Digital Architetcure 009

Project 001
Digital Morphologies
Historically, a wonder of natural systems has served scientists and creative designers well. For example, Leonardo da Vincis studies of anatomy and the botanical formed the basis for both his art and his inventions. This contrasts sharply with the first half of the 20th century when the motorized machine- whether aeronautical or nautical, or a road vehicle – became the model for architecture, as espoused and illustrated by Le Corbusier in his writings. ( The photographs of his much loved machines becoming almost as famous as his buildings ). Placing mans own inventions at the apex of innovation automatically circumscribes the potential of architectural design and built form, as design becomes largely intent on the production of the single, polished set object. What mechanical system can, after all, compare with the complexity, reflectivity and responsive refinement of the geranium stem illustrated above?

There has been an increasing use of the word “emergence” in architecture, but as yet there has not been a systematic investigation of its instruments, nor has there been any real attempt to go beyond the common, but vague, definition of emergence as the properties of a system that cannot be deduced from its parts. Emergence is a consolidation of a paradigm shift that began more than 80 years ago, a profound change that has blurred the boundaries between quite separate sciences, and which has changed industry.

Extract from "Emergence: Morphogenetic Design Strategies

METHOD
This project will follow a strict guideline of procedure.

Step One
Identify and organic component ( fruit, bones, plants etc )
Slice the component into 1mm to 5mm thick sections.
These sections will then be scanned via a flat bed scanner.

Presentation will be an A1 print of all the sections assembled together.

Step Two
These bit map sections will then be imported into maya and the outlines digitised and traced in sequence. Then after all the curves have been assembled lofting and skinning will take place.

Step Three
With the skinned surface a deformation algorithm or process will be
used on the object or surface.

Step Four
This surface Will then be refined and exported to be output via the stereo lithography machine ( in our case a Zcorp 130 )


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Project 002
The Multiple and Digital Fabrication
METHOD
Choose a downtown site specific location of no more than 30 meters square foot print. After the site has been chosen you will collect as much physical and historical data as possible. ( if the form of notes and movies etc ). This data will be used as a deformation or input source on a surface or particle system.

After generations the surface you will slice the section and output to acrylic via laser cut.

NOTE - In this class we will use maya as a primary digital tool

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Project 001
Digital Architecture and Synthetic Space

This Project details can be found here.

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