Assignment 2: PAVILION Design

Instructor: Judith K. Mussel
Fall 2010- California College of the Arts
Tuesday 07:15PM - 10:15PM, Main SF Bldg, Room LAB C

Image: Thomas Heatherwick British Pavilion Shanghai Expo 2010


"Architecture, as a material practice, attains social, cultural, and ecological relevance through the articulation of material arrangements and structures. Thus the way we conceptualize these material interventions – and particularly the technology that enables their construction - presents a fundamental aspect in how we (re)think architecture…."
Achim Menges

Synthetic Tectonics focuses on the relationship between “physical” Tectonics and advanced “digital” design.
Designing “Synthetic Tectonics” means to integrate parameters of material and construction/fabrication constrains in computational design. Working in an N-dimensional space rather than a 3d dimensional design is the goal of this seminar. Until now most computer programs focus on the 3d; that is why we are working parallel in physical and digital models to integrate physical properties in our design efforts.


Project 2 asks the students to design a pavilion on the empty lot next to California College of the Arts in San Francisco. The school is in urgent need for a temporary exhibition/event space. The pavilion’s design should empathize on the dialogue between top-down (form driven/macro) and bottom up (unit-driven/micro) approach. The dialogue should result in a pavilion design whose form harmonizes with the design of the unit system. The single units have to be designed so they adapt to the different exposure to sun and wind as well as different structural load transfer.

Instructions:
First draw a site plan and make a general outline where your pavilion is going to be located. Notice the orientation towards the sun and wind. After you have done an initial approach to the design of the shape create a diagram of the structural load, wind and sun exposure of the pavilion as a basis for your unit design.
Your system design has to withstand several tests:
1. Precedence Test: Can you learn from your natural or artificial system precedence and incorporate unit behavior into your pavilion design (form) shape? How does your design contribute the discourse?
2. Geometry/Form Test: which types of shapes/form are suitable to your unit?
3. Material Test: How is your material supporting your design? How would the material fail? Incorporate the results of your material test you have conducted on Tuesday, October 12th. Name three limits of the material and show how you incorporate them into the design. For example three parameters could be:
a. Size limitation
b. Grain direction (for wood)
c. Constrains of unit connections (can only rotate 5 degrees)

4. Structural Test: Is your unit system carrying structural load or is your system an enclosure system? (If your unit is an enclosure system, who si carrying the structural load? What kind of structural advantage or disadvantage is created through the shape/form of the pavilion? Could your unit adapt to different structural load?

5. System Test: How are your units attached to each other? How are they attached to the main frame or are they structural?
6. Orientation: How does the sun path impact the design of your unit?
7. Wind: How can you take advantage from the wind direction on site?

Woven Modules Gabriel Guerriero

Bricolage Brett Elliott

10-05-2010 Synthetic Tectonics Review : John Fulton

10-05-2010 Synthetic Tectonics Review Sean Stillwell

10-05-2010 Synthetic Tectonics Review Misa Grannis

AA Membrane Canopy in London

In the Detail Magazine 2010- 5 : "Analogue and Digital" the AA Membrane Canopy in London is discussed in detail. Below you'll find and excerpt of the article:

AA Membrane Canopy in London
Architects: Micheal Hensel, Achim Menges,Micheal Weinstock

The AA membrane canopy provides constant weather protection to the terrace.Yet it is so permeable that it maintains views of the surrounding London roof scape and avoids excessive wind. ...... A systems was developed, based on components, that reconciles the performance criteria - allowing light and air to enter, maintaining views and providing protection from the elements- by explicitly defining each component in an overall system. The individual components, developed on the basis of numerous analogue and digital test are made out of tubular- steel frames (resisting compressive forces) and membrane elements(tensile strength). The material and geometric properties were embedded in a parametric model, which constitutes the building block of subsequent integral design process.......

In Arabian Desert, a Sustainable City Rises

In Arabian Desert, a Sustainable City Rises

By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF
Published in the NYtimes : September 25, 2010



ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates —
Back in 2007, when the government here announced its plan for “the world’s first zero-carbon city” on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, many Westerners dismissed it as a gimmick — a faddish follow-up to neighboring Dubai’s half-mile-high tower in the desert and archipelago of man-made islands in the shape of palm trees.Designed by Foster & Partners, a firm known for feats of technological wizardry, the city, called Masdar, would be a perfect square, nearly a mile on each side, raised on a 23-foot-high base to capture desert breezes. Beneath its labyrinth of pedestrian streets, a fleet of driverless electric cars would navigate silently through dimly lit tunnels. The project conjured both a walled medieval fortress and an upgraded version of the Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland.......

The buildings that have gone up so far come in two contrasting styles. Laboratories devoted to developing new forms of sustainable energy and affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are housed in big concrete structures that are clad in pillowlike panels of ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene, a super-strong translucent plastic that has become fashionable in contemporary architecture circles for its sleek look and durability. Inside, big open floor slabs are designed for maximum flexibility.

The residential buildings, which for now will mostly house professors, students and their families, use a more traditional architectural vocabulary. To conform to Middle Eastern standards of privacy, Mr. Foster came up with an undulating facade of concrete latticework based on the mashrabiya screens common in the region. The latticework blocks direct sunlight and screens interiors from view, while the curves make for angled views to the outside, so that apartment dwellers never look directly into the windows of facing buildings. Such concerns are also reflected in the layout of the neighborhood. Like many Middle Eastern university campuses, it is segregated by sex, with women and families living at one end and single men at the other. Each end has a small public plaza, which acts as its social heart. ......

for more check out the NYtimes article Masdar

Assignment 1: Shading System

Synthetic Tectonics
modulation and manifestation
ARCHT-570-01, MARCH-602: Synthetic Tectonics
Instructor: Judith K. Mussel
Fall 2010- California College of the Arts
Tuesday 07:15PM - 10:15PM, Main SF Bldg, Room LAB C
Units/Credit: 3
Enrolment capacity: 12

Assignment 1

Assignment 1 focus is to design a shading system to mitigate the heat gain on the south west facade of the CCA building in San Francisco. Students will explore surface subdivision and intelligent environmental response. The units of the surface should adapt to the subtle changes of the heat gain throughout the façade.
“Digitally based technologies and techniques have introduced new spatial and formal capacities in architecture. This digital technological shift led to several lines of investigation in contemporary architecture: one seamless materiality, in which fluid smoothness was a primary design consideration, a second trajectory explored the outcome of digitally crafted, two-and three dimensional non-uniform patterns and textures, and a third thought the unity of skin, structure, and pattern.” Branko Kolarevic
In Assignment 1 we are interested on the second trajectory and in Assignment 2 we will shift to the third. In nature we seldom experience surfaces which are bare of any subdivision und texture. The abundance of form and color is mostly an effectual reaction to the environment.
Students should research and take one of nature’s patterns as an inspiration for their design of the shading system. Develop a design for the south façade of CCA San Fransisco as a physical model and pick a building material from the list below. Each week we will address one to two methods of surface subdivision according to your chosen material and method. It is important to acquire a physical example of the material and bring it to the next session of Synthetic Tectonics for empirical study.
With the physical model the students should develop the performance of the unit or the gradient type of assembly of the unit as a reaction of the environment on the particular site.

Select one of the listed materials:
1. Sheet Metal/ Steel plate – patterning on flat and developable surfaces
2. Laminated Wood - patterning on flat and developable surfaces
3. Structural Steel Members – networks of prefabricated traditional building material
4. Structural Wood Members - networks of prefabricated traditional building material
5. Brick- aggregation of prefabricated traditional building material
6. Other prefabricated Building material- aggregation of prefabricated nontraditional building material
7. Concrete/ Plaster – freeform plastic solids with adaptable patterns
8. Plastic Sheets - freeform plastic sheets with adaptable patterns
9. Composites – freeform plastic solids with and without adaptable patterns
10. Structural Fabric – minimal surfaces


Surface design methods corresponding to building material and method
A. Pattering on flat and developable surfaces
B. Networks of prefabricated traditional building material
C. Aggregation of traditional and nontraditional building material
D. Free form plastic solids with adaptable patterns
E. Minimal Surfaces
F. Shell Structures


The first assignment should be developed iteratively in session 1 to 4 of from Synthetic Tectonics. In week 5 we will have a pin-up to review assignment 1

Review of Assignment 1: 10-05-2010 PIN-UP
Deliverables:

1. Physical model of one unit showing the adaption to different environmental parameters
2. Digital model of whole façade, represented in two or more renderings showing different variations
3. Hidden line drawing diagram of unit behavior

modulation and manifestation

ARCHT-570-01, MARCH-602: Synthetic Tectonics Instructor: Judith K. Mussel Fall 2010- California College of the Arts Tuesday 07:15PM - 10:15PM, Main SF Bldg, Room LAB C Units/Credit: 3 Enrolment capacity: 12

Synthetic Tectonics examines digital and analogue design techniques that incorporate parameters of building material and methods, environmental response and structural systems. Systematically we will first introduce material constrains into the digital modeling process, then incorporate environmental response and finally add structural concerns to the effort. At the end of the seminar the design will be represented in drawings, diagrams, renderings and a physical prototype.

The subject of the design effort is a shading system and a small pavilion located at CCA San Francisco. Important is that the course is structured as a collective learning experience. Every participant has to solve a slightly different design problem and will learn from the successes and failures of their teammates.

“If we want to take full and creative advantage of the amazing technological possibilities at our hands and finally fuse the seemingly separate worlds of analogue construction and digital design data we have to get involved in the conception of these interfaces and directly link the design data we produce and the machines that actually fabricate architecture in both directions, technically and conceptually. We should “get our hands dirty”, so to speak, and proactively develop a technological “savoir faire” (1) that directly relates to the way architecture is conceived, processed, built, and used today. Technology needs to be demystified and (re) integrated into the architectural discipline, not just as a source of inspiration but as an integral part of the professional vision.” Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler (ETH Zurich) “savoir faire” (1) Meaning : The instinctive ability to know how to deal with any situation that arises.

Four categories of digital modeling

Four categories of digital modeling


1.fluid smoothness
2.digitally crafted, two-and three dimensional non-uniform patterns and textures
3.unity of skin, structure, and pattern
4.ecological response, intelligent skin



“Digitally based technologies and techniques have introduced new spatial and formal capacities in architecture. This digital technological shift led to several lines of investigation in contemporary architecture:
one seamless materiality, in which fluid smoothness was a primary design consideration,
a second trajectory explored the outcome of digitally crafted, two-and three dimensional non-uniform patterns and textures, and
a third thought the unity of skin, structure, and pattern.”

Branko Kolarevic Manufacturing Material Effects