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STUDIO

(AIR)

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ARCHITECTURE

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DISCOURSE

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T H E V M H O U S E S 2005

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) designed this multilevel-apartment building which interlocks in complex compositions on the façade, making the whole building seem like a three-dimensional game of tetris. It also won the best building prize in Denmark in 2006. The best and the most eye-catching feature of this building must be its distinctive triangular balconies along the north façade facing the park. The balconies are designed like that, which incorporates maximum cantilever with minimum shade, is to encourage residents to have a vertical backyard community with their neighbours in a vertical radius of 10 metres right on their balconies. It also promots a kind of experience as if one is standing at the bow of a ship in the air. If architecture is meant to make people feel comfort-able and happy, BIG’s VM Houses was definitely heading towards the right direction.

(http://www.archdaily.com/970/vm-houses-plot-big-jds/vm-01-husene-big/)

(http://www.archdaily.com/970/vm-houses-plot-big-jds/vm-01-husene-big/)

ARCHITECTURE

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DISCOURSE

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STUDLEY PARK BOATHOUSE T H E K O O L H O U S E

2011

---- The Kool House in the manner of Rem Koolhaas

THIS project was strongly influenced by the works of Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. It adopted several de-sign strategies of Koolhaas: transparency , pliable sur-face, program and structure. The use of transparency was one of the dominating strategies I employed in this design, in order to respond to/emphasise the activies behind the glass. All the north-facing façades are utilis-ing curtain walls/ glass panels in order to gain the most sunlight and the most splendid views of the river. Inside the building, the kitchen wall is designed to be opaque glass wall, which is intended to evoke a unique dining experience where one may see what is happening in the kitchen vaguely. In addition, the roof of kiosk is pur-posed to be a frosted glass roof. It seems like a corner of the ground that has been lifted up (pliable surface), which is likely to attract more visitors and customers and inviting them to walk on top of the roof to see the view or enter the cafe. At the same time, people under the glass roof may look up and see silhouettes vaguely.

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C C T V - CHINA.CENTRAL.TELEVISION

H E A D Q U A T E R S 2002

---- The Loop

Rem Koolhaas’s practice Office for Metropolitan Archi-tecture (OMA) designed this project for CCTV in Beijing, China. OMA decided to create a building which the three dimensions would force all of the facilities and activi-ties involved in one single giant loop. Structurally, the team described the building as a ‘continuous tube’, they realised the only way to deliver this daring and unique architectural form was to ‘engage the entire façade structure, creating in essence an external continuous tube system’. That is how and why CCTV building could resist earthquakes and wind load, as well as the huge forces generate by the cranked and seemingly unstable form. The planes of bracing are continuous throughout the building volume, as shown in the pictures, in order to reinforce the corners. CCTV Headquaters building caused the discussion about the emerging East/West architec-tural discourse and the rapid urbanisation of China. This building is indeed becoming an iconic building in Beijing, whether the people live in there like it or not. It is indeed revolutionary, for its truly three-dimensional shape on the outside and three-dimensional experience on the inside.

(http://oma.eu/projects/2002/cctv-%E2%80%93-headquarters)

(http://oma.eu/projects/2002/cctv-%E2%80%93-headquarters)

(http://oma.eu/projects/2002/cctv-%E2%80%93-headquarters)

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COMPUTING IN ARCHITECTURE

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Computers in our daily lives are making everything more convenient, efficient and easier. Due to the fact that computers are superb analytical engies, they will transfer human’s knowdedge into their systems and will do everything quickly, repeatedly and correctly. Marc Forne from THEVERYMANY is one of the leading figures in the field. He certainly understands the translation of simple code could be structured into complex and appealing form easily using computers. NonLin/Lin Pavillion is one of the examples. NonLin/Lin’s computationally driven construction attempts to resolve an architectural gesture that could potentially be replicated indefinitely. The materials used in this project were lightweight perforated aluminum in parts then assembled. Something that could be related to final gateway project is what Forne said about this project: ‘the parameters of these protocols are based on form finding (surface relaxation), form description (composition of developable linear elements), information modeling (reassembly data), generational hierarchy (distributed networks), and digital fabrication (logistic of production).’ the project originates from a ‘Y’ model which referred to the most basic level of multi-directionality. Computational architecture allows designers to discover errors in design and fix them and control them on a local level, while having a picture of the whole complexity of the design in mind. Although Forne does a lot of installation projects rather than buildings, it is promising that computing in architecture might be the dominant of all methods in the future.

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MODELLING

Not just another brick in the wall? But lots of holes. This particular computer-aided design explores the possibilities of architecture in the near future combining skin, geometry, space and structure into one form. In the future, parametric modelling allows people to really express what they want. Since parametric design is not exactly very mature right now, the experimental stage we are at right now encourages a lot of architects and designers to explore and experiment; fail and learn; just go with it. Thus there is nothing quite conservative about parametric designs, they all appear to be very modern and innovative. On the other hand, it must be very hard for the public to accept the dramatic change of architecture from classical to modern and eventually parametric. In order to make parametric designs people’s design, it is essential to consider not only the functionality of the building, but also aesthetics -that can be accepted by the public -of it (some parametric buildings have far too many holes on them, which might make people have trypophobia). Nevertheless, the concept of parametric modelling highlights an interesting trend in the world of architecture and generative scripting.

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EXPLICIT GRIDS OVERLAPPING PATTERNS

1. ATTRACTOR POINT 2. CURVE ATTRACTOR 3. IMAGE SAMPLER 4. MATHS FUNCTIONS 5. MULTIPLE MATHS FUNCTIONS 6. STREAMING TEST FILES 7. USING SETS

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OVERLAPPING PATTERNS SURFACE NORMALS

1. ATTRACTOR POINT 2. CURVE ATTRACTOR 3. IMAGE SAMPLER 4. MATHS FUNCTIONS 5. MULTIPLE MATHS FUNCTIONS 6. STREAMING TEST FILES 7. USING SETS

A matrix of combinations of definitions for the inputs: explicit grids, overlapping patterns and surface normals with 7 associations is presented on this page. The aim is to mix and match in order to find something interesting generated by the different combinations. By having a matrix it makes one easier to spot the similarities and differences. For example, Explict grids are straight forward, once a shape is identified, the particles form themselves together or apart to generate a certain result. Overlapping is an interesting one. By overlapping two surfaces one on top of another, the images start to differ and change, forming an overall new effect together. it certainly reminds me of lots of innovative parametric facades on the streets, where double thin layers of parametric designed surfaces are overlapped to create a skin of the buildings. If we are to create a double skin or even multi-skin sculpture for the Gateway, ‘overlapping patterns’ shall definitely be used and explored further. Surface normal on the other hand, generates definitions in not 2D, but 3D. Although same associations are plugged in here as explicit grids’, the results are quite different. Dynamically it changes the whole perception of the same defitions and makes them more interesting and less facade like. For the Gateway project, to work out a 3D overlapping sculpture sounds tempting yet achievable.

The Airspace Tokyo designed by Faulders Studio has a very interesting voronoi double-layered screen. It’s absolutely great to see this very innovative facade. It was apparently designed through a series of computational geometric patterns overlaid and projected. Through research I learnt that there is one command in grasshopper that would help me achieve this effect, it’s called Voronoi. When first started experimenting the pattern, I assigned several point on grasshopper, eventually I stopped after the first layer because there was no way to change the points for the second layer as shown on the facade of the Airspace to create void. One wall falls another rises, to create a wall/facade, a surface was needed. Then, instead of manually click in all the points, a Random was used to get random numbers, which was basically, random locations of points. When that was done, Voronoi was inserted and created offset around the points, that basically meant each point is a void we see on the facade. That concludes the first layer of the facade, then I went on and did 2 more and made a triple-layered screen using voronoi in grasshopper.

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As a group, my group discussed about potential concepts we could adopt for the Gateway project. We are most likely to go and explore illusion, movement and structure. Since one is assumed to be traveling in a fast moving vehicle at the speed of 80 and 100km/h, the project must be effective and interactive, hopefully. We thought about machines that could move a structure; or kinetic energy, the energy of motion; even particles that might not even be a solid structure but like stars at night, effective and eye-catching. From this Voronoi exercise at least it is great to learn about parametic facade treatment. Instead of just one plain facade, one could make 2 or 3 screens, creating void and solid on the facade, projecting light and shadows to the interior as well as exterior. The overlapping, the thinking of having void and the patterns should be something we could borrow for the Gateway project.