Content

Introduction

Design Futuring

A1 Design Computation

A2 Composition/Generation

A3 Conclusion

A4 Learning Outcomes

A5 Appendix -- Algorithmic Sketches

Introduction

My name is Alan and I came from Hong Kong. I have completed 2 years of architectural studies and I am here to finish my last. During my studies, I have used Revit most of the time. It is a parametrics design tool I know. My philosophy of architecture is that an architecture should be different in form and functional, unique in the way it expresses itself in those terms.

I am also interested in designing according to the site. Thus, I am fascinated by parametric design in how it evolve and adapt to different conditions. Also, parametric design is so interesting is because what I have found in software such as sketchup is that it is easy to start building a model but it gets more time-consuming later on as I wanted to make changes to the model, that I had to delete and remake the parts. Revit, on the other hand, is easy in making changes. I only needed to change the values in the constraints, ie. length of a wall, and the model would rebuild itself.

This is one of the reasons why I am interested in parametric design. I am also interested in seeing how parametric design software create organic patterns and can evolve as you change certain values. I am eager to explore its potential.

My final project in the last semester in Hong Kong, the Spiral Tower. Revit was used to create the model.

My second last project in Hong Kong, open building design in residentual block, made by Rhino.

Design Futuring

Design Futuring has become a big issue in the architectural realm because our human existence carries impact on the environment and which then threatens our own future existence. Parametric design assists our design intelligence so that we can make better design decisions. In increasingly more unsustainable worlds, design intelligence would deliver the means to make crucial judgements about actions that could increase or decrease futuring potential.1

Parametric design helps push design process forward and create architecture that otherwise is impossible

In parametric design, it is the parameters of a particular design that are declared, not its shape. By assigning different values to the parameters, different objects or configurations can be created. Equations can be used to describe the relationships between objects, thus defining an associative geometry. That is, the ability to define, determine and reconfigure geometrical relationships is of particular value.2

Parametric design has been pioneered by architects such as Frank O. Gehry who begun to exploit digital technology originally developed for the automotive and airplane industry for architecture. Gehry imported a new way of thinking into architectural design. Walt Disney Concert Hall is an example of using digital technology.

Gehry’s technology offered new ways to control architectural form. It revamped the technical workflow of todays architecture industry in the following way.It allows architecture to react to any change in the context, the environment and rules and regulations.Enabled a completely digital workflow from design to manufacturing.

The concept is to create a sense of disharmony as represented by Gehry’s style, deconstructivism. But at the same time it creates an interesting composition of geometries that became the landmark in the site, Los angeles. Gehry initially began experimenting on the geometry using sketch and then later on paper models. The design is then put into computer software to control the precision of the actual form for further design development.

To calculate the complex shapes of the curves, Walt Disney Concert Hall was used to CATIA software. This allowed him to determine the structure and shape of each piece of steel that covers them.3

This allows accurate dimensions of individual components and make up the entire building with little error. Then, they are fabricated and assembled accordingly. This is not possible without the help of digital technology.

Similar to the Bilbao Effect observed from The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, it attracted a number of visitors and helped Los Angeles ‘s economic situation, contributing to the economic sustainability of the habitants in the area.

Unbuilt project that experiments and bring revolutionary ideas

Another predecent is Eco-Sustainable Housing project by Federico Rossi from 2007 Housing Competition. It focuses on the development of new housing typology in Oman, generated through the accumulation of independent variables into a system of relationships, where the interdependencies generate a variation of possibilities that is able to adapt to local

Fig 1: Walt Disney Concert Hall, L.A., California, Frank Gehry, 2003 Fig 2: Gehry’s sketches are then put into computer for 3D modellingFig.3: Achieving accuracy in building construction5

Fig.3: Achieving accuracy in building construction5 Fig 4: Eco-Sustainable Housing Project, Oman, Federico Rossi, 20074

Fig 5: Thickness of form responds to sun positions

Fig 6: Achieving cross-ventilation

conditions. The development of inhabitable units will be dependent on environmental variables and eco-sustainable principles to achieve new spatial and performative configurations.

This project aims at contributing to the inhabitants a sustainable living environment in an innovative way of thinking how a place for living reacts with the environmental conditions. The housing unit will use a rhomboid framework constrained within two strips to produce a parametric model. Through the control of the width, length, and thickness of the surface it is possible to create a responsive inhabitable unit that increases the wall thickness in high temperatures and deforms the rhomboid framework according to internal pressure and wind velocity.

The idea of improving the light conditions and creating different micro climate areas inside the unit was solved with the use of local materials (limestone) and simple manufacturing techniques. Cutting the stone in different sizes that respond to the variation of solar radiation along a surface is possible thanks to complex geometries, such as the arch.4

Whenever we bring something into being we also destroy something - the omelette at the cost of the egg, the table at the cost of the tree, through to fossil fuel generated energy at the cost of the planet’s atmosphere.1 This means that we should make careful decisions so that the cost to the environment is minimized to achieve efficiency.

The project also tackles the aspect of minimizing wastage in natural resources and materials, in order to create this effective structure. To create a two bedroom unit only eight cubic meters of limestone are necessary; the waste cut will be used to create

mixed concrete for the foundation. The proliferation of the units on the site will be driven from a quarry organization. By arraying the units along the contour lines of the topography it is possible to control the quantity of materials that will be cut from the landscape. The space between the units will be used for water collection during heavy rain storms.4

What changes?

Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall changed the way how society and the practice look at architecture should be. That not only architecture should bring spatial interest to the area, despite being criticised for its geometries and waste of materials, architecture can be well integrated with digital technology and made impossible designs possible. The Concert Hall changed the way architecture is produced in practice that an integrated and efficient way combining digital design and fabrication is possible. As a result, the built environment can be more interesting and complex than before.

Eco-Sustainable Housing Project gives revolutionary ideas how a building evolves according to the environment. Buildings are no longer static but they can be smart that adapt to different requirements of the habitants.

Again, all this is made possible with parametric design.

Computing makes design process more efficient

Traditionally, architecture has a phenomenon of self-segregation and no collective intelligence that all parties in the architectural production process are driven by their own vision and goals, be it profit or certain disciplinary knowledge and vision. There is also limited communication between the architectural model and disciplines. Design computation allows the process of making no longer entirely linear. That production becomes part of the design process. Designers can work with structural engineers by allowing communication between them by sharing information on a model in the computer and picture how their buildings get assembled in the construction process to create a 4-dimensional model that includes time, enabling collective intelligence.6 This is meaning that the design process is changed in the way the many disciplines participate in the design process much early on and the architects serves as the overseers of the exchange of information.

Computation re-defines the process of formulating solutions by criteria design

Data can be collected from analysing the situation and input into a parametric model and it will generate solutions based on the data. We should explore space by generating solutions that satisfy different criteria by first examining what criteria are there at the first place. . Computation allows us to question the brief.

Tectonics of material, fabrication and efficiency

Computation allows the model to be designed with structural considerations and material considerations

and thus strengthening creative collaborative design relationship between the architect and the structural engineer as united in the practice of research by design. The integration of digital materiality and performative analysis enables a potential contemporary tectonic expession.7

ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion demonstrates that the computational generation of form is directly driven and informed by physical behavior and material characteristics. The structure is entirely based on the elastic bending behavior of birch plywood strips. The strips are robotically manufactured as planar elements, and subsequently connected so that elastically bent and tensioned regions alternate along their length. The force that is locally stored in each bent region of the strip, and maintained by the corresponding tensioned region of the neighboring strip, greatly increases the structural capacity of the system. In order to prevent local points of concentrated bending moments, the locations of the connection points between strips needs to change along the structure, resulting in 80 different strip patterns constructed from more than 500 geometrically unique parts. The combination of both the stored energy resulting from the elastic bending during the construction process and the morphological differentiation of the joint locations enables a very lightweight system. The entire structure, with a diameter of more than twelve meters, can be constructed using only 6.5 millimeter thin birch plywood sheets.8

We can see the performance of the pavilion is tested under the tectonics of the materials and then fabricated into realistic project that tested the material’s boundary in its physical nature.

A1 Design Computation

Fig 7: ICD/ITKE Reseach Pavilion, Menges, Achim, 20078 Fig 8: Structure and assembly of the Pavilion Fig 9: Honeycomb Morphologies, London, UK, 20049

Fig 9: Honeycomb Morphologies, London, UK, 20049 Fig 10: Exploration of different forms Fig 11: Experimenting on different thickness of marterial

Computation expands possible geometries for construction

The research pavilion aims at stretching the limitations of the birch plywood strips material to create an ultimate form and geometry. Without computation, a structural analysis of the material would not be possible. In the end, this ultimate form and geometry would not be possible to create, the degree of curvature of the plywood. Then, this collection of materials would not have created this pavilion in this particular geometry (form, angle).

The Honey Morphologies also proves how computation helps designers achieve suitable geometries that they otherwise would not have imagined to be possible.

This research was pursued as part of a MA dissertation in Emergent Technologies and Design at the Architectural Association. The central aim of the research is the development of a material system with a high degree of integration between its design and performance. This integration is inherent to natural material systems for they have been developed through evolutionary means which intricately tie together the form, growth, and behavior of the organism. This research explores integration strategies for a particular industrially produced material system for use in architectural applications.9

As indicated in the figures above, the form went through numerous experiments to come up with the final shape that is difficult to imagine, such as, how to achieve the size, angles and thickness of each individual honeycomb to make up the big one, presented with the help of computation.

Computation allows designers to work with complex geometries to construction

The form went through a process of development that was otherwise difficult without the help of computation. Moreover, prototypes were developed to explore cell depth and curvature parametric link. Again, this would be difficult without the use of computation that allows prototyping. That is, architects discovered they have the digital information that could be used in fabrication and construction to directly drive the computer-controlled machinery, making the time-consuming and error-prone production of drawings unnecessary. In addition, the introduction and integration of digital fabrication into the design of buildings enabled architects to almost instantaneously produce scale models of their designs using processes and techniques identical to those used in the industry. Thus a valuable feedback mechanism between conception and production was established.10 This means that computation helped architects to be able to produce complex geometries in a virtual environment and then get them constructed more easily than without computation.

Performance oriented design is facilitated by computation

This research develops a honeycomb system that is able to adapt to diverse performance requirements through the modulation of the system’s inherent geometric and material parameters while remaining within the limits of available production technologies. The performance of the form and material is evaluated and formulated as solutions.

the new city axis and rises to 150 metres to form the highest peak on the Astana skyline. The three-layer ETFE envelope is designed to shelter the enclosed accommodation from weather extremes and to allow daylight to wash the interiors. A viewing platform at the top of the structural mast has dramatic views over the city and the Steppes beyond.11

A form-finding algorithm was used by the team to quickly generate design options for the cable-net structure. The algorithm formed part of the parametric model that was used to develop and define the building form. The design team worked closely with the project team from design concept through construction documentation. The team created parametric design tools to generate many different enclosure forms and wrote a computer program to simulate the structural forces of the cable net structure and to generate the different form options.12

This new design process, that is using algorithmic design thinking and tools to create complex building forms and structures that are well integrated with and analysed with other design disciplinary knowledge, such as structural engineering, in making the most efficient buildings, has been fully embraced by many contemporary architectural practice in creating the most efficient buildings.

As revolutionary analytical tools

Generation has become a tool to analyse the structure of buildings that are responsive to the requirements of the environment, which is essential

Compositional approach with computerization in the industry of architecture

As pointed out earlier, Frank Gehry’s method of production, that is still compositional, can be seen as the use of computer as a tool, that is he has, already, a form/geometry in his head and then it is just documented and adjusted on a digital platform. So a criticism to this use of computer is that creativity is limited and computer as a tool has not used to its full potential, albeit its integration in the digital production process.

Generative design in computation in the industry

However, computation is different. Instead of modeling an external form, designers articulate an internal generative logic, which then produces, in an automatic fashion, a range of possibilities from which the designer could choose an appropriate formal proposition for further development. The emphasis shifts from the “making of form” to the “finding of form”, which various digitally-based generative techniques seem to bring about intentionally.10 The industry had begun to embrace it on a large scale with positive attitude and have achieved a lot with it.

Khan Shatyr Entertainment Centre is a major new civic, cultural and social venue for the people of Astana, Kazakhstan. The building allows for a wide range of activities within a sheltered climatic enclosure that provides a comfortable environment all year round. Temperatures in Astana can drop to -35 degrees Celsius in winter and climb as high as +35 degrees in summer. The cable-net structure is located at the northern end of

A2 Composition/Generation

Fig 12: Khan Shatyr Entertainment Centre, Kazakhstan, Foster + Part-ners, 2008

Fig 13: Different form options were generated by responding to structural forces by genera-tive tools.

Fig 14: Bao’an International Airport Terminal 3, Shenzhen, Massimiliano Fuksas and Knippers Helbig Advanced Engineering 201213

Fig 15: Types of modules with variation of size and slope of glass panels.

to today’s practice in architecture.

Bao’an International Airport Terminal 3’s space structure is covered The size and slope of the glass openings are the two design parameters that were adapted to meet the local requirements of daylight, solar gain, viewing from the inside towards the airfield, as well as the aesthetic intentions of the architect. After generating and evaluating approximately 50 different models for the terminal roof, a very simple linear sequence of panels was chosen as can now be seen on the completed building. In this project, the main challenge for engineering was the generation of the parametric data model, which allowed a new form of communication and collaboration between architects and engineers to develop.13

Without generation tool, the architect would not be able to integrate the information from engineers and come up with a structure that responses well to the requirements (lighting, heating, views and aesthetics) in a timely manner. As compared to the traditional practice, it would be too complex and impossible since there are too many modules to design for. Now, modulations can be made on the openings after simulations and testing and achieve the overall efficiency by adjusting some inputs in the algorithm created by architects and engineers.

Limitations of generative design

As good as generative design approach may sound, currently in the industry, there are still many limitations presented for generative design. “When architects have sufficient understanding of algorithmic concepts, when we no longer need to discuss the digital as something different, then computation can become a true method of

design for architecture.” 12 This means that algorithmic ability of thinking in the industry is still limited. That not all architects have sufficient knowledge in this. This restricts the use the of generative design in the industry. Technology in construction, fabrication is another major issue. Many builders do not possess technology that enables construction of complex algorithmic structures, and sometimes the architect has to deliver a building as fast as possible to gain profit as the whole construction process requires more financing with time, and thus, there is no need for a generative approach as there being not much time to research and explore possible solutions.

Importantly, not all functions are computable, so not all functions are algorithmically describable.14 This means algorithmic thinking in generative design is limited by the inputs, that such as human emotions and political views are not computable as part of the algorithm. There is no “ghost in the machine” in the computational theory of mind. A computer does what is told, driven by the designer, not the other way around. This requires the designer to have trial and errors and playing with inputs and their relationships to achieve the desirable geometry.

Depends on communication between specialists

After studying these precedents, the success of generation design is thus dependent on whether specialists, such as designers and structural engineers, have the ability to communicate their data to one another, and then input into the parametric model to be analysed and come up with solutions. Ability to collaborate/communicate with one another is the key to success, or, to failure.

A3 ConclusionFuturing and Generative design

We have to be sustainable in design and today’s architectural industry has incorporated this idea and to make it possible, they took inspirations from anything such as how nature works or efficiency in structure and material and developed 3D models of their design from the design stage to the construction stage, made possible by the use of computation, and varies possibilities were explored only that is possible with the help of the computer’s generative ability and the designer’s computation thinking.

The industry is gradually shifting from the more traditional way of thinking and production in practice to a more complex one. There are many advantages and disadvantages in the use of computation in generation we should consider when we use such innovative approach in design.

My approach

I definitely have learnt the importance of the generative design approach. It is innovative in the way of exploring solutions in response to forces acting on the project by the site, and the model that it produced can then be fabricated using computer technologies such as a CNC machine and digitally make the project physical.

This approach is an integrated approach that can push architecture to the limit and also today’s technology to the limit. All stakeholders in the design process can benefit

A4 Learning OutcomesWhat I have learnt:

After learning from lectures and tutorials, my understanding of computation/generative design has grown from absolutely zero to a sufficient level that I know why and how the architectural practice adopt computation in their design process.

If given an opportunity, I would definitely work on my office tower project. Since office tower is flexible in its form and how it reacts to surrounding forces, context and environmental, I could use generation to first explore different forms that are affected by these forces before coming up a concrete solution. Instead of interpreting the brief and thinking of a solution by sketching, now I could use a more automatic process to find how my office would be erected through my inputs and definition of constraints.

The outcome would be more integrated, more dynamic and innovative that I would not have think of in the beginning. This is the innovation that I wanted in design.

I selected the sea sponges from my sketchbook for this part. To make things simple, I just drew circles (curves) in rhino and then set curves in grasshopper. Then, I loft them. By changing the radius of the circles, I am able to create form that looks like sea sponges.

Then, I tried to make the same thing by using a more complex algorithm. Instead of drawing curves in rhino, I only used set point on rhino for once only. Then, I used move in grasshopper for the geometries that I drew in grasshopper that are set on different planes on different locations.

Since the geometries are eclipses and polygons, and the fact that I have count bars for them, I am able to mess around with the radius, segments and fillets for the geometries. The output was automatically different, as illustrated.

A.5 Appendix - Algorithmic Sketches

Selected Sketch: -Sea sponges

What I have learnt is that algorithm, generation, can be convenient to achieve changes in geometries, as contrasted with traditional way that I needed to re-size each curve. Also, exploration of form is also possible. As I just change the count of segments, for example, the form automatically update to be something different.

Also, I have noticed that I needed more training that rhino to achieve the same geometries. Because for grasshopper, I needed to have the ability to think in an algorithmic manner. While in rhino, the process of creation is fairly straightforward. I understood the time complexity and time that it requires to train someone in the industry to operate in generative design.

Fry, Tony. 2008. Design Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics and New Practice Oxford: Berg, 2008, pp. 4, 12

ComKolarevic, Branko, Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing. New York; London: Spon Press, 2003, pp. 17

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adel-zakout/top-10-buildings-parametr_b_838268.html

http://www.evolo.us/architecture/eco-sustainable-housing-parametric-design/

http://archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=7571#.VQtTGY6Uc0R

Kieran, Stephen, and James Timberlake. Refabricating Architecture: How Manufacturing Methodologies are Poised to Transform Building Costruction. New York: McGraw-Hill, pp. 13, 15, 23

Oxman, Rivka and Robert Oxman, eds (2014). Theories of the Digital in Architecture London; (New York: Routledge 2014), pp. 5-6

http://www.achimmenges.net/?p=4443

http://matsysdesign.com/category/projects/honeycomb-morphologies/

ComKolarevic, Branko. Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing. New York; London: Spon Press, 2003, pp. 13, 57

http://www.bradypeters.com/khan-shatyr-centre.html

Peters, Brady. 2013. Computation Works: The Building of Algorithmic Thought, Architectural Design, 83, 2, pp. 10, 12

http://www.knippershelbig.com/sites/default/files/pdf/from_model_thinking_to_process-design_jk_2013.pdf

Definition of ‘Algorithm’ in Wilson, Robert A. and Frank C. Keil, eds. 1999. The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences. London: MIT Press, pp. 11-12

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Big in scale, how to transport materials to site? prefabricated?

Aligning different floor slabs to be precise to follow the curved form is difficult as there are many slabs.

AU Office and Exhibition Space / Archi Union Architects Inc

The external parametric wall of the warehouse encloses the building on three sides. Parametric processes have been used here to superimpose the contours and definition of silk undulating in the wind – a sign of its past. The wall consists of concrete blocks, angled to create an interesting texture and varying amounts of light. Inside there are two meeting rooms and exhibition areas. The roof of this space has been left intact, simply renovated. Large windows run along both walls flooding daylight into the large open space.

Need to calculate the structural capacity of the external wall

mimic natural form silk material and wind motion acting on it.

structural capacity of wall. collapse? Waterproofing is hard due to openings caused by different orientations of individual concrete blocks.

Aqua Tower / Studio Gang Architects

The design was inspired by the striated limestone outcroppings common in the Great Lakes area (see photo below). But this sinuous shape is not just a mere formal gesture, but it is also a strategy to extend the views and maximize solar shading. And by looking at the plans we see a rational structure, true to the Mies legacy in the city.

.implications(patterning)

Easier to construction than sectioning forms because the space on each floor is the same but only changes in the balconies.

.opportunitiesMimic limestone in nature. Flexible to incorporate many natural forms.

Achieve functionality of sun shading and views.

.Fabrication concerns

B1 Research Field Alan Chan Po Lun 722911

First I tried to make the reptile skin but I failed to cull it. And the subsequent steps did not work.

Alan Chan Po Lun 722911 Sketchbook

Then I made the lines on a shell surface. I shifted the points on the lines to create intersected lines on the surface.

Lastly i tried to combine the shell with the reptile skin pattern and this is the result. It seems that the reptile skin does not attach on the surface.