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AirStudioARCHITECTURAL DESIGN STUDIO

XIAODI ZHANG

2015

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AIR STUDIO #2

TUTOR: CHEN

STUDENT: XIAODI ZHANG

STUDENT NUMBER: 657695

SEMESTER TWO, 2015

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Table of Contents

4 Introduction

7 Design Futuring

11 Design Computation

15 Composition/Generation

18 Conclusion

19 Learning Outcome

20 Algorithmic Sketches

26 Reference

Part A

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INTRODUCTIONXiaodi Zhang

My name is Xiaodi Zhang (Dora), I am 21 years old and a third year student in Bachelor of Environ-ments majoring architecture.

Born in Beijing, China, I have been studied in Melbourne since 2012. I used to study accounting in the foundation before the University. While accounting is boring for me, so I changed to study archi-tecture because I like drawing and designing.

Architecture is a comprehensive career which intergrades mul-tidisciplinary. The complexity of architecture itself is attracting for me because I found that archi-tectural designing is related to plenty of precedent researches, science, landscape, etc. Also, us-ing designing techniques, some architects create parks, furniture, products or even fashion design. I am really interested in the design-ing process of challenging and exploring the conventions with multidisciplinary.

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My Projects

I learnt rhino skills and paneling tool skills in the subject of Digital Design and Fabrication. Digital technique allows me to expand the designing approach and design something that is extremely hard to produce by two dimensional drawing. It provides a quicker way to create and change the design for designers and it shows a shift from traditional design to computational design.

I also understood the digital fabrication pro-cedure of CNC machine and 3D printing. The fabrication skills with fabrication ma-chines and variable materials are useful for further model making.

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Part A

CONCEPTUALIZATION

Part B

CRITERIA DESIGN

Part C

DETAILED DESIGN

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A.1. DESIGN FUTURING

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BEIJING GARDEN EXPO PARK

Fig 1. Beijing Garden Expo Park

2013, Beijing, China

Fig 2. Diagram of Sun Hours per day for Wave Garden, Beijing Garden Expo Park

Beijing Garden Expo Park (Fig. 1) is locat-ed at the west bank of Yongding River.The site used to be a construction rubbish landfill. However, the abundant environment has been reused and recreated as an eco-logical park with science and technology.Water recycling system is installed in the park and the vegetation as a filter amelio-rates the water quality of Yongding River. 1

With the concept of representing the

environment ecologically, the previous geography of rubbish landfill is remained and designed as a sunken valley with plenty of vegetation. The selection of vegetation species is related to scientific analysis such as digital diagraming of sun hours per day (Fig. 2).

The project as a “democratic design” focuses on the sustainability of environ-ments. 2 The park improves the regional ecological environments, and thus it leads to the direction of the city devel-opment which combines cultural inher-ence with ecology priority aiming to serve people’s livehood. It also has edu-cational functions not only for science popularization but also for the increased potential of sustainable design in the fu-ture. As the project is finished by the inte-gration of design and science, multidis-ciplinary is another emerging direction for design development in the future.

1. China International Garden Expo, About Beijing Garden Expo (2013), < http://www.gardenexpo-park.com/About/abge/162.html > [accessed 12 August 2015].

2. Tony Fry, Design Futuring: sustainability, ethics and new practice (Oxford: BERG, 2009), p. 1-16.

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UPPSALA POWER PLANTBIG, 2014, Uppsala, Sweden

Fig 3. Uppsala Power Plant

Fig 4. Diagrams of form generation

Uppsala Power Plant is a biomass cogene-ration plant as a supplement for the existing infrastructure designed by BIG in Sweden.

The plant was proposed to be seasonal use as the peak loads happened in au-tumn, winter and spring. However, with transparent enclosure, the new build-ing is designed to invite people visiting in summer when the plant shut down. 3 Consequently, the plant will provide cultural and social life in summer. Also, BIG designed the building as an edu-cational centre in winter. Thus, the plant is fully functional in terms of energy, so-cial, cultural and educational aspects.

BIG also challenged the conventional industry layout and building geometry. They replaced the linear layout with compact layout and created the dome structure combining maxi-mum enclosure with minimum envelope. The colored photovoltaic panels allow the dome structure to express thermal exposure by dif-ferent color ranging from red to blue. 4

The project is considered as a “critical de-sign” which beyond “radical design”. For the designing process, BIG identified the short-coming of precedents and provides a bet-ter design with exploration and innovation. Moreover, the consideration of how to in-tegrate the site with the project both func-tionally and visually is always important.

3. Karissa Rosenfield, BIG’s “Unconventional” Uppsala Power Plant Designed to Host Summer Festivals (2015) <http://www.archdaily.com/603259/big-s-unconventional-uppsala-power-plant-to-host-summer-festivals> [accessed 12 August 2015].

4. BIG, Uppsala Power Plant (2014) <http://www.big.dk/#projects-upp> [accessed 12 August 2015].

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A.2. DESIGN COMPUTATION

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5. Rita Margarida Serra Fernandes, Generative Design: a new stage in the design process (2013) <https://fenix.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/downloadFile/395145541718/Generative%20Design%20a%20new%20stage%20in%20the%20design%20process%20-%20Rita%20Fernandes-%20n%C2%BA%2058759.pdf> [accessed 12 Au-gust 2015].

THE WATER CUBE2007, Beijing, China

Fig 5. The Water Cube Fig 6. Framework of the Water Cube

The National Swimming Centre, also kown as the Water Cube, was constructed for the Olympic Games in Beijing.

The structure derives from the form of ag-gregated water bubbles in foam. ARUP designers represented the idea by dividing the space into cells of equal volume with the least number of surfaces and without gaps. As a result, the geometry is com-posed of repetitive units which makes the building to be easily built. Meanwhile, ran-dom appearance is generated from arbi-trary angles as well. Thus, the facade and the structure are continuous element that works together, representing the water bubbles in aggregation through architec-tural expression.

Computational techniques are used in both designing process and construction process. The geometry of the building was designed in computer directly as the form

is impossible to be represented by two-di-mensional drawings accurately. Thus, com-putational design provides much more po-tential possibilities for architects and allows designers to experiment a variety of solu-tions as fast as possible.

For construction process, ARUP relied on the algorithmic system to test the structural performance of different design configura-tion and easily make changes to the struc-tural system. 5

As the architectural design has been shift-ing from the traditional design methods to the computational design, designers are required to have computational abilities which can utilize software expertly. How-ever, software is just a designing tool which cannot replace appropriate decision mak-ing. Thus, designers should always focus on the idea itself and the functions and ame-nities of architecture.

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Fig 7. ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2010 Fig 8. Diagram for construction

6. Stuttgart University, ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2010 (2010) <http://www.achimmenges.net/?p=4443> [accessed 12 August 2015].

ICD/ITKE RESEARCH PAVILION 2010ICD/ITKE, 2010, Stuttgart University

The project was a temporary research pa-vilion designed by ICD and ITKE in 2010. The project was a material-oriented computa-tional development and the final outcome turned out to be a bending-active light- weight structure made by plywood strips.

The project started with the material re-search of the elastic bending ability of plywood strips. Physical experiments were made to test the bending property of the material and the forces of the whole struc-ture. Based on the material behaviors, the computational model contained with all the measurement of plywood deflections under bending and geometric informa-tion, and generated the required structural analysis model.

The final physical model was made by 80 plywood strips after accurate detailed structural calculation generated by the computer. 6

Computational technology is not only helpful for design and construction, but also important for experiments. The proj-ect indicates a new tendency of the inte-gration of algorithms skills with researched-based experimental design. 7

For younger generation of architects, “research by design” is regard as an emergence of architecture field. Multi-disciplinary research now is becoming a fundamental approach for experiments and exploration of computational geom-etry. In this case, the material research is predominant in the designing process as it directly influenced on the geometry. With computational techniques, material de-sign is shifted to be a significant part in ar-chitectural design since it may provide po-tential possibilities for structure and form.

7. Rivka Oxman & Rovert Oxman, Theories of the Digital in Architecture (New York: Routledge, 2014), p. 1-10.

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A.3. COMPOSITION/GENERATION

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Fig 9. Emergent Architectural System

Fig 10. Iterations of Multi-Agent Behavior in 2D

SWARM INTELLIGENCETyler Julian Johnson, 2010

The project is a generative de-sign using computational tech-niques based on the research of swarm intelligence.

The swarm system in this project relates to the swarm behavior of people with an attractor. Attrac-tion agents and people’s move-ment is recorded and inputted into the computer to generate diagrams of patterns (Fig. 8). Us-ing the research as a basis, the architectural design is devel-oped according to the geom-etry of the pattern. 8

Using the generative design method, designers are able to create the a generative logic, which provides a range of pos-sibilities and automatic fashion for further development. 9 This methodology contributes to the creativity and exploration from the nature and surroundings.

However, for most of the time, generative design only creates a dramatic geometry without functioning. Designers should use generative design as an ap-proach for finding a creative form and put efforts to design the functions and amenities as well.

8. Tyler Julian Johnson, Swarm Intelligence (2010) <http://www.tyler-johnson.com/Swarm-Intelligence> [accessed 13 August 2015].

9. Branko Kolarevic, Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing (New York: Taylor & Francis, 2003), p. 3-62.

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Fig 11. Research Pavilion 2011

Fig 12. Diagram of form generation

ICD/ITKE RESEARCH PAVILION 2011ICD/ITKE,2011

The project uses computational tech-nique to explore the performative capacity of sand dollar’s biological structure and express it in architec-tural form. Manufacturing processes are also under the computer control which automatically calculate the ef-fectiveness of a range of geometries. The pavilion is finally built by thin sheets of plywood with CNC machines cut-ting the material piece by piece in the particular angle.

As shown in Fig. 10, the form of the pa-vilion is consist of a series of modular and the form is developed by mak-ing geometric variation of the com-ponents. Since the modular are linked together at edges, the change of a single unit relates to the difference of the whole structure. 10

Generative and parametric design methods allow a form transforming consistently and continually under changes of parameters, which pro-vides harmony and unity to the geom-etry. Unlike the conventional design, the emphasis of generation shifts to the designing process because the form keeps changing through the process, as well as the performance of structure and material. With com-putational techniques, designer can change any step of process efficiently and effectively.

10. Institute for Computational design, ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2011 (2011) <http://icd.uni-stuttgart.de/?p=6553> [accessed 13 August 2015].

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A.4. CONCLUSION

In Part A, I learnt that how design can be used for nature and how computation influences on design process and outcome.

Design Futuring introduces how design serve for nature and people. From ethical aspect, design is not an isolated artificial product. Rather it should be considered holistically as a project contributes to the sustainability of the environment and people’s lifestyle. In addition, good architectural design can relate to the context and broaden the functions for people. Potential possi-bilities and innovation are key values that designers should to ex-plore.

Design Computation and Composition/Generation illustrate how computational methodology applies to and influence on design. Shifting from conventional design to computational design, de-signers are able to create and test more possibilities and change the designing step quickly and easily by using computers. Re-search-oriented design and generative design are emerging and developing through digital technology. Under this background, designers for younger generation are required to have computa-tional skills and multidisciplinary knowledge.

Parametric design is my intended design approach. Instead of a specific shape, designers create a sequence of parametric equations to generate the geometry. It brings infinitely potentiali-ties for designers, which attracts me by the algorithmic logic and variable possibilities.

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A.5. LEARNING OUTCOME

Before I study this subject, I categorized all the projects made by computers as digital design. After the reading and lecture, I understand the categories of digital design, and how computa-tional design benefit to design process and bring possibilities for design and developing directions.

Furthermore, I also realize that there is ceratin risk for design com-putation. Although parametric design and generative design could generate fantastic geometry, a good project could not be created without plenty of analysis for functionality and amenity. Focusing too much on poetry aspect will result in less decision making for designers.

My previous design were all carried out by rhino with composition-al designing method. By learning the theories of computational design, I found that my previous design could be represented by algorithmic logic and hence the form could be changed and improved with a variety of possibilities quickly and efficiently.

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A.6. ALGORITHMIC SKETCHES

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BIG, Uppsala Power Plant (2014) <http://www.big.dk/#projects-upp> [accessed 12 August 2015].

China International Garden Expo, About Beijing Garden Expo (2013), < http://www.gardenex-po-park.com/About/abge/162.html > [accessed 12 August 2015].

Fernandes Rita, Generative Design: a new stage in the design process (2013) <https://fenix.tecni-co.ulisboa.pt/downloadFile/395145541718/Generative%20Design%20a%20new%20stage%20in%20the%20design%20process%20-%20Rita%20Fernandes-%20n%C2%BA%2058759.pdf> [accessed 12 August 2015].

Fry Tony, Design Futuring: sustainability, ethics and new practice (Oxford: BERG, 2009), p. 1-16.

Institute for Computational design, ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2011 (2011) <http://icd.uni-stuttgart.de/?p=6553> [accessed 13 August 2015].

Johnson Tyler, Swarm Intelligence (2010) <http://www.tyler-johnson.com/Swarm-Intelligence> [accessed 13 August 2015].

Kolarevic Branko, Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing (New York: Tay-lor & Francis, 2003), p. 3-62.

Oxman Rivka & Oxman Rovert, Theories of the Digital in Architecture (New York: Routledge, 2014), p. 1-10.

Rosenfield Karissa, BIG’s “Unconventional” Uppsala Power Plant Designed to Host Summer Festivals (2015) <http://www.archdaily.com/603259/big-s-unconventional-uppsala-power-plant-to-host-summer-festivals> [accessed 12 August 2015].

Stuttgart University, ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2010 (2010) <http://www.achimmenges.net/?p=4443> [accessed 12 August 2015].

REFERENCE

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1. Xinhua, “Explore Garden Expo Park in 360 degrees”, 2013 <http://www.bjd.com.cn/10beijingnews/photos/201308/05/t20130805_4278523.html>[accessed 12 August 2015].

2. Balmori Associates, “Wave garden”, 2012 <http://www.balmori.com/portfolio/sound-waves>[accessed 12 August 2015].

3. BIG, “Uppsala Power Plant”, 2014 <http://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/bjarke-ingels-group-big-uppsala-power-plant-sweden-designboom-02.jpg> [accessed 12 August 2015].

4. BIG, “Diagram of Uppsala Power Plant”, 2014 <http://images.adsttc.com/media/images/54e7/a98c/e58e/ce7f/c300/0118/large_jpg/upp-9-16-5_original.jpg?1424468339> [accessed 12 August 2015].

5. ARUP , “The Water Cube”, 2007 <https://www.google.com.au/search?espv=2&tbm=isch&q=water+cube+beijing&revid=1383332959&sa=X&ved=0CBwQ1QIoAWoVChMI6Ya5gP-lxwIV5CSmCh0qcAwu&dpr=1&biw=1366&bih=643#imgrc=gIH4vCoAVQ4GMM%3A> [accessed 12 August 2015].

6. PSI, “The framework of the Water Cube”, 2007 <https://www.google.com.au/search?espv=2&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=water+cube+frame&oq=water+cube+frame&gs_l=img.3...29041.30342.0.30439.6.6.0.0.0.0.317.317.3-1.1.0....0...1c.1.64.img..5.1.316.-E g A q 8 _ r NA E # i m g d i i = 9 B U L 3 d q h _ x v b c M % 3 A % 3 B 9 B U L 3 d q h _ x v b c M % 3 A % 3 B -o0fx1eex7R0YM%3A&imgrc=9BUL3dqh_xvbcM%3A> [accessed 12 August 2015].

7. ICD, “Research Pavilion 2010”, 2010 <http://icd.uni-stuttgart.de/icd-imagedb/ICD_ITKE_Pavilion_web.jpg> [accessed 12 August 2015].

8. ICD, “Research Pavilion 2010”, 2010 <http://formsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/POS-Fig02+3.jpg> [accessed 12 August 2015].

9. Tyler Johnson, “Emergent architectural system”, 2010 <http://www.tyler-johnson.com/Swarm-Intelli-gence> [accessed 13 August 2015].

10. Tyler Johnson, “Swarm Intelligence”, 2010 <http://hisheji.qiniudn.com/qiniu/1550/image/0b7a1a3d7cc35de2f7444bcee9c8e166.jpg> [accessed 13 August 2015].

11. ICD, “Research Pavilion 2011”, 2011 <http://icd.uni-stuttgart.de/?p=6553> [accessed 13 August 2015].

12. ICD, “Structural joints”, 2011 <http://icd.uni-stuttgart.de/?p=6553> [accessed 13 August 2015].

IMAGE REFERENCE