4h metro

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).

HTWK Leipzig Lecture online

Who’s interested can just grab a pdf file of the whole 91 page keynote here (quite a large file).

I talked about some projects I did (some together with Veronica Popescu) over the last two years, always insisting on the computational approach and detailing the techniques used.

I presented scripting approaches and more interactive (parametric) grasshopper based modeling. Some  Processing based approaches were presented and I insisted on the necessity of using multiple open tools that can be made to communicate between one another.

I tried to clearly mark out the relationship between fabrication and the overall design – how material properties and building techniques inform the design and viceversa.

Reactions were good, and it seems computational approaches are definetively stirring people up.

Thanks are required to Patrick Bedarf, who made this possible and is proving to be an excellent host in Leipzig, and also to prof.  Henning Rambow for all the support.

Also if you are reading this from Leipzig and are interested in joining us tommorow at 16.oo @ HTWK computer pool for some hands-on grasshopper work, there’s  no one stopping you.

Parametric Modelling Workshop @ HTWK Leipzig

I get to speak on the 2nd of April there about parametric modelling and show off some projects. Suggestions are more than welcome.

bbdgPension

Here’s the latest school project, finished some time ago in early January. After pondering wether to reveal it or not (not that proud of it), I decided for the former in the end…

Cut & print

Latest school project:

(board 1)

 

(board 2)

 

(board 3)

 

{input}

The project required us to design an archeological center consisting of one conference room (75 seats), three workshop spaces and a bar/buffet [+ reception and service spaces]. Adjacent we will have to design a small hotel/pension, so our projects will have to be able to scale up formally (and function-wise).

{output}

My project is based on the act of cutting open the ground and inviting people and light inside pays tribute to a defining part of archeology “per se”: excavating sites in order to recover cultural remains and other artifacts in order to better understand mankind.

The overall form of the building emerges in a subtle way from the surrounding landscape, inviting its discovery in a less violent manner. Not choosing to mark its presence in a classical/standard way was a decision taken so as to echo the fact that archeology has the task of surveying areas in order to find new sites – information is never out in the open and its artefacts are hidden – at the same time not disrupting the surrounding beautifully curved landscape. 

The space inside curves gently around three interior courtyards, following the natural terrain. Luminaries assist the inerior courtyards both formally (composition-wise) and functionally (in providing natural sunlight).

{model}

3D Print and cardboard:

——

3d printing done on a  nice ZCorp 510 at Spot Desing – thanks for the flexible payment option and patience!

Boards printed at duostudio (Y!: studio.plot) inside the English passage – thanks for the longlasting quality, 15% early bird price cut and friendly staff

Also thanks to our assistant teacher (andra panait) which happily provided help and counseling during her private (spare) time.

State of the union

How things are going on:

Work done for the current school project by Veronica and me. This is just a snapshot, stay tuned for more. I’ve written 2 pretty interesting scripts for this one… so stay tuned.

Terraced houses

I’ve taken a different approach to our latest aufgabe. Doing it more digitally (in a smart way I like to think).

parametric variation of given frame (lateral walls) in given limits. each house becomes uniqe, escaping repetition. hints of emergence.

Basically the facades are independent from the core. Each lateral wall (calcan/blind wall) starts from an ideal shape that is subtly altered by a small script. This creates variation, as opposed to the usual repetition of a terraced housing lot. Mass production of 18 identical houses becomes mass production of 18 identical and UNIQUE houses. I would like to stress that: Mass production of 18 identical houses becomes mass production of 18 identical and, in the same time, UNIQUE houses.

There. Now I feel better.

My current school project

Details to come.
For now just some haha pictures:What I’m actually doing here is creating the “unfolds” of the solids. Step by step…