE”, The Funambulist, 2013< https://thefunambulist.net/architectural-projects/trabeculaeprotosynthesis-by-supermanoeuvre > [accessed 14 March 2017]

13. Peters, Brady. (2013) ‘Computation Works: The Building of Algorithmic Thought’, Architectural Design, 83, 2, pp. 08-15 14. Alisa Andrasek , Jose Sanchez, “////TURNING PAVILION”, Biothing.org, <http://www.biothing. org/?p=449> [accessed 14 March 2017] 15. Jose Sanchez, Scripting Geometries: Beyond Geometry, (2012 Tongji University Press) P181-P185