ArchitectureDesign Studio

A I R

ABPL30048Architecture Design Studio: Air

Semester 1, 2014The University of Melbourne

Catherine Mei Min Woo562729

Studio 12Brad Elias and Phillip Belesky

Weekly Design Journal

DEATH/DECAYVIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS ENVS10008

SEMESTER 02, 2012

2

Part A. Conceptualisation ##

A01. Design Futuring ##A02. Design Computation ##A03. Composition/Generation ##A04. Conclusion ##A05. Learning outcomes ##A06. Appendix - Algorithmic Sketches ##

Part B. Criteria Design ##

B01. Research Field ##B02. Case Study 1.0 ##B03. Case Study 2.0 ##B04. Technique: Development ##B05. Technique: Prototypes ##B06. Technique: Proposal ##B07. Learning Objectives and Outcomes ##B08. Appendix - Algorithmic Sketches ##

Part C. Detailed Design ##

C01. Design Concept ##C02. Tectonic Elements ##C03. Final Model ##C04. Additional LAGI Brief Requirements ##C05. Learning Objectives and Outcomes ##

References ##

3

Table of Con

tents

DEATH/DECAYVIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS ENVS10008

SEMESTER 02, 2012

4

This is she.

are old favorites when it comes to admiring the tremendous beauty and detail found in it’s design and architecture. Following the process of video game design as they tran-scend from the mind, to paper, to computer, to player: is the most intricate and wondrous journey to embark on. Her words alone do no justice to the intricacies of creating an entire universe, from it’s lore to the color and texture of the mossy columns on the far right of the room. Go pick up a controller.

She loves her dogs, and misses them dearly. The comfort of thought, the wonder in learning, and the glow of pure intent; It is clear, that her passion, ultimately, is creating and fascilitating environments for it’s in-habitants to feel safe and comfort-able, in sharing ideas and learning with likeminded people. An environ-ment that every human deserves. She says this because she knows. That is what she knows.

and she knows not a lot. What she does know is this:

She is deeply fascinated by the pro-cesses of life, particularly the life cycle from growth to death. Each liv-ing creature that graces the earth lives and dies in the most unique of ways, as contradicting as the order that humanity forces itself to abide by, and in turn by it’s own creations, built and otherwise. The built world, constructed around the whims and fancy of the riches, and needs and longings of the poor, has been alarmingly clear throughout his-tory; A fascinating phenomena, as the only true constant for humanity, is it’s need to separate itself from itself time and time again. As do architects, in their own, somewhat less egotistical way, of expressing the unification of form and function in a building- let us say, a house. Ultimately, as humans inevitably die, as the function of a house is inevita-bly made to serve it’s humans for as long as they live. A fascinating, and very human conflict; Often extrapo-lated into architecture and always a pleasure for her to dissect at will.

She loves video games (The Sims, an obvious favorite), the Bioshock series and Alice: Madness Returns,

Born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, this 20 something wide eyed girl chose to put down her scal-pels and lab-coats, only to pick up a pencil and scale rule, with the hopes of rekindling a long forgotten desire to create better futures through de-sign and the built world.

A lover of art and science, it is only through retrospect that the pursuit of architecture was really the only natural decision, and as life, the uni-verse, and cosmic forces would have it, here she is, sometimes not recog-nizing herself in her reflections as she drags boxes and bags of mod-eling materials from the ground floor Eckersleys to her small room over-looking the city. The sleepless nights, she is told, are only the beginning to a tremulous -albeit masochistic- and unique relationship with the wonder that is architecture.

She is new to this world, hence a tod-dler knows what a toddler knows,

Name: Catherine Mei Min WooLevel: Undergraduate, Year 3What is good architecture?Functional and accessible, not just design for the sake of aesthetics, or exclusively for people who can afford it.

5

Person an

d drivesintroduction

:

CUBES OF EIGHTDESIGNING ENVIRONMENTS ENVS10004

SEMESTER 01, 2012

6

Part a conceptualisation

THE CANOPYARTIST TEAM: ALEX BISHOP, STEPHEN MAKRINOS,

DANIEL NICHOLS, SEAN BURKHOLDERARTIST LOCATION: PITTSBURGH, USA

8

A01 DEsign Futuring

1 Bishop, et.al. 2012. The Canopy. Land Art Generator Initiative Competition 2012.2 Thomas & Vince-Prue. 1996. Photoperiodism in Plants. 2nd Edition. Academic Press.3 Schumacher. 2011. The Autopoiesis of Architecture. A New Framework for Architecture. John Wiley.4 Fry. 2009. Design Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics, and New Practice. Oxford: Berg Publishers.

the day. This reaction and mechanism appears to be influenced by nature, whereby plants adapt throughout the day in response to the intensity of sunlight which is seen to be changing throughout the day and into the night. This phenomena is known as photoperiodism.2

The influence of nature in the design appears to be extremely deliberate and conscious decision throughout the design, almost a mimicry of the na-ture itself. This deliberate choice can be inferred as a homage to nature, as well as the evoluton of the perspectives towards architecture beyond the confines of form and function3, or that the function overrides the importance of recognising and con-sidering the impact of architecture onto its environ-ment and the future.4

‘The Canopy’ is made from sheets of thin film photovoltaics attached to geometrically pat-terned electroactive polymers (EAPs). Thin film photovoltaics are lightweight and flexible, pro-viding the opportunity to pair them with anoth-er material and benefit from the coupled per-formance. EAPs are used primarily in robotics as synthetic muscles, contracting and expanding when an electric current passes through them. Consequently, canopy coverage will fluctuate in response to light levels and the amount of en-ergy captured. During the brightest times, the pattern will be essentially flat to maximize surface area; on cloudy days and at night the canopy will open up and become illuminated. The cells are oriented south-south-west in order to maximize solar exposure.1

This project made use of a fascinating mechanism that makes use of solar energy that influences its panels to move according to the intensity of light throughout 9

precedent: Past En

try: The Can

opy

THE STRATUS PROJECT University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban

Planning 2010 Research Through Making Grant, University of Michigan Office of the Vice President for Research 2010 Small Projects Grant

and a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada 2011 Research Creation Grant

10

A01 DEsign Futuring

ANSYS fluid dynamic modelling software Fluent was used to test the effects of various con-figurations of Stratus on air ve-locity, thermal stratification, and energy draw.

The Stratus Project is an ongoing body of design research investigating the potential for kinetic, sensing and environment-responsive interior enve-lope systems. The research emerges from a consideration of our attunement to the soft systems of architecture – light, thermal gradients, air quality and noise – to develop and prototype envelopes that not only perform to affect these atmospheres, but also to promote continual information and material exchange, and eventually dialogue, between occupant and atmosphere. It de-ploys a distributed approach to structural, mechanical and communications systems design and delivery, where localized response to demand is prior-itized. The project works to reclaim the environmentally performative ele-ments of architecture – in this case, specifically, interior mechanical delivery and interface systems – to within the purview of the discipline, as territories of material, formal, technological and experiential innovation and exploration

generation. Conventional renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and water all have the ability to gen-erate kinetic energy with the use of machinery. I am interested in ex-ploring the capability of integrating human psychology as a main driver for users of the site to interact with adaptive structures, and in turn generate kinetic energy through interracting with their environment.

The potential of this project intro-duces a fascintaing myriad of pos-sibilites and design opportunities towards designing an architectural structure that can not only sustain itself structurally, but also produce energy to sustain itself, and possibly its surroundings as well. The Stratus project is an example of an onging study of different types of energy and the potential of combining them with engineering and architectural structures to create adaptive facades that are not only functional, but also aesthetically pleasing.

Kinetic energy is a form of energy ex-plored by The Stratus Project in the operation of adaptive facades, and I believe, can be taken another step further into generating more kinetic energy to firstly, recharge or replen-ish the energy taken to operate the mechanism, and secondly, to be able to become a supplier of stable en-ergy.

The advantage of kinetic energy is the flexibility of the means of its Image source: RTVR. 2011. The Stratus Project. at http://rtvr.com/research.

11

Research: En

ergy Technology

Stratus prototype responding to occupant presence.

Sensors detect temperature rise from baseline settings, they then communicate with actuator motors to rotate breathing cells to open, the cooling fans are then deployed

Render of adaptive interior fa-cade.

12

A01 DEsign Futuring

Plan and axonometric drawings showing the layers and compo-nents

The axonometric view of a 3-cell structure demonstrates reac-tion to temperature change; the plan view reveals the thick array of tensegrity structure, breathing cells, fabric mem-branes, sensors and actuators

The Stratus Project v1.0 proto-type installed, lights responding to occupancy

The first prototype mobilizes smart surfaces and responsive technologies in the develop-ment of a thick suspended ceiling that produces a light and air-based architectural environment using distributed technologies and systems to sense energy and movement flows, tempered by occupant-responsive feedback in produc-ing envelopes of intimate and collective space.

13

Son-O-HouseNOX: Lars Spuybroek with Chris, Seung-woo Yoo, Josef Glas, Ludovica

Tramontin, Kris Mun, Geri Stavreva, & Nicola Lammers Public artwork for Industrieschap Ekkersrijt

in collaboration with composer Edwin van der Heide Son en Breugel, The Netherlands

14

A02 DEsign Com

putation

but a responsive and adap-tive structure to human interac-tion, the music generated within the structure is influenced by the humans occupying the differ-ent spaces within the structure. As previously mentioned, the time and cost saved through the input of data and the availability of comput-er simulated experimentation not only reduces cost and saves time, but also evolutionizes evidence and performance based designing, that expands the potential of design in-dependent of physical human capa-bilities.

This is extremely unique, as it is only recently that humans moved to valuing the aesthetics of archi-tectural expression.9 To be able to communicate the imagination of the human mind through the assistance of mathematics and technology brings humanity closer to the truest expression of ideas through archi-tecture.

considering or integrating the use of computational design tools, but instead, facilitates a framework or medium that further assists and provides alternatives to precon-cieved notions of design based so-lutions that were not avaliable prior to the conception of programs or engines that process algorithms.8

Computation was a key factor in realizing and modifying the design and highly influenced the design outcome in terms of physical ap-pearance and materiality. The struc-ture was such that the requirement of flexbile and durable, when com-pred wiht the brief and options gen-erated by the programs used. This reduced cost and time allocation for experimentation with materials and structure.

The geometries in particualr bene-fited greatly from computer assisted design, as the programs allow for flexibility in shape and composition, which was integral in the design of this complex pavilion that not only required to fulfil the shape, but also it’s function as a pavilion that is not only a place of rest and leisure,

This design is realized only through the integration of computer assisted modeling and generation, as the in-spiration behind the complex geom-etry that makes up the structure can only be generated through the rep-resentation of sound waves geen-rated by algorithms programed into the computer, producing a tangible shape or illustration that translates the idea of the physical embodiment of sound into a pavilion.7

However, the computational aspect is only limited to assisting in the synthe-sis and physical generation process, as this design not only involves archi-tects, but also the help of musicians, sound engineers, and programers to realize the design.

The design considers environmental factors and was experimented upon in terms of form, however, its layout and intention is very much similar to that of a house, consisting of spaces that are larger in walkways or rooms, and smaller for less dynamic spaces, such as utilitiy areas and services. This shows that the pragmatism and logic within the design process of ar-chitectural design is not lost when

Son-O-House by NOX is located in a a large industrial park the Son-O-House is a public pavilion where visitors can sit around, eat their lunch and have meetings, surrounded by IT related companies. The structure is both an architectural and a sound installation that allows people to not just hear sound in a musical structure, but also to participate in the composition of the sound. It is an instrument, score and studio at the same time.A sound work, made by composer Edwin van der Heide, is continuously generating new sound patterns activated by sensors picking up actual movements of visitors. 6

6 Arcspace. 2002. Son-O-House by NOX. Pavilions in the Netherlands.7 Kalay, Yehuda E. 2004. Architecture’s New Media: Principles, Theories, and Methods of Computer-Aided Design .Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. p. 5-25.8 Kalay. p. 8.9 Kolarevic, Branko, Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing (New York; London: Spon Press, 2003) Suggested start with pp. 3-62

15

Precedents:

Son-o-

House by n

ox

16

A02 DEsign Com

putation

17

Precedents:

Son-o-

house by n

ox

Research Pavilion 2010: Stuttgart University

Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design – Prof. Jan Knip-pers Institute for Computational Design – Prof. Achim Menges

18

A02 DEsign Com

putation

based on embedding the relevant material behavioral features in parametric principles. These para-metric dependencies were defined through a large number of physical experiments focusing on the mea-surement of deflections of elastical-ly bent thin plywood strips. Based on 6400 lines of code one integral computational process derives all relevant geometric information and directly outputs the data required for both the structural analysis model and the manufacturing with a 6-axis industrial robot.

Comparing the generative computa-tional design process with the FEM simulation and the exact measure-ment of the geometry that the mate-rial computed on site demonstrates that the suggested integration of design computation and material-ization is a feasible proposition.

The structure is entirely based on the elastic bending behavior of birch plywood strips. The strips are robotically manufactured as planar elements, and subsequently con-nected so that elastically bent and tensioned regions alternate along their length. The force that is lo-cally stored in each bent region of the strip, and maintained by the corresponding tensioned region of the neighboring strip, greatly increases the structural capacity of the system. In order to prevent local points of concentrated bend-ing moments, the locations of the connection points between strips needs to change along the struc-ture, resulting in 80 different strip patterns constructed from more than 500 geometrically unique parts. The combination of both the stored energy resulting from the elastic bending during the construc-tion process and the morphological differentiation of the joint locations enables a very lightweight system. The entire structure, with a diame-ter of more than twelve meters, can be constructed using only 6.5 mil-limeter thin birch plywood sheets.

The computational design model is

This structure experimented with ma-terial specific, computational design, structural simulation, and production processes in architecture. The result is a bending-active structure made entirely of extremely thin, elastically-bent plywood strips.

Material computes. Any material con-struct can be considered as resulting from a system of internal and exter-nal pressures and constraints. Its physical form is determined by these pressures. However, in architecture, digital design processes are rarely able to reflect these intricate rela-tions. Whereas in the physical world material form is always inseparably connected to external forces, in the virtual processes of computational design form and force are usually treated as separate entities, as they are divided into processes of geo-metric form generation and subse-quent simulation based on specific material properties.

The research pavilion demonstrates an alternative approach to compu-tational design: here, the computa-tional generation of form is directly driven and informed by physical be-havior and material characteristics.

Research Pavilion 2010 - Stuttgart UniversityIn 2010, the In-stitute for Computational Design (ICD) and the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) designed and constructed a temporary research pavilion. The innovative structure demonstrates the latest developments in material-oriented computational design, simulation, and production process-es in architecture. The result is a bending-active structure made entirely of extremely thin, elastically-bent plywood strips. 10

10 Archimmenges. 2010. ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2010. PProf. Achim Menges: ICD Universitat Stuttgart. [http://www.achimmenges.net/?p=4443]

19

Precedents: ICD/ITK

E Research Pavil

ion 2010

Stuttgart University

20

A02 DEsign Com

putation

21

Precedents: ICD/ITK

E Research Pavil

ion 2010

Stuttgart University