ARCHITECTURE DESIGNSTUDIO - AIR

DAVID WANG

2 3

Content:

1.0 Computational Design 1.1 conceptualisation 1.2 Design Computation 1.3 Composition/Generation2.0 Design Develoment 2.1 Research Feild 2.2 Case Study 1.0 2.3 Case Study 2.0 2.4 Tech: Development 2.5 Tech: Prototypes 2.6 Tech: Proposal3.0 Further Development 3.1 Changes and Progression 3.2 Detailed Development4.0 Final Proposal5.0 Objectives and Outcomes 5.1 About Myself 5.2 Outcomes 5.3 Future Objectives6.0 General Design Notes and Insights

1.0 Computational Design

4 5

1.1 Conceptualisation

The drome project is a new technology where dromes move themselves to create a structure. These structures are generally very hard to create by human to acheive such accuracy.

The dromes pin point their location and function along a set pattern. Although these dromes can only manipulate strings, there is a wide future to this technology.

These dromes open up a new area of ideas as the form of the outcome is a lot more flexible.

Designers now can use their imagination and not be restricted by technology.

The dromes were revolutionary in a way, since there were no such way of constructing before this. Although there were computational construction for projects that need precision, they were not made insitu and cannot thread strings like the dromes.

This project was not “built” but more like a result of a ongoing pattern.

This technology provides precision, flexibility and reduces human labour. These factors will lead this designing method on go in the future.

We do see computational construction plays a big role for the future of architecture.

Design FuturingThe Thread Villa Savoye

This is the White House from famous modernism architect Le Corbusier. This project has a very large impact on ideas concept, form and culture for a very long time.

This is one of the many architectual buildings that changed the future. It shows that architecture should be simple and functional. There should be no ornament but only fit into the surroundings.

This was a very revolutionary thought at that time because architecture was once seen as a sort of art. Somthing like a big sculpture with ornament but people can access it.

Many other designs after this were inspired by it.

This building expanded future ideas by giving out new concepts and focuses, where architecture is redefined. Many architecs use the modernism concepts and many buildings alike were built.

These buildings followed the rules of modernism and have changed the living experience for people who live in such places.

These ideas have been passed on till nowadays and have continuesly been used.

It is clear that architecture contribute ideas and concepts for the future and have significant impact to future qualities.

6 7

1.2 Design Computation

Computation in design has drawn increasing attention nowadays. Computation aided design has many differences from the original process of design. computational design has many advantages, which may lead this dort of deisgn to be the future of architecture.

Computational design intercect with us in many differnet ways. sometimes computers are used to aid our design and sometimes they aid construction. Sometimes they even trigger the concepts of forms of the design without us actually specifying.

Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler of ETH Zurich, used computer aided brick installation

at the Venice Biennale shown in the photo above. This is a very typical example of computer aided design and construction. These brincks may look simple, but they are layed very precisely by computer to create this sort of formation pattern.

This sort of design can also be applied not only to bricks but also to other maerials. This provides a whole new area of possibilities in terms of material formation. It can be said that computation has opened up a whole new range of forms and design that can be executed. Especially in the constantly evolving architectual era, computational design has become increasingly important to create new revolutionary architecture.

Importance of Computation in the Future

The birds nest in Beijing China is also an example that used computing during the design process. It has used multiple steel members that alliterate in a oval to produce its final form.

This sort of structure could not have been able to stand up without computer annalysis and modelling. Many buildings around me have shown computer generated components.

This comes to another dominant adcantage of computing. This is calculation and simulation.

Computer aided design allow us to simulate and calculate the outcomes of a paticular form. For example, we can

use computers to simulate string tension from a bridge which is shown in class. It allows us to see the outcome of the design before it has been installed.

There have been many cases where buildings are flawly design because we dont know what the exact outcome is. The word design should mean to know the outcome of a certain form before it is built. Computation aid largly completes this job.

These simulations not only include how the building stands up, but also the sorts of flows as discussed in previous lectures. The flows of people, of nature and of space are all clearly demonstrated with the help of computers, which was not possible before.

Like memtioned in the readings, I do believe that computer aided design can revolutionise the architectual concepts and strategy in the future. By no doubt this will open up a whole new era of architecture.

8 9

1.3 Composition/Generation

Architecture now lead to a shift in concept, and generative architecture is possibly the new direction. However first of all we need to understand the previous way of design known as Compositional Architecture.

Compositional Architecture is like writing a book. We specify the details and the outcome. It is the way we commonly design things.

We have a concept and then we expand on it. We add components that we need for the design and slowly the design forms.

As technology becomes more powerful, we start to use computer aid to design. We no longer need to specify all the details and components of the design.

It has slowly become the case that all we need is a few parameters and algorithms to create very complex forms at very little time.

Then could there be a case that the parameters have developed and we no longer need humans to design. The computers can generate a design that fits the critrea while also providing stability, flexibility and realiability.

We also need to take note that computer generated outcomes take little to no time. Although time might not seem important compared to the future of architecture and design, it is a large factor that affects design quality.

Above is the Water Cube for the 2008 olympics. The ceiling structure was designed by a parametric software specially made for this purpose.

This is another example of visual programming in de-sign. This is a project made by dynamo, and it demonstrates the capability of generating structual components with subtle curvature.

However, in my opinion generative architecture is far from being the next architectural generation. There still are many problems and things that programms cannot do.

Generative Architecture cannot create useful or practical architecture at the current moment. The structure it provides may look complex and modern, but i think it is slowly leaving what we call architecture.

To me it more seems like practical computer sculpturing.

Not only that making the generation practical is a problem, the concept of architecture also needs to change. These no longer legitamate design in this act, merely freedom of creation.

However speaking of which, there are advantages to generative computing. We can now create forms we could never had done by human power. We have a much more wide range of possibilities to explore.

Although the generation are not practical for now, i do believe they will be in the near future. They will certainly impact on our architectual future and become components of our building. However i do not believe it will replace human architectual design not matter how the parameters develop.

10 11

2.0 Design Development

2.1 Research Feild

Out of all the research feilds, I have decided to choose structure. it is the one that interests me the most. To me it is the one that does not have and ornament itself. There have been many debates on ornament in architecture, and many about justifying ornamnet. Marbe the best justification is that ornament emerges out of the design itself like masonary. However as Masonary has become less efficient and more costly than artificial ornament, it is hard to hold that justification. I believe structual forms will become rational ornament from its complexity. An example of this would be the birds nest, and that to me is architecture, and not sculptures covering buildings.

12 13

Above are images of how the iterations started. At the top is what the president looks like, it is a gridshell made out of structural lines. I have taken the grasshopper file and changed around the parameters and starting lines and wanted to create strutual ornament without the intention.

These are further explorations by changing form. I have thought about making a black hole and patterned disks that emerge form it. there is also a structure that looks like a lamp, but done by accident. I am costantly thinking on how these structures can emerge ornament, and the lamp seems to be a great example.

2.2 Case Study 1.0

14 15

Exploring further from the disk shape, I have offset the geodesic lines inside, and these are what happened. The top one has offset everytline be a distance and created almost a spinning disk.

On the right is reducing the z offset distance of the top picture and then lofting it. I have also given a slight height difference to the centre circle to create a UFO like structure.

On the left is the lofted and rendered outcome of the previous steps. On the bottom side is a structural sphere made from grasshopper and this is the sort of style I intended to explore at the research feilds.

The sphere is sturctual but may also be catagorised as ornament from its complex form and unique potential architectural language.

The bottom image shows how this specific sphere may be explored further.

16 17

As in the resources, lunchbox was a major software that could be explored to create interesting forms with simple inputs. This really enhances the fact that we can create functions and parameters and really make them work for themselves in the future.

These objects created also do not have a ornament added on, but they create beautiful forms naturally, as in unintended. This should be the answer to ornament in architecture.

Algorithms and parameters added for practical needs do not create ornament, but emerge from functions. i believe a mature algortihm will perform well in all aspects, including ornament.

These are some explorations of lunchbox using a loft looking like the birds nest, which links to my next section.

18 19

I have chosen the birds nest for my reverse engineer. This choice was made because it fulfills the criteria of having a sturcture based building while also having it as the ornament or exterior.

This building to me also has the capability to be mass produced if its architectural style was put into a algorithm.

I personally have also been to this building and i understand how large the structure is even though they may seem thin in this picture.

Reversing this building will allow me to understand how architects have approached complex forms like this, and understand how algorithmic architecture lies in the future.

I started off with a few curves of the birds nest by look at it from different angles and trying to find how it is arranged.

To me there are some curves that are stright, some are diagnal and some are really random lines that give the sturcture complexity and not look like a patterned nest.

I started off by dividing the curves and trying to make arcs through them. However I soon found out that this does not work because the arcs were too optimised and round.

Soon after I tried the geodesic function and tried to create the lines from the lofted surface. I have also divided the curves and first added straight lines and formed a basic nest outline.

After that i have created lines by shifting the list and resulted in diagonal lines.

Lastly i created random lines by jittering them. However i have culled many to match the inputs and outputs.

So after all this and a lot of trial and error, i have added perpendicular planes at the bottom of each line and draw a square on it.

Then by grafting and sweeping the squares i have create the initial birds nest sturcture which is shown in detail on the next page.

I was quite happy with the outcome and clustered the set so it is reproducable.

2.3 Case Study 2.0

20 21

1. The initial lines for the nest. 2. The lofted suface for geodesic.

5. The geodesic diagonal lines. 6. Diagonal lines on the other direction.

8. Creating perpendicular planes and the bottom. 9. Drawing squares at the bottom and sweeping them.

3. The division of the end points. 4. The geodesic vertical lines.

7. Jittered lines but culled 9/10 so only 10 percent is kept.

This is the end result of the reformation of the birds nest, I am quite happy with the result and made the function so that it could recieve any loft and create birds nest like structure from the first and last curve.

22 23

These are renders of the reverse engineering with grass and lights in the environment. we can see how this sits in a digital model and how the actual birds nest may be done.

I have then found out that the birds nest sturcture has angles at the second curve shown on the left, so I changed my function to fit for that.

The right shows how my final attempt for the birds nest looks like and i am quite satisfied with the algorithm i have wrote. to me it really looks like the real thing.

The left is a vew on one of the sides and we can really compare this to the original photo. Therefore it is evident that digital modes of design can create sucessful architecture, it is just the matter of refining this process to account for many requirments.

24 25

These are exploration of the birds nest funtion I have created. I have been trying it out with many different forms and I am suprised with how many forms it is able to adapt to. Although it was made for the birds nest, no doubt that there is a large number of possibilities that this form can provide.

Moving on, I wanted to develop my function even more, and I have added random lines in between the intersections of the structure. This creates many lines that connect in between. This relates to the sense of space and enclosed occupation. I have then jittered the points and culled 90% of them to be left with a sturcture in between the facade structure and they work nicely together. These may be supporting structures in the future.

2.4 Tech: Development

26 27

More explorations have been shown here, they seem vastly different, but are from the same function with changes in one or two components.

It is interesting to see how these slight changes genarate extrememly different forms, and we can imdiatly think about the small changes in algorithm being magnified in different scales.

From making these I have found out that we can generate thigns by accident. On right side stuctrue looks like a bird and this was not create intentionally. This brings us back to the debate in ornament. Many things in algorithmic design especially the details are unintented, but they emerge and some of them become the ornament we see. So it should be clear how ornament emerges naturally here.

28 29

The explorations here started of with a intended shape. This here is to demonstarte how my function adopts with different intentions and parameters and react differently. So these functions and really think for themselves in a way and possibly ease architectures’ jobs in the future. Below are lines indicating edges, and we can see the complexity in it, which clearly is going to be very hard for an architect to detail each of them. But with computational design, it is easily manged.

30 31

The next stage was to create prototypes of the technique. This is when drones came in and we started to investiagte how drones can be algorithmic building machines. This really links in to the design concept of computational architecture. I have thought about ornament and structure, and also thought about how my technique encloses space and how it may partician it with the stucture it builds.

After a bit more considering i have used the cacoon as a president to explore how drones and carry lines and move around to create structure. This resulted in a investigation in spiders and their tensile webs.

Trying to find patterns in orb webs isn’t really easy. We have tested the above webs and mapped out the web pattern in a booleen list and inplemented them to a spider web structure created in grasshopper. We figured that the webs needed to be in between something, so we created a perspex box with many holes in it and tryed to map

out the spider webs and think about how drones may use this space according to the algorithm.

Above is a orb web that I mapped out to match how spiders make webs. The lines generated in grasshopper match the actual order spiders make them in.

2.5 Tech: Prototypes

32 33

Then we made some proposals to how the design should be like and also the core con-cept we base how design on. we had many ideas and thought about our design was ratio-nal. spiders are very dynamic and can addapt to its environmrnt. and this is exacly what algorithmic design should have the capability of. as the site is on merry creek, we thought the design should also relate to nature and how human interfere with nature. consider-ing these aspects we decided that spider webs were the best fit to the criterea. they were also a naturally emerging ornament which links into my reasearch from the start. we also decided to make a bridge structure since this design will conect human and nature like how a bridge connects areas.

on the right was a possibility of our design where the bridge area is made of denser structures wherepeople could walk on.

We had other possibilities like a membrane web structure like the orb webs, and i was holding up a structure for the bridge, and was possibly my birds nest structure that i investigated.

i also had an idea where my stucture was to attach on to the web and that will form the bridge.

After many discussions we decided to make the web dynamnic and able to change around in different conditions. so maybe if there was a flood in merry creek which it is known for, the structure could be quikly rebuilt and elevated just like how spider webs adapt to the surroundings.

2.6 Tech: Proposal

This was the site that we agreed to work on. It is a section of the Merry Creek where there are two parralel bridges above. This could relate to spider webs and how they need existing structure to work. We also thought that this site could demonstrate adaptation. The bridge structure that we make will also improve human access between the two sides.

34 35

3.0 Further Development

3.1 Changes and Progression

Progressing in the design, I decided to model up the environment first. I obtained the topography from a large topography data map, and then modified it and finished it to create the topography lines on the left.

i then add every impactful object on the sight and then did a render of it shown below.

Our design needed anchor points so I did that imediately after.

36 37

I modelled the topography in a conceptural way and projected grid points on it as potential anchor points. So these will be the anchor points on the ground and the bridge structure will also have anchor points on it to hold the structure up.

I then seperated the layers and deleted the overlapping points to result in different anchor points on the different layers shown above.

Now we worked ont the form of our design and I was testing out how a structure can connect to the bridge while also allowing pedestrians flow through since it is a bridge.

The two above are a bit too high and steep for pedestrians to walk through, so on the bottom is a modified one reducing the height parameter in the function. Nothing has changed to the function but the height multiplyer but it produced a completely different result. This is the advantages of algorithmic designing.

38 39

Progressing in the design, we modified the algorithm so that it could adjust heights according to lines we draw, and the lines we draw will be intended pedestrian movement.

On the right is a membrane being downset according to points I draw.

On the right is a membrane being downset according to points from two curves being divided.

This is the basic concept that we came up with. Lines holding up a membrane structure, while also having lines holding it down to create topography. The topography it creates will guide pedestrian movement and also create spaces where they can inhabit.

The picture on the left shows how the membrane is generated in grasshopper, the membrane transforms according to the grid points on it, and the grid points move according to the points on the lines we draw for intended flow and movment.

I believe this concept is quite flexible and may be reproduced in other places. In other words, it can adapt to its surrounding, just like how parametric modelling should.

Concept

40 41

3.2 Detailed Development

We have decided for it to have two major components, the membrane on top con-necting the bridge as the main structure, and the cable structure holding it down under it and connecting to the landscape. These images show the details of the cable structure. The spheres show the connection points between the two structures.

The cable structure will be made by drones weaving around anchor points. There will be four major lines that the drone will start of first and the other lines will connect to them for stability and control.

Different places will have different strenths and tensions, so the places where there is less stress will have less cables required.

42 43

4.0 Final Proposal

This is the potential construction process of the struture.

Have anchor points ready on the ground.

Calculate the connections.

Drone weaves the srtucture start-ing by the 4 major cables.

Membrane sits on top and then connects to the bridge.

44 45

This is the topography of the main membrane structure. it allows humans to flow through it like a bridge, but it is also large enough for people to inhabit the space.

These are what the structure looks like as a section it also shows the height differences and how it is connected to the existing topography.

The image on the left shows how seperated anchor points impact on the structure. Our design simply in-creases the amount of anchor points to create partitions and stability.

This is an overview of the design. We can clearly see the complexity in it. And to me this may just be ornament. This can clearly develop into an architectural language, where ornament emerges from the material and function, and guided by the language.

46 47

Above is a 3d demonstration on our the base structure looks like and our the anchor points will be like. I got inspiration from guitar pegs as they are amazingly stable without any other material fixing them. The cable is merely going through it and then wraped around it, and it is very stable.

I intend to make the anchor points in the same way. These connection may be imple-mented by human, since drones should be doing work out of reach of human to maxi-mise their advantage. If drones were to do all the work, there will be less control of the design and also slow down the process at drones current stage.

The detail in the membrane structure may be further explored and can possibly become an architectural language that is parametricly design and also accounts for ornament and aesthetics. It can also be very flexible and possibly temporal due to its low construction costs and fast implementations.

This is a section showing the scale and how people might walk through the membrane structure. The membrane will be denser than the model for people to walk on, so there will be an amount of privacy if there were to be people inhabiting the space.

48 49

My name is David and I am currently a third year student studying Architecture at the University of Melbourne. Above is a photo of me early this year during the Chinese Spring Festival.

I like architecture as it is really interesting especially when it gets to the concpets and experience. I see myself more as a thinker rather than an executer.

I have many interests in my free time. I play guitar in my room when i have nothing else to do. I also play games and watch youtube. But currently most of my time is spent on club activities and meeting friends.

As I progress in this study, I now relise how many famous buildings got their form and shape, and it motivates me to learn digital designing since it is so important at this architectual time.

5.0 Objectives and Outcomes

5.1 About Myself

Experience

Above is a model done from previous work. This is the sort of work I have been doing before this stage. I have studied architectual concepts and have made models, but I really lack digital modelling skills and presentation. I know autocad quite well, but other 3d modelling and rendering techniques I lack.

In my opinion, digital modelling is a new era of architecture, and also contains the future of it. It opens up many possibilities and gives a different starting point in terms of form approach.

I have also done 1 year of coding with my breadth subjects. This will give me a good mind set and thought process when it comes to manipulating grasshopper.

Other than this i have not used much digital designing softwares previously.

50 51

5.2 Outcomes 5.3 Future Objectives

During this semester there has been a lot that i have learnt. At the start of the semester I did not know how to digitally model using parameters. It is very interesting for us to learn computational designing and I can really see where this is heading in the future.

This studio has taught me the importance of digital designing and how to use certain softwares that may be required. Making a complex design in no loner months of work on detail and aesthetic, but instead may be generated by a computer in short notice. To me this is the most powerful part of computational designing, the ability to reproduce in very short time.

However I have also learnt that we can generate ideas from digital modelling. It is no longer where the ideas came from, but more about the result of the design.

It is very amusing to see famous buildings emerge from us trying out grasshopper, since I have always wondered where they obtained their form from.

I also improved in rendering which I had no idea of previously. This also leads to many other softwares that I have worked with, like indesign, photoshop, rhino/grasshopper and autocad.

There is no doubt that there is still a lot to learn and I do think that algorithmic designing may just be the future era of architecture.

The things that i have learnt in this studio are really benificial and I am sure i will be using them in the future. Not only in future studies but I understand that they are also very important for future employment and also creating my own architectural language.

In the future I will need to learn more about parametric designing and digital designing, and try to find what I like inside it. I will also need to learn how to render well so I can get through the first few years of my architectural carreer.

In the future, I think the two main things that I need to explore is the architecture I like, and also get very good at the designing and presentation softwares.

Getting good at softwares takes time, but there is a clear direction on where to go. However finding out the architecture I like takes more time and experience to find out what I want to do for the rest of my life. I need to be enjoying the archietcture that I make.

In addition, the future is a digital era and there are some thing to consider in architecture. Ornament is a factor, and relating to this aesthetics. How would parametric designs achieve aesthetic or how would ornament emerge from digital designs. Another problem is control. If the design was to be parametricly generated, how much control would I have over it, can I even argue that i designed the building?

In the future I would need to find my own architectural language that hopefully adresses all these problems. This will be done by experiencing and working at real companies.

52 53

6.0 General Design Notes and Insights

54 55

On the left is a rendered water sphere us-ing vray. It is amazing how detailed it is with such a simple shape. Maybe this is ornament, something that emerges from the natural material, but with a architectural language guiding it.

Above is one of the first parametricly modelling item, it looks amazing to me from the amount of detail in it. This was the type of thing that i did not undertsand how it could be made. But after learning grasshopper, this sort of structure is actually very simple.

The images on the right are all made unintended. A few of them were simple because I did not add graft to the function. It is amazing how different it can be with only one command different, and also the complexity it provides.

It can also provide inspiration in designing things, although they are created by fault. This is extremely powerful, because objects created by fault is digital modelling often exceed our limits of atempts. So we can obtain new things where could not imagine beforehand.

There are many plugins in rhino and grasshopper, and the one on the left is generated by lunchbox. These plugins are really easy to use and some-times may be quite useful. Maybe in the future I can create a plugin of my own that contains my own architectural language.

Above are structures made form grasshopper that I personally am satisfied with. This is the type of style that I intended early in the semester. They are practical and simple in a way, while also having a sense of ornament in them. These can also be developed into an architectural language in my opinion, and maybe i can make a plugin that generates these sorts of forms. I have already clustered a function for the birds nest, so definately possible.

56

THE END