AIR STUDIO

2016 SEMSTER 1

RAN TAO668728T 10

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Self - IntroductionSelf - Introduction

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My name is Ran Tao, you can call me Ran which rep-resents happiness in Chinese. I am a third year archi-tecture student who born and raised in China. This is my first time to study abroad. The issues on language speaking are the most disturbing obstruction during the study period. I love traveling and photographing the architecture and the landscape of different cities. These are the symbols that record the history and culture of the city. I believed that architecture is similar to the tale which also includes the beginning, climax and ending. That requires visitors to experience them at first, after that gradually achieve deep reflection for the city.

My first time to touch on digital design was in the year one when I took the Visualising Environments. I learned about the basic knowledge of Rhino, CAD and Indesign that I can only use them to do some simple design. During year two, I almost did hand drawing and physical model making in Earth and Water studio that result in my digital design skill generally forgotten. I felt that I can come up with new and further designing ideas only by making physical models. During the making and draw-ing process, models could bring me the real reception and experience. Furthermore, I really enjoy the progress that the buildings were made step by step.

The algorithmic modelling is interested to me, but it is also a challenge for me. I am eager to learn grasshop-per and rhino to make my design more elegant and parametric and create more possibilities on design. Nothing is impossible, even if I did not know anything about the digital skill. I would put enough effort on the learning of grasshopper as soon as possible. Wishing my computational skills would be developed and boost-ed when finish the Studio Air.

A.1. Design Futuring

In current years, belonging with the rapid development on economy, technology and society, the earth is trapped in an

unprecedented challenge. Human beings keep consuming the limited resources and destroy the environment which caused the damage on the natural environment and the unstainable development, such as global warming and water pollution.

Therefore, the importance of design was in-creased. Humans cannot wait for the chance to change the condition. Design is the only solu-tion to the current urgently problem. Design futuring requires designers to create the most suitable things which beyond function and materials to promote against unsustainability in the future.

The pavilion was designed by the architectural firm EMBT and completed with MC2 Structural Engineers which located in the Shanghai Expo. The structure and materials utilized in the pa-vilion were amazing and unpredictable. The project attempted to use the universal language of

material to connect the relationship between the Eastern and Western countries. The wicker, a natural material both traditional in Spain and China is used for covering the facade which make the pavilion liked a basket. The antiquated method to weave these wickers brings the historical elements into the future designing which lead to a new and unique weaving structure. The reference and improvement of historical elements also promotes the possibilities on designing.

The interior structure is made of steel and concrete. The highly irregular curved form is good at supporting loads which have ideal performance on deformation and seismic behaviour. The really complex form was

also inspired by the traditional structural form. Designers used computation to extend the possibility of the traditional curve. By using the digital skills and communicate several times with structural engineers the free form of the pavil-ion was achieved.

The building was destroyed now due to several reasons, but its concept and idea are good sources for learning. As the first weaving architecture, the usage of natural materials reflects the relationships between human and nature. Human beings’ future depends on the nature which is a sign to remainder people to pay attention to the natural environment. It is worthy to implementing. The concept on innovate radical things into traditional ideas is also can be utilize. I believed that designers should not abandon historical items. We should find an open minded approach to explore the potential advantages of design.

The house was designed by Werner Sobek which located in Stuttgart, Germany. The facade of the house was fully glazed which it was the first time to make the idea of transparency come true. It advanced the transparency into further development and practice. The glazed facade enlarges the

ventilation, sunlight and sight views for the residents which provide different spatial experience inside and outside the building. The closer relationships between nature and human brought nature and archi-tecture come together. That was the first building in which on the same sight line through all the storeys.

The house was designed by Werner Sobek which located in Stuttgart, Germany. The facade of the house

was fully glazed which it was the first time to make the idea of transparency come true. It advanced the transparency into fur-ther development and practice. The glazed facade enlarges the ventilation, sunlight and sight views for the residents which pro-vide different spatial experience inside and outside the building. The closer relation-ships between nature and human brought nature and architecture come together. That was the first building in which on the same sight line through all the storeys.

I really like this design which not only achieve the sustainability, but also use the advanced technology in design as well.

The design of the house supposed to tell other architects, sustainability will lead fundamental change in the design. Putting sustainability in design is the compulsory choice for architects.

To make ecology breath takingly attrac-tive and exciting.

A.2. Design Computation

In recent years, the rapid development of technology on computation can be found everywhere for solving problems in the world which brings variety of advan-

tages. In particularly, the utilization in architectural design promotes tremendous changes and also provides more opportunities for designers to encourage them to fake cre-ativity (reference from the lecture).

Different from computerization, computation is a practice of architecture which is the form of calculation which follows the well-defined model.

The digital will provide algorithmic formulation to help us design architectural spaces. Although, some scholars con-sidered that we should keep the older design methods and processes. However, an increasing number of precedents showed that the benefits of computation are more than the disadvantages. The application of computation affects the design process and methods particularly.

Before the development of technology, the design process experienced special changes over fifty years. The design became more concentrate on the logic

of the algorithm. Computers can save all the changes and tracks done by architects, they can provide all the informa-tion to assist designers. Under these function, architects can develop variety of new and better solutions to fit prob-lems. On the one hand, design is the process to change current situation to new situation which should reflect better and suitable solution. In the past, the methods were limited by the current technology and strict rules which focus on the model and drawings. Computers can also make the report for designers to compare and analyse the distinction between solutions and former design. On the other hand, the designer must have the alibility of predict and evaluate the expected performance and emerge solu-tions along the criteria established by goals. The computa-tion method will help to give the results quickly and can provide the unpredicted models for designers. In addition, computation also adds another design method for archi-tects. It supplies the searching function which contains finding, developing candidate solutions, and evaluating them against goals. That makes the design much better and close to the desirable goal.

The application of computation also changes the relationship between architec-tural design and engineering. Due to the designing process communication, computation provides more opportunities for architects, structural engineers

and more people to involve in the design process. It has established a collaborative de-sign relationship between architect and engineer during design process which stimu-lates the energy and structural calculation.

Along with the development of parametric design, a tectonic system has provid-ed a powerful paradigm for material design in architecture as well as for the performative design of material system. This development makes material de-

sign be added to the past architectural design which enables architects to get involve in the design and usage of material. In another word, the design of material supplies more opportunities to achieved more and updated forms of buildings.

Finally, I found that it is significant to have the ability of to frame the problem in a manner when use the computation and also important to be able to predict how and where computers can be useful in architectural design. I believed that

computation make designers to break the limitation on presenting the design. They can achieve more complex and abstract design by using high level software.

The Kuwait International Air-port which also designed by Foster+Partners which reflects

the application of geometrical compu-tations. The whole shape of the airport utilizes the geometry of triangle. The symmetry of the shape can ensure the airport can provide enough capacity for users and airlines. The each part of the triangle was reached by the triple rotational symmetry around the ori-gin. The usage of the digital tool make the symmetric representation becomes clearer, more compact and less prone to errors.

The huge roof covered the triangle which not only at the function of keep the rain off, but also can keep out the direct irradiation of

the sunlight. The material on the roof also uses the advanced technology, which represents the future tendency of the development of the architecture, achieving the balance between nature and human beings. In this design, the innovations does computa-tion present is that architects become possible to incorporate the topological considerations of a design. This new digital tool leads to the simple and convenient method that exploits symmetry and geometry opens up new design capabilities.

The three parts of the airport in the parametric design provides more and new opportunities for the

future development of the airport. Archi-tects can use the software to change the algorithm in order to achieve larger capac-ity or better solution of the current design. The computation application makes the design more flexible and has more pos-sibilities for architects to search for the solutions.

The National Bank of Kuwait Head-quarters was designed by the Foster+Partners which is an envi-

ronmentally responsive building under a really complex geometrical form. It designed by the development on para-metric models by relate to the geometric relationships between other elements. The groups used high level software to produce parametric models and achieve variety of models quickly. These mod-els provided different algorithmic data designers to compare and come up with more innovations and better solutions to achieve desirable situation. Peters presented that the process to applicate computation allows architects to extend and explore new ideas which increase the capability to solve problems. Under the usage of scripting, the designers wrote the environmental, functional and operational requirements into the program in order to get the rational shape of the building.

According to the calculation for the solar, wind and acoustic analysis in the parametric software, the shape was almost decided. The vertical structural shading fins covered with

the facade of eastern and western due to the local climate. The northern side was sealed off with glasses which provide sunlight and natural views. This concept of design considered the preceding architectural theory that try to bring design connect to the nature. The surrounding environment has significant influence on design. The computation provides more accurate information for designers to search for the better solution.

The fins on the eastern and western facade are not only used as shading, but also the loads supporting elements in the build-ing which consultant with the structural engineers. This is

due to the reason that parametric models provided specific data and predictable problem. It created the collaborative relationships be-tween architects and engineers. Engineers can easily create suitable structure according to the digital data rather drawings and models.

The parametric model contains a full geometric description of the construction build-up of the structural elements, and em-beds engineering input through linking to a data spreadsheet.

The elements can be adjusted for further development.