PLAT 1.5 has just been released, and with it my critical essay entitled Algorithmic Abuse, which I’m sharing below. It’s a short attempt to raise awareness towards several gaps in computational architecture’s theory as well as practice.
Please support the journal by purchasing a copy!
Head over to my blog for the complete article.
Intro
The project started out as an ambitious student-powered endeavor to design and fabricate at a 1:1 scale the flagship pavilion for the ZA11 Speaking Architecture event in Cluj, Romania. While at the same time integrating into its historically-charged context, the design (which was elaborated to a concept stage during a week-long workshop) boasts a strong representational power which was much needed in order to fulfill its main goal: attracting passers-by to the event. At the same time, the object, through its tectonic characteristics, tries to make legible the new ontology which is slowly defined by computational architecture and thus becomes a showcase for the design processes empowered by digital tools.
During the 15-17th of December I will be tutoring at the automatic architecture event at the TU Delft. Here’s some info from the official site:
Automatic-architecture is a three-day workshop (15th-17th December 2010) open to architects and students in order to show the use of computational design for architectural development by cross-fertilization of knowledge. The cases for the workshops has been collected from a real estate developer and, in cooperation with the University of Delft this case has been translated into workshop material.
Costs: Euro 75,- for three days.
Automatic-architecture offers room for thirty participants. The workshops will be held at the Technical University of Delft starting Wednesday December 15.
More detalis here. Enjoy!
Some social philosophical aftershocks in architecture. Collaboration with Veronica Popescu.
Winning entry for DuPont + igloo‘s Changing the Face – Casa Poporului. Idea sparked off with Raresh Dragoiu of drr_____ fame.
Jury was composed of:
prof. arh. Dorin Stefan (DSBA)
arh. Bruno Andresoiu (igloomedia)
Anne-Line Citrene (DuPont France)
Gabi Rottes (DuPont Germany)
Some pictures from the exhibition, which can be seen at the University Underground Passage until the 7th of December (09):
Recently we were allowed the use of computers at one of our one-day-long exams – so my school is finally living up to the attribute change in my about page – it used to be horrible, now it’s damp. A real improvement in life quality.
Here’s the outcome: judge it lightly since the overall design was conceived with a specific public in mind during a brief four hour period, including plotting.
Man, this post is definitively sarcastic. I’m working on improving that 
(as in downplaying the sarcastic note).
The assignment was loosely formulated so as to allow maximum freedom in identifying problems and needs in the Lipscani area and proposing an architectural (built) solution that would tackle the aforementioned points.
My vision concentrated on issues relating to the poor visibility/readability of the overall area (and the necessity of a landmark) and the lack of “free” public urban space. The functional program was mainly derived from the observation that most historic centers (Lipscani being a prime example in this) loose their initial cultural and traditional economic value in favor of the over-dominant bar/cafe. This leads to a certain repetition of fluxes (economic, cultural, pedestrian) which harms the respective area.
Geometry-wise, my proposal respects local aspects of the area, namely its porosity and the way the urban tissue coagulated around narrow winding streets and small interior courtyards in a constantly surprising lattice.
In respect to this approach, i considered the lot as a solid volume on which forces are applied in respect with the openings and general director lines of the site. Performing a “structural” analysis on the site revealed the patterns by which these forces would naturally flow towards given points of rest (namely the designated openings of the courtyards). Using topological optimization techniques these patterns were transformed into geometry which was later subtracted from the original body thus giving the overall shape of the building.
By following this design method I ensure an optimal circulation flow through the built site, encouraging interaction and furthering the development of the local urban tissue in a manner very close to its characteristics (gained by spontaneous evolution) thus fully integrating the new implant.
That’s wrapper of the last month, give or take.
Call them what you will, but there’s been a huge hype about them some time ago.
Grasshopper’s scripting capabilites are now a huge super cool feature, especially if you’re coding in visual studio (c#) and then pasting the shit or making dlls. I did this some time ago when i suddenly realized that you can declare your own static variables inside scripting nodes (and these guys hold up their values during the updating procedure). And the vector math is already there too.
This is an implementation based on Craig Reynolds‘s neurons, and a little bit on Daniel Shiffman’s processing example (which was updated and used some time ago for this.
Now, if somebody will be nice and implement some collision detection…
PS: I will upload the def. soonish (i have to clean it up a bit first). Ok i didn’t clean it up; here’s the link.
Here’s a new 10 day link: http://dl.transfer.ro/boidsT-Transfer_RO-16Nov-ad56f6.zip
Final link, stable and sound: http://improved.ro/Grasshopper/boidsTCAV.zip
I have been (re)invited to teach at the upcoming Parametric Design Workshop that’s going to take place at the HTWK Leipzig.
The line-up includes:
Ioulietta Zindrou, Maite Bravo, Verena Volger, Luis Fraguada (of Barcelona/IAAC fame);
Yours truly Dimitrie (of Bucharest fame);
Henning Rambow, Patrik Bedarf (Leipzig crew);
I haven’t been that productive lately due to the many things happening all the time, but hopefully I’ll be able to get back on the research track in summer.
I’m on the speaker list at the Rule Based Design Symposium at the TU Berlin. Thank you Christophe for the invite!
(27.05.09) The Symposium takes place at 18:00 in the Geodätenstand 6 O.G. TU Berlin Hauptgebäude, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin.
The Rule Based Design Symposium highlights contemporary academic and practice based research employing CAD, CAM, Coding/Web tools in addressing & communicating architectural design intents & constraints. The research spectrum ranges from theory to the digital crafting of buildings and their components.
Organized by Christophe Barlieb.
Flexibility in thought and expression is vital to all creative fields. The power of a new generation of parametric and bespoke CAD tools lies in the ability to negotiate and communicating the design intent clearly. This streamlining saves time, materials while integrating architecture, engineering and fabrication over the course of the entire architectural design process.
The symposium features research works by young contemporary academics in the fields of mathematics, architecture and fabrication
Schedule:
Time Speaker Affiliation Theme
18:00 Gisela Baurmann TU Berlin RBD Opening Statements
18:05 Kristoffer Josefsson TU Berlin Mathematics in Architecture
18:25 Dimitrie Stefanescu U.Bucharest Scripting Architecture
18:45 Christophe Barlieb TU Berlin Integration of Engineering & Design
19:05 Norbert Palz CITA Rapid Prototyping in Architecture
19:25 Martin Tamke CITA Fabrication of Architecture
19:45 Baurmann, Barlieb, Pfeiffer TU Berlin Discussion with Speakers & Public
20:00 PARTY
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