add abstract 2012

AALTO

UNIVERSITY

DIGITAL

DESIGN

LABORATORY

ABSTRACT

2012

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

02–03

CONTENTS

ADDLAB

10 Background

Statement

Objectives

12 First Year 2012

Coming Year 2013

14 Space

16 Infrastructure

DESIGN RESEARCH

20 Soft Tower

30 Responsive Skin 1.0

40 Projects

48 ADD FORUM

TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES

52 ADD VARIANCE

DISCOURSE

60 ADD THOUGHT

66 ADD Editorial Projects

74 ADD ARCHIVE

APPENDIX

84 ADD Supported Courses and Events

86 Local Community and International Network

90 ADD Organization

ADD Leadership

96 Colophon

Pages 04–07:

Melting Point Toyota series by Stéphane Couturier.

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

STATEMENT

ADD is an organization dedicated to developing the unique ‘Aalto

University approach’ to 21st century research. The laboratory’s

aim is to create innovation-based digital design, manufacturing

and material technology that are commercially viable, culturally

relevant, and valuable to society at large. ADDLAB is a site where

the design fields are in dialogue with other disciplines, such as

mechanical and civil engineering, art and material sciences. It is

a place for exploration, creativity, provocation, and risk-taking, as

well as a site for thought, research and production.

BACKGROUND

Digital design, robotic fabrication and material technologies are

bringing about a paradigm shift in the physical world of our built

environment. We are moving away from serial reproduction

towards serial permutation; from copies towards iterations. At an

unprecedented scale, digital technologies introduce variance,

mutation and flexibility into industrial mass production.

Aalto University is a future-oriented institution which offers a

unique opportunity to combine economics, engineering, design,

architecture and art, and to create a new trans-disciplinary

research platform focused on exploring the potential of the

paradigmatic shif t to digital design, fabrication and material

technologies for a multiplicity of disciplines.

10–11

OBJECTIVES

ADD’s objective is to become a renowned, international design

research laboratory which is networked to a community of world-

class researchers, professionals, Aalto University students, and

professors, as well as local and international companies.

ADD’s public programs, such as lectures and courses, focus on

building a multidisciplinary local and international audience.

ADDLAB is a place for learning and research which expands the

possibilities of existing Aalto programs. It supports a multitude

of educational programs and university departments by serving

undergraduate students, those students working on their thesis

project, researchers and professors.

On the ADD platform, cutting edge digital design, fabrication

and material technology are applied to practice together with

commercial enterprises, and students, researchers, and professors

from various university departments.

ADD is an opportunity for Aalto University to prototype new

organizational and operational models as well as new physical

and digital environments for learning and research. It is a platform

on which new methods of learning enabled by new technologies

will be intensely explored.

ADD establishes international knowledge networks by hosting and

organizing a variety of lectures, seminars and workshops. Some

of the events are organized by physically inviting international

participants and others through means of digital communications.

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

FIRST YEAR 2012

During its first year, the principal goal has been to build ADD as

an organization, and ADDLAB as its physical platform. ADD is also

in the process of initiating a number pilot R&D projects aimed at

demonstrating its capabilities and initiating collaborations with

industry.

ADD is developing a multiplicity of publications for the

communication and dissemination of content : ADD information

brochure, ADD FOLDs newsletter, ADD leaflets for all events

and projects, ADD events posters, and ADD METAPHYSICS

publication series. In addition, ADD is developing a website both

for communications and for documenting and making available

educational content such as lectures and courses.

ADD has so far arranged seven lectures and three courses.

Both the lectures and courses have been well attended by a

multidisciplinary audience. ADD has also supported a number of

events and projects which are related to its mission, as well as

events deemed significant for the Aalto University community.

12–13

COMING YEAR 2013

In the coming year 2013, the ADDLAB digital manufacturing

infrastructure will be under construction. The renovation of the

physical space begins in November 2012, and the acquirement

of equipment is currently under way. The purchase of digital

design and manufacturing machinery is proceeding by means

of ongoing negotiations with the major manufactures, such as

Dassault Systems, 3D Systems and Stäubli, aimed at creating

long-lasting collaborative agreements which will guarantee ADD’s

continued access to the latest technology. ADDLAB as a platform

will host the FIMECC Factory group of researchers in 2013 and

execute the first of four phases of the MANU research projects

coordinated by FIMECC.

In the coming year 2013, ADD will offer five courses and arrange

ten public lectures. The courses will be open to students from any

department in Aalto University. The Departments of Design and

Architecture from the School of Arts, Design and Architecture and

the Departments of Engineering, Design and Production and Civil

and Structural Engineering will credit participation in courses and

lectures offered by ADD.

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

14–15

SPACE

ADDLAB occupies an existing industrial facility located in the

School of Engineering in Aalto University’s Otaniemi campus.

The design of the spatial identity of ADD was approached as a

reconceptualization of the notion of exhibition space and research

facility, a site which is simultaneously a vitrine for experimentation

and display yet permeable to its intrinsic industrial surroundings.

This primary concept has been developed through an enveloping

whitewash veil and concentrated light interventions which

introduce an environment of suspense between the facility’s

industrial past and future expectations.

As a void with substance, the space is a spectacle, a cultural

venue, institution and social space, as well as a creative studio and

fabrication platform. All white – all colors and no color at the same

time – it is a stage for laboratory life between thought and matter.

Florencia Colombo – ADD Art Direction + Cultural Projects

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

INFRASTRUCTURE

ADDLAB is currently developing a Robotic Laboratory intended

to operate as a cutting edge fabrication facility which will explore

opportunities within the latest digital production technologies.

The Robotic Laboratory will empower researchers, students, and

visiting professionals by providing an infrastructure conceived as

a site for experimentation, prototyping and production. The facility

has been conceived as a combination of the latest software and

prototyping machinery within a unique setting that will enable

the realization of a complete creative process from design to

manufacturing, assembly and testing.

ADDLAB attempts to develop an environment of exceptional

standards which will support flexible manufacturing and digital

prototyping by integrating CAD software, additive manufacturing,

computer controlled fabrication machines and robots,

accompanied by powerful computing hardware.

Because there is a need to tap the full potential of digital design

and fabrication tools, ADDLAB is establishing partnerships

with companies that provide the latest technologies. The aim

of partnership is to create mutually beneficial scenarios where

companies, researchers, professionals and students are welcome

to participate in ADDLAB’s workshops and public program, and

make use of the facilities to showcase their research, production

and technology.

Sergei Chekurov – ADD Technical Development

Heikki Sjöman – ADD Infrastructure Development

Wycliffe Raduma – ADD Research + Education Development

Meng Wang – ADD Technical Design

16–17

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

SOFT TOWER

– A Research Project on Advanced High-Rise Building

High-rise is a device for spatial optimization, creating peaks of

density. It is perhaps the most powerful device for sustainable

building due to the optimization of the urban infrastructure. Most

tall buildings, however, have a bad image caused by the serial

reproduction and technocratic atmosphere that conceived them.

Is it possible to develop better, more exciting, ecological and

humane high-rise typologies? Is there a potential for a friendly,

soft skyscraper? How could change and responsiveness be

incorporated in high-rises? How could we create more exciting

sequences of experiences in vertical buildings?

Can towers become material constellations where form, program,

pattern, color and ornament are co-coordinated to produce new,

more ecological sensations when people flow through them?

We believe that ecologically motivated and digitally powered

designs can take on existing clichés and create a new Soft Tower,

beautiful enough to seduce us into exploring more sustainable

ways of being and feeling in the world.

Parasitic Aggregation. Gabriel Huerta – UCLA Architecture and Urban Design Student.

This project is coordinated by ADD and executed in collaboration with UCLA

Architecture and Urban Design, USA, and Aalto University Department of Architecture.

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

22–23

SOFT TOWER WORKSHOP

– Aalto University, UCLA and World Design Capital Helsinki 2012

The initial phase of the SOFT TOWER research project was

developed through a joint collaboration between the architecture

students from Aalto University and UCLA in the USA. During

this process, the visiting students from UCLA developed a site

specific research and conceptual design based on a set of

locations selected by Aalto University students throughout the

city of Helsinki.

The resulting proposals were first presented in the context of the

UCLA 2012 RUMBLE session, an exhibition where the “program

installations redefine the provocative opportunities confronting

the next generation of architects.”

A second presentation took place in the end of 2012 as part of

the WORLD DESIGN CAPITAL HELSINKI 2012 program through a

series of site specific interventions positioned throughout the city.

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

Above:

Metamorphose. Cody Campbell – UCLA Architecture and Urban Design Student.

Right:

Parasitic Aggregation. Gabriel Huerta – UCLA Architecture and Urban Design Student.

24–25

26–27

Left :

(Metro)City. Leonard Ma – Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture,

Department of Architecture.

Above:

City Rejuvenated. Alexander Adkins – Aalto University School of Arts, Design and

Architecture, Department of Architecture.

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

Soft Tower construction boards positioned across Helsinki as part of the World Design

Capital Helsinki 2012.

28–29

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

RESPONSIVE SKIN 1.0

A Research Project on the use of simulation as a part of an

algorithmic design process in the design of advanced, modular

building skins.

Status: Design phase executed 2011–2012. Realization 2013.

The Responsive Skin project focuses on a design process

which enables the scripted panelization of a building form,

instrumentalizing analytical data, such as solar gain analysis. We

will work to uncover the technical and artistic potential of a design

process which involves an ‘intelligent feedback loop’ from digital

analysis or simulation with the aim of creating new, ‘responsive

building skins’.

The designs of the paneling systems are done within the constraints

of a digital fabrication process called incremental sheet forming,

in which an industrial robot presses a sheet of metal against a

computer guided piston ‘field’ in order to form a mould which can

be used for injection molding.

The last step, before the assembly of the manufactured components

on site, is a parametric BIM model. The BIM model needs to be

constructed with software such as the Digital Project or Tekla in

order to control the process of assembly. Subject to time and

progress, the project will attempt the creation of a parametric

building model from each of the designs.

Kivi Sotamaa – Design Direction

Robbie Eleazer – Algorithmic design

ADD, UCLA, Aalto University Department of Material Technology and Aalto University

Business Information Technology BIT.

Project 1. Wael Batal, Cheng Ha, Chris Harris.

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

Above:

Unit connection and pin connection detail.

Pages 34–35:

Unit variations.

32–33

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

34–35

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

Pages 36–37:

Project 2. Brian James Cadiz, Gabriel Huerta, Joseph Mathias.

Above:

Primitive geometry.

Right:

Shingle to shingle unit interface and sample orientations.

38–39

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

PROJECTS

ADDLAB is initiating and executing a number of pilot projects in

the present academic year, 2012–2013, aimed and launching its

design research activity:

Convolute work in progress.

40–41

RESPONSIVE SKIN 2.0

A research and development project on robotically operated,

environmentally responsive building skins.

Status: Commencing October 2012

The Responsive Skin 2.0 project builds on its predecessor

by adding real-t ime interactive, mechanical and chemical

transformations to the building skin for the purposes of superior

performativity – both technically and theatrically speaking.

CONVOLUTE

A research and development project on additively manufactured

non-standard series LED light fixtures.

Status: In process

The convolute project explores the combination of animation

software, additive manufacturing, metalised surface treatment and

VTT’s direct write/draw technology for the creation of unique,

highly articulated LED light fixtures.

ADD Design Research Team:

Kivi Sotamaa – Design Director

Ashish Mohite, Emmy Maruta – Design Development

Aalto University Collaboration:

Aalto Mechatronics with Petri Kuosmanen; Brian Breuer-Harberts, Iñigo Flores Ituarte,

Tatu Kalervo Pollari, Markus Selensky

Professional Consultant:

Robbie Eleazer – Algorithmic Design




Meng Wang – Industrial Engineering

Jukka Helle – Programming

Aalto University Collaboration:

Teemu Rönkkä – Electronics

Companies:

Shapeways, Metallizeit, Oras, SAAS Instruments

Organizations:

VTT

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

TURNING A CORNER

A research and development project on digitally manufactured

and cast joints for complex furniture spaceframe.

Status: In completion. Exhibited at the Shanghai Museum of

Contemporary Art in October 2012 at the Design Colors Life

exhibition of Finnish design.

Turning a Corner was a project in which 3D printing and casting

were combined in order to produce unique aluminum alloy joints

for a freeform furniture spaceframe. The furniture in question was

a glass table where custom images were printed on the underside

of the surface. The printed glass and the sculptural spaceframe

capitalized on the potential of digital printing, 3D and 2D, for

creating customized, formally complex furniture.



Ashish Mohite – Design Development

Eetu Kejonen – Engineering/Casting

Companies:

Konepaja Mäkelin, Marimekko

42–43

Left :

3D printed angles and table assembly.

Above:

Render of the finalized table.

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

Above:

Melting aluminium.

Right:

Casted angles before processing.

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

DDSHAPE (DIRECT DIGITAL SHAPE)

A research project on laser-based incremental sheet forming

Status: Commences October 2012

The DDShape project develops a new technology to shape plastic

sheets into 3-dimensional form directly from digital design data.

The 3D shape of the design is converted to elevation contour

curves and these contour curves are transferred to the sheet

material by a laser and an industrial scanner system. The laser

softened contour curves are then shaped with air pressure.

DDShape technology offers potential to quickly make objects

from custom designs and also from 3D scanned shapes. The

3D data can be transferred via the internet for production in a

different location.

ADDMATERIAL – MANU PROJECT

A research project on additive manufacturing

Status: Commences January 2013

ADDLAB as a platform will host the Fimecc Factory group of

researchers (tbc) in 2013 and execute the first phase of four

MANU research projects coordinated by FIMMECC. The focus of

the research is additive manufacturing.

CASE STUDY HOUSES

A research and development project on digitally fabricated

housing and furniture.

Status: In preparation

The Case Study House is a research and development project

which focuses on developing digitally designed and fabricated

housing, accompanying building details and furniture. The end

result of the project will be a collection of products as well as a

community of realized case-study houses.

A group of progressive and technologically savvy young artists,

architects and designers will be selected to head R&D teams.

Each team will produce a visionary concept and demonstrate it

through a varied series of building models and accompanying

products. The most successful designs will be selected for further

development, and finally a few will be chosen for construction and

production. The project will last three years in total; the first year

focusing on concepts, the second on development and the third

on realization.

The Case Study Houses and associated products will be created

from a number of materials, with particular focus of UPM’s wood

and wood related products, including future materials such as

nanocellulose. Wood and wood related products are excellent

from the point of view of sustainability because they are renewable

and have a long lifecycle. Material science related to wood and

cellulose at Aalto University and within the company UPM is at the

cutting edge internationally.




Meng Wang – Industrial Engineering

Aalto University Collaborations:

Principal Scientist Dr. Jouni Partanen – School of Science, Business Innovation Technology

Professor Petri Kuosmanen with students from the Mechatronics Program – Department

of Engineering Design and Production



Wycliffe Raduma, Sergei Chekurov, Heikki Sjöman – Manufacturing Technology

46–47

INTERACTIVE MATERIAL

A research and development project on the seamless integration

of interactive media in material surfaces such as glass.

Status: In process

An interactive material project combining a 88% clear ‘nanofilm’

laminated on to glass with a Kinect camera, using a standard

6000 lumen projector and custom made particle based software

to create a real-time interactive artwork and information on the

glass façade of a public building in Helsinki.

BIOBOX

Digitally manufactured packaging solutions from biocomposites


Biobox combines the latest material innovations related to

biocomposites at VTT with digital design, printing and lasercutting

for the creation of packaging and book covers.

NANOSHELL

A research and development project on additively manufactured

Nanocellulose shell structures.


Nanoshell combines algorithmic design, simulation, free-form

additive manufacturing and nanocellulose for the creation of

biomimetic, optimized shell structures.

GLOBAL DESIGN LOCAL PRODUCTION

A research and development project on crowd sourced high-end,

plastic consumer products


GDLP is a project exploring the use of crowd sourcing and 3D

printing for transforming the manner in which products are

developed, marketed and distributed.



Professional Consultants:

Jani Isoranta, Matt Swoboda – Interactive Media

Jorma Saarikko – Projection Technology

Companies:

Stockmann, Pro AV

ADD Design Research Team

Technical Research Center of Finland – VTT Bio Composites Group




Aalto University Collaborations:

Academy Professor Olli Ikkala – Department of Applied Physics, Molecular Materials Group

Principal Scientist Dr. Jouni Partanen – School of Science, Business Innovation Technology

ADD Design Research Team in collaboration with international design professionals

Companies (tentative):

Plastex, Slave

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

ADD FORUM

ADD FORUM enables researchers from Aalto University and

its partner universities to meet with interested professionals,

researchers, and possible sponsors. The intention is to get

research away from the limited academic setting and disciplinary

silos and into real-world interdisciplinary applications that serve

society and industry. ADDFORUM welcomes researchers that

want to communicate the significance of their work by sharing it

with a selected group of potential collaborators.

ADD FORUM 1: Collaborative Intelligence – Brought to light the

research of Aalto University’s CAD/CAM/CAE research group from

the Department of Engineering Design and Production. In this

forum GrabCAD and Dassault Systems shared their efforts and

visions for making CAD more collaborative.

ADD FORUM 2: Engineering Education, Machine Design in Aalto

University – The engineering program at the Aalto University

Schools of Science and Technology are undergoing a major

reformation. In this context, educational developers got together

to discuss the future possibilities and challenges in mechanical

engineering education. Markku Kuuva presented the plans for

reforming the Bachelor’s degree programs, Wycliffe Raduma

presented his master’s thesis titled “Search for Best Practice in

Education: Machine Design in Aalto University”, and the Aaltonaut

Team presented the plans for a new Aalto-wide interdisciplinary

bachelor’s degree program.

Wycliffe Raduma – ADD Research + Education Development

48–49

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

52–53

ADD VARIANCE

ADD VARIANCE is a program created to explore formal

experimentation and materialization methodologies through an

array of digital design and fabrication processes.

This workshop program contemplates the notions of variance,

mutation and flexibil ity which are introduced by digital

technologies in regards to industrial production.

ADD VARIANCE introduces computational design methods,

ranging from generative, animation-based tactics to algorithmic

design and scripting through a series of workshops developed by

international specialists.

The workshops are intended as a supplementary addition to the

academic curricula of the School of Engineering and the School

of Arts, Design and Architecture, with the intention of challenging

the boundaries of each discipline through alternative creative

processes.

2012 PROGRAM:

ADD VARIANCE 1 ANIMATING FORM

Instructor: STEVEN MA

ADD VARIANCE 2 SIMULATION TECTONICS

Instructor: ROBBIE ELEAZER

ADD VARIANCE 3 BEHAVIORAL COMPOSITES

Instructor: ROLAND SNOOKS

2013 PROGRAM:

ADD VARIANCE 4 DIGITAL FABRICATION

Instructor: MARTA MALE ALEMANY

ADD VARIANCE 5 VOLUPTUOUS MASS

Instructor: GEORGINA HULJICH

ADD VARIANCE 6 ESPERANT. O ROBOTICS

Instructors:

JONATHAN PROTO / BRANDON KRUYSMAN

ADD VARIANCE 1 took place on May 7–11, 2012.

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

ADD VARIANCE 1: ANIMATING FORM

The first session of the ADD VARIANCE program consisted of

a digital workshop of advanced architectural design, which

introduced participants to contemporary discussions of formal

exploration in architecture, through the technical attainment of

design production and animation.

CONCEPT

Can architecture contaminate animation?

As two polarized practices complete with specific workflows

collide, inevitably new techniques and concepts will emerge.

Through the use of 3D modeling software, editing and special

effects tutorials, the desire for this workshop was to innovate new

processes and possibilities to create “Animated Form”.

By introducing the skills required to animate and model in the way

which more and more architecture and design is adopting first,

and then transitioning into more classical notions of animation,

it is possible to arrive at a new product - animated yet not quite

animation; architectural yet not quite Architecture. The aim of this

workshop was to push architectural animation past the typical

“flat” realm of visualization and to produce a new category of

formal expression.

The workshop was a discourse based on the use of multi-layered

techniques and production processes that allowed for control

over intelligent geometries, calibration of parts, and behavioral

taxonomies, normalizing an innovative field of predictability.

Instructor: STEVEN MA

Steven Ma is a design architect for Coop-himmelb(L)au in Vienna, specialized in digital

visualizations, 3D management and productions. He is also assistant professor in the

“Excessive” post-graduate program at the University for Applied Arts Vienna, Austria.

He worked as a lead designer for Xefirotarch in Los Angeles from 2006-2008. Born

in Hong Kong, he gained a master of architecture degree from Southern California

Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in 2008, graduating with distinction, and he was

awarded the AIA Henry Adams Medal and the Best Overall Graduated Thesis Award

entitled “Xuberance: Liminal Form & Calligraphical Aesthetics”.

54–55

Xuberance by Steven Ma.

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

56–57

Animating Form workshop.

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

60–61

ADD THOUGHT

The ADD THOUGHT public lecture series explores the state of

production in the electro-material environment.

The series is defined by select international practitioners and

theorists who are invited to share their experience through

cross-disciplinary practice between the fields of engineering,

mathematics, art, architecture and design.

2011 / 2012 PROGRAM:

ADD THOUGHT 1 CLEMENS WEISSHAAR

Designer

Kram/Weisshaar

ADD THOUGHT 2 ULRIKA KARLSSON

Architect, Designer

Servo

ADD THOUGHT 3 GREG LYNN

Architect, Designer

GLform

ADD THOUGHT 4 ANDREW WITT

Architect, Designer, Mathematician

Director of Research, Gehry Technologies

ADD THOUGHT 5 MICHAEL SPEAKS

Researcher, Writer, Critic

Dean of the College of Design,

University of Kentucky

ADD THOUGHT 6 KLAUS BOLLINGER

Structural Engineer

Bollinger-Grohmann Ingeneure

ADD THOUGHT 7 DAVID ERDMAN

Architect

Studio Davidclovers

ADD THOUGHT 8 HERNAN DIAZ ALONSO

Architect

XEFIROTARCH

ADD THOUGHT 9 PETER TESTA /DEVYN WEISER

Architects

Studio TESTA/WEISER

SCI-Arc Robotics & Simulation Lab

ADD THOUGHT 10 ENRIC RUIZ GELI

Architect, Scenographer

Cloud 9

ADD THOUGHT 11 MARKUS MIESSEN

Writer, Architect, Researcher

Studio Miessen

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

ADD THOUGHT 5 – MICHAEL SPEAKS

– New Values for New Design

Driven by advances in building and information technology

and accelerated by the tumultuous period of global economic

restructuring that commenced in 2008, architecture practice

is today confronted with the necessity of fundamental change.

Indeed, all sectors of the A/E/C industry will face increasingly

fierce competition that will, of necessity, force practices large

and small to compete less on cost and more on value. In the

very near future architecture will be valued almost entirely based

on performance—economic, cultural, environmental—and only

those firms able to create these and other forms of added value

will survive. Disruptive technologies like building information

modeling and integrated product delivery will enable all firms,

even those competing solely on the basis of cost, to design

better buildings and deliver them more efficiently. But in such a

fiercely competitive global marketplace, efficiency alone will not

be enough to guarantee market viability. The real differentiator will

instead be design, for design not only adds economic value, it is

also one of the most powerful engines of innovation and therefore

among the most productive forces of economic value creation.

One of the unexpected consequences of the 2008 economic

downturn has been that the debate over the value of architecture

and design is now focused less on style and the exquisite,

designed object, and more on the economic and societal value

added by design. And that is because almost everyone now

acknowledges that we need new design values as much as –

perhaps more than – we need new designs. The most promising

development, in this regard, and one that affects architecture

and design practice as well as design education, is the growing

recognition that design is not only a product – a table, building,

plan or landscape – but is also a creative process and a powerful

engine of innovation. This new understanding of design helps

us begin to see what new values of new design practice and

education might look like. Cheap, fast and adaptable, so that

hundreds of iterations can be designed, sorted, and discarded.

Big, bold, and dumb, so that clients, stakeholders, even other

designers, can engage in transparent, productive discussion that

might lead to better problems and better solutions. And finally,

apposite not perfect, so that if the design needs to adapt to

changing conditions, it can do so with minimal effort and cost. If

architecture, in particular, is to thrive during and after the current

economic downturn, it will have to adapt to these and other values

of the “good enough” revolution, where the quick and dirty have

eclipsed the slow and polished and the cheap and simple have

eclipsed the expensive and complicated. But if architecture,

and more importantly, if architecture schools, are unwilling or

unable to innovate, communicate, and adapt, they will soon be

left behind, comforted only by the memories of those expensive,

incomprehensible, perfectly designed things that not too long ago

fascinated us all.

ADD THOUGHT 5 took place on April 23, 2012

62–63

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

ADD THOUGHT 4 – ANDREW WITT

– SuperNumeracy: The New (and Old) Mathematics of Design

Combinatorial and algorithmic approaches to design have a

history that predates contemporary digital and parametric tools.

These approaches are intimately conditioned by architecture’s

relationship with mathematics and machines, which has pervasively

influenced progressive approaches to form-making. Today,

advanced digital models allow the embedding of engineering and

mathematical intelligence into reactive frameworks, encapsulating

sophisticated knowledge transparently in the designer’s tools.

At the same time, architecture is increasingly informed by

mathematical methods and machine technologies of making,

as designers themselves appropriate and invent architectural

algorithms. Through both historical examples and contemporary

projects, this lecture presented the sometimes unexpected, often

complex, and always vital interrelationships between design,

mathematics, and machines.


64–65

Left :

Drawings executed by an analog computer, Desmond Paul Henry, 1962.

Below:

Mathematical ruled surface model, late 19th century.

66–67

EDITORIAL PROJECTS

Editorial projects are put forward to create and take part in the

discussion around contemporary design practice in the midst of

digital fabrication technologies, robotics and new materialities.

Kontrollraum / Control Room, 2011, by Thomas Demand.

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

ADD METAPHYSICS

– A publishing project for new design sensibilities

The ADD METAPHYSICS publishing project builds on ADDLAB’s

expertise in the fields of digital design, robotic fabrication and

material technologies, while exploring the new roles and methods

of designers in the increasingly flexible and complex electro-

material-cultural environment.

ADD METAPHYSICS takes note from philosopher Manuel De

Landa, who, in a 2011 lecture at the University of Southern

California, suggested that while computers are valuable in

exploring different spaces of possibility, designers must create

the spaces worthy of exploration. Along these lines, the publishing

project invites speculation into digital design beyond technology

and form. Furthermore, it aims to facilitate new modes of material

engagement and shift the focus of the field towards original

sensibilities.

With the first publication and website due in spring 2013,

ADD METAPHYSICS will operate per semester. Borrowing from

a schoolbook format, the forthcoming publications include

contributions by select practitioners and academics who probe

into the interrelations between information and material from

their own idiosyncratic perspectives. The writers are requested

to share their ideas in the form of experimental assignments,

made to encourage activity and debate both within and outside

of ADDLAB. Consider ADD METAPHYSICS as an open-ended

curriculum taking place in the open site of the publication.

addlab.aalto.fi/metaphysics/

Pages 70–71: Excerpts from conversations between Karl-Erik Michelsen and Yrjö

Engeström with the editor for the first issue of ADDMETAPHYSICS, Semester I.

Jenna Sutela – ADD METAPHYSICS Editor


Johanna Lundberg – ADD Visual Communications

68–69

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

THE ART AND SCIENCE OF ENGINEERING

In order to inform the ADD METAPHYSICS project, the Finnish

social scientist Karl-Erik Michelsen was asked to shed light on the

inconspicuous art and science of engineering. Michelsen believes

that engineers should study philosophy. There is a general need,

he says, for a better understanding of what technology is, how it

impacts on society, how society influences technology, and of the

idea of a technological culture.

Michelsen has analyzed the relationship between national culture

and the engineering profession, including the kind of power

that engineers wield in society. Sometimes engineers exercise

power without realizing it, and it is often not obvious. Finland’s

engineers, for example, appear to be silent on the issue of politics.

“It is simply assumed that even such a powerful phenomenon as

technology can be an apolitical intervention,” Michelsen says. He

claims that critical thinking does not form a part of the engineer’s

professional conduct: “The solutions to problems are held always

to be technological.”

“Engineers seek the best possible solution,” Michelsen continues.

“And that best possible solution also becomes the only option,

which can’t be criticized afterwards. This is the technological

fix. Once the problem has been mapped out, the task is to work

out which technology will fix it. The technology that works can

then be tinkered with endlessly. Any discussion about whether

the original question was the right one, however, feels impossible

– the technology and the solution are now one.”

Karl-Erik Michelsen is a Professor of Business Economics and Law at the Lappeenranta

University of Technology and the Director of the South Karelian Institute. His research

focuses on technology as a social and cultural phenomenon, with a particular

interest in the professional culture of engineers. Michelsen’s book, ‘Viides sääty:

Insinöörit suomalaisessa yhteiskunnassa’ (Tekniikan akateemisten liitto & Suomen

historiallinen yhdistys 1999) explores the social and political power of engineers and

their reluctance to engage in public debate on technology or the consequences of

technological change.

70–71

CO-CONFIGURATION FOR A NEW MATERIALITY

Another lesson to learn from the study of technology and society

was pointed out by professor Yrjö Engeström from the Center

for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research at the

University of Helsinki, who stressed how the material world is

made up of not only particles but of relations, or the ceaseless

exchange of information next to that of energy and things.

Today, the digital and the material worlds appear to be merging.

According to Engeström, the digital production of materiality

remains, however, still largely at the level of visions. “The most

interesting possibilities seem, for the time being, to lie in how the

digital can be inserted into the already existing material world,”

he says. Early examples that are already familiar include various

positioning systems and ways of making objects traceable or

identifiable online.

Engeström sees these kinds of technologies as a basis for

community-centred design – or co-configuration as he calls it. For

him they are tools for producing plural realities or for understanding

and developing different kinds of working cultures:

“Whilst a new leading hybrid conceptualization of work is still

emerging, I feel the most acute task is to examine how material

activity itself might change. The concrete problems of real groups

of people generate precisely the kind of basis on which the new

materiality should be built.”

Yrjö Engeström is a Professor of Adult Education and Director of the Center for Activity

Theory and Developmental Work Research at the University of Helsinki as well as

a Professor of Communication at the University of California, San Diego. He works

within the framework of cultural-historical activity theory. Currently, Engeström focuses

especially on co-configuration as a new way of organizing work as well as expansive

learning in multi-activity settings.

74–75

ADD ARCHIVE

– A collection of thoughts on the digital context

By means of the interview method, implemented systematically

within this program as research-knowledge production, ADD seeks

to collect testimonies on the experimental past and contemporary

production of the electro-material context.

This collection builds on ADD’s cross-disciplinary program,

with the objective of developing an archive of interviews which

addresses the diverging trajectories of contemporary discourse

on digital design methodologies, new material technologies and

production processes and its relevant implications within the

industrial, cultural and societal contexts.

The interviews are created around a systematic pattern of questions

which contemplates the complex and variable parameters of

contemporary practice.

Pages 72–73:

Space Simulator, 2003, by Thomas Demand.

Left :

Archiv / Archive, 1995, by Thomas Demand.

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

ADD ARCHIVE – ANDREW WITT

WHAT DOES A DIGITAL PARADIGM REPRESENT FOR YOU IN

THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY DESIGN AND CULTURAL

PRACTICE?

(...) “I think ‘digital design’ is really just an extension of techniques,

methodologies and approaches to form that have emerged from

the current computational condition – over the past 30 years or

so. However, the paradigm builds on a conceptual approach that

is hundreds of years old and embedded in the very nature of

design itself: the analytical way in which it approaches formal

problems. I believe one of the keys to producing new design

knowledge is in realizing that the technical culture of design has,

in fact, a distinct epistemological history, and that in order to

really embrace the possibilities of contemporary techniques we

also need to know the past of those techniques.

What I find, perhaps, the most urgent topic to tackle in relation

to the digital paradigm in design is the reconfiguration of work.

When computers have the capacity to accelerate processes,

or to replace some of the most labor-intensive activities, what

we should be looking at are the kinds of productions that have

traditionally been problematic or challenging because of the

amount of labor that they would have required before. All in all,

the biggest changes brought about by the digitization of design

are actually organizational ones and design practice should adapt

to this condition.” (...)


Andrew Witt is Director of Research at Gehry Technologies (GT). Currently based in

Los Angeles, California, Witt was previously a director at GT’s Paris, France office,

where he consulted on parametric design, geometric approaches, new technologies,

and integrated practice for clients including Gehry Partners, Ateliers Jean Nouvel,

UNStudio, and Coop Himmelb(l)au. Trained as both an architect and mathematician,

Witt has a particular interest in a technically synthetic and logically rigorous

approach to form. He has taught courses on digital design at Harvard, Ecole Speciale

d’Architecture, and SCI-Arc, and has lectured at MIT, ETH, EPFL, and Angewandte,

among other schools.

76–77

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

78–79

ADD ARCHIVE – MICHAEL SPEAKS

DO YOU THINK THAT THERE ARE CERTAIN MODES OF

EXPRESSION INVOLVED IN ‘DIGITAL DESIGN’?

(...) “For me, digital design doesn’t come in any particular shape,

form, or language. In fact, I consider such an idea extremely

problematic and like to talk about digital thinking instead. In my

view, the specialty of the field lies in parametric thought and

prototype thinking – and these don’t look like anything. Rather,

they can produce results ranging from orthogonal to biomorphic

to unimaginable forms.

If we look at what happened in, for example, American schools in

the early 1990s, we can see the growing use of software and the

emergence of paperless studios. What is particularly interesting

about this period is that when all these digital technologies

arrived, students stopped working with physical, three-dimensional

models. So, this naturally created some dif ficulties in the

relationship between thinking and action. However, ever since 3D

printers and CNC cutters have started to appear in schools, a new

connection between thought and action seems to have become

possible again. Still, I’m not convinced that many teachers, so far,

have learned to use the digital fabrication equipment for anything

else except completing processes. The real challenge when it

comes to developing new modes of designing lies in how to use

these tools for digital thinking instead of just producing products

that are digitally designed.” (...)


Michael Speaks, Ph.D., is Dean of the College of Design and Professor of Architecture

at the University of Kentucky. Former Director of the Graduate Program at the Southern

California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles, Speaks has also taught

in the graphic design department at the Yale School of Art, and in the architecture

schools at Harvard University, Columbia University, The University of Michigan, UCLA,

Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, and the Berlage Institute and TU Delft

in the Netherlands. Speaks has published and lectured internationally on contemporary

art, architecture, urban design, and scenario planning.

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

80–81

ADD ARCHIVE – PETER TESTA AND DEVYN WEISER

WHAT DOES A DIGITAL PARADIGM REPRESENT IN THE CONTEXT

OF CONTEMPORARY DESIGN AND CULTURAL PRACTICE?

(...) “The digital paradigm is shifting from the flat Euclidean

space of computer modeling tools to a post-medium condition

characterized by the layering of processes and technologies.

In our work beginning with the Emergent Design Group at

MIT, we have continuously created new interfaces including

software and hardware as part of the design environment and

in relation to aesthetic interests and design goals. This platform

at the convergence of computation, computational materials,

and synchronous robotics breaks down outmoded distinctions

between digital and analog or virtual and real.

Machines (including computers and robots) of ten take us

by surprise as we cannot predict or foresee what is going to

happen in the actual event. Even though the elements are fully

constructed, the system actualizes virtualities that overcome or

override initial expectations. This condition is connected to the

earlier point that today the more processes and transformations

there are the better, as we cannot fully calculate or predict

outcomes and this makes working with machines and matter part

of a creative and collaborative enterprise.

Contrary to popular assumptions and preconceptions about

computers, the inputs do not strictly define the outputs as the

objects we work with hold more secrets than one can imagine. This

metaphysical perspective is particularly poignant when working

in environments where code, matter, motion, and geometry are

negotiating, producing, and capturing images in real time.” (...)

ADD THOUGHT 9 took place on October 11, 2012

TESTA/WEISER is a Los Angeles based studio that invents, designs and prototypes

innovative architecture, products, and systems for a diverse client roster that includes

some of the world’s most innovative companies. Peter Testa and Devyn Weiser are

partners in charge of design at Testa/Weiser Inc. and founding members of the MIT

Emergent Design Group EDG). In 2012, they have initiated within SCI-Arc the Robotics

and Simulation Lab with Stäubli Robotics.

Painting with robots at the SCI-Arc Robotic House.

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

ADD SUPPORTED COURSES AND EVENTS

The ADD SUPPORTED program consists of events and projects

which relate to existing Aalto University structures and which

enter in dialogue with the mission and objectives of ADD.

These events and projects are held at ADDLAB and coordinated by

means of a collaborative process aimed at the further intertwining

of the subject of digital design and fabrication technologies with

the various academic fields within the university.

ADD SUPPORTED EVENTS:

– Aalto Symposium: Soundings for Architecture

– KTH – Konstfack – Aalto

– Konergia Festival

– WDC Helsinki Open Doors Weekend

– The Mechatronics Circus

– The Dean’s Donors Event

ADD SUPPORTED COURSES:

– Critical Studio

– Future Foundries Workshop

– Urban Systems: Smart City and Human Centered Design

– Additive Manufacturing Workshop Insco Project Bit Research

Center

84–85

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

86–87

LOCAL COMMUNITY AND INTERNATIONAL NETWORK

ADD itself is a prototype of the new Aalto University environment,

functioning as a hub of activity that fosters social interaction and

cultural inspiration.

ADD aims to provide a valuable forum for scientists, engineers,

designers, and architects as well as institutional and corporate

partners which facilitates cross-disciplinary exchange and

networking.

During its first year, ADD has also developed an extensive global

network through its international public program, exchange

students and researchers in developing academic and corporate

collaborations.

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

88–89

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

ADD ORGANIZATION

KIVI SOTAMAA – Director

Kivi Sotamaa is principal of Sotamaa Design, an award-winning design studio based in

Helsinki. He is an Associate Professor at UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban

Design. Previously he held positions at the Ohio State University and the Universität

für Angewandte Kunst, Institut für Architektur in Vienna. He holds a master’s degree

from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki [UIAH] and in addition has studied at

Helsinki University of Technology and the Royal College of Art in London.

FLORENCIA COLOMBO – Art Direction + Cultural Projects

Florencia Colombo works within the field of contemporary art. Through her professional

practice she has collaborated with international artists and designers developing

cultural projects within a cross-disciplinary platform. From 2004 to 2010, she worked

with German artist Tobias Rehberger on an extensive portfolio of architectural projects

focused on the concept of sculptural space. She holds degrees in architecture and

the visual arts from the University of Buenos Aires, and Städelschule, Staatliche

Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Frankfurt, Germany.

JENNA SUTELA – Editorial Projects

Jenna Sutela is a writer and curator working in the fields of design and art with

a special interest in digital media. At ADDLAB, she is currently editor of the ADD

METAPHYSICS publishing program. Her background includes a master’s degree in

media and design research from the Media Lab at the University of Art and Design

Helsinki as well as the founding of a critical design/art practice OK Do with projects

ranging from publications to installations.

WYCLIFFE RADUMA – Research + Education Development

Wycliffe Raduma is a graduate from Aalto University’s School of Engineering with a

master’s degree in engineering education. From 2006 to 2011 he collaborated in the

development of the Aalto University Design Factory. In this context, he has created

and coordinated the Product Development Project, a student program focused on

collaborative corporate-academic research elaborated through industrial design

product development.

ASHISH MOHITE – Design Research

Ashish Mohite is an architect with extensive experience in projects ranging from

product design to urban planning. He has worked with various international offices

in projects with a research focus in digital design. His study background includes a

bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Mumbai , India, and a master of

arts degree in advanced architecture design from Städelschule, Staatliche Hochschule

für Bildende Künste, Frankfurt.

EMMY MARUTA – Design Research

Emmy Maruta is a graduate from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-

Arc) with a bachelor’s degree in architecture. She has worked with various award-

winning Los Angeles based architecture offices in the development of projects ranging

from residential to urban designs.

JOHANNA LUNDBERG – Visual Communications

Johanna Lundberg is a graphic designer for print and digital, working on a variety of

projects from books and magazines to identities and websites. With a background in

international collaborations and commissions, Johanna co-founded the award-winning

creative studio Åh in 2008. She holds a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from the

London College of Communication, University of the Arts London.

HEIKKI SJÖMAN – Infrastructure Development

Heikki Sjöman is a graduate from Aalto University’s School of Engineering. He is

currently working towards a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and business

management.

SERGEI CHEKUROV – Technical Development

Sergei Chekurov is a graduate from Aalto University’s School of Engineering. He

is currently completing a master’s degree in production technology and industrial

management, with a professional focus on additive manufacturing technologies.

MENG WANG – Technical Design

Meng Wang holds a B.E. in industrial design from Xidian University, China, as well as

a M.Sc. in human ecology from Vrije Universiteit, Belgium, and a M.Sc. in renewable

energy from Jyväskylä University, Finland. In his professional practice he has been

engaged with various international projects and businesses regarding product design,

research and sourcing.

JUKKA HELLE – Software + Programming

Jukka Helle has a background as a professional software engineer with experience in

projects utilizing GIS and mobile connectivity. He has collaborated in establishing the

Aalto Fablab at the Aalto Media Factory as the Electronics Studio Master. He is also

studying automation and systems technology in Aalto University’s School of Electrical

Engineering.

EETU KEJONEN – Logistics

Eetu Kejonen is a graduate from Aalto University’s School of Engineering. He is

currently completing a master’s degree in mechanical engineering with a focus on

product development and foundry technologies.

90–91

ADD LEADERSHIP

Academic Board of Directors:

Petri Varsta – Chairman – Dean, School of Engineering

Soile Koukkari – Secretary – Administrative Manager, School of Engineering

Board members:

Antti Ahlava – Head of Department, Architecture

Matti Juhala – Head of Department, Mechanical Engineering

Gary Marquis – Professor, Mechanics of Materials

Eero Miettinen – Professor, Industrial Design

Jouko Pakanen – Professor, Building Services Technology

Preparation and agenda:

Kivi Sotamaa – Director

Academic Advisory Commitee:

Juhani Orkas – Professor, Foundry Technology

Pekka Mård – Controller, School of Engineering

Hannu Hirsi – Laboratory Manager, Building Services Technology

Pages 92–95:

Melting Point Toyota series by Stéphane Couturier.

ADD ABSTRACT 2012

PUBLICATION

The ADD ABSTRACT 2012 has been developed by:


Johanna Lundberg – ADD Visual Communications

…together with the contribution of ADDLAB’s organization and guests

Proofreading by Gareth Griffiths

Printed by Lönnberg Painot Oy, Finland

© 2012 ADD

All rights reserved

IMAGE CREDITS

Pages 04–07:

Courtesy of Stéphane Couturier

Pages 16–17:

Courtesy of TESTA/WEISER

Page 55:

Courtesy of Steven Ma

Page 66:

Kontrollraum / Control Room, 2011, C-Print / Diasec, 200 x 300 cm

© Thomas Demand, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn / KUVASTO ry, Helsinki

Courtesy Sprüth Magers Berlin

Pages 72–73:

Space Simulator, 2003, C-Print/ Diasec, 300 x 429,4 cm



Page 74:

Archiv / Archive, 1995, C-Print/ Diasec, 183,5 x 233 cm



Pages 80–81:

Courtesy of TESTA/WEISER

Pages 92–95:

Courtesy of Stéphane Couturier

ARTISTS BIOS

STÉPHANE COUTURIER

Stéphane Couturier, born 1957, lives and works in Paris.

The project Melting Point is a series of large-scale time-exposure photographs depicting

a high-tech Toyota assembly plant in Valenciennes, France. In the project, Couturier

is documenting the perpetual movement of industry – rationalized, disembodied,

automated and more and more subject to the silent logic of profit. Using a large-

format camera, he delineates both disorder and harmony from the highly abstract

photographs, capturing layers of machines, car parts, workers and equipment in a

visually complex manner. At once wildly energetic and industrial in feel, the images

utilize a hyperbolic palette that further injects a unique vitality to the turbulent series.

Couturier’s photographs are in major museum collections, including Centre Georges

Pompidou, Los Angeles County Museum, National Gallery of Canada, Grand-Duc Jean

Museum in Luxembourg and the Art Institute of Chicago.

THOMAS DEMAND

Thomas Demand, born 1964, lives and works in Berlin and Los Angeles.

Demand describes himself not as a photographer, but as a conceptual artist for whom

photography is an intrinsic part of his creative process. He often culls his subjects

from reports in the mass media, using them as the starting point to create expansive

sculptures out of paper and cardboard which transpose the two-dimensional original

into three-dimensional form. Demand then photographs these spatial (re)constructions

made out of paper with a large-format camera, before ultimately destroying them. Direct

human activity, finer details and figures captured on film are not transferred from the

original photographs into the life-size sculptures. What remains are phantom images

of ‘crime scenes’ of missing events which often appear just as familiar to us as they

are impalpable. Demand’s work is in numerous collections worldwide, including the

Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Guggenheim Museum, New York, the National

Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and the Tate Collection, London.

CONTACT

Aalto University

Digital Design Laboratory

P.O. BOX 14400

Sähkömiehentie 4G, Espoo

FI–00076 Aalto

Finland

[email protected]

Aalto University Digital Design Laborator y (ADD) is a research

organizat ion joint ly ini t iated by the universi t y’s School of

Engineering and the School of Arts, Design and Architecture.

ADD explores the potential of digital design and manufacturing

technologies for changing our material environment by forming

mult idisciplinar y, design-dr iven research and development

projects together with Aalto University’s researchers and

the indust r y. This project -driven, applied research act ivit y is

supported by lectures and courses, as well as a state of the ar t

technical infrastructure for digital design and manufacturing.

add abstract 2012

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