Week 11 final submission A3.2: Analytical Models of One Project

Hydrophile: Hydrodynamic Green Roof | Bioscience Innovation Center 2010 

Servo Architects

With inspiration drawn from the shell of the 'Namib desert beetle', a contradicting concept is discovered in relation to hydrophilic and hydrophobic attributes which assist in its ability to collect, and direct the natural flow of water. Servo integrates this unique design concept into its project Hydrophile Bioscience Innovation Centre where the same notion was portrayed in the form of a hydrodynamic vegetated roof. This organic roof focuses on supporting existing, “biotope structures and habitat networks and promoting biodiversity in the local environment” [1]. It also draws onto the perception of depth in design to develop a structure that is multi-functional, and aims to generate a space that enables viewers to experience and collaborate with the structure from multiple vantage points, ranging from above, within and below. In such a dynamic design, which blends nature and architectural form, it is vital to vary the thicknesses of the structures' foundations to depend on the load forced on the configuration from above. It is due to the roof being a habitat for local plants and other flora, which can be submerged into water. However, this depends on the plants proximity in relation to the declining slopes, which aims to accumulate rainwater overtime for future use.

Section showing the varying thicknesses in the structure.

Visual representation and labeling of materials.

A sense of interaction between the structure and the surrounding landscape is gained through the engagement of viewers with various vantage points, whether it be above, between or below. Each point of access allows viewers to experience the changes in form and varying depths. Above being its developed architecture that mimics the outer landscape through the inclusion of particular forms of dense vegetation. Between is the designated auditorium space and specialised areas intended for the, "cultivation of vegetation in semi climatically-controlled microclimates" [2]. Below is the interior, where people are able to interact with the bulging roof form that warps towards the ground with the smaller protuberant forms that emit water, air or light. Ultimately, this ability to experience the structure from various perspectives allows for a greater understanding of the overall form.

Electronic representation of parametric
design capabilities

To make such complex geometries Servo utilises, “highly controlled algorithmic and machinic processes” [3], whilst also merging into this design approach, a combination of digital and analog techniques of design and fabrication, thus, ensuring efficiency in the design process.

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r e f e r e n c e s

• [1] [2] Arch2o.com, "Bioscience Innovation Center – Hydrophile | Servo“ (2012-2015). Accessed: 20 May 2015. <http://www.arch2o.com/bioscience-innovation-center-hydrophile-servo/>
• [3] Servo, Los Angeles. Accessed 16 May 2015.<http://www.servo-la.com/index.php?/projects/hydrophile/>
• Designbuzz, "SERVO bioscience innovation center to exhibit extensive green roof" April 7 2011. Accessed: 20 May 2015. <http://www.designbuzz.com/servo-bioscience-innovation-center-to-exhibit-extensive-green-roof/>

Week 11 submission: Draft Project Analysis for Assignment 3.2

Botswana Innovation Hub 

SHoP Architects

In SHoP’s work, Botswana Innovation Hub, the structures’ intention to uphold its sustainable architecture is established whilst nature is unified in an interrelated composition represented by its organic form. It is through the interrelationship between nature and architecture that allows such processes – such as morphogenesis - to increase the range of inspirations available to designers, like SHoP, who find it in their intention to enhance future change and growth. With particular focus on constructing in phases by following a process, it enables maximum collaboration amongst architects, engineers and builders, thus, eliminating the gap, and “the features of architectural representation that make space for the mystery, the obfuscation and the mendacity, that has for at least a century now separated those who draw from those who build”. This unique process maximises accuracy in such innovative design techniques, such as the “Energy Blanket” [1] roofscape, which freely, “overhangs passively to shade the building’s interior volumes, while mechanisms collect and re-use water, and both passive and active photovoltaic systems harness solar energy” [2]. The roof sweeping over each slender structure on site, often referred to as the "green roof", is of iconic nature whilst it remains aesthetic yet functional with its photovoltaics which collects the sun's energy. Also, a roof garden filled with indigenous species which collect rainwater for reuse will allow the structure to blend seamlessly with the surrounding environment.

Above: Development of the basket weave pattern.
Below: Pattern projected onto interior of the buildings auditorium where it also will serve as an acoustic baffle. 

Further design innovations were constructed in order to compliment the structures’ organic based form with the inclusion of a developed basket-weave pattern inspired by the craft traditional to Africa. This central texture had the ability to be, “propagated across a variety of surfaces” [3]. With such versatility, it enables SHoP to enhance the already organic structure with various cultural elements to add to overall aesthetics as well as functional aspects in relation to reducing acoustic baffles within the auditorium. 



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r e f e r e n c e s

• [3] Nobel, Philip, “SHoP and the Ethics of Knowledge Transfer” in The Builder’s Name (2015): Pp. 108, 109.
• [1] [2] Unknown, “Botswana Innovation Hub”. SHoP. Accessed 16 May 2015. <http://www.shoparc.com/projects/botswana-innovation-hub/>
• BIH - Botswana Innovation Hub Development - Botswana. (2014, May 28). World Market Intelligence News. Accessed 16 May 2015 <http://search.proquest.com/docview/1553442714?accountid=12763>
• Cilento, Karen, "Update: Botswana Innovation Hub / SHoP" 16 Aug 2011. ArchDaily. Accessed 16 May 2015. <http://www.archdaily.com/?p=160416>

Week 11 Topic: Collaboration

The development of collaborative digital software has maximised efficiency in the design process, ultimately enabling effective mock up testing and scripting to be achievable in one program. This ensures that larger projects are, “automatized, [as] we cannot have a piece of software written for each type of design problem” [1]. The manipulation of design increases manual labour as it, “would affect the whole geometry… down to these very last elements [and] their machining programs” [2]. This then leads to the need to manually modify the concept in each program, therefore, further complicating the design process. It has to be understood that, “the future of architecture is unreadable” [3], as designers move forward with a collaborative mindset where, “contemporary free forms are called into considerable question when they become cliché and sacrifice the past to the advantage of an absolute present” [4]. To cater for enriching technical ingenuity and cultural and sociological imaginations, the combining of programs increases time that could be spent analysing context and experimenting with ideas. For example, a curved panelling system that incorporates, “heterogeneous elements as a challenge to be met by innovative design” [5], “is a general architectural problem that leads to [a] complex manufacturing process” [6]. However, it can be avoided through frequent software development and integration by designers.

The installation consists of 100 robotically-routed plywood ribs. Even with smaller projects, manipulation of the design elements in multiple design programs can be time consuming, thus, can be avoided through the use of arising multipurpose programs.

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r e f e r e n c e s

• [1] [2] [3] [4] [6] Cache, Bernard, "Toward an associative Architecture", in Digital Tectonics edited by Neil Leach, David Tumbull & Chris Williams (2004): Pp. 108, 109.
• [5] DeLanda, Manuel, "Material Complexity", in Digital Tectonics edited by Neil Leach, David Tumbull & Chris Williams (2004): Pp. 21.

Week 10 Topic:Practice vs Project: VI: Parametricism vs. Parametric Thinking

Heyday Aliyev Center located in Baku, Azerbaijan. Designed by Zaha Hadid.
Representing the up-rise in curvilinear design.

Parametricism and parametric design are often confused due to their coexistence within the design process. In the past, Isms such as Postmodernism or Modernism in the architectural profession were purely based on parametric thinking – the process – of the final form, therefore, reducing the connection with culture. In the same way, parametricism is seen as the effect of the use of parametric technologies. It is due to the ease of use that comes with parametric design – the way this ease increases, “the adoption of parametric software in computers” [1]. In apparent contrast to the way in which traditional architectural drawings, “have no inherent structure, and are merely dirty marks on paper” [2], - this notion can be clearly argued. Ultimately, the popularity of curvilinear forms in the architectural profession increases as they are now easier to create, which then gives the impression of an emerging architectural style. There is a need to understand the influence culture itself has on new coming architecture as it is culture which emits, “a certain design aesthetic, and the techniques can merely facilitate the articulation of that aesthetic” [3]. But how could such a style arise in an industry where a, “very small fraction – maybe 1% - would be using actual parametric software”? [4]. Parametric thinking should be referred to as a radical “way of approaching design” [5], a process, which works alongside algorithmic design to create a, “scripting language that allow[s] the designer to step beyond the limitations of the user interface, and to design through the direct manipulation not of the form but of the code”[6]. This is where, “design exploration and the epistemology of criticism suggests that we must embrace the possibilities” [7] and finally represent the way in which, “logic should be the new form” [8].

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r e f e r e n c e s

•  [1] [3] [4] [5] [6] [8] Leach, Neil, "Parametrics Explained", in Scripting the Future, Tongji UP, 2012: Pp. 3, 5, 7, 9.
• [2] [7] Mitchell, William, “A New Agenda for Computer-Aided Design”, in Computational Design Thinking, edited by Achim Menges (2011): Pp. 2, 15.

Week 9 Topic: Practice vs Project III: Nonstandard and Versioning

The five centuries of mechanical culture has allowed for extensive experimentation of effective methods of versioning. This has ultimately improved the production of non-standardised products. Non-standard and versioning greatly relate to the development and management of a product in the production and manufacturing processes. They focus directly on the process involved with refining and maximising product performance through upgrades and / or customisation of technology, not particularly the form itself. Upgrades of “new software [has] opened a generative domain [of] complex morphogenesis and complex geometries” [1], thus, leads to the creation of non-standard designs. This then intends to, “shift the way architects and designers are using technology to expand”[2] while also allowing “architects to think or practice across multiple disciplines, borrowing tactics from film, food finance, fashion, economics and politics for use in design(s)” [3]. It is this concept of the non-standard that could be seen as a method of evoking, “a refusal of normalisation, of widespread standardisation of modernism to deploy standardisation as a fundamental factor of industrialisation, as a determining principle of modernism” [4]. Consequently, it is given that this new method of approaching non-standard designs through versioning is “beyond architecture” [5], as, “this trend has given birth to [a] one-sided world culture of production and products” [6].

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r e f e r e n c e s

• [1] [4] [5] [6] Migayrou, Frederic, “The Order of the Non-Standard: Towards a Critical Structuralism” in Theories of the Digital in Architecture, edited by Rivka & Robert Oxman (2014): Pp. 17, 20.
• [2] [3] HoP/Sharples Holden Pasquarelli (2002), “Versioning” in The Digital Turn in Architecture 1992-2012, edited by Mario Carpo (2013): Pp. 132.

Week 8 Topic: Practice vs Project II: From Surface, Hypersurface, to self-organised Bodies

Surfaces today are intertwined with technological innovations that ultimately, [1] “challenge the traditional mode of presence of architecture”. It is in this way that designers are eroding the, [2] “traditional statures of architecture”, as a means of representing new theories, such as the Hypersurface Theory. Stephan Parrella, founder of the theory, describes his intention of developing this theory based on the, [3] "observation that architecture is becoming increasingly saturated with digital technologies", therefore, he is able to establish how, [4] "the dimensional image and form with its own logic in either 2D or 3D questions the other", and to further articulate the interconnections between 2D and 3D representations and how they are not adequate to describe the new inter-dynamic hypersurface. In saying this, the theory intends to promote, [5] "a broader interface and interactivity between cyberspace and the built environment". 

For example, the development of the following installations, each possess the ability to react in real time - whether it be pre-set or interactive - and develop animated materials which enrich the appearance of the form. WHIST's installation explores the "non-physical" nature of light to create animated materials through the unique arrangement of pixels on a 2D surface that give the illusion of a 3D surface, in a non-interactive manner. This idea represents the [6] "magnificent play of volumes brought together in light". Whereas, the Orchestrating the Depth of Light (2014), introduces a fourth dimension, time, as it enables interactivity with its environment. The interactivity is discovered by viewers when a camera flashes in front of the installation, which leads to the blinking of LED lights. The flashing of coloured lights within the installation will begin from the closest point of impact and then slowly wander away. 

Example | One

Hypersurface Installation by WHIST. Animated projected Images create sense of materiality in an open space. 

Example | Two 

Orchestrating the Depth of Light (2014) by MAI, the William Maximilian University’s Städelschule Architecture Class and AHL Media Facade. 

Interactivity | Blinking of LED lights triggered by a camera flash in front of the installation. Flashing will start from the closest point of impact and then slowly wander away.

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r e f e r e n c e s

• [1] [2] Picon, Antoine, “The Surface as Architecture” in Digital Culture in Architecture: an Introduction for the Design Profession (2010): Pp. 89, 90.
• [3] [4] [5] [6] Haeusler, Hank, Chromatophoric Architecture: Designing for 3D media Facades (2010): Selected articles:
•  Introduction: “Chromatophoric Architecture”: Pp. 17, 19, 20, 23.

Images and further research

Image 1, 2 | Accessed: 04/05/2015, <http://www.whist.ch/en/project/textile-installationen>

Image 3 | Accessed: 04/05/2015, <http://www.mediaarchitecture.org/our-projects/>

Week 7 Topic: Practice vs Project: I: Materials and Techniques

The concept of materiality forces society to develop an interpretation of materials and at the same time, cause it to perceive, “objects as stable persistent realities” [1]. It is for this reason that materials are “culturally and socially constructed” [2] – for example, through this development of interpretation process amongst individuals, a material such as “reinforced concrete, at first seen as a structural system, became gradually a material” [3]. Thus, these reasons emphasise the way in which “material is dependent on cultural factors” [4]. A connection is evident between materiality and digital technology, as to achieve a desired material, the computer can be used to “alter the perceptions of objects” [5], hence extending, “the realm of our sensations” [6] as individuals when we encounter a material. This then leads into flexibility of the process of making where, “practice can no longer depend on stable rules and conventions” [7], due to the understanding that a ‘desired materiality’, sensible materials in nature may not be readily available or cater for the intentional effect. To take into account the way in which material practices are, “tethered to a fast-moving reality” [8], it is important that this exercise is one that is, “agile and responsive” [9], to cater for the fast paced world. Therefore through effect, “a fundamental notion of digital architecture, is not only meant to bridge the gap between subject and object… it is also supposed to bring together the abstraction inherent to computing and the concreteness of architectural experience” [10], as “when dealing with issues of materiality, digital architecture expresses broader trends at work in the architectural discipline” [11].

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r e f e r e n c e s

• [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [10] [11] Picon, Antoine, “A Different Materiality”, “Material by Design”, in Digital Culture in Architecture: an introduction for the Design Profession (2010): Pp. 144, 145, 146, 157, 158.
• [7] [8] [9] Allen, Stan, “Introduction: Practice vs. Project”, in Practice: Architecture, Technique and Representation, (2009): Pp. XV.

Week 5 Topic: Guest Lecture - Sarah Gilder

Societies’ evolution through history, leads to the creation of inventions. “Moving energy, information, water, waste, food, goods, and masses of people, modern power, communication, and transportation systems” [1]. These inventions allow society to explore new concepts that enable it to create ideas that, “conceive and speak of physical things” [2]. It is the inventions of the past, including, “electric elevators – [which] made high-rise architecture feasible” [3] and, “extensive subways” [4] – [which] were made possible after the introduction of electric power. This allowed society to utilise “technology to create a physical environment suited to modern men and women” [5] of the present, leading to the alteration of current culture. This expectation correlates well with the notion that, “while not everyone is a hacker, everyone hacks” [6], as hacking “is to release the virtual into the actual” [7], thus, giving unseen information to the modern day men and women. Hacking may appear as negative, although it is simply information that is given to the outer world from an unseen source which may ultimately lead to knowledge advancements through the collaboration of ideas and interpretations. Of course there are barriers, particularly due to owners’ rights to copyright of personal information which therefore leads to the notion that “information wants to be free but is everywhere in chains” [8]. This lack of access to privatised information and knowledge, causes it to “distort and deform its free development, and prevents the very concept of its freedom from its own free development” [9], as, “[information] is chained to the repetition of the property form” [10].

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r e f e r e n c e s

• [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Hughes, Thomas P., “Chapter 3: Technology as Machine,” Human-Built World, How to Think about Technology and Culture (2004): Pp. 50, 48, 51, 74, 75.
• Wark, McKenzie, A Hacker Manifesto (2004)

          • [6] [7] “Hacking” Pp. 50, 44, 48.               
          • [8] [9] [10] “Information” Pp. 67, 69, 70.

Week 4 Topic: From Architectural Design and the Image of Technology to Technology and the Image of Design: A preliminary survey of the shifting landscape

Frank Gehry’s, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

There is a clear differentiation between the design processes of architects in the past and those who practice today. These differences arise when comparing the method of the development of the morphogenesis process. Past architects were limited to their choice of technology, whereas, today designs are reliant on technology as the norm due to the endless variety of options. The complexity to complete designs of “round shapes and smooth, intricate surfaces” [1], in the past was achieved through the utilisation of particular complex programs that assisted in simplifying the process of design and construction. A great example of a well-executed piece of architecture that used technology to minimise confusion in the design process is Frank Gehry’s, “Guggenheim Museum Bilbao”. The style of its structure can be identified as a “smooth transformation” [2] and a “continuous variation” [3]. By presenting to the neighbourhood, a design which “attempts… to fold smoothly specific locations, materials and programmes into architecture while maintaining their individual identity” [4], Gehry, showcases the somewhat deformed curvilinear aspects to indicate “an intensive curvilinear logic which seeks to internalise cultural and contextual forces within form” [5]. Furthermore, Shoei Yoh’s work, “Municipal Sports Complex, Odawara: Galaxy”, was purely reliant on the use of technology. Technological design programs used by engineers along with Yoh were key to ensure efficiency whilst experimenting with different surface angles and positions to accurately ensure the design will be functional yet aesthetic. Consequently, technological advancements today have expanded the existing design options to cater for the “forms of bending, twisting or folding” [6], style that has recently emerged into the design world.

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r e f e r e n c e s

• Carpo, Mario, The Digital Turn in Architecture 1992-2012 (2013)

• [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] “Folding in Architecture,” by Greg Lynn (1993). pp.28, 30, 34, 38.

• “Morphogenesis and Emergence,” by Michael Hensel, Achim Menges & Michael Weinstock (2004-2006): pp.158-159.

Topic 3: A Universe of Discourse: Keywords

"Fundamental to computational design is the understanding of how systems, as form and as mathematical ordering constructs, operate”[1]. A designer is challenged with providing an optimum solution given a number of constraints or parameters. In each environment there are always finite resources. Also, present, will be constraints which could be physical, social or cultural or as a result of technological limitations. A dynamic design style which adapts to the environment within which it operates can be used to aid in the management of constraints and resources to achieve a similar optimal outcome. This is computational design. Parameters or limitations placed on a designer may be interpreted in different ways. Raymond says “some of the variable words, say lunch and supper and dinner, maybe highlighted but the differences are not particularly important”[2]. Society looks at a particular situation and forms numerous opinions or judgements. This variation in interpretation leads to different solutions which may be mutually exclusive. A set process may be used to deal with these parameters which could be derived from historical trends or conventions. This could be the form, performance being the result with the designer looking at parametricism within the tectonics of the project concern.

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r e f e r e n c e s

• [1] Menges, Achim, “Introduction,”Computational  Design Thinking (2011): 10-29.

• [2] Williams, Raymond, “Introduction,” Keywords: a Vocabulary of Culture and Society (1976/1983): 11-26.

Topic 2: The Archaeology of the Digital: Openings

It is by examining the importance of efficiency and the level of capability that determines the importance of technology in the design process in a “society of information”[1]. Methods of representing an architectural idea in the past were achieved “by hand, from initial sketches to final rendering”[2]. The introduction of software such as AutoCAD, Maya or Rhino have become essential tools in the practice of architecture in the 21st century as architects become more aware of the “core principles involved in parametric design”[3]. Furthermore, the cultural condition of society – that is, being revolutionised into a “society of information”[4], allowed the “invention of the computer possible, not the reverse”[5]. An architect’s understanding that “everything is calculable and therefore optimisable”[6], clearly indicates a logical thought process, similar to that of a computer. Although, the direction of these innovations as influences to the architectural profession remain uncertain, architects such as Shoei Yoh, begun to incorporate the use of “computer analysis in structural design”[7] in order to optimise concepts. Picon suggests, “The conception of buildings is indeed inseparable from the knowledge of who is going to inhabit them”, thus, stresses the importance of experimentation in design – that technology has made possible - based on the “key characteristics of the contemporary individual”[8]. In Yoh’s work, the Oguni Dome in Kumamoto, accuracy was key in developing a functional and safe structure. Digital technology allowed the examination of the “depth or relocating”[9] of the "supporting posts”[10] to be efficient and accurate, hence, were able to determine an exact degree of “slope for water drainage”.

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r e f e r e n c e s 

• [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [8] Picon, Antoine, “Introduction", “People, Computers and Architecture: A Historical Overview,”in Digital Culture in Architecture: an Introduction for the Design Profession (2010), pp. 8, 9, 10, 13

• [6] Morel, Philippe, “Notes on Computational architecture: On Optimization,” in Haecceity Papers, Volume 3, Issue 2 (Spring 2008), pp. 7

• [7] [9] [10] Lynn, Greg, ed., Archaeology of the Digital: Peter Eisenman, Frank Gehry, Chuck Hoberman, Shoei Yoh (2013), pp. 105, 106

Topic 1: What is Theory? The Digital Turn in Architecture: a History of the Recent Past

There has been a dramatic shift in the methods of how new architectural designs are developed - traditional tools have been replaced by other cutting edge techniques. It is through the utilisation of various innovative technologies that has allowed a third industrial revolution - the digital age. This reliance on technology is expressed within Carpo’s text, “The Digital Turn in Architecture 1992 - 2012”. The text highlights the need for improvements in technologies within the design industry - particularly focusing on computer aided design (CAD). Emerging technologies therefore allow designers to experiment with new forms and techniques. The revolutionary development of “spline modellers, a new generation of software that... allowed the manipulation of curved lines directly on the screen” of a “nonlinear thinking machine”[4], has allowed architects to be more creative and futuristic in their design process. The development of this technology has improved the design process, particularly with regard to versatility and efficiency. 

The text, Architecture or Revolution, contrasts greatly to the view that society should adapt to the changes in the current digital revolution. The author metaphorically refers to the loss of skills being passed down through the generations via the diction, “the father no longer teaches his son the myriad secrets of his craft”[1] due to an “unfamiliar foreman”[1], that being, machines, which are strictly taking control in the digital world.

The text advances the notion that society can restrict themselves from the revolution in the hope of avoiding “being tied like slaves to anachronistic things”[2].

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r e f e r e n c e s 

• [1] [2] Le Corbusier, "Architecture or Revolution?" Toward an Architecture (1924/1928/2007), pp.295, 297, 
• [3] [4] Carpo, Mario, "Introduction," The Digital Turn in Architecture 1992-2012 (2013), pp. 9,11