A Working and adaptable model used to locate the residential vessels in space in terms of light, structure and economy

November 2010

Mid-Term Boards

October 2010

The 'vessels' of residential apartments now penetrate through the sky, freeing up the ground plane and allowing open-space, retail, 'improptu commercialism' and entertainment. The solid mass of the typical building is dematerialised to allow porosity (physical, environmental, social, light) to prevail.  The vertical towers act as structure for the horizontal vessels and are large enough to be programmed as community activators such as a library, clinic, gym, daycare, pub etc. The solid void relationship seen at the macro scale is translated into the micro scale through the use of courtyards in each apartment, and walkways penetrating though those open spaces.

Studio takes shape...

The first stirrings of a concrete strategy for my mixed use housing project. Vertical elements (programmed as community activators) elevate tubes of residential apartments creating sidewalks in the sky that can actually be practical in promoting community development.  The sense of community is further enhanced through interconnectivities orchestrated using porosity as a tool of social cohesion.  This can be seen in the general dematerialisation of the building mass, allowing the free flow of the elements, light, people and ideas around the site as a whole.

Flow Table analysis for ventilation of passive mountain cabin project in Building Energy Systems

A three wee project to design a 100% passive mountain cabin in Stockton, CA.

Precedent Studies: Houses and Housing - Kengo Kuma

September 2010

Diamgrammatic analysis of Shinonome Housing, Tokyo, Great (Bamboo) Wall House, China, and Plastic House, Tokyo including design progression for our own thoughts on each project.

The very first thoughts how to intervene on the site

September 2010

Mixed use commercial and residential (red and white) is aggregated in order to pull the surrounding urban environment into the site. The ground plane will be acitvated through the use of public space, while private gree space occurs on the roofs of the residences.

Photos back from Biodynamic Structures

So here are a few animations and photos of our work from the Biodynamic Structures Workshop back in July.

This animation shows the whole system being pulled in relation to the sun, so as to provide shading where and when it is needed the most.  Note the sun vector to the right showing where the pull is coming from.

The unit with armature mechanism from above and Arduino microprocessor board

The units in the open position from below

The team putting final touches on the model (with help from consultant Rip)

our presentation board

Fun with Mix-tape covers

I have been playing with a definition that a teacher gave to me, and altered it to pull together some fun CD covers.  I used Grasshopper to build the printed geometry and then cut the perforations out by hand based on a random programmed algorithm.  I like that you are always aware of the layers beneath, and that the form is constantly changing as you open and close it and play with it in your hands.

 

Experiments with grasshopper

Over the last few weeks I have been really trying to develop my grasshopper skills. The main experimentaions have been in form finding alone. I have just been trying set out a few rule sets and then create complex geometries out of that. In this example, I have taken a simple twisting tower and triangulated it, altered the direction of twist half way up, and used a variable perforation command to increase the incidence of difference throughout the object.

I should highlight that at the time of creation, this was simply conceived as an object with interesting geometric rules. I have just played with these programmatic drawings to highlight the flexibility of the form.

As a skyscraper from in Kowloon Bay

As an art object

As a tower lamp (i)

As a tower lamp (ii)

First Iterations for a Garden Pavillion

These first ideas are based on a method of support first devised by DaVinci. I have taken them further by removing horizontal 'stoppers', and replacing them with tension cable that runs through the length of the structure, down through the line of butted joints.

I was very interested in achieving a degree of porosity in the structure so as to maintain 'contact' with the garden beyond.

This idea presents a remarkable opportunity to layer planes and play with light and shadow.

Maintaining the tectonic of alternated 2x4's can work even when the angle of incidence fluctuates.

By simply extending certain planes and altering the vector of the butted joint, one can easily achieve compartmentalisation within the structure.

BIODYNAMIC STRUCTURES

I have just finished (last week) a very intensive 12 day workshop that was part of the Architectural Association of London’s Global Traveling Summer School.  The AA’s Emergent Technologies department combined with CCA’s technology and architecture faculty and a whole host of visiting faculty from all over the world.  Named Biodynamic Structures, it was a crash course in responsive architecture taken from a biomimetic stand point.  The first half was intensive workshops in Grasshopper, Arduino, Firefly, Kangaroo, and VB.net combined with amazing lectures from Michael Weinstock (EmTec Director), George Jeronomedes (EmTec Director), Andy Payne (Lift Architects), Jason Kelly Johnson (Future Cities Lab), Craig Scott (IwamotoScott), Thom Faulders (Faulders Studio), Andrew Kudless (Matsys), Daniel Seagraves (Adrian Smith Architects), Tomas McKeag (CCA Faculty) and Ila Berman (Dean of Architecture, CCA).  The latter half was focused on solving a design problem by altering any part of the CCA building envelope according to the emergent, bottom-up logic that we had been learning about in lectures.  The whole workshop ended with an exhibition and celebration in the evening culminating in discussion led by faculty, students and exhibition visitors. 

The participant body ranged from first time students to architecture professors to professionals working in the field.  The sense of camaraderie and help that was given throughout was great.  No information was kept private if it could help another team and the work showed it.

Have a look at the flickr site.

WHAT WE DID

My own team was made up of Amir Shahrokhi, Shaunt Yemenjian, Miguel Sanchez-Hernandez, and Phil Handley. We toyed with various different systems to implement on the building envelope, but eventually settled on an adaptive shading canopy to hang at about 40 feet in the courtyard at CCA.   The logic of this was taken from a photonastic response seen in the Oxalis Triangularis plant.

Drawing by Phil Handley

The goal was to allow the system to spread in full sun and fold away when not needed. It was important to do it in a way that dispersed the light and reduce the intense glare creating a more ambient light condition.

Drawings by Shaunt Yemenjian

We struggled with various different materials and systems but all agreed an integrated material approach was preferable. This led us away from laminated composites, and spring-loaded resistance elements towards origami and simple folding mechanisms.



Drawing by Phil Handley

By closing the small distance in the middle using a simple armature on a servo we could close the whole unit through an inbuild gear system. Light sensors mounted on each unit varied the input of data into the servo, which was translated into a certain degree of rotation. An articulated joint allowed the rotation to be translated into the linear motion that opened and closed the unit.

Drawing by Phil Handley

The matrix of units was suspended on a diagrid net of 1/16th inch steel wire. Using Ecotect we mapped average light conditions throughout the 3D space of the courtyard. We then used that data to determine the size and location of each unit to provide maximum shading where it was needed most. To overcome the fact that the sun is always moving, we attached high torque servos to each corner of the net and created a script that pulled at variable rates in relation to the sun’s location. This technique allows a second layer of hierarchy to the system, and further contributes to the adaptable nature of the shading device.

Drawing by Phil Handley

The final model iteration was this.

Drawings by Amir Shahrokhi

Museum of Architecture and the City

My studio project for this last term (Spring 2010), was a 50,000 sq-ft museum dedicated to 'architecture and the city'.  As such, it referenced its place on the border of two different grids in San Francisco, while remaining true to its exact locale and the original research I had done into the unusual site (that the site is an anomaly to the surrounding grid).  

An exterior torque begins at the SOMA grid and then finishes at the Financial District grid, while a separate, opposing torque runs directly through the centre of the building as a lightwell.  This creates shifting dynamic spaces, variation in the floorplans, and most importantly, an anomaly.

Two viewing chambers at the first and sixth floors allow the user to view the city grids.  One looks over YBCA to the south, and over the Jewish Museum to the North West to survey the building's place in the organisation of the city.