PREVIOUS WORKhellojam.es - mail@hellojam.es - @jamesmcbennett - skype: ‘jamesmcbennett” - UK +447972835054 - IRL +353879784854

2135, London HouseGoodenoughCollege

Mecklenburgh SquareLondon

WC1N 2AB

James McBennett

2009-2011

Architectural AssociationExtreme Environment + Composite Materiality (Lundberg/Yau)

Flow / Networks (BELKIND)Interrelation of Component and System (HAGERMANN)Myths + Theories of Sustainable Architecture (YANNUS)

The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture (AURELLI) Technology Transfer / Technomimetics (NOEL)

Processing + Coding (MAXWELL)Grasshopper/Ansys/Ecotect (MAMOU-MANU/SKORICK)

D_LAB Digital Fabrication (CROLLA / VAN AMEIJDE)Interaction Design (RANDOM INTERNATIONAL)

‘BRICK’ Get brick ready for the 10,000 birthday catching up on no innovation to the shape of bricks throughout 9500 years.

7500 MUDBRICKS SYRIA

4000 SUN-DRIED BRICK MESOPOTAMIA

1000 BAKED BRICKS CHINA

BC

AD1880 FACTORY BRICKS ENGLAND

1931 STEEL-REINFORCED BRICKWORK CHRYSLER BUILDING - 319m

1950 COMPRESSED-EARTH BLOCK CHRYSLER BUILDING - 319m

Get brick ready for the 10,000 birthday catching up on no innovation to the shape of bricks throughout 9500 years.

If we increased six sided bricks to tweve sided bricks...

SIXTY SIDES Virtually controlled bricks can be drawn easily today.

VIRTUAL POINTS MATERIAL BRICKSVIRTUAL SURFACES

but handcut clay is not accurate enough.

Natural High researches 3D printed bricks made from a ubiquitous construction material with low embodied-energy. Taking Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl (Neza) in East Mexico City for research, digitally generated mud bricks are reinforced with bamboo fibre and tested for towers and courtyard blocks at unprecedented heights to previous use of the material.

As large numbers of rural Mexicans migrated to informal Neza throughout the 20th century, Mexico City enlarged to one of the world’s largest urban areas, a phenomenal growth with severe environmental consequences. Over-extraction of groundwater resulted in depleting the aquifer causing land subsidence and intermittent water supplies. Unregulated factories and intensive car usage cause unfavourable health effects, residents have forever lost their sense of smell. Threats arise of earthquakes from the Guerrero Seismic Gap and volcanic activity from ‘El Popo’. Ricky Burdett is pessimistic about Mexico City’s environmental impact, ‘extends endlessly in all directions like an oil-spill, has no chance of becoming sustainable.’ Two million citizens of Neza created the city using self-builders without the knowledge to face these important issues, but can now implement change, empowering all residents to rebuild a better city, stronger, denser with less resource consumption, simultaneously strengthening communities and increasing quality of life.

Mud is cheap, abundant, recyclable, everlasting and thermally suitable making it an excellent building material, now testing suitability for use in the city. 3D printing is explored as a zero-waste addictive production process to produce new forms of bricks to allow stronger, lighter, interlocking masonry, using solid/voids in the wall for rainwater harvesting, nighttime cooling and formwork for concrete strengthing alike the Quetta Bond in Pakistan used after their earthquake in 1926. Bamboo fibre is placed between the bricks making a strong tissue-like masonry. Spatial solutions see cars no longer dominant with public transport serving the peripheries of large walk-able clusters within a sustainable mega-city. Former roads are replaced with alternative uses for community-use. This project is relevant for a world dealing with the end of an energy boom and expanding informal cities where economy of construction and building performance gain favour.

3D PRINTED BRICK Asking brick a question...

Dear Brick,

I received your contact details from the great architect Louis Kahn who famously asked you at University of Pennsylvania, “What do you want, brick?”

Large numbers migrated to informal cities throughout the 20th century, ushering a new age of the world’s largest urban sprawls, a phenomenal growth with severe environmental consequences. Informal dwellers are unable to build homes more than three floors, thus spreading certain city boundaries more than 20 km in every direction. Mexico City is an example of this unmanageable growth that Ricky Burdett (LSE Urban Age) has described as “extends endlessly in all directions like an oil-spill … has no chance of becoming sustainable”.

For 9,500 years you have had six sides. Opportunity exists to upgrade yourself with as many sides as a material can tolerate. Mud is cheap, abundant, recyclable, everlasting and thermally suitable for comfort. 3D printing is a zero-waste addictive process that will allow the production of new forms that are cheaper, stronger, lighter and more intelligent than previous construction. The informal city can rise safe against disaster.

Therefore I ask you a new question, what form would you like to to be, brick?

Using the web to spread this “form” throughout the world, the disruption is not intended to change one billion people in cities like London and New York, but to introduce architecture, engineering and urban design to five billion people that have never seen it before.

Look forward to your response,

James.

To: Brick@gmail.com

Subj: Question

Varying Internal Structure of Bricks

Heavyi - Base of buildingii - High forces

Medium Lighti - Top of buildingii - Low forces

WALL Fibre reinforment through brickworks creates a tissue -like strength

Walls can be articulated to capture and store water.

Distorted Vaults

Arrangemnt of of four sided and seven sided vaults.

ThreeSides

FourSides

Five Sides

Six Sides

SevenSides

SevenSides

VAULTS New forms of vaulting

Vaults push air and water through building, providing social space at front.

CAN SELF BUILDERS CREATE A CITY?

CAN SELF BUILDERS REINVENT THE CITY?

11km 40km 2

7km

CAR

REPA

IRCA

R PA

RTS

TYRE

SAUTO

FOOD

+ H

OME

RECR

EATI

ON

MEDI

CAL

CONS

UMER

EDUC

ATIO

N

PETR

OL

GROC

ERIE

SSU

PERM

ARKE

T

REST

AURA

NT

HAIR

DRES

SERS

DOCT

OR

CLOT

HES

ELEC

TRON

ICS

FURN

ITUR

EHA

RDW

ARE

SCHO

OLCR

ECHE

STAT

IONA

RY

PROF

ESSI

ONA

LOF

FICE

ACCO

UNTA

CYSO

ME

DENT

IST

PHAR

MACY

HOSP

ITAL

FOOD

BAR/

OFF

LICE

NCE

CLUB

(POO

L/CO

MEDY

)

BICY

CLE

LAUN

DRY

/CLE

ANIN

GW

ATER

AA OPTI

CIEN

GIFT

SBA

NK

TOY

S

INTE

RNET

/PRI

NTIN

G

LEGA

LAR

CHIT

ECT

RELI

GION

CHUR

CH

ACCO

UNTA

CYST

ATIO

NARY

LEGA

L

11km 40km 2

7km

CAR REPAIR

CAR PARTS

TYRESAUTO

FOOD + HOME

RECREATION

MEDICAL

CONSUMER

EDUCATION

PETROL

GROCERIES

SUPERMARKET

RESTAURANT

HAIRDRESSERS

DOCTOR

CLOTHES

ELECTRONICS

FURNITURE

HARDWARE

SCHOOL

CRECHE

STATIONARY

PROFESSIONAL

OFFICE

ACCOUNTACY

SOME

DENTIST

PHARMACY

HOSPITAL

FOOD

BAR/OFF LICENCE

CLUB (POOL/COMEDY)

BICYCLE

LAUNDRY/CLEANING

WATER

AA OPTICIEN

GIFTS

BANK

TOYS

INTERNET/PRINTING

LEGAL

ARCHITECT

RELIGION

CHURCH

ACCOUNTACY

STATIONARY

LEGAL

MEXICO Case study: Diversity in Neza, can we make the existing even better?

Expansion of Neza, East Mexico City

Division of blocks in approx.9m x 15m

30m

15m

9m1

26

2

27

3

28

4

29

5

30

6

31

7

32

8

33

9

34

10

35

11

36

12

37

13

38 39

14 15

40

16

41

17

42

18

43

19

44

20

45

21

46

22

47

23

48

24

49

25

50

9m 9m 9m9m 9m 9m 9m9m 9m 9m 9m9m 9m 9m 9m9m 9m 9m 9m9m 9m 9m 9m 9m

15m

225m

4,000 Hectares/40,000,000m Division in "Megablocks" by Primary Axis(very roughly 1km x 1km)

Public Spaces assigned towards centre

3m

1.2m 1.2m

10 metre wide Local Roads (3/4 of all total roads)

20 metre wide Secondary Roads

40 metre wide Primary Roads

2m 2m

3m

18.5m

14m

7.6m

10m 10m

EMBODIED LANDSCAPES MRI Data becomes design data

EMBODIED LANSCAPES A fusion of voxel-based inside-out medical approaches in virtual environments with the traditional exuberance of the Euclidean geometries.

Studing Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as a vital tool in diagnosis, research and visualization in medicine. This non-invasive investigation of the body yields a digital reproduction by measuring the relative densities of the body. Rather than the 2-D pixel representing pictorial space, the ‘voxel’ is used to visualize and inform space in three dimensions adding properties allowing the fusion of densities with space. The projected voxel-body is generated through fields of density and viscosity that imply the merging of ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ space disregarding boundaries and hence allowing for a surgeon or architect to interface between actual/virtual and densities of matter/space.

PARAMETRIC DESIGN Learning Grasshopper for Rhino3D

Exploring Beijing, we found several fascinating characteristics within the Hutong that primarily focused on the courtyard building type. We were particularly interested in the ability to read the history and its current usage of the courtyard buildings, as well as the destruction of the void. We would like to retain self-sufficiency of the Hutong districts and like to address the loss of the intimate human scale of the Hutong which is becoming increasingly threatened due to the rise of the automobile.

Through utilizing the void as the driving force of the urban fabric, we are aiming to return the spatial link to the court-yard. This is achieved through an offset function to blur the solid and void relationship and reintroduce the courtyard back into the Hutong. This logic of offsetting will also allow for future flexibility without losing the courtyard, and taking advantage of the voids cooling properties.

COLLABORATION WITH TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY, BEIJING

The issue of density within the Hutong was the ultimate destruction of the void due to the lack of buildable space. Therefore, to avoid this problem re-occurring vertical offsetting should be considered; to create a vertical solid/void relationship. This should occur to the perimeter of the Hutong urban grid, stacking the density to where the infrastruc-ture is largest and the human scale is not as significant.

Offsetting the courtyard becomes the driving tool for the urban fabric; this is achieved through the shifting of the existing courtyard and courtyard structures, breaking up the voids and associated solids into a smaller organiza-tion, thus blurring the distinction between the two. This aims to provide access to the courtyards for all residents living within the Hutong.

Parametric Urban Planning

+ + Experience2007-2009

KAL_Kalvebrod Bridge, DenmarkALB_Albenga Marina, ItalyEUR_Europan Housing Competition, IrelandORD_Ordos Big Brother House, MongoliaNOR_Nordhavn, DenmarkTNT_Tour de Taxi, BelgiumERA_Eraclea Marina, ItalyNOR_Hollmenkollen Ski Jump

Education City HQ, QatarPrada Transformer, S.Korea (assisted with 3D modeling + geometry only)

Smithfield Market, LondonWorld Trade Centre, DohaMGM Hotel (7*), Abu DhabiKutzovskiy, Moscow

PROTOTYPING IDEAS IN BLUE FOAM

TOUR DE TAXI, BRUSSELS Produced the first 3D Print at JDS

KALVEBROD BRYGGE Final models in Rhino, Physical and Photoshop

HOLMENKOLLEN SKI JUMP Oslo, Norway

EDUCATION CITY HQ, Internal Rendering and Ground Floor Plan

CORK SCHOOL

University College Dublin2004-2007 UNDERGRADUATE

+

THESIS PROJECT: DOUBLE HELIX LIBRARY

NOISY

=SILENT HYBRID

INTELLIGENT SHELVING

CLASSROOMS OF THE FUTURE

Additional Information

TED2012 FULL SPECTRUM FINALIST HELD IN NYC

Presenting brick’s 10,000 birthday surprise present

OPEN-WATER SWIMMING Channel Swim Dover to Calais in Sept ‘11

TEACHING “FAB LAB” ‘09 UCD “Now What?”

GoodenoughCollege

PHOTOGRAPHY Monocylist outside Monde d’Arabe, Paris

That thin slice of shelf that faces consumers with analogue pricing information can be brought into the 21st century as a read/write communication between man and food. A new potential to display data about food far beyond price.

Following on from Tom Hulme’s idea “Window to the farm” I have looked into modifying the supermarket shelf. A touchscreen would create a rich media platform for consumers and producers to have a conversation.

Price is the default display, but upon touching the screens one see more information, changing the display of the individual product, or the entire food group on the shelves. For example, a customer might switch the displays from price to ‘distance traveled to market’ changing the entire shelf to temporarily display miles, not price.

DISPLAY OPTIONS1. Customer feedback and comments.2. Like buttons.3. Share this product on your facebook/twitter.4. Price HistoryONLINE COLLOBORATION5. (@Meena Kadri) Nutritional Comparison between products6. (@Meena Kadri) Goes Well With... (customer vetted?)7. (@Meena Kadri) Hyper-local Index (yet to be invented? but to include distance, collaboration between producers, *local* recycle, repurpose, up-cycling, etc)8.(@Meena Kadri)Search a specific shelf for a particular ingredient. (Useful for those with Allergies.)9.(@Arjan Tupan) Foorprint: http://openideo.com/open/localfood/concepting/what-s-the-foodprint/10: Third party recommendations. What does the Guardian Newspaper or Jamie Oliver recommend or the Goodguide.

ONLINE COLLOBORATION