18547 - Architecture and Architectural Composition III (L-Z)

Learning outcomes

To study and learn the meaning of architecture in our present reality, we need a paradigm shift: first we have to redefine what is the reality we live in and what architecture is, according to the precedent definition. Thus, some fundaments we have to go through are nature and architecture.

The emergent nature of our reality is a key, maybe the very key or the best we have so far, to understand it, not just a conjecture of some brilliant minds. Being aware of the true concept of nature, emergence, reality, genetics, algorithm will help us to better formulate a definition of architecture suitable to cope and interact with the world at large.

According to these premises, the concept of ecology will also be scrutinized, from his broader meaning up to its most radical consequences in architectural design, discussing concepts like sustainability, economy (in its broad sense), efficiency (form, shape and matter in nature are indissoluble and interconnected parts of a whole system that tends to maximize efficiency) and environmental interaction.

Reality is travelling at a really huge pace, techniques and tools of common use in other production sectors (like industrial design and car design) will soon arrive into the architectural production world, with interesting impacts and consequences like the passage from mass-production to mass-customization (already experimented since several years in schools like Architectural Association, Columbia and Delft and broadly used in design and large scale architectural projects), even in very low scale economies.

We will undergo a wide range of concepts and ideas, of which only the ones considered more significant for architectural design will be deeply developed:  those concepts and those ideas constitute an evolved and suitable set of tools to understand our world and operate in it consciously.

The aim is to give tools and more sophisticated instruments that need to be scrutinized and critically applied (widely exploiting trial-error methods) to make proposals for possible future architectural realities, negotiating and compromising them with real conditions and environments as much as possible in the available period of investigation and exercise.

Possible (and welcome) differences in the approach to the project, developed in the following lab courses (see) constitute a natural enrichment and operational complement to the theoretical parts about the concepts of emergence, complexity and nature (and their architectural side) shown in the lessons. “More is different” (P.W. Anderson, in Science, august 4th, 1972).

Course contents

Here follows a list of main themes treated during the lessons. The order and degree of development could not fully respect the list below:

 

. Theories of emergence (introduction)

Introduction to genetics: focus on homeobox genes set

Genetics as philosophical branch (genesis): gene and meme

We have never been modern: the paradoxical situation after modern movement in architecture

. A view of nature

Concept of nature as emergent system

Nature today: the end of pictoresque

Collective behaviours (ants, cells)

Patterns and their recognition as base of intelligent behavior (neighbor rules)

Cellular Automata

. Genetic vs generative

Linear closed symbolic systems

Alan Turing and the Turing Machine

Semiology, code and process

Sketches of complex, non linear systems

Intrinsic and extrinsic aspects: architecture as an emergent expression of a cultural phenotype (symbols, myths, meanings)

. Biodigital architecture

Historical roots: Antoni Gaudì, Louis Sullivan, Pier Luigi Nervi, Miguel Fisac , Frei Otto (among the others)

Biomimetics vs Biomorphics

Biomechanics and biochemistry: some current biomimetics applications

The digital as a way to understand, study and replicate natural processes

. Topology (introduction & consequences on architecture)

Introduction: definition of topology, set theory

history

geometric topology: manifolds & genus of surfaces

Patterns, tessellation and their role in natural strategies to achieve efficiency and form economy in nature

Topological mesh modelers (TopMod)

. Morphogenetics: growth, form, structure & material in nature

driven strategies to pursuit efficiency

information-based vs energy-based systems

materials in nature

adaption vs flexibility

form finds possible functions: induction processes of adaption

Isometric & allometric growth in morphogenesis (ontogeny): the scale problem

The performative function of beauty: colors in nature as a performative quality & a strategy for life functions

Pattern recognition & language: morphogenesis and code

. Architectural applications

Information systems

Morpho-ecology based strategies (morphogenetic strategies)

Architecture as environmental transformation of a territory

Structural multi-performative membranes

Ornament and porosity

City planning and social groups: top-down decisions and emergent behaviuors (simple rulesets for complex outcomes in playgrounds)

Activities Implementation: i-density theory (Sikiaridi) and time-based analysis (Van Berkel): addressing a swarm of possibilities rather than precise (and therefore limited) functions

Performative qualities of material in form based structures and aggregations (ex nacre)

Introduction to structural lightness

Design and performance

. Digital tools

Digital tools in architecture: from design to fabrication (Rhino, Maya)

Generative programs and scripts as tools

Genetic algorithms

Parametric tools, from scripting to ParaCloud, TopSolid & Generative Components

. Digital processes in architectural design

Digital fabrication: subtractive and additive techniques

Fabrication as “proof of concept” and not only a representative tool

Addressing data through indexed and operative strategies

Readings/Bibliography

BOOKS

Emergence , Steven Johnson, Scribner

Morpho-ecologies , Michael Hensel and Achim Menges, AA publications

Earth Moves , Bernard Cache, the MIT press

Structure in nature is a strategy for design , Peter Pearce, the MIT press

L'Architettura dell'intelligenza , Derrick De Kerchckove, ed. Testo & Immagine

Atlas of Novel Tectonics , Reiser+Umemoto, Princeton Architectural Press

Lightness , Adrian Beukers, 010 publications

The concept of nature , Alfred North Whitehead, available online at Project Gutemberg ( http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/18835 )

Index architettura , Bernard Tschumi & Matthew Berman, ed. Postmedia books

Induction design , Makoto Sei Watanabe, ed. Testo & Immagine

Immateriale/Ultramateriale , a cura di Toshiko Mori, ed. Postmedia books

 

OTHER RESOURCES

 

General

http://arca3-lz.blogspot.com/ course blog

http://ale2x72.blogspot.com/ e-cloud architecture blog

Specific

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence Emergence (Wikipedia definition)

http://www.genetics.org resources for genetics and architecture

http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/delanda/pages/algorithm.htm Manuel De Landa, Deleuze and the use of genetic algorithm in architecture

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower Flower (Wikipedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornament_(architecture) Ornament (Wikipedia)

http://algorithmicbotany.org/ Algorithmic Botany

http://www.nbii.gov/portal/community/Communities/Plants,_Animals_&_Other_Organisms/Botany/Form_and_Function/ Form and function in flowers and plants

http://crtl-i.com/blog/

 

ADVANCED SENSIBILITIES

http://suckerpunchdaily.com/

http://www.derekeller.com/alysonshotz1.html Alyson Shotz

 

 

Colors in nature

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/08/03/beautiful-color-in-nature-frogs-and-toads/

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2008/07/15/feather-colors-affect-bird-physiology/

 

INFOGRAPHICS

Envisioning information , Edward R. tufte

http://thediagram.com/

http://infosthetics.com/

 

More sources and insights will be given during the course

Teaching methods

Lessons, technical seminars about digital tools that are used, monographic lectures, practical workshops about treated issues (class exercises or hosted in labs); the single student should develop an individual project and produce digital and paper drawings as well as a prototype of all or a part of the project itself. Guided tours to specific relevant teaching interest architectures and/or facilities.

Assessment methods

Students will be constantly followed throughout exercise path and the future project development that will take place in the following lab courses.

Intermediate verifications will be made on the project development and on the theoretical aspect treated during the lessons.

All the material concerning the final discussion should be delivered in the department one week before discussion date.

Final verification will be in form of a discussion about the project work for whom proper drawings and a prototype are required; the characteristics of these will be partly explained during the lessons and partly agreed with the single student. Students are required to explain the project to the commission and critically discuss it, going deeply into the arguments nested into it.

Teaching tools

Computer labs (room 0.4)

Digital fabrication tools: 3 axys CNC, Z-print, laser cutter (after availability verification)

Links to further information

http://arca3-lz.blogspot.com/

Office hours

See the website of Alessio Erioli

See the website of Giorgio Praderio