This video is reflecting the digital logics of parametric design in nowadays architecture. According to Steven Johnson’s emergence, architecture can learn a lot from the logics of swarm patterns like ant colonies or human body cells. Indian architect Doshi’s Aranya housing project implements a lot of those ideas, although the project was realized years before the publication of ‘Emergence’. Doshi set the master plan like the human DNA by building the very first row of bricks and setting the sanitary cells. This ensured a minimum standard. The rest was left up to the inhabitants. Therefore spontaneous appearance is the result. By following the individual needs of their inhabitants a certain shape was created.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXCFwZa118U&feature=youtu.be

Concept – Transformation, growth, forces and deformation

Architectural work- Embryological House by Greg Lynn

Click the link below for the video of the final presentation:

Poto credits: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/15/robot-doctors-online-lawyers-automated-architects-future-professions-jobs-technology

Case Sudy_Toward a Theory of Architecture Machines_Nicholas Negroponte

Negroponte’s article ” Toward a Theory of Architecture Machines”, published back in 1969. when the technology has not yet been developed to such an extent, represented very revolutionary not proposal but a big vision of a futuristic architecture machine.

This text introduces the idea of “Evolutionary machine“-  self-improving machine which, beside designers step-by-step instructions, would be capable of creating its own method of solution and would liberate the designer allowing him to do what he really enjoys. Rising the aforementioned machine to a higher level, Nicholas explains the “Learning machine” mechanism which actually presents the union of five very complex subassemblies: 1) a heuristic mechanism which strategy is based on solving certain problem by comparing it to similar ones; 2) a rote apparatus that acts when similar situation encountered, by storing the event and interconnecting it with a response; 3) a conditioning mechanism grounded on the idea that simple repetitious responses after certain time become habits; 4) a reward selector which operates when teacher exhibit happiness or disappointment and 5) a forgetting convenience  or “exponential forgetting” that basically has the ability of forgetting less significant things. The whole system works exclusively  in cooperation with designers. The final point “Seeing machine” is setting an idea of interface or interaction between a machine and the “information environment”. Processors would have capability of communicating with a humans. In order to make this possible in terms that machine has an image of a designer, 3 performances which together form the interface are required: an event (that can be visual, auditory or extrasensory); a manifestation (measures the event according to parameters like friquency, luminance etc. are) and final  a representation.

Personally, I experienced this text as an union of the 3 explained “machines” into one futuristic machine, into one robot that would be innovative in many aspects, especially in terms of designing principles according to which it would have ability to machine itself  brings some conclusions, but never completely  independent of man. In my opinion, the author doesn’t give a “project” of the future machine but he only theoretically investigates  how it might look in the future. As long as the authorship of a certain project is primarily attributed to a man, not to machine, we should not be scared of the technology and of the impact it has nowadays on creativity. As long as machines are only tools under the influence of humans, architecture as well as other branches can only become more interesting, leaving a wide margin for innovation and creativity.

On the other hand, we have all witnessed how today’s technology is advancing fast, and that in many cases the machines are completely replacing man’s role. As a topic for personal research i find this uncontrolled technological growth very interesting. I wounder what we can expact in the nearist future and how things will change in terms of understanding architecture through available technology. Is it going to help our creativity, to open some new windows, new features or is going to close our touch with reality?

Deluze explains about rhizomatic growth and how it occurs.in this text about rhizomatic growth , he explains with many examples as to how the growth occurs. The main characteristics about this growth is that -it has no center ,  -The connection for the growth occurs between two unrelated elements , -there is only an implication of a periphery, – there is continuation and multiplicity.

To further explain about the connection between unrelated elements, he gives the example of pollination and hence a connection between a wasp and a flower. They are two different species, connected in a process  of and for growth.

But the important aspect to note in this growth type is ” there is no firm causality leading to the event” . i.e., there is no  starting point ,And so also , there is no end  point either.

there are five main points that deluze marks out for rhizomatic growth -

1. connection 2. heterogeneity  3.multiplicity 4. asignyfying rupture 5. cartography

these five aspects form the main characteristics of rhizomatic growth according to Deluze.

case study : Blur Building Swiss Expo 2002 by DILLER SCOFIDIO + RENFR

This building was a temporary exhibition structure.The concept of this structure was to use water,not just as a context but  as an architecture element.The architect believes that architecture is a special effect machine. In this structure , the special effect was created by the water.The architect intended to create an architecture of atmosphere where the atmosphere is actually a part of the building element.Elements like space and skin was re evaluated and  an attempt to break away from the conventional notion of space and skin was made.

water is pumped from the lake and is filtered and shot into the air with high pressured fog nozzle located the the edge / border of the structure.This water jutting out of the nozzle creates a facade and a notion of the space. this is a responsive system trained on actual weather conditions.the system reads the real weather and produces semi artificial and real weather and adapts itself accordingly.

Research interests

As my research topic, am interested in generative design logics. Prototypes where a whole emerges from the multiple interactions between a single element.A system of growth which can generate itself from its own. A non static element which is designed to adapt and sustain, like a living organism. And to generate this concept to form a part of the larger system of growth and therefore the connections between them.

Case Study: Sendai Mediatheque l Toyo İto, Matsuro Sasaki

Reading Text: Emergence l Steven Johnson

Steven Johnson explains the ‘Emergence’ in a very good way in terms of understanding the relation between architecture and the city. He is defining the complex system in various scales(from micro scale to macro scale) with comparing the ants, body cells and cities and he takes our attention with the swarm logic of ants’ colony.

Swarm intelligence is the collective decentralized behavior. It is a system which is formed by simple individuals and it is transforming to complexity by interacting with each individuals and surroundings. For instance, ants manage to do their tasks for finding food and building shelter. But there is no reason, no logic about what they are doing. It is impossible to do it by itself; they are really successful when they work together. They get information from their surroundings and neighbors, in that way they do their tasks. This is the result of interaction which means it becomes ant colony and this example is also shows how ‘local information can develop global wisdom’. Also our body cells are precise example which proves the same swarm logic by creating the whole body with those simple cells.

According to the learning form ground level, there are 5 main topics to point out:

More is different: The more simple elements in numbers, can work more efficiently compared to 1 or 2 elements. For instance, only large amount of ants can create the colony.

Ignorance is useful: The simplicity is crucial for creating complexity. Learning from ants, each ant do only one task and they do not even know why they do.

Encourage random encounters: Different information and situations can create complexity in large scale. Ants behave individually and do their random unplanned tasks. They can adapt in any condition and they can change their tasks.

Look for patterns in the signs: As it is understandable, it is better to follow signs which priors leave. This is way to improve globally. To give an example from ants, they do not talk to each other. They work with their pheromones to find food and create path to build shelter.

Pay attention to your neighbors: Last but not least, this is how the complexity works; sharing information and interaction. Ants see the neighbors and change their tasks. Because they can not survive on their own.

Ultimately, this is where everything is getting clear. Cities bring minds together and the similar swarm logic of ants can be thought in human scale. Cities exist with their neighborhoods. If interaction needs a place, Steven Johnson points out the sidewalks of the city. It is a place that gives us a chance to get/share information and interaction with others (fluidity and continuity place for information). We are all individuals living randomly, but we are providing the exact amount of local interactions to achieve global wisdom. In other words, we are all a part of the whole complex system. By individually sharing information affects the whole complexity. As a result, Emergence is the ability to get and respond the information according to needs of global wisdom.

After analyzing Johnson’s examples and also Toyo Ito’s mediatheque, they changed my way of thinking about the complexity. Now I can say that also complexity can become from a simple element. I am very intrigued with the fact that there are so many patterns in our environment which has similar patterns in our lives. I would like to research about these patterns. It would great to learn how we can learn more from the micro systems in nature and implement them to our macro system. In that case learning more from nature, helps me more about understanding the advanced architecture.

In Thomson’s book “On Growth and Form”, he looks at the way natural living things, such as vegetation and animals, and why they take the form they do by growing and changing. While at first the forms are described with words, they later are represented with mathematical and graphical drawings. Thomson admits that the mathematical analysis has its limitations since one cannot simply draw anything. However, it does have an advantage in a way we can manipulate shapes and discover new things; he places a grid and then deforms it consistently in one particular pattern, the result is a new species. Nevertheless not everything can be transformed to anything; a vertebral animal cannot be transformed to a mammal. His study of form is called “morphology”. The form goes from a static to dynamic state with the influence of forces on them. While looking at the shape we can recognize the force that transformed it, which can be for example Gravity. By understanding the form transformation vs. the forces, we can see a similarity with DeLanda in the evolution process from young to older. Thomson discuses the concept of average since the process of transformation allows you to get only an approximate result; one can get mathematical forms for shapes in general, but not for a specific case – “Keep the type in mind & leave the single cases, with all its accidents, alone”. In “On Growth and Form”, there is also the idea of Newton which says that “Nature delights in transformation”. The book is mostly about questioning and comparing the form, growth and Cartesian coordinates. According to Thomson, comparison of related forms allows us to understand better the transformation and deformation that if we saw the form alone. His method was to use Cartesian coordinates, and it can be used to study missing parts of an animal or the missing steps of the evolution process. Thomson describes Listing’s point of view of seeing a topological similarity in mammals where in the science of typology any form can be changed to any form. This concept comes behind the fact that if you breakdown different forms, we will end up with similar basic geometric shapes. However Thomson did not study this perspective. All of his experiments are limited since they are in 2D, where everything in the grid changes but keeps the same relation. His study can be applied on a 3D grid but there will be difficulty in correlating one plane into different one. Moreover, even in his 2D process, we can notice that his transformation from the initial drawing to the obtained result is not always very accurate and sometimes raises doubts about certain coordinate’s displacement; Nevertheless we should keep in mind the book was written in a time where computer analysis and parametric still did not exist, making his work an impressing read. We can notice that Thomson applied the same method as Albert Durer did on human face, but for animals.

In my personal research, I would like to experiment and apply Thomson’s theories since he was descriptive rather than experimental in his book. It is clear that he was aware of that when he said: “This book of mine has little need of preface, for indeed it is ‘all preface’ from beginning to end”. It would be to apply the study to all shapes in our daily life to follow their process and see what forces and changes they have been affected by to become transformed to what they are.

“Upon entering the fog mass, visual and acoustic references is erased, leaving only an optical white-out and the white-noise of pulsing nozzles. Blur is an anti-spectacle. Contrary to immersive environments that strive for high-definition visual fidelity with ever-greater technical virtuosity, Blur is decidedly low-definition: there is nothing to see but our dependence on vision itself.”

Diller Scofidio

Case study:                 Blur building, Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Critical reading:        G. Deleuze, F. Guattari, “Rhizome”, in a Thousand Plateaus, July 1980, pp. 3-25

The Blur is an unconventional building designed by DS+R, an American multidisciplinary firm that constantly swings from architecture to art.

The practice started its work setting temporary installations and at the beginning its attentions was closer to art and theory than to conventional buildings and constructions. This interest was carried on even after they started designing “real” buildings, so the practice has continued to investigate the art field developing media installations, sculptures, sets, and integrating these art researches in their projects, focusing on the consequences of architecture in the society.

The Blur is an installation designed for the Swiss Expo 2002 on Lake Neuchatel. It is an architecture of atmosphere, an ephemeral non-built construction that interacts with the users and the context, investigating the concept of evanescence. The pavilion was characterized by 31’500 high-pressure nozzles pumping the water from the lake to create a big cloud. A smart weather system was able to read the shifting climatic conditions of temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, processing the data and modulating the cloud’s shape.

“Upon entering the fog mass, visual and acoustic references is erased, leaving only an optical white-out and the white-noise of pulsing nozzles. Blur is an anti-spectacle. Contrary to immersive environments that strive for high-definition visual fidelity with ever-greater technical virtuosity, Blur is decidedly low-definition: there is nothing to see but our dependence on vision itself.” (DS)

This building was a sensorial experience. In fact, within the cloud the public could feel and “drink” the architecture in a media installation that involved all the human senses. Moreover, the pavilion tried to interact with the users establishing new relations between “compatible” users, thanks to the raincoats (brain coats), that visitors were supposed to wear. Indeed, before entering to the pavilion visitors were invited to fill a questioner about their character profiles, then in the brain coats were loaded the personal character data. Therefore the coats were used as protection from the wet environment as well as personality data storage. Communicating with the cloud’s computer network and using tracking location technologies, each visitor’s position could be identified and the character profiles compared each other. When visitors passed one another, their coats could change colour indicating the degree of attraction or repulsion.

The pavilion represents a changeable form, a dynamic system that processes data and establishes relations based on personal information. Moreover, the Blur symbolizes the construction of a building dissolution. This dichotomy (built – unbuilt) is not the only one that can be observed in this project: this architecture is at the same time solid and temporary, stable and in-stable, static and dynamic.

If the architecture is thought to reflect the humankind, I read many analogies between the cloud and the current society. The building, as our society is a liquid mass without any straight hierarchies nor univocal interpretation or conventional limits.

In my opinion, designing a good public building means understand and interpret the human behaviour. Personally I consider fundamental for my profession the works of sociologists and anthropologists such as Lévi-Strauss, Augé Latouche and Bauman. From this perspective I would be interested in analysing the Deleuze concept of rhizome and the idea of non-linear thinking, considering his works a key point for my personal and professional growth, as well as an interesting reflection on contemporary society and humans behaviours.

Image: Matteo Silverio

Termite mound

Maybe a lot of the neurons in our brains are not just capable but, if you like, motivated to be more adventurous, more exploratory or risky in the way they comport themselves, in the way they live their lives. They’re struggling amongst themselves with each other for influence, just for staying alive, and there’s competition going on between individual neurons. As soon as that happens, you have room for cooperation to create alliances, and I suspect that a more free-wheeling, anarchic organization is the secret of our greater capacities of creativity, imagination, thinking outside the box and all that, and the price we pay for it is our susceptibility to obsessions, mental illnesses, delusions and smaller problems.

          Daniel C. Dennet

During the last decades philosophers and scientists have been discussing about the human mind and what we named awareness, as the state to perceive, to feel, to be conscient and to recognize environmental and inner variations, though being able to choose between multiple possible future reactions. What generates problem between researchers are the achievements of neurosciences in studying neurons and brain connections. Suddenly, we were obliged to think us (our brain/mind) as an organism made of objective, automatic and unconscious elements (neurons) that, however, act like surviving animals, always addressed to the best and rational choice for their lives. In this scenario, it emerges that conscious and aware beings (or supposed to be that) can take shape from unconscious, unaware, electrical and always moving beings. The system is conceived as an infinite loop in which death and life continuously switch from one to the other in the same time and at the moment seems to be impossible to detect any kind of starting point, singularity or first energy injection.

The same logic of neurons can be found in machines and computers. One of the best examples of this process is the core of the register machine, that is the basis for the actual informatic and computational architecture. The idea is to construct a system with n numbered containers and m objects. After having randomly distributed the elements in the containers, we provide a simple set of rules (increment, decrement, clear to zero) according to the number of elements in each container and the machine will provide us the right result to our question. In this manner, with few and simple rules it is possible to create other scripts (multiplication, comparison, repositioning) and solve different problems without be obliged to generate different machines for different purposes. The scripts or softwares are able to simulate more analogic processes on the same virtual machine.

Digital tools discussion lead us to the change provided by technology in architecture and building processes. The relevant importance of new technologies and techniques has not to be located in the increase of production, rather in the vision of a world that is going to the pluralism of parts and that is able to compare itself with neutrons and scripts, all elements of the same reality. Steven Johnson told us about ants collective intelligence and its different and essential parameters to work: more is different, ignorance is useful, encourage random encounters, look for patterns in the signs, pay attention to your neighbours. This five sentences could be considered the minimum request to a living system to maintain its own dynamism. It looks foolish not to detect similarities with the human living system. In particular, we can argue to be involved in all of these rules, except for the last one, that is the only one liable to be controlled. In this sense, many architects and designers have been starting to conceive their works as flexible and adaptive systems that promote dynamism, energy flows and inner relations, thanks to the adoption of sets of rules instead of intentional design acts. As results we can include the Watercube in Beijing, the Yokohama Terminal and the Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne. Clearly, though with the same logic of building the landscape, these programs have different purposes. While in the intervention of SAANA it is possible to detect the will of linking inside and outside along multiple vectors (even if the horizontal is the main one), in the FOA’s Terminal the site offers itself to be layered and to host different programs. In Beijing, this logic generates one component that, after being put in the system, is able to confer to the building an unusual energetic performance.

Swarm intelligence is the word that better represents the main feature of evolution and nature. Even human beings are within it, as we admit our superiority when linked in and between groups. But animals’ efficiency is really beyond ours and, looking at termites for example, the proportions are not the same, making them able to build more complex and functional organisms. In a certain way, machines and computers are going to move us toward the animals’ way of building: digital beings are now the channels to express the potential of our neurons, that are not able to be explicit with us, into a production process. We are trying to understand our minds using technologies and to translate it into reality. As we saw many times during the human growth, we are forcing our system to obtain operative information addressed to improve our surviving skills. In this direction, many attempts have been made, but still there are inexplicable influences, about how the building could react to the environment and, above all, how the people think at themselves within the environment.

]]> http://legacy.iaacblog.com/maa2014-2015-advanced-architecture-concepts/2014/11/740/feed/ 0 http://legacy.iaacblog.com/maa2014-2015-advanced-architecture-concepts/2014/11/565/ http://legacy.iaacblog.com/maa2014-2015-advanced-architecture-concepts/2014/11/565/#comments Mon, 10 Nov 2014 21:12:24 +0000 Hashem Joucka http://legacy.iaacblog.com/maa2014-2015-advanced-architecture-concepts/?p=565
Never Never land (Andres Jaque Architects):
The Never land house is located in Ibiza island in Spain. The design of the house and landscape was produced taking into consideration the natural surroundings of the island, the European building standards and characteristics, the fact that Ibiza is a party city.
The elevations of the building were deigned to allow for the maintenance of ground permeability and the existing run-off. The arrangement of the spaces allowed for preserving all of the existing trees, hence the continuity of mechanical soil conservation and the habitat constituted by the pine tree tops, or the use of a concrete drum to house all of the systems which might call accidental spills into the subsoil. The logics driving the design are positional and metaphorical: Positional which changed the perception of architecture in relation to the trees, furthermore using the trees to orientate the movement in the space. The design also introduced order in the k-otic nature even if the order is not in order. Metaphorical: Employing the difference between tree branches to construct the architecture, due to the fact that it caters to the nature around it as well as maintaining the interactive elements affecting the indoors environmental quality.

Form and Function Follow Climate (Philippe Rahm):
The author discusses the way current sustainable development policies act as major doctrines influencing architectural design. Philppe advocates that the capacity of architecture not to be tied to function; he compares the precedent form finding techniques that are widely used in architecture (form follows function, function follows form),which gave rise to a system that is rigid in terms of structure yet flexible in terms of program or function. Furthermore, the author then proposes an approach to find a relationship between form, function, and climate, which reverses the traditional approach in order to achieve a design in which function and form can emerge in response to climate.

Manufacturing of Material Effects:
Manufacturing of material effects is a powerful contemporary actualization of the potentialities founded by highly collaborative, highly integrated design, engineering, fabrication, and construction knowledge. The emerging, technologically-enabled transformation of the building industry in the “digital” age has led to a much greater integration of “mechanical” age processes and techniques into conceptual building design.
I am interested in integrating material sciences and CNC tools to open up for more complex architectural design possibilities and fabrication capabilities in building construction.
By optimizing/ manipulating material variables in composites for local performance criteria, entirely new material (materials 
that change their properties dynamically in direct response to external and internal stimuli, such as 
light, heat and mechanical stresses) and tectonic possibilities can emerge.

Sources:

http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/3-ways-anti-gravity-robot-printing-can-better-the-arts

Photo credits:http://www.archdaily.com/38196/never-never-land-house-andres-jaque-arquitectos/

Case Study_Never Never Land House /Andres Jaque Architects

Reading_Form and Function Follow Climate/Philippe Rahma

Never Never Land House  was built on a 1300 square meter allotment in the Cala Vadella Valley of Ibiza. Home explores the roll played by architecture, as a practice of technological restitution of social relations, combination of intimate sphere with the sphere of collective action. Based on hedonist tradition of suburban swimming pools in Santa Monica and “extreme happiness” related to electronic music and synthetic  drug consumption. In order to maintain the natural environment  80 percent of the house has been raised on the pillars above the ground.  Analyzing the house with  relational logic we can notice some similarities with: 1.Metaphorphical Logic-columns as branches, solid form as illustration of crown 2.Environmental-system by energy 3.Positional-trees organized as architecture, included in the house as a part of composition.

It is generally known that architecture is the art of designing, planning, and construction. Product architecture or architectural workers reflected the thinking of its creator, architect of the ideas and concepts of architecture, able to understand the priorities  in achieving the goal. However, certain parts of architectural achievement depends on economic opportunities and social consciousness. Looking at the history, we can say that the form and function changed depending on the culture and the period in which they arise. Each architectural epochs as result had certain types in construction. One of the main debates throughout the history of architecture was whether focusing on the form or function.As  we all know the phrase where “Form Follows Function” (Louis Sullivan) and “Function Follows Form” (Louis Kahn).  In the case of whether the form or function of the essence of architectural work a little neglected the fact that architecture is based on the development of the technique. In view of the need to have and important determinants of self-sustaining development. Magical words are present in the architecture : energy efficiency and renewable energy.

As an example we can take Switzerland where environmental solutions focused on increasing comfort and reducing non-renewable energy sources. The Minergie standard is registered quality label for new and refurbished building. Comfort is the central theme: the comfort of the users living or working in the building. This level of comfort is made possible for high-quality building envelopes and the systematic renewal of air . Specific energy consumption is used as the main indicator to quantify the required building quality. Architecture should be seen as a variable system that is adapted to climate, time, day or night, season, space, and used in accordance with our needs and desires. We should not allow ourselves to be functional and symbolic constraints preclude the free use and interpretation. Openness towards unexplored dimensions where the architect experimenting with time, space, matter is important.
Houses of the old neighborhoods of Baghdad, has interior spaces that varied in temperature. That is good example for climate quality rather than function. Aim is actualizing relationship between architecture and climate, natural or artificial in the era of sustainable development. If we take into account the typology of the building, there are many places for housing whose functions are obsolete, not in line with today’s lifestyle. Places in which we lost ability to live. Robbe Grillet indeed denounced “the tyranny of significations”.  Its better to present physical climatic, geographic and physiological spaces and time. Architecture replaces functional and symbolic constraints with freedom of use and interpretation.

As conclusion I can say that in the design of the house more attention should have been devoted to coordinate form and function parameters, other polluting energy spatiotemporal.
House is more based on personal expression and needs, in this case the intended fleeting romance and everyday sunset parties, thus not based on technical information. Nature has been interpreted through architecture for centuries in various ways .In my opinion architecture would not be perceived as a form and function  individually, their primary issue is not the design of spatial boundaries, and not the space itself, its main concern is human life. Therefore, our task is not to adapt existing markets as a key institution of modern society, but we’re working on innovation. The form and function it is necessary to include together in time, place, new technology because  we are who advocate new techniques, shapes and materials. Our ability to establish the value of the structure is proportional to our ability to recognize and use the individual properties, mutual relations, as well as the integrity of the structure. Any increase in the number of attributes which define the models increases directly and our creative ability. Of experimentation, research, use of new materials, acquiring new knowledge, depending on the time and space  these attributes are increasing daily.

Attributes that I mentioned can be fairly subjective, dependent on the personal experience of architecture. They can be ambient, decorative, ecological, economic, functional, ethical, ideological, cultural, commercial, etc. From all of this it is necessary to extract the objective attributes, which will contribute to the development of technology, the improvement of human life and comfort, interaction with nature. So I was interested in exploring objective parameters that influence on development of new technologies whose list is constantly supplemented by acquiring new knowledge and experimentation.