JOURNALJOSHUA GRAF 587672

ARCHITECTURE STUDIO AIR

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Contents

Introduction

Precedent Study:Design Futuring

ETC

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My name is Joshua Graf, a final year Undergraduate student of Architec-ture. Along side architecture I study a diploma in Japanese, and in my

3rd year I spent that year on exchange in Ed-inburgh, Scotland, focusing on architecture history and seeing a lot of it.

INTRODUCTIONA BIT ABOUT ME

WHY DESIGN?

DESIGN HISTORY

The core of my design work has formed during my time at univer-

sity but my first attempt at it really began in high school. In my final year of school I opted to take a Visual Communication class over a calculus one because I wanted to prac-tice these design skills. I designed a very aestheti-cally based Art Gallery and made a model to prove it. I then moved onto Univer-sity and took my first stu-dio Virtual Environments where I got stuck into rhi-no and its panelling tools and left the subject with a hanging, papercraft lan-tern emulating the skin patterns of a snake. My second studio that year left me designing a very theoretical tactile “judge-ment tower” which was my first time properly engaging with a site and immersing myself in de-veloping and responding to ideas. Then came the Architecture Design Stu-dio water where I learnt to familiarise myself with the work of Architectural Masters, designing a boat-house using the formal strategies of my chosen architect Herzog and De Meuron.

I derive a passion for design from 2 perspectives. The first is just part of

me. I have always liked to draw, make paper mache, con-struct pyramids of lego, or help my dad build things. I suppose you could see this side of me as the desire to create both for the sake of aesthetics and out of enjoyment for the process. The second perspective is that I have come to realise that design can have a purpose and actually be useful, and so in turn I can have a purpose and be useful. And I be-lieve it is this side of the 2 that is stronger in driving my passion for design because it itself

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URBAN ALGAE CANOPY for World Expo 2015

THE PROJECT

THEORY ENGAGED

FUTURES IMAGINED

The relevance of this project to the realm of ideas is the notion of consider-ing architecture as a literal organic structure. By incorporating the technology claimed to be developed in the ‘algaetecture’ into the general urban fabric, the qualities of a place like a forest could be established, with variable lighting and

shade, generated oxygen and a response to visitors and beings within its presence.

EcoLogicStudio also try to bridge the gap between nature and the artificial via this at-tempt to synthesize parametrics and sustainability/environmental concerns, creating both a great example for theoretical futures and an evocative image. This hybrid works to merge the seemingly mutually exclusive realms of nature and technology into an al-most symbiotic state.

It is not so radical an idea as ideas for adapting algae for various uses in ar-chitecture have been developed in the past (such as algae panels to generate electricity). However it is definitely very timely and very effective in getting people to properly imagine a future where organic life is intricately combined

into the built environment.

The Urban Algae Canopy is de-signed by the team at ecoLog-

icStudio for the World Expo 2015 in Milan as part of the Future Food District Project. The canopy involves a bio-digital system devel-oped by the team over the past 6 years which runs a flow of water, energy and CO2 through the structure generating the equivalent oxygen of 4 hectares of wood-land and up to 150kg of biomass per day. The canopy is also designed to respond to user pres-ence making the shad-ing system dynamic in its intensity.

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Table Cloth

The “Table Cloth” Project here is challenging the associations of purpose we hold for everyday/household items. The fabric or ‘”cloth” they have created is assembled through interlocking components that then double up and can disassembled back into chairs and tables. The idea being developed here is the potential for the products we use to be more versatile and reusable, to make the 3 R’s of sustainability (recycling, reuse, repurposing) more applicable. It also explores the realm of “instant archi-tecture” where spaces can be dynamically changed and adapted to with little or no waste as these various forms become obsolete.

This project is neither radical nor revolutionary nor a massive instigator of change but the strong theory behind the project coupled with its striking image work as a conversation starter (or continuer). Its presence raises the questions it speaks about and encourages thinking on the topic

The built form is important to the conversation because it gives physical example of the theory in practice. It doesn’t promise to be the best or most practical ap-plication of the idea, but by actually creating a system of useful chairs and tables that can also be adapted to a social space or performance area it helps others im-agine the direction the designs dream of. It is also important because the project encapsulates a unique approach with material strategies in digital fabrication

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