Parametric Architecture and Dynamic Systems

WISSAM ELMAWI

PARAMETRIC ARCHITECTURE AND DYNAMIC SYSTEMS

ELISAVA

Escola Superior de Disseny i Enginyeria de Barcelona

ADDA 2016-2018

Master’s Degree in Advanced Design and Digital Architecture | 2016-2017 Master’s Degree In Advanced Design and Digital Architecture Mention In Research | 2017-2018

Part 1

Master’s in Advanced Design and Digital Architecture Wissam Elmawi , Arash Karimi Project : Skele-Topia 2016-2017

Part 2

Master’s in Advanced Design and Digital Architecture Mention In Research Wissam Elmawi Title : Intelligent Systems as Methodolody for Urban Design 2017-2018

About Master’s in Advanced Design and Digital Architecture Since the Modernist Movement phased out, architecture theory has shown a strong interest in positivist project methodologies. On the one hand, the study of complexity and dynamic systems has restored interest in the study of networks, “bottom-up” methods, adaptive systems, genetics and the automatic creation of form as the pillars of a new generation of design techniques. The relentless emergence of digital innovations in the world of design has made it possible for us to adopt these new patterns of thought and planning.

Mired as we are in a period of substantial economic restructuring, we have learned that building is a huge responsibility due to the high energy cost involved and its impact on the environment. As architects and designers, we should pay close attention to this phenomenon since the speculative market fails to do so. In addition, we should also be interested in designs which propose highly efficient (not optimal) multifunction-based models.

New technologies also bring us closer to new production processes (digital production) leading to formalizations of non-standard architecture. Mass production processes no longer depend on repetition, but on a system of ongoing mechanical-computational reconfiguration.

The master’s was created by Jordi Truco (architect, HYBRIDa partner). Since its inception the master’s has been successful at attracting a large number of international students coming from all around the world. It is divided into two parts- BioDesign Laboratory and Computational Design Laboratory. Laboratory studio feel allows for an easy exchange of ideas amongst the students. In 2010 ADDA were the first in Barcelona to build a parametric true scale prototype in Spain. It was a joint effort between the students of ADDA, professors and other professionals. Up to this day it is being exhibited in a number of places in Spain.

ELISAVA

Escola Superior de Disseny i Enginyeria de Barcelona

Director :

Jordi Truco Architect ESTAB, MArch Emergent Technologies and Design AA

Teaching Staff :

Sylvia Felipe Architect ESTAB, MArch Emergent Technologies and Design AA

Marcel Bilurbina

Architect ESTAB, Master Digital Arts Pompeu Fabra

Roger Paez Architect ESTAB, MS Advanced Architectural Design GSAPP, Columbia University

Pau de Sola Morales Architect ETSAB, Phd Harvard Design School

Anna Pla Design Degree Elisava, MArch Columbia University, MArch AA

Marilena Christodoulou Architect Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, Master Advanced Design and Digital Architecture, Elisava

Seminar Lecturers : Sylvia Felipe Geometry and Natural Patterns

Jordi Truco Hypermembrane, Modular Complexity

Javier Pena Active Materials, Passive systems and Biomechanics of Materials

Ferran Vizoso Animal Architecture

Anna Pla Contemporary Paradigms

COURSE INTRODUCTION

“There is a growing interest in finding guidelines in living systems to help us understand new forms of designing. On occasion this interest makes the mistake of wishing to imbue designs with a veneer of new organic ways, imitating natural forms, perhaps unconsciously aided by the incredible digital modeling resources we are increasingly able to master.

This could be not be further from our intentions at the Bio-Design Laboratory (ADDA). We focus our interest on observing how biological organisms achieve complex emergent structures from simple components. The structures and forms generated by natural systems are analyzed and understood as hierarchical organizations of very simple components ( from the smallest

to the largest), in which the properties arising in an emergent manner are rather more than the sum of the parts. In our constantly developing society with its demanding market, the use of new production technologies in fields such as engineering is becoming more frequent, and research is conducted to create state of the art materials, such as composites, which open up new possiblities of use and performance, and contain the logic of living materials.

In the field of architecture, even more rightly, we are forced to regain this sensitivity in observation and research, and learn the lesson of nature on the act formalizing and metabolising. Our objective is to learn and explore this knowledge to then transfer it and apply it to the design process of architecture and spaces.�

Source: Truco, J. (2013). ADDA student handbook.

Barcelona, Spain.

Index PART 1 MASTER’S IN ADVANCED DESIGN AND DIGITAL ARCHITECTURE RESEARCH / ESSAYS

WORKSHOP ,INTEGRAL ENVELOPES- GEOMETRY OF NATURAL PATTERNS DESIGN PROJECT PART 1

COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN LABORATORY

DESIGN PROJECT PART 2 - ABIOTIC ARCHITECTURE

PART 2 MASTER’S IN ADVANCED DESIGN AND DIGITAL ARCHITECTURE MENTION IN RESEARCH

. EMERGENCE IN ARCHITECTURE . CONTEMPORARY PARADIGMS IN DIGITAL ARCHITECTURE . FORM FINDING . PATTERNS OF GROWTH-BIOMEMTICS AND ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN . RESPONSIVE SYSTEMS IN ARCHITECTURE . MATERIAL INTELLIGENCE AND BEHAVIOUR

12 15 19 20 22 24 28

. SELF ORGANIZATION AND NATURAL CONSTRUCTIONS . INSTRUMENTALIZATION - GEOMETRIC PRINCIPLES . ANALYSIS

30 32 37

. INTELLIGENT PARAMETRIC ARCHITECTURE . PARAMETRIZATION

42 45

. NEW CENTRALITY - VALLCARCA

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. INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS AS METHODOLOGY FOR URBAN DESIGN

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RESEARCH / ESSAYS

EMERGENCE IN ARCHITECTURE

In the scientific sense, emergence refers to the process of deriving new and coherent structures, patterns, and properties in a complex system. Emergent phenomena occur due to the pattern of interactions between elements of a system over time.

Emergent phenomena are often unexpected, nontrivial results of simple interactions between simple components. What distinguishes a complex system from a merely complicated one is that some behaviors and patterns emerge in complex systems as a result of the patterns of relationships between the elements.

An emergent property or behavior is shown when a number of simple agents operate in an environment, forming more complex behaviors as a collective.

Key to the work is the phenomenon of emergence which offers insight into the way apparently isolated bodies, particles, or systems exhibit group behavior in coherent, but unexpected, patterns. The animated beauty of emergent organizations, such as in swarms or hives, points to a range of real architectural potentials where components are always linked and always exchanging information, and above all, where architectural wholes exceed the sum of their parts.

This “network” structure of evolutionary processes entails that no absolute distinction can be made between internal and external, i.e. between system and environment. What is “system” for one process is “environment” for another one. This means that natural selection can no longer be interpreted simply as selection by the environment. One way to evade this problem is to look at the whole of systems evolving in parallel as just one global system (e.g. an ecology). In that case natural selection means that the variation of the global system leads to globally stable configurations. External selection has now been replaced by internal selection: the internal structure of the system must be stable for the system to survive; we do not need to look at its adaptation to an external environment. Of course, in practice it is impossible to study an absolutely global system (i.e. the universe), and so each practical system will have as well an aspect of internal selection (intrinsic stability) and an aspect of external selection (adaptation). The essential feature which must be maintained is the identity of the system.

This identity can be defined as that which distinguishes the system from its background or environment. This allows

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the emergence of systems whose state may change, but whose identity is maintained.

Since the same element or subsystem may be part of different “closures” or higher order systems, it is clear that these different organizations or architectures cannot be neatly separated out. In a sense the overall architecture of the complex is a superposition of all these partial organizations. This concept may be illustrated by considering a representation of the human body as it is used in some anatomy books. Section through the stem of asparagus shows close packed bundles of differentiated vessels and specialized cells. Geometrical arrangement and close packed integration produces a complex structure which is strong but flexible and capable of differential movement. All the cells in the stem have a structural role in addition to other functions and structural capacity emerges from their interaction.

‘Emergence’ is a scientific mode in which natural systems can be explored and explained in a contemporary context. It provides ‘models and processes for the creation of artificial systems that are designed to produce forms and complex behavior, and perhaps even real intelligence. In this brief definition,

emergence already surfaces as a model capable of sophisticated reflexive attributes exceeding any mechanistic or static notion of architectural form – one that could perhaps define new levels of interaction and integration within natural ecosystems.

Emergence can perhaps be most simply evoked in the natural world by the example of ants, which display far more intelligent behavior as a colony than alone.

The analysis of emergence in architecture can roughly be divided into three parts : Emergence and Morphogenesis Emergence requires the recognition of buildings not as singular and fixed bodies but complex energy and material systems that have a life span,and exist as part of the environment of other buildings, and as aniteration of a long series that proceeds by evolutionary development towards an intelligent ecosystem.

Data Genes and Speciation Complex forms and systems emerge in nature from evolutionary processes, and their properties are developed incrementally through the processes that work upon successive versions of the genome and the phenome.

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Behavior, Material and Environment It seems impossible to create emergent architecture using contemporary construction techniques and modes of production.

But if we can program an intelligent material, locally, to grow in a certain way, as in nature, then certainly we can achieve the target of actually growing the buildings not only in the design but also in construction. And this seems possible using Nanotechnology.

Emergence is a consolidation of a paradigm shift that began more than 80 years ago, a profound change that has blurred the boundaries between once quite separate sciences, and which has changed industry. It has made potent changes to the technological world, changes that demand a new way of thinking about architecture and substantial changes in the way we produce it. Study of emergent systems in nature and their emulation can no doubt produce intelligent and responsive built environment. With cities ever swelling with population, natural habitats getting disturbed hence and an ever increasing demand of sustainable architecture, Emergence seems the only way out. Simplest and commonly used definition of Emergence – ‘Emergence is said to be the properties of a system that cannot be deduced from its components – something more than the sum of its parts’. Above definition is of little use to architecture because one can say truthfully that “every higher level physical property can be described as a consequence of lower level properties”. So, to avoid this contradiction, a better and scientific definition can be understood that is ‘emergence refers to the production of forms and behaviour by natural

systems that have an irreducible complexity and also to the mathematical approach necessary to model such processes in computational environment.

Tasks for architecture to benefit from emergence: •To delineate a working concept of emergence •To outline the mathematics and processes that can make it useful to us as designers. i.e. we have to search for the principles and dynamics of organization and interaction, for the mathematical laws that natural systems obey and that can be utilized by artificially constructed systems. We should start by asking – what is it that emerges, what does it emerge from, and how is emergence produced?

References https://materia.nl/article/emergent-architecture/ http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.32.7389&rep=rep1&type=pdf https://www.scribd.com/document/7427076/Emergence-in-Architecture

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CONTEMPORARY PARADIGMS IN DIGITAL ARCHITECTURE Means of expression have always affected our ways of thinking. Designers, who have to interpret signs, languages, and evolution, have left thoughts, projects and wishes to the study of representational techniques. The result is an ever-changing, computerised architecture, dominated by curvilinear, wavy shapes that flow from a generative process made of the deformations, additions, and interference of different volumes.

Today, the new representational technology affects the way designers work, in terms of speed, as well as promoting the use of static elements (paper, plastics), of such notions as time, motion, flow, through to the generation of simulations that can be used to work differently, to imagine space, and to relate to it in a new way. The new technology is dramatically changing our approach to design. This breaking off involves our conceptual and designing potentials as much as their implementation.

We could say that, somehow, this also increases our designing abstraction skills.

Increased production, reduced designing costs, improved communication of the executive building choices, and a new conception of the architectural space are just some of the major consequences of the use of new technology in architectural design.

Traditionally, architecture has always been regarded as a semiotic system that

expresses a well-defined expansion of the matter. Today, the saturation of communication technology contributes to create a phase of implosion and social reversal.

This implosion marks the passage from a semiotic culture obsessed with representation—with an excess of information—to another post-semiotic sensitivity.

We no longer work within a limited 3D system, but within a media hyperspace (more cultural than technical) which reopens the question of space in the way we are used to perceiving and conceiving of it. More than a handy tool for viewing and controlling designs, we could say that animation becomes a designing tool. It is not about designing buildings whose appearance recalls motion, this is about having design take place in a dynamic environment of forces, in which form and matter can even be replaced by digital information and mass communication. In architecture, changing the environment where design takes place involves a dramatic change in the way the architectural space is conceived of and designed. Shape becomes information, information as a set of evermoving, ever-changing data. Information turns time into a spatial parameter.

Once able to move, space and time become inseparable. While architecture has always been compared to the study of the inert,

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solutions for the creation of three dimensional models is becoming increasingly important. The possibility of creating a complete functional-logical model of the projected structure is closely linked to the development of specific object , the logic which will govern the construction of the actual building. It becomes, therefore, necessary to be able to create a virtual model using elements of construction such as pillars, beams, bricks, and fixtures, and at the same time calculate, for example, the cost, the resistance characteristics, the thermo-physical properties, etc. This will favour the on-going process of a project in independent steps, allowing the recovery of its meaning as an expression of a single and simultaneous concept of all the aspects involved (structural, economical, functional, etc.) In this respect, it is increasingly important to focus the efforts of research on thinking about the great innovation introduced by digital 3D modelling in the housing sector, not only in the merits but also in the methods of the designing conception.To make the most of the possibility to develop an integrated virtual model, the design concept needs to be integrated at an early stage. The digital tri-dimensional model permits to obtain not only the possibility to present a project, to study the different phases of construction, to

of everything “static,” the coming of ITbtechnology brings this assumption to an end. There is a connection between representation—the approach to the real (and therefore to design)—and culture.

There are two main aspects: First, there is the theoretical side,about the possibility of discovering a kind of visualization of our mental space. Secondly, there is the technical side, about the possibility of rendering some portions of space visible that would otherwise usually lie beyond our perception. Today, the new representational technology allows the conception of a variable architecture, capable of representing not only finished shapes but the very conditions of formalization. And the digital tool is also an answer to the more and more complex needs of today’s design. The digital tool certainly contributes to the concept of “formal complexity,” but also to that of the “exhaustiveness of design” by enabling design to become more and more integrated. This contribution affects not only the design concept but also its verification and the semantics of the design specifications, targeted to all the professionals involved in the designing and building process.

For the techniques of creating projects in the fields of engineering and architecture, it seems that the contribution offered by the use of dedicated software

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produce explanatory graphics for the building yard, to explore the object in movement, to simulate the light and the shadow, and the thermic loss or the structures, but allows the generation of all these elements in a combined manner.

The digital tool has potentials that are unexplored because it frequently reduces its expression to just images. It is a rapid, dynamic, pure, and amazing electronic image that changes continuously and disappears; therefore, it seems unable to leave a permanent trace (it is not a statue). But this is only a general definition, an apparent contribution. However, at a deeper level there is another definition that is often forgotten, in particular, regarding architecture. . Digital technology offers a new possibility to architecture. The potential of artificial tools is not only a mere artifact.

You can get an image from a picture; the image is bi-dimensional. A three dimensional model is not an image; it is not only a representation, it is an object: it means the transformation from a “dual” reality to a reality. . One often thinks that the virtual is in contrast with the real or, vice versa, that the virtual is a continuation, an extension of the real: I think that the virtual is a dual existence, compared to the real. There is a harmonic development, for exemple, between the virtual dimension and the real dimension, which now needs to become more and more fitting. An example is the “capturing-processing-plotting” process, that can be obtained through the latest 3D scanners (combining laser and optic components): the real object is captured and immediately modelled in the virtual space, where its design is altered, then

it is embodied again in man’s physical space by the printers, also 3D printers, used in quick prototyping.

Mass communication must be straightforward, clear, simple, to put across one’s message in a concise way and establish a relationship with the receiver: to create correspondence straightaway. Digital media help this form of communication. Digital architecture is often the architecture of relation: it does not keep its distance from the onlooker; it asks the onlooker to enter the building. Architecture is no longer defined by the space it offers, but also by the number and features of the services it supplies—its ability to change as quickly as possible, to be open to anything without contradictions. The building becomes, in itself, a service whose value is related to its ability to fulfil a given number of requirements.

I think that at the bottom of the need of interrelations, which is typical of today’s communication, prominence should be given to the wish to create a bond between the person and the surroundings . The possibility to tend to express oneself as a unity is a culturally strong position.

An architectural firm that has started to implement digital architecture is Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA). ZHA focuses on parametric design and explores the notion of parametricism. The work of ZHA has changed over the years as emergence of a new style influences its basis of exploration. The new paradigm has brought a new style to its conceptual thinking and architectural disclosure. Over the years, Hadid’s way of thinking has changed as her practice has changed, from that of a radical visionary to an architect designing large scale projects that

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that are now being built in various parts of the world. Hadid started by using drawing to an unusual degree as a means of communicating her architectural ideas. Her compositions were very unique and complicated to understand with various systems of projections in order to formulate the spatial relationships and the visionary thoughts she had. Hadid’s thinking started to change as she realized if she wanted to build, her designs would have to work within property lines and other limitations - material and conceptual imposed by clients. Thus a change in style started to evolve. The development of computer in architectural design and construction became a huge factor in Hadid’s philosophy. The emergence of parametricism has influenced ZHA in exploring movement and fluidity in architecture, it enables geometric complexity manageable.

The development of digital architecture certainly has done nothing to diminish the intensity of ZHA’s architecture, though it has changed it as a visual presence and a philosophical proposition. The new style has coincided with the dramatic shift inZHA’s design and clearly has gave it movement.

Parametricism is implemented by ZHA and argue that it is the great new style after modernism. Digital architecture has shifted its achitectural processes into computational parametrics. The new style is being explored and tested through built in projects which reveal the digital expressions and processes.

Digital architecture is the new movement towards a paradigm shift and a new style has emerged through the techniques of generative computational design. Digital architecture is process based and its emphasis is on material performance rather than representation. The computational techniques such as algorithms are used as a tool in assisting architects in the generative process, but the architect is still the decision maker.

References https://cumincad.architexturez.net/system/files/pdf/ acadia03_031.content.pdf https://www.scribd.com/document/33727289/Digital-Architecture-Essay

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FORM FINDING

Form Finding. When we apply external loads to a material this tends to react and make a new equilibrium configuration to balance these forces. Looking at different materials such as steel, wood, textiles, fibers or composite materials, can be recognized a change on their form when they are subject to forces of traction, compression or court.

During the 20th century, numerous studies have been developed to expoilt the understanding of these processes for the production of habitable spaces. A number of designers, architects, and engineers among them Frei Otto, Pierluigi Nervi, Felix Candela, Antoni Gaudi, Miguel Fisac, Sergio Musmeci have commited to the development of alternative design stratetgies informed by material properties.

The Multihall Mannheim or the Olympic Stadium in Munich developed by Otto, the Exhibition Hall in Turin and Aula Paolo VI of Nervi, Sagrada Familia of Gaudi or the bridge over the River Basento of Musmeci are excellent examples of a different way to deal with the architectural design. Constant interaction between the designer, the processes of matter and of construction gave to those projects the expectional richness of the “intelligence of material�.

Form Finding process reveals the importancne of understanding the innate capabilities of material and physic. There is a shift in architecture that prompts architects to change their way of thinking, especially of trying to impose a geometry to a problem. Instead through large-scale testing, material properties and thinking they could take advantage of the form-finding process and achieve projects with the maximum efficiency in performance and minimal material usage.

Antoni Gaudi’s - La Sagrada Familia Gaudi used form finding techniques to determine the load -bearing capacities of the towers in La Sagrada Familia and that is how we came up with a tree-like titled columns.

Source Truco, J. (2013). ADDA student handbook . Barcelona, Spain

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PATTERNS OF GROWTH-BIOMIMETICS AND ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN Growing interest in the intersection of arts and sciences in recent years has led to a number of research programs and opportunities to explore transdisciplinarity in architectural design. ‘Artistic research’ and ‘Research by design’ acknowledge the investigation of possible futures as valid scientific approaches, and scientific findings are increasingly taken up and translated by artists and designers.

Efforts to create mutual influence between arts and sciences target the reconnection of highly specialized fields and the common exploration of yet unknown areas.

Signs of life, as defined by the life sciences, are introduced into former static and unresponsive buildings so that sensing, reactivity, adaptation, and also evolutionary development are found in contemporary architectural design.

The exploration of the intersections between biology and architecture has been the research field of the authors in previous projects. Research on patterns of nature for architecture has revealed the potential of looking at growth in biology to inspire new planning and building processes.

Biological research and role models from nature increasingly inform technological solutions, and architects and engineers also look to nature for inspiration. The investigation of the overlaps between the fields of biology and technology, biomimetics, has gained ground in research and development.

Neuronal System

Bone Structure

Spider Web Pattern

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The approach of biomimetics that is taken in the presented projects is seeking innovation in technology by using principles from nature, especially living organisms. Materials, structures, and processes found in role models from nature are researched, and the abstracted findings are transferred into the context of human technology. As such, biomimetics is highly inter- and transdisciplinary.

The overlapping fields of Biology and Architecture were investigated in previous work of the authors by applying the framework of the classical criteria of life, as stated in biology, to architecture. The process is the plan. Growth in biology is based on genetic code that is translated into adaptive and differentiated processing of material and structure. Genes define not only the recipes for growth but also processes that are capable of change according to the influences of the

surrounding context over time. The adaptation and differentiation of organisms are linked to environmental parameters, controlling the expression of the growth pattern in a specific spatiotemporal context.

Aspects of adaptation and differentiation could radically improve architectural materials and structures by fine tuning the use of resources to local and dynamically changing conditions.

Local conditions, for example, wind load and vibration, can imply structural as well as shape adaptation, and chemical environments trigger metabolic activities. It is a more recent insight that past experiences can also shape gene expression. In this way, information on environmental conditions can be transferred over generations.

This adaptiveness also relates to high resilience of the resulting structures.

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RESPONSIVE SYSTEMS IN ARCHITECTURE Responsive architecture is an evolving field both in practice and in research. This architecture enable buildings to adapt their form, shape, or color to actual enviromental conditions.

This architecture responds via actuators, sensors, or control systems.

Responsive systems can improve the energy perfomance of buildins, enhance buildings to better deal with occupational demands and constantly changing enviromental conditions. They operate within a predefined range of variable states, rather than just one particular setting.

Although adaptive materials are sometimes attached to rigid structures, which constrain their intrinsic abilities, they are also applied gimmicky and superficially. In order to overcome these limitations it is important to identify and analyze them in more in detail.

This contemporary understanding of the building skin has fundamentally changed the way in which architects approach building design, having shifted questions of performance away from the traditional formal and physical properties of building envelopes to reposition the discourse within a more expansive definition of how they behave. These new parameters have resulted in increased architectural collaboration with the disciplines of mechanical and electrical engineering, computing and the physical and social sciences.

‘ShapeShift’ prototype, consisting of 36 individual EAP elements, as exhibited at the Gallery StarkArt in Zurich, September 2010

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Intelligent façade of automated wood louvers with buildingintegrated photovoltaics create a continuous façade for TU Darmstadt’s 2007 Solar Decathlon House

A responsive building skin includes functionalities and performance characteristics similar to those of an “intelligent” building skin including real-time sensing, kinetic climate-adaptive elements, smart materials, automation and the ability for user override. But it also includes interactive characteristics, such as computational algorithms that allow the building system to self-adjust and learn over time, as well as the ability for inhabitants to physically manipulate elements of the building envelope to control environmental conditions.29 Learning takes place in accordance with changing environmental conditions and inhabitant preferences, such that the algorithm anticipates desirable configurations. A truly responsive building envelope, therefore, not only includes mechanisms for inhabitant sensing and feedback, but is also committed to educating both the building and its occupants. Information is provided to the building’s inhabitants so they too can learn over time and modify their actions relative to climate and energy use.

In this way, both building and occupant are engaged in a continuous and evolving conversation.

While smart materials offer many advantages for high-performance building envelopes, their performance is often tightly bracketed within a specific range of climatic conditions and predictable reactions. However, in a high-performance building skin that is required to be intelligent or responsive, it is often necessary to accommodate much broader variation in conditions and performance criteria. The skin may be required to facilitate more complex building system communications, to respond to occupant requests, and to adapt and learn over time.

Al Bahar Towers Exterior Sunscreens-Responsive Skin Abu Dhabi

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MATERIAL INTELLIGENCE AND BEHAVIOUR The relationship between the designed object and the forces surrounding that object are always present, perceivable, and tactile. These forces span, among others, material, fabrication, economic, cultural, as well as political domains. In this manner, the object can be thought of as simultaneously existing within a charged field of pressures while adding its own charge back into the field.

Contemporary tools (digital fabrication) and technology (associative environments) provide a strategic means for navigating the multitude of forces at play, while the prototype serves as the activating link between material research and design innovation.

Workshop Result at Material Intelligence (Photo: Adam Elstein)

Smart materials are those objects that sense environmental events, process that sensory information, and then act on the environment. Fundamental characteristics, which distinguish Smart materials from most traditional materials that use in architecture, are transiency, selectivity, immediacy, self-actuation and directness. Smart materials are materials that receive, transmit, or process a stimulus and respond by producing a useful effect that may include a signal that the materials are acting upon it. The effects can manifest themselves by a color change, a volume change, a change in the distribution of stresses and strains, or a change in index of refraction.

This ability to producing a useful effect to respond the stimuluses has rendered smart materials a considerable materials to the architectural design since buildings are always confronted with changing conditions.

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Characteristic and Behavior of Smart Materials Smart materials may be discussed as a substitute for traditional materials in many components and functions because of their features and characteristics distinguished them from the most traditional materials used in the architecture. These properties and features include transiency, selectivity, immediacy, selfactuation and directness that with more accurate to characteristics and properties of these materials and focus on their actuation events and how they response these events and environmental conditions can take capabilities and different behaviours of these materials as result. There are four fundamental capabilities and behaviour of smart materials used in architecture: Property change capability, Energy exchange capability, discrete size/location, Reversibility. These features can potentially be exploited to either optimize a material property to better match transient input conditions or to optimize certain behaviours to maintain steady state conditions in the environment.

The capability to property change causes these materials have the ability to respond environmental conditions change. Materials with the energy exchange capability having many applications in architecture can also receive an input energy and according the thermodynamic law, change to another form of energy used depending on conditions and situations.

Materials, having the property mentioned can also show reversibility property at the same time. Materials having this ability, if required, can return to themselves initial state. Position and the discrete size allow smart materials with internal regulation placed and act in the most efficient positions.

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Material Considerations in Architecture

Selection of materials for use in architecture is always based on various criteria. Performance and Cost have obvious role in this selection, but final selection are often done based on appearance, beauty and aesthetic, ease of construction with regard to human resource skills, availability of local or regional, as well as materials used in the building which are in the near place.

Many progressive materials have emerged for preparing the fastest visual appearance and thus providing appropriate tools for interior and exterior of buildings. Thus modern architects often think about materials as a part of the composition of design through which materials can be selected and accepted as level of structure or combination and visual. It is in such an atmosphere and environment that many people reached to the approaches of using smart materials Today, architects and engineers engage a chain of digital design and fabrication techniques in order to generate, simulate and fabricate building structures that are bespoke to local climatic, programmatic and geometric needs.

Maria Mingallon1, 2 and Sakthivel Ramaswamy3 [1] ARUP, Country [2] McGill University, School of Architecture, Canada [3] KRR Group, India

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Part 1

Master’s in Advanced Design and Digital Architecture

Wissam Elmawi , Arash Karimi Project : Skele-Topia 2016-2017

SKELE-TOPIA ARCHITECTURE AS LIVING ORGANISM Skeletopia is a complex emergent growing system inspired from the self-organized bone structure and created by the generation of many components, forming an architectural structure. The sum of the individual components and their proliferation logics generate more efficient spatial and structural solutions adapted to the environment by the technique of form finding. I focused on observing how biological organisms achieve complex emergent structures from simple components.

Skeletopia acts as a living organism, reacting to its environment in a way that is automatically controls its porosity through a network of advanced algorithms and shows complex behavior. It can move and transform dynamically according to the user’s needs and to the surrounding environment’s character. It responses in intelligent manner, it remembers, it develops. The form of the structure is designed in a way to deflect, guide, block the wind, and Before we have been taught to expect the same thing from make the area more comfortable. buildings over and over again, inert boxes made of conThis growing system is connecting three differ- crete, steel, and glass. But in the near future, buildings will ent sites in the area of Vallcarca north Barcelo- be wildly different than anything we experience today. This na, occupying 2627 meter squares of the area, change begins with technology impacting our building creating useful spaces that people can benefit materials because the way we build impacts what we build. from, as a bridge, pathways, market, and cul- Today’s emerging technologies look beyond the hammer tural center. The goal was to connect the poor and nail to imagine new ways of construction. and rich areas together.

The intention was how to make Skele-Topia acts as a complex emergent structure just by the generation of simple components, testing its growth capacities and performance with the use of parametric software; parameterization.

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INTEGRAL ENVELOPES, GEOMETRY OF NATURAL PATTERNS

SPONGY BONE TISSUE SELF ORGANIZATION AND NATURAL CONSTRUCTIONS

As Michael Weinstock mentioned in his book (Techniques and Technologies in Morphogenetic Design), the foam geometries of cellular materials offern open and ductile structural systems that are strong and permeable, making them an attractive paradigm for developments in material science and for new structural systems in architecture and engineering.

Scanning electron mirograph of cancellous (spongy) bone tissue (shown in the picture). Bone can be either compact solid or cancellous, with cortical usually forming the exterior of the bones and cancellous tissue forming the interior.

The cellular structure is highly differentiated, formed by an iiregular network of trabeculae, or rod shaped tissue. The open spaces within the tissue are filled with bone marrow.

Form, structure, and material act upon each other, and this behaviour of all three cannot be predicted by analyisis one of them separately. The self-organization of biological material systems is a process that occurs over time, a dynamic that produces the capacity for changes to the order and structure of a system.

Characteristics of Bone Structure: .Cellular solid structure .very small connective material that vanishes .structural support .It has the function to move, support, and protect .Lightweight yet strong and hard

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SELECTION OF BIOLOGICAL STRUCTURE BONE STRUCTURE

Microscopic structure of spongy bone

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INSTRUMENTALIZATION 2D MAPPING In this stage, we started to analyze the chosen example (Bone Structure), the conclusion was that the bone structure grows from the internal to the external and it has many layers. We started to trace the holes of the structure according to whenever there are thick veins and light color comes the first layer and whenever there are thin veins and dark color come second and third layers.

First Layer 56 points

First Layer

Second Layer 51 points

Second Layer

Thirid Layer 58 points

Third Layer

32

GEOMETRIC PRINCIPLES 3D MAPPING RULE : Move the newly created holes traced in the previous stage in the Z axis, a distance proportionally to the area (hole). This was applied to each of the 3 layers for the result to have a 3d surface and to be connected after.

First Layer

Second Layer

Third Layer 33

DELAUNAY TRIANGULATION SYSTEM All points of each layer were connected accroding to the Delaunay Triangulation System to the result of having a 3d surface.

First Layer

First Layer Front View

Second Layer

Second Layer Front View

Third Layer

Third Layer Front View 34

VORONOI SYSTEM There is a one-to-one relation between the Voronoi cells and the cells of the Delaunay triangulation.

A vertex of the Voronoi diagram is a point whereat least three sites (points of P) are equally distant.

They are centrepoints for circumcenters in the Delaunay triangulation.

35

36

ANALYSIS FINDING COMPONENT ATTEMPT The following diagrams show an attempt to find a component, were we start to analyze each layer indivisually. First layer was used, after applying Delaunay Trianguation System and Voronoi System in 2d, points were lifted in different heights according to the rule stated before, and Delaunay System was applied again in 3d. The result was a 3d surface of the first layer, which after we had to find a component and start prototyping.

37

ANALYSIS FINDING COMPONENT FIRST ATTEMPT - STUDY PROTOTYPES The following diagrams show an attempt to find a component, start to analyze each layer indivisually. First layer was used, after applying Delaunay Trianguation System and Voronoi System in 2d, points were lifted in different heights according to the rule stated before, and Delaunay System was applied again in 3d. The result was a 3d surface of the first layer, which after we had to find a component and start prototyping.

38

ANALYSIS ARCHITECTURAL INVESTIGATION After having learned a few things about the way nature achieves time-tested efficiency in the second part, the goal was to adapt what we have learned, understand what it is doing in nature and apply it to a real-life system without copying it directly.

39

COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN LABORATORY COURSE INTRODUCTION

“The modern definition of atrtificial intelligence is “the study and design of intelligent agents.” We say that an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that increases their chances of success.

In computer science, the “evolutionary computation” is a sub field of artificial intelligence. This is the general term for several computational techniques that are based in some way in the evolution of biological life in the natrual world. Of course the future of computational processes will be fully involved on the “evolutionary computation”, for their clear utility in the selection and optimization processes. But in the world of digital morphogenesis in fully process of exploration and development there are other automated processes to generate three-dimentional shapes and diagrams, included in the filed of artificial intelligence such as intelligent agents, particle systems or networks and datebases.

In the “Design studio” we will be centered on these processes to achieve self-organization of systems, and generation of complex forms from simple rules. We will work with the vector diagrams and volumes defined by polylines, and vectors. This will require working with programming and establish rules adn digital algorithms. Therefore we will let them govern the systems to generate these results. To write these computational codes we will work on the programming enviroment such as python.” Jordi Truco

Source: Truco, J. (2013). ADDA student handbook. Barcelona, Spain.

INTELLIGENT PARAMETRIC ARCHITECTURE

Parametric design is not new. Designing has become synonymous with computation. Every field from architecture to graphic design relies on the computer from the onset of the project up to its completion.

Architects use computer-aided tools to build models, draft, and help them visualize ideas. These types of models are very static and require a great deal of detailed low-level manipulations to make modifications.

Digital parametric design introduced a few decades ago, allows designers to specify relationships among various parameters of their design model, so then after designer can make changes only on a few parameters and the remainder of the model reacts and updates. These changes are handled by the computer, but are based on the associative rules set by the designer. This type of generation of forms, geometries, and buildings is not a new technique. It dates back to as far back as the 15th century. “The generative methodology consists of recombinaton of architectural elemets and their recursive transformations, given one or

more initial forms and a series of rules of transformation, new forms can be generated by successively applying rules to the initial or intermediate forms to produce the final forms.”

Form can be shaped by the collibration between an envelope and the active context in which it is situated. While physical form can be defined in terms of static coordinates, the virtual force of the environment in which it is designed contributed to its shape.

With the help of associations between different elements designs can react to structural forces, material behaviour, thermal and lighting variations as well as contextual conditions. Furthermore since these parametric models represent a construction logic of the structure, they can be translated into geometries that can digitally fabricated. Like Gaudi said “ It’s okay to be innovative in design, but you don’t need to be innovative in construction”. This way we will be designing a process not a static object.

Source: Burry. M. (2011). Scripting Cultures : Architectural Design and Programming. John Wiley & Sons.

Jabi, W. (2013). Parametric Design for Architecture.

Laurence King Publishing.

42

Softwares applied : RHINOCEROS 3D

exported to laser cutters, milling machines or 3D printers, and this is really what makes Rhino different from general 3D modelling tools based in polygons, where you can create great images, but without manufacturing precision.

Since its first release in 1998, Rhinoceros®, or Rhino®, has become one of the standard 3D modeling tools for designers and architects.

Rhino’s open architecture allows using also Rhino as a development platform: a C++ SDK and a series of scripting methods (RhinoScript) allow programmers of any level of expertise customize and automate Rhino and extend its capabilities. Today, there are dozens of commercial plug-ins for Rhino for nesting, terrain creation, parametric architecture, rendering, animation, CAM, subdivision modelling, jewelry, mold design, etc.

Start with a sketch, drawing, physical model, scan data, or only an idea—Rhino provides the tools to accurately model and document your designs ready for rendering, animation, drafting, engineering, analysis, and manufacturing or construction.

Rhino can create, edit, analyze, document, render, animate, and translate NURBS curves, surfaces, and solids with no limits on complexity, degree, or size. Rhino also supports polygon meshes and point clouds. Its accuracy and flexibility makes it possible to students to explore and build their ideas without having to spend much time learning “CAD”.

Also, any geometry created in Rhino can be

GRASSHOPPER

inputs and outputs that produce a geometric result. This way of operating provides great flexibility when handling large amounts of data Grasshopper is a virtual enviroment within variables in space and time.

Rhinoceros. Its main virtue is that it allows us to Bringing a project to grasshopper is not a simdevelop algorithms that operate intuively with ple task. The idea has to be translated into mathgeometric data. ematical language.

By working in Rhinoceros, Grasshopper incorporates its commands and features, it also uses Rhinoceros as as viewing enviroment, so we can see in real time how our model is affected.

Grasshopper is a tool for designing algorithms, it is able to string together a succession of commands and instructions with

43

PYTHON SCRIPT FOR RHINO Python is a modern programming language.

Python is sometimes called a scripting language or a glue language. This means python is used often to run a series of commands as a script or used to create links between two other technologies as a glue. It is easier to learn and use than other non-scripting style, compiled languages like C#, VB, or C/C++. Yet it is quite powerful.

Since Rhino Python scripting is available on both platforms, the same Python scripts can run on both breeds of Rhino! Python also will run within a Grasshopper component.

Python is interpreted, meaning it is executed one line at a time. This makes the program flow easy to understand. Also it is semantically dynamic which allows the syntax to be less restrictive and less formal when using declarations and variables types.

Why should you use Python? Well, Python is meant to be a simple language to read and write. Python also runs both the Windows and Mac versions of Rhino. Since Rhino Python scripting is available on both the Windows and Mac versions of Rhino.

ARDUINO

of hardware (called a programmer) in order to load new code onto the board – you can simply Arduino is an open-source platform used for use a USB cable. Additionally, building electronics projects. Arduino consists of both a physical programmable circuit board the Arduino IDE uses a simplified version of (often referred to as a microcontroller) and a C++, making it easier to learn to program. Fipiece of software, or IDE (Integrated Develop- nally, Arduino provides a standard form factor ment Environment) that runs on your comput- that breaks out the functions of the micro-coner, used to write and upload computer code to troller into a more accessible package. the physical board.

The Arduino platform has become quite popular with people just starting out with electronics, and for good reason. Unlike most previous programmable circuit boards, the Arduino does not need a separate piece

44

PARAMETRIZATION

FINDING COMPONENT SECOND ATTEMPT - STUDY PROTOTYPES

The second attempt in finding component, studying the relation between the holes traced from the bone structure, the chosen biological pattern, using grassshopper to parameterize it, starting with only four points and studying the generation of components.

1. First layer Delaunay

2. Locating Midpoints

3. Divide the area of previous curve by 6 = Hexagon

4. Draw perpendicular to the midpoints

46

5. Perpendicular Bisectors

6. Connection

7. Perspective view

7. Resulted Component

47

Grasshopper Definition Generation of Components

1 UNIT

5 UNITS

19 UNITS 48

DEFINING GROWTH STRATETGY IN PYTHON SCRIPT

1

The first step starts with defining a fake boundary to understand the logic (1) .

2

3

The second step is by measuring all the angles inside the boundary (2) .

The third step is by taking the previous angle values and use it in python script, in a rule that if for example, if the angle is 90, the value that should be used in python script is 0.9 ( real value 90 / 100 ) . (3)

49

Example

if the angle is 90 : import rhinoscriptsyntax as rs import math a = [] for i in range(20): x = math.cos(i*0.9) * i*1 y = math.sin(i*0.9) * i*1 z=0 p = rs.AddPoint(x,y,z) a.append(p)

50

import rhinoscriptsyntax as rs import math a = [] for i in range(500): x = math.cos(i*0.9) * i*1 y = math.sin(i*0.9) * i*1 z=0 p = rs.AddPoint(x,y,z) a.append(p) ALPHA

import rhinoscriptsyntax as rs import math a = [] for i in range(20): x = math.cos(i*0.715) * i*1 y = math.sin(i*0.715) * i*1 z=0 p = rs.AddPoint(x,y,z) a.append(p) BETA

import rhinoscriptsyntax as rs import math a = [] for i in range(20): x = math.cos(i*0.184) * i*1 y = math.sin(i*0.184) * i*1 z=0 p = rs.AddPoint(x,y,z) a.append(p) GAMMA 51

The previous process was applied to each of the triangles in the boundary defined before, and the result was having three layers in each triangle, alpha, beta, and gamma.

ALPHA

BETA

GAMMA

52

ALPHA

BETA

53

GAMMA

OVERLAPPING LAYERS - ALPHA, BETA, GAMMA

ALPHA

BETA

GAMMA OVERLAPPING LAYERS

54

ALPA - GAMMA FIRST LAYER

BETA - GAMMA SECOND LAYER

ALPHA - BETA THIRD LAYER

55

With the overlapping layers, intersecting curves generate new points, and using the new points generated to apply Delaunay triangulation system and Voronoi system.

ALPHA - GAMMA FIRST LAYER

FIRST LAYER DELAUNAY SYSTEM

FIRST LAYER VORONOI SYSTEM

56

BETA - GAMMA SECOND LAYER

SECOND LAYER DELAUNAY SYSTEM

SECOND LAYER VORONOI SYSTEM

57

ALPHA - BETA THIRD LAYER

THIRD LAYER DELAUNAY SYSTEM

THIRD LAYER VORONOI SYSTEM

58

DESIGN PROJECT PART 2 - ABIOTIC ARCHITECTURE

NEW CENTRALITY - VALLCARCA

VALLCARCA Vallcarca is one of the five neighborhoods that form the district Gracia, situated in the north area of the city Barcelona, Spain.

Vallcarca is a Barcelona neighborhood undergoing massive changes. It was originally built during the mid-nineteenth century as vacational residences for the people of Horta, Gracia, and Barcelona. In 1823 there were only 40 houses, by 1890s it was already a vibrant community.

Originally belonging to Horta, Vallcarca was integrated into Barcelona in 1903. The neighbohood’s original quasi-rural charm degraded over the years, as the city of Barcelona progressively reached this fromerly isoled area.

Vallcarca’s identity has been dratically shaken by two separate processes, on the one hand by a remarkable densification of its core and its surrounding neighborhoods, and on the the other hand by recent extensive demolition of Vallcarca’s older settlement, that has lost more than 50% of its surface between 2002 and 2015. This has generated a strong grassroots community movement that claims that Vallcarca’s urban future has to be shaped by its inhabitants rather than falling prey to unfettered real estate market logics.

Old Vallcarca 1915

62

By 2004 most of Vallcarca’s emblematic constructions have been destroyed.

Its history and popular architecture was always characterized by the community gardens, which made terraces and patios part of the neighborhoods urban structure.

The neighborhoods original rural charm degraded over the years, as the city of Barcelona progressed it became an islolated area. Most of the shops and workshops that shape the living geography of the neighborhood have disappeared. Forcing the inhabitants to leave, transforming the historical old town into an inhospitable place.

The facades show the passage of time and the degradation, most of the shops and workshops that make the living geography of the neighborhood have disappeared.

Two independent processes influenced Vallcarca’s identity, the densification of its surrounding neighborhoods and the extensive demolition of Vallcarca’s older settlement.

The enviroment was transformed by the neighbors, the empty abandoned lots where transformed into football fields, plazas, and community gardens, creating a new identity.

63

VALLCARCA CARTOGRAPHY ZOOMED IN AREA ANALYSIS

64

VALLCARCA CARTOGRAPHY ZOOMED IN AREA ANALYSIS

Existing Buildings / Built Areas Non Built Areas / Empty Areas

Used Spaces

Unused Spaces 65

Analyzing Wind Factor using Real Flow Simulation Software Wind Simulation according to SSW & NNW

Wind Simulation SSW

Real Flow Simulation

Mapping Wind Flow

Wind Simulation NNW

Real Flow Simulation

Mapping Wind Flow

Wind Rose showing strong wind directions in the area 66

Detecting strong wind areas & weak wind areas

Density of Particles

Detecting strong wind areas & weak wind areas

SSW & NNW Simulation Overlapped

Density of Particles

67

ANALYSIS - CONCLUSION

68

TOPOGRAPHY ANALYSIS

SLOPES DEGREE

69

DEFINING GROWING SYSTEM BOUNDARY - REGION

Highest and Lowest points were located in all the three chosen sites and connected to define the Growing System Boundary.

70

LOWEST POINT HIGHEST POINT

LOWEST POINT HIGHEST POINT

71

FINDING GROWING PATH-ROOT

72

Incenter Theorem Incenter Theorem The incenter of a triangle is equidistant from each side of the triangle.

Note: to construct Incenter of Triangle: 1. Angle bisectors of each triangle angle- total of 3.

2. Point of intersection of 3 angle bisectors.

3. Draw line perpendicular to each side and incenter point- total of 3.

4. Where these three lines intersect is of equal distance from each side.

73

GROWING PATH-ROOT GENERATION

74

Defining Growing Path Boundary - Region

Boundary is defined by four triangles - Finding angles to be applied in the Growth Strategy

75

APPLYING GROWTH STRATETGY FIRST OPTION VORONOI SYSTEM The density of Alpha - Beta layer is more, therefore Alpha - Beta is the first layer ( 1 )

Alpha - Beta 44 Pts

1

Alpha - Gamma 29 Pts

2

Beta - Gamma 18 Pts

3

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Voronoi System ( area / 20 = height from the ground level to point ) Voronoi System ( points moved Z direction according to the contour lines)

Alpha - Beta 44 Pts

Alpha - Gamma 29 Pts

Beta - Gamma 18 Pts

77

APPLYING GROWTH STRATETGY SECOND OPTION DELAUNAY TRIANGULATION SYSTEM Delaunay Triangulation ( points connecting by close range). Also the curves in red are removed (no intersection with the building) .

Alpha - Beta 44 Pts

1

Alpha - Gamma 29 Pts

2

Beta - Gamma 18 Pts

3

78

Delaunay Triangulation ( points connecting in their own reigon only and connect with the closes point with the other reigon ) .

Alpha - Beta 44 Pts

Alpha - Gamma 29 Pts

Beta - Gamma 18 Pts

79

DELAUNAY TRIANGULATION SYSTEM - SIDE VIEW

1

Alpha - Beta 44 Pts

2

1

Alpha - Gamma 29 Pts

2

1

2

80

Beta - Gamma 18 Pts

RESULT TWO GENERATED STRUCTURES Option 1 : Overlapping Layers

81

RESULT TWO GENERATED STRUCTURES Option 2 : Closest Point Connection Vertically - Three meters distance between each layer

Generated structure

82

GENERATING STRUCTURE AND TECTONICS GRASSHOPPER DEFINITION

Generated structure

83

ARCHITECTURAL PROPOSAL

PROGRAM DISTRIBUTION This growing system is connecting three different sites in the area of Vallcarca north Barcelona, occupying 2627 meter squares of the area, creating useful spaces that people can benefit from, as a bridge, pathways, market, and cultural center. The goal was to connect the poor and rich areas together.

Bridge and Pathway Vallcarca Cultural Center Vallcarca Market

Entrance

Exhibition Hall

Bridge & Pathway Bridge

Entrance

Market Entrance

85

SITE TOP VIEW

86

CROSS SECTIONS

CROSS-SECTION A-A

CROSS-SECTION B-B

87

DIGITAL FABRICATION AND ASSEMBLING

DIGITAL FABRICATION Digital fabrication is an integral part of parametric design, is the translation of the digital design into a physical object.

There are a huge range of digital fabrication techniques, a manufacturing process where the machines can be programmed to make products from digital designs.

Computer aided manufacturing (CAM) provides an efficient combination of the computer as a design tool and as a production tool for a manufacturing. It is not only to produce definitive objects, but is also a tool to constantly inform us during the design process.

The digital manufacturing processes can be classified into three catergories; subtractive, formative, and additive.

Subtractive manufacturing processes Subractive processes are those where the base material mass is subtracted to reach its desired form, it includes all cutting and milling processes, 2D and 3D. Laser Cut 2D Laser cutting is a precise CNC process that can be used to cut, engrave and mark a variety of sheet materials including metal, plastic, wood, textiles, glass ceramic and leather.

Laser cutting works by directing the output of a high power laser at the material to be cut.

91

CNC Milling Machine CNC mills can mill, drill, engrave, and cut materials. It is classified according to the number of axis that they possess (x,y,z axis). A CAD model data can be transferred directly to the machine producing a precise product.

FORMATIVE PROCESSES Formative processes neither add nor subtract material, the original material is deformed until achieving the desired geometry, it includes all types of folding, bending, and molding.

Thermoform Machine Is a manufacturing process where plastic sheet is heated and formed to a specific shape in a mold.

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ADDITIVE PROCESSES Additive processes, refered to as rapid prototyping are those where the material is successively added in layers until the final form is achieved. In this manufacturing process the material is always optimized.

3D Printer A three dimentional object is created by laying down a successive layers of material (high resolution special plaster).

FORMATIVE PROCESS

93

ADDITIVE PROCESS

SUBTRACTIVE PROCESS

94

Part 2

Master’s in Advanced Design and Digital Architecture

Mention In Research Wissam Elmawi Project : Intelligent Systems as Methodolody for Urban Design 2017-2018

COURSE INTRODUCTION

After finishing the 12 month of research and experimental design at ADDA (Term 1 and Term 2), the Mention in Research ( Term 3 ) allows the student to develop a structured dissertation of the entire contents, both of research and design, generated previously throughout the course. The course helped me to set up properly the theoretical fundaments of the new design strategies in architecture, that have been applied during the previous 12 months, engaging with the logic of emergence applied to design, genetic theories, and new paradigms of digital environment This course will be a big opportunity to students to set up a very well structured topic in case of being interested on the development of their PhD.

Source: Truco, J. (2013). ADDA student handbook. Barcelona, Spain.

Tutor : Jordi Truco

Index

CARTOGRAPHY - SITE ANALYSIS

CONNECTIONS OF DATA POINTS

CONCLUSIONS / ACHIEVMENTS

GROWTH STRATETGY - TECTONICS

PROGRAM DISTRIBUTION

NEW CENTRALITY - AREA OF INTERVENTION

GENERATED STRUCTURES

Intelligent Systems as Methodology for Urban Design The objective of this project is to develop a parametrically defined multi-performative material system that is a structure and skin at the same time. The generated systems have high capacity of generating formal differentiation. The creation of form and space using processes of self-organization of material, allows us to see that the attained form is not the only one, or the most ideal. It is only one of the many spatial options our system is capable of.

Urban interventions usually need a differentiated pattern of intervention to cover big areas, that can respond to the differential programmatic, site, and environmental necessities with differentiation, but within the same tectonics.

11 sites are considered in this project. The growing system will grow from one site to another, in some cases connecting many sites together, in other cases it will not be growing from one site to another depending on the parameters of the site. The growing system will have a functional program, useful and practical for the neighborhood of Vallcarca. It consists of different types of program, such as flexible appropriable spaces, social interaction spaces, urban agriculture spaces, and public spaces.

The question remains, should a building be a static, rigid, and weatherproof object with several gadgets controlling light, sound, and temperature? or should it be articulated system, capable of interacting, which continuously relates to its environment, and somehow receives information and reprocesses it to respond to this stimulus by self-regulating? An open dynamic “live� system? An ecological system? An efficient system?

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CARTOGRAPHY - SITE ANALYSIS

Vallcarca Site Cartography

VALLCARCA SITE PLAN

Three sites in black color are the sites used in the first project (Skele-Topia), and it was considered also in this project in addition of eight sites showing in yellow. So the total number of sites considered in this project is eleven sites.

Previous chosen sites New chosen sites

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ANALYZING SITE

Green area Left-over area Side-walk area

Site area values Site 1 : 10,078m2 Site 2 : 2,295m2 Site 3 : 2,475m2 Site 4 : 11,697m2 Site 5 : 956m2 Site 6 : 568m2 Site 7 : 4,071m2 Site 8 : 748m2 Site 9 : 1,792m2 Site 10 : 540m2 Site 11 : 1,804m2

103

DEFINING CONNECTIONS - DATA POINTS

Highest, lowest, and centroid points were located and defined as data points in each of the eleven sites. It is considered as the main control points (strong points in a site).

Some of the chosen sites are flat were it doesn’t have lowest or highest point, in this case centroid point is located.

C

Centroid Point

L

Lowest Point

H

Highest Point

Connecting data points 104

Connecting data points

After locating the data points showing in the previous diagram, the points were connected to define the growing system boudary or limit.

All the upcoming process will happen inside this boundary.

105

CONNECTION VARIATIONS

Closest Point Connection

Closest Point ConnectionCentroid is located on all sites

106

Best Point to locate Connection

All to all Connection

107

CONCLUSION - CHOSEN CONNECTION Closest Point Connection

Closest point connection was chosen upon the different connections showed in the previous diagrams. This connection was making more sense according to the distances between the data points, in addition of using the original data points only without adding any extra point. Also topography ( slope degree) was considered in the chosen connection.

108

SYSTEM GROWTH STRATETGY

Growing Path - Root

Growing Path Boundary

109

After choosing the growing path and defining its boundary, each side of the boundary was divided into ten divisions, and after connected to the facing sides. The purpose was to get many points inside the boundary to help start tracing and defining the growing system built and non-built areas.

110

SYSTEM GROWTH STRATETGY - RULE RECURSIVE PATTERN - RECURSION

Recursive pattern can be defined as pattern which is comprised of a sequentially ordered series of Numbers and all numbers are originated through a managed process.

For instance, pattern normally looks like 2, 4, 6, 8 and so on. To know the procedure for solving a recursive pattern, it is required to know that What Is A Recursive Pattern?

Pattern rule is one which is used to find the next number of a given series. Capability of identification and prediction of the Patterns (series) is a Math skill in which various mathematical operations are used such as addition, multiplication, division or subtraction etc. separately or can be used together to predict the next number of the pattern.

Recursive pattern is a new visualization technique which is used to explore and analyze large amounts of multidimensional data. This technique is normally based on a generic recursive scheme.

111

The parameters needed: 1.Starting Point 2.Ending Point 3.Segment Length 4.Segment Angle

112

Recursive pattern applied on site

Dividing the edges of the boundary into ten divisions and connecting points resulting a mesh.

Using the points defined in the previous diagram to generate the path-root growing on the site according to the recursive pattern logic.

113

Recursive pattern is applied on the site, started from a starting point with the branching system logic. The path-root is growing according to the points defined before from the intersection lines between the sides of the triangles (boundary). It is allowed to grow only inside the boundary-limit. The reason of growing a root on the sites is to define the system’s built areas and program.

114

Applying Tectonics

Using mesh and points to trace and to define the growing system built areas, in this process the boundary and volume is still in 2d.

Pathways ( in red ) are defined also using the same growing path-root generated before.

115

After defining the growing system built areas in the previous step, the boudary is still in 2d. The points of the boundary itself are used and Delaunay Triangulation System is applied using these points in a vertical and horizontal directions showing in pictures 1,2.

1

2

Applying tectonics in 3d

3

Generated Structure

4

116

Grasshopper Definition

PROGRAM DISTRIBUTION

Program Distribution .Flexible appropriable spaces ( such as number of classrooms, a large mixedused hall, etc ) . .Social interaction spaces ( such as cafeteria, etc ). .Exchange spaces ( such as convenience stores, temporary market, etc ). .Urban agriculture spaces ( such as vegetable gardens, a small farmer’s market, etc ). .Public spaces ( such as a square of sorts-flat surface for temporal uses as sports/leisure/events, etc ).

Area per square meter .Flexible appropriable spaces 1000-2000 m2 .Social interaction spaces 1000 m2 .Exchange spaces 600 m2 .Urban agriculture spaces 2000-3000 m2 .Public spaces 2000-3000 m2

117

PROGRAM DISTRIBUTION Flexible appropriable spaces ( Workshops, Classrooms )

Areademanded 1000-2000 m2 Area occupied 1760 m2

118

Three Floors Workshop spaces & Housing Height : 9 meters

119

120

Program : Multipurpose Hall Area : 500 m2

121

122

Program : Workshops & Classrooms Area : 330 m2 Three Types : 50 m2, 100 m2, 150 m2

123

124

Program : Workshops & Classrooms Area : 330 m2 Three Types : 50 m2, 100 m2, 150 m2

125

126

Program : Workshop Spaces Height : 9 meters 3 Floors

127

PROGRAM DISTRIBUTION Social interaction spaces ( Cafeteria / Restaurant )

Area occupied 190 m2

128

Program : Workshop / Classroom Area : 190 m2

129

PROGRAM DISTRIBUTION Housing Spaces Zoning Area available 2000 m2 Area occupied 1765 m2

130

Program : Housing Ground Floor Area : 350 m2 Types: 50 m2, 200 m2

131

132

Program : Housing Height : 6 meters 2 Floors

133

134

Program : Housing Height : 6 meters 2 Floors

135

136

Program : Housing Height : 6 meters 2 Floors

137

PROGRAM DISTRIBUTION Bridge & Exchange Spaces ( Stores ) Area occupied 1107 m2

138

Program : Bridge Area : 1107 m2

Program : Stores Area : 200 m2

139

PROGRAM DISTRIBUTION Public & Urban Agriculture Spaces Area available 2000-3000 m2 Area occupied 3000 m2

Public & Urban Agriculture Spaces .Public Space ( Landscape, Greenery ) .Agriculture Space .Activity Space 140

New Centrality & Site of Intervention .Contains different types of Program .Importance of its location .By generating new pathways, it can attract people from different sites .According to it’s big Area & Topography

141

GENERATED STRUCTURES

142

143

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Master’s Degree in Advanced Design and Digital Architecture | 2016-2017 Master’s Degree In Advanced Design and Digital Architecture Mention In Research | 2017-2018

ADVANCED DESIGN & DIGITAL ARCHITECTURE MENTION IN RESEARCH ELISAVA 2016-2018