Grossju - Project 007 Reading Response

The central theme of this text seemed to be on the emergence of the model and the prototype in the context of increasingly availability and affordability of fabrication tools.  No longer is fabrication software and equipment limited to corporate powerhouses and design schools.  As more and more designers take advantage of these tools, we have also seen an emergence of models and prototypes.  Burry spends a fair amount of time delineating between the two, which I found to be somewhat unproductive and irrelevant.  One immediately assumes the difference between the two terms to be scale, however Burry quickly diminishes that thought by providing the example of his full-scale models of Sagrada Familia columns which were constructed to study design details and proportions.  Burry then steers the debate towards a matter of design intent and seems to claim that models are constructed in order to test the construction or appearance of something, while a prototype is construction in order to refine something, working toward a usable building component.  By the end of the article, Burry brings the discussion full-circle and talks about the ability for the model to become a prototype.  The terms matter less than the idea that a new form of design testing is emerging, which ironically adds to the complexity of the design process.  The new process is good, though, because it makes for a well-informed, high-quality end product.

Grossju - Project 006

I had lots of issues building project 006.  My initial plans were to set two parameters changing an underlying surface which a grid of points would be project onto, connect those points to form faces, and then drive another variable with the area of those faces.  This didn't work as planned.

Chart of Parameters

The initial tile worked fine.  The area of each triangulated face is reduced by the "area reduction" variable, converted to the correct unit, and then multiplied by a simply multiplier.

Unfortunately, as the tile was powercopied, each subsequent powercopy used the areas of the two original faces rather than their own.  I understood this to mean that powercopies cannot reference anything outside of themselves, and a measure item works outside of objects that they reference.  

After referencing the 4 corner points, the powercopy dialog box asks for an area tag which is unavailable to each specific face. 

The extrusion formula

In order to both simplify things and create a working model, I removed any references to areas and set a new extrusion parameter to 1ft.  While building a new model, however, some of the faces were not working properly.

Broken faces

After several attempts at repair, I found that any face set at an angle over 90 degrees in either the X or Y direction would not function.  Therefor, I rebuilt a simple surface to always climb uphill.

Extrusion along face normals

\

Grossju - Project 006 Reading Response

Spuybroek states a loaded and controversial thesis statement in this reading, claiming that “as all craft moves toward design, all labor must move toward robotics.”  Good design, in Spuybroek’s mind, is work that offers both continuity and variation.  The hand produces infinite variation, but virtually no continuity, whereas a process such as industrial casting produces continuity without variation.  The computer, and specifically digital computing, is the proper bridge between the two.  The code, as presented in this text, allows designers to “establish a type of formation that is neither completely abstract nor completely organic.”  In other words, a product can be produced that has an embedded global structure or logic, but also contains flexibility and allowance for change.

Though I originally thought that Spuybroek’s statements were absurd, I no longer disagree with him.  I do agree that good design straddles cohesion and variation.  The idea that all labor must move toward robotics is a bit problematic for me, however, because it relies on the decontextualization of a design project.  Spuybroek is talking about looking at something as an object in the present moment.  I tend to believe that there is beauty to be found in an object by knowing its history – that its imperfections are created from human flaw – as opposed to any variations precisely and intentionally scripted to appear so.

grossju - Project 005

Framework Form

For this project, I wanted to provide variations in overall form as opposed to variations in structural patterns on the same form.

Variations in plan

Constraints

The spline that controls the form of the extrusion always stays the same.  A dynamic plan profile extruded along a static spine with unchanging bends tests the strength of variations of the tower's form against unchanging bends in its shaft.  While a primary axis rotates consistently, a secondary axis is simultaneously changing its relationship to the primary axis.  At times, two of the spikes of this star-shaped plan are close to one another, and at other times they are far.  I came in with the preconception that the tower would be strongest when two spikes would come close to one another underneath the shaft's greatest bend.

Variation 1.) Rotation parameter = 0 degrees

Variation 2.) Rotation parameter = 70 degrees

Variation 3.) Rotation parameter = 140 degrees

Variation 4.) Rotation parameter = 210 degrees

Variation 5.) Rotation parameter = 280 degrees

grossju - Project 005 Reading Response

How do Simulations Know?

Yanni A. Loukissas

This reading provided so many different and unbiased opinions on the good and bad in computer simulations that it is difficult to take a side.  The text seemed to posit the computer as a unifying collaborative space for all of the professionals involved in a project, and a good one at that.  Though there is still some resistance toward the efficacy of simulation and the computer, it's hard to deny that the collaborative nature and accessibility of its software has been a wonderful contribution to the building trades.  Prior to the computer, I assume that closest tools available for collaboration were simply drawings on paper.  Even then, drawings constructed by different tradesmen would likely be drawn on their own respective pages.  Now, all trades can effectively work simultaneously on a single, seamless page.

Another interesting discussion was that of simulations' validity and truthfulness.  Some are hesitant to rely on simulation because it has no capacity for intuition and cannot ever really be trusted.  I agree that there is only room for simulation where experienced practitioners are present.  Simulations are best used as a complement to personal experience.  Perhaps if the risk is lower, we could test the the computer's ability to interrogate human activity.  However, in the case of building fires and structural collapse, I don't believe there is room for such efforts.

grossju - Project 004 Reading Response

Upon finishing this reading, I feel as though I have heard a similar message many times in many different ways throughout my architectural education.  Our practitioners need to be welcoming to the latest technology and take on more of the construction processes themselves.  While I have also heard the architecture industry compared to the aircraft and automotive industries many times, I had not yet heard about the specific differences in their methods of fabrication.  At first, I did find it a bit odd that a field as sophisticated as architecture is not up-to-speed with the automotive, aircraft, or naval industries, but at the same time, architecture has far more small offices than the others.  Sophisticated software and fabrication technology is an enormous investment, one that primarily only large, profitable firms can make.  If cutting-edge software and fabrication equipment is essential to the aircraft industry, its employees only have a handful of offices to consider for employment.  The health of our industry, in this regard, is something to be considered.

While I am a bit skeptical, I do believe that a familiarity with fabrication methods and a relentless pursuit of good design work is essential to architects that desire to build provocative, complex projects.  SHoP Architects undoubtedly faced many challenges in taking the unconventional approach to the design and fabrication of their Porter House Condominium project, but I don't believe that their software or design methods are outside the abilities of many others.

grossju - Project 004: Folding Forms

Folding Forms

My folding forms project was conceived of through an image I found online:

As the paper flattens, and angles grow more obtuse, the paper also grows longer.  I attempted to model this in Digital Project through a number of different methods before I settled on one.  I found that the best technique was to sketch section cuts of the paper, controlling the angle between connected line-segments with a modifiable parameter.  Decreasing the angle effectively curls the paper.

Ribs were connected with simple isosceles triangles.  Two faces that meet at a point form a mountain, while their adjacent two faces that share an edge form a valley.

micro-scale product product assembly

formwork for a macro-scale product assembly