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Design FabricationWorkshop

Design Fabrication Systemsin Studio & Practice

Prof. Larry SassDepartment of Architecture and Planning

MIT

what is design research?

1) Develop new ideas and topics in design

2) We study a problem in detail

3) Opportunity to present, test ideas and evaluate

4) We learn by experience

what are we going to study?

Systems in Design

Development of an algorithmic approach toDesign

Complex Geometries in Design andConstruction

why are design systems important

Working with Computational &Mechanical Devices

Take advantage of GenerativeSystems in Computation

The first step is to design a system

Reconstructing Palladio

(1) Overview & History

(2) Construction Rules

(3) Modeled Examples

(1)Project Overview

Palladio Project @ MIT

1991 – Palladio Virtual Museum(Bill Mitchell & Howard Burns)

1995 – Website(Dan Tsai)

1997 - 2004 – Printing Villa Models(Larry Sass)

Palladio

Palladio was a stone mason

Palladio Designed over 30 villas throughout theVeneto - 1535 – 1570

Drawings in the Four Books were written after thebuildings were constructed

Four Books of Architecture

The first book contained the rules

Second Book contained drawings of thevillas

Computational Motivation?

Relationship between Design and Computational Systems

Create new villas (Unbuilt) from rules outlined in this paper

To prove or disprove rule based approaches in design

Background – Palladio

Palladio, Andrea 1570 The Four Books of Architecture

Wittkower , Rudolph 1949 Architecture in the age of humanism

Burns, Howard 1975 Portico and the Farmyard

Stiny, G., WJ. Mitchell 1978 The Palladian Grammar

Carpo, Mario 2001 Architecture in the Age of Printing

Project Problems

DesignIncomplete Drawings – PalladioRelationship of the Built to the Unbuilt

Model GenerationTime ConsumingEvaluation

FabricationVoidsPhysical Size of Models

Claim: Any villa model can be generated computationallyfrom a floor plan and construction rules

Project Goal

Build 24 Villa Models

Claim: Any villa model can be generated computationallyfrom a floor plan and construction rules

Project Goal

Build 24 Villa Models

Digital Fabrication

Claim: Any villa model can be generated computationallyfrom a floor plan and construction rules

Project Goal

Build 24 Villa Models

Digital Fabrication

Create a Shape Grammar of Construction RulesDefine Plan Plan Drawing

Villa Model

Construction Rules (Construction)