THREE IMAGES OF INFLUENCE:
MAISON FOLIE. LARS SPUYBROEK / NOX. LILLE
ANISH KAPOOR, TATE MODERN
METROPOL PARASOL, SEVILLE, J MAYER
SOURCES:
Digital Morphogenisis
Taking its inspiration from biology, digital morphogenesis operates through a logic of optimisation. Departing from the notion of architecture primarily as form-finding that privileges appearance, Neil Leach describes how morphogenesis places emphasis on ‘material performance’ and ‘processes over representation’.
Leach, N. (2009), Digital Morphogenesis. Architectural Design, 79: 32–37. doi: 10.1002/ad.806
All-over, over-all: biothing and emergent composition
In the last decade, the impact of the digital on form-finding in architecture has been conspicuous. Could working with computational algorithms as the primary generative material, however, have deeper, more far-reaching effects on the creative field? Here, Pia Ednie-Brown asserts that a new paradigm in composition is being articulated, as exemplified by the Invisibles installation, created by the New York-based practice biothing.
Ednie-Brown, P. (2006), All-over, over-all: biothing and emergent composition. Architectural Design, 76: 72–81. doi: 10.1002/ad.296
Deus Ex Machina: From Semiology to the Elegance of Aesthetics
Architecture's ability to realise large-scale effects permits its emphasis to shift aesthetics on a project-by-project basis. Elegance unleashes a specific visual intelligence that can be achieved by refinement and precision of surface. Here, Mark Foster Gage investigates how elegance can be designed into a project. This requires a ‘visual and formal expertise’ combined with a careful curation of mutation and awareness of ‘extreme differentiation’. Elegance often only reveals itself partially, acquired, in the design stage, through ‘isolated views and expertly calibrated moments’ and perceived fleetingly in built work.
Foster Gage, M. (2007), Deus Ex Machina: From Semiology to the Elegance of Aesthetics. Architectural Design, 77: 82–85. doi: 10.1002/ad.401
Geometry and New and Future Spatial Patterns
Geometric patterns have fascinated mankind since ancient times. Artists had an excellent understanding of the generation principles of patterns long before mathematicians devoted deep studies to this subject. A prominent example is furnished by Moorish architecture. In the 13th-century Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain, we find all the essentially different types of pattern that can be formed by congruent tiles; the mathematical classification has only been achieved in the 20th century. Contemporary architecture generates a stunning variety of new designs and spatial patterns, but architects do not always have the right tools at their disposal to realise such structures. It is a challenging and exciting task for mathematicians to bridge the gap between design and construction and devise new fabrication-aware design tools for architectural application.
Garcia, M. (2009), Prologue for a History, Theory and Future of Patterns of Architecture and Spatial Design. Architectural Design, 79: 6–17. doi: 10.1002/ad.974
Textile Tectonics: An Interview with Lars Spuybroek
Mark Garcia substantiates the place of architextiles in architectural design and theory by tracing its history, its primacy in the present and its future potential. It is an overview that takes in Ottoman palaces, Frederick Schinkel, Gottfried Semper, Mies van der Rohe, and a new generation of contemporary grand-scale structures, as well as the visionary.
Garcia, M. (2006), Prologue for a History and Theory of Architextiles. Architectural Design, 76: 12–20. doi: 10.1002/ad.346
All-Over, Over-All: biothing and Emergent Composition
In the last decade, the impact of the digital on form-finding in architecture has been conspicuous. Could working with computational algorithms as the primary generative material, however, have deeper, more far-reaching effects on the creative field? Here, Pia Ednie-Brown asserts that a new paradigm in composition is being articulated, as exemplified by the Invisibles installation, created by the New York-based practice biothing
Ednie-Brown, P. (2006), All-over, over-all: biothing and emergent composition. Architectural Design, 76: 72–81. doi: 10.1002/ad.296
Materialising Complexity
The specialist practice designtoproduction consults on the digital production of complex architectural designs. Here, co-founder Fabian Scheurer charts the relatively recent journey that architecture has taken from the regular to the irregular. He provides a comprehensive account of how this shift to curvilinear and complex forms has impacted on design and production methods, and the strengths and pitfalls of parametric design and CNC fabrication.
Scheurer, F. (2010), Materialising Complexity. Architectural Design, 80: 86–93. doi: 10.1002/ad.1111
Encoding Material
Gramazio & Kohler's work in the faculty of Architecture and Digital Fabrication at ETH Zurich is renowned for its pioneering work with industrial robots. Here, Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler and Silvan Oesterle describe how the integration of fabrication-relevant decisions into encoded designs enables the control of complex interactions between material elements and facilitates the direct generation of machine data, as epitomised by their West Fest Pavilion project.
Gramazio, F., Kohler, M. and Oesterle, S. (2010), Encoding Material. Architectural Design, 80: 108–115. doi: 10.1002/ad.1114
Can Architectural Design Be Research? Fabricating Complexity
In the second part of this mini ‘Unit Factor’ series on design as research (see previous article in AD, Vol 78, No 3, 2008), Michael Weinstock turns his attention to fabrication. He explores this through the pioneering work of designtoproduction, a firm who have made it their business to realise complexity in architecture.
Weinstock, M. (2008), Can Architectural Design Be Research? Fabricating Complexity. Architectural Design, 78: 126–129. doi: 10.1002/ad.719
Fabricating Elegance: Digital Architecture’s Coming of Age
For Joseph Rosa, John H Bryan Curator of Architecture at the Institute of Chicago, elegance with its ‘refined aesthetic ability’ represents a concurrent maturing of design culture and technologies. It builds on the pioneering fabrication techniques of the late 1990s, spearheaded in seminal projects such as the Korean Presbyterian Church in New York by Greg Lynn, Douglas Garofalo and Michael McInturf, and the Yokohama Port Terminal by Foreign Office Architects.
Rosa, J. (2007), Fabricating Elegance: Digital Architecture's Coming of Age. Architectural Design, 77: 90–94. doi: 10.1002/ad.404
Rapid Craft
The distinction between matter (mechanics) and information (electronics) in the context of responsive building skins has promoted unique design protocols for integrating sensor technologies into material components. Such a distinction results in applications of remote sensing after the process of material fabrication. Sensors are commonly perceived as electronic patches which initiate mechanical output with response to electrical input. This work seeks to establish a novel approach to the application of electronics in building skins, which prioritizes material selection, behavior, and fabrication technology in relation to the required task, over post- production sensor integration. The term “Rapid Craft” is proposed to describe such design protocols which couple material behavior and fabrication in the design of responsive skins. Rapid Craft is a designation for the incorporation of craft materialization knowledge within the framework of CNC processes of fabrication. A light-sensing inflatable skin system is developed as a working prototype, which demonstrates such an approach.
Oxman, N. Rapid Craft: Machine Immanence and NaÔve Materialization. Proceedings of IASS 2007, Shell and Spatial Structures: Structural Architecture: Towards the Future Looking to the Past, 2007; Venice, Italy; 269 ñ 276.
The New Structuralism: Design, Engineering and Architectural Technologies
Architecture is in the process of a revolutionary transformation. There is now momentum for a revitalised involvement with sources in material practice and technologies. This cultural evolution is pre-eminently expressed in the expanded collaborative relationships that have developed in the past decade between architects and structural engineers, relationships which have been responsible for the production, worldwide, of a series of iconic buildings. The rise and technological empowerment of these methods can be seen as a historic development in the evolution of architectural engineering. If engineering is frequently interpreted as the giving of precedence to material content, then the design engineer, in his prioritising of materialisation, is the pilot figure of this cultural shift which we have termed the ‘new structuralism’.
Oxman, R. and Oxman, R. (2010), New Structuralism: Design, Engineering and Architectural Technologies. Architectural Design, 80: 14–23. doi: 10.1002/ad.1101
LEXICON:
LEXICON:
MORPHOGENESIS
SURFACE ARCHITECTURE
SPUYBROEK
GOTTFRIED OTTO
EMERGENT DESIGN
TEXTILE TECTONICS
COMPLEXITY
FABRICATION
