installation final images

I've never posted images of the final installation of "Eviscerated Gloworm" at the LACE Gallery in Hollywood. Below are a few images from opening night, memorial day weekend 2007.

chapel in the park

Final presentation boards and renderings from Craig Hodgett's advanced topics studio, Fall 2007. Model photos coming soon...

soft monstrosities final exhibition: "Swoops of Glory"

I won't publish the entire body of research here, but what follows is a brief description of the research conducted in Marcelyn Gow's "Soft Monstrosities" seminar.
Through a sampling of work dating from the late 17th century to the present, this exhibition builds an argument for atmosphere in design through the lens of Jean Baudrillard’s text, “The System of Objects”. This provided a background for the exhibition through its discussion of materiality, color and form as applied to what Baudrillard calls, “the system of objects”, that is the creation of atmosphere through the relationship between the objects composing the environment. Atmosphere as object level cultural connotations, becomes a holistic composition of parts in which each elements identity works towards developing a compositional identity.
The Swoops of Glory updates The System of Objects argument to include modern work, materials and techniques. Functioning both chronologically (time based) and categorically (relationship based), the entire exhibition is organized into five primary categories: relationships in the home, relationships of form to the body, materials and form, ornamentation and immersive environments. The first two rooms in the experience sequence present self-contained environments, designed to build up the historical background for the form/object relationships presented in the main exhibition space. The main gallery pivots around an open central space, surrounded by display nodes, allowing visual connections between projects located in separate nodes. Lastly, the rooms and corridors housing the “Immersive Environments” peel away from the floor surface of the exhibition as a spatially enclosed series of micro-environments presenting projects in a setting isolated from the rest of the exhibition.

Excerpts from the Exhibition Catalog:
Relationships in the home

Modernism marked a revolution against the strict hierarchy seen in classical architecture and design. The development of the open floor plan paved the way for an era of multipurpose rooms, folding dining furniture and hide-a-bed couches. Rooms no longer served one specific function, but had the capability to evolve throughout the day. Baudrilliard writes that the freedom of the modern interior “is accompanied by a subtler formalism and new moralism: everything here indicates the obligatory shift from eating, sleeping and procreating to smoking, drinking, entertaining, discussing, looking and reading. Visceral functions have given way to functions determined by culture”. The referential values held by color and materials were diluted as designers sampled from a wide range of stylistic options to create moods and themed rooms. Furniture and art were chosen not for the value of the individual artifact, but by how they fit into an overall composition.


Relationship of form to the body

As the formal organization of architecture relaxed into less-hierarchical spatial flow, furniture and other objects were designed to accommodate a multitude of positions and users. Coinciding with the hierarchical relaxation in architecture, came advances in fabrication techniques and materials such as plastics, fiberglass, and plywood allowing for a fluidity of design and a closer relationship to the human body. Objects have a use value or, objectness, associated with them, for example to distinguish a dining chair from a chaise lounge or a bed from a couch. The closer relationship of furniture to the human body allowed for more relaxed interaction between humans and generated objects which blurred the traditional use values.

Materials and Form

New social relationships led to new formal manifestations in design. The strict Cartesian sensibility of classicism made way for more formally expressive work. The traditional gestural system of effort has been replaced by a system of control. Humans no longer carve wood and stone through physical labor, but now control automated systems for shaping materials. New materials came into use, and more traditional materials were used in new ways.
Heat formed plywood and molded plastic later led to computer aided design and fabrication. Techniques for working with metal alloys and petroleum based composites became accessible enough that formerly space-age materials could now be used for everyday objects.
Through the work of installation artists such as James Turrell and Dan Flavin, light was treated as a material and served to generate and reinforce form. Transparent and translucent materials captured light in new ways. Techniques of casting, milling, rolling, or punching increase latent material potency and allow light to be reflected, diffused, bent, filtered, or collected by materials in new ways.


Ornamentation

Modernism's austere simplicity was partially a physical translation of the design techniques of the era. Designing through orthographic projections (plans and sections) was later innovated on by architects such as Peter Eisenman and Daniel Liebeskind, who layered drawing upon drawing, thus building up a linework richness implying spatial enclosure. The final design exposed the process. These sectional based techniques have further evolved into a design fluidity stemming from the use of computer modeling programs that display information three dimensionally rather than as flat linework. As the hand of the designer becomes less evident in the final product, many designers began to use traces from the fabrication process such as toolpaths, fasteners, or repetitive elements to convey physicality and reinforce form.
In a parallel fashion, applied ornamentation and materiality are another aspect of ornament which do not serve to display process, but embed substance into surfaces. Ornamentation differs from the classical idea of decoration: decoration is applied elements which carry the value of objects and function independently from form. Ornamentation serves to reinforce form, whether carved into the surface, or applied as a secondary graphical system. Pattern and texture take on the value of materials. The repetition of individual objects to create a larger form functions as a scale shift, blurring the distinction of object into a larger composition.


Immersive Environments

Baudrillard's text, System of Objects, describes atmosphere as "a systematic cultural connotation at the level of objects." The previous examples of architecture, art and design build upon each other towards the creation of immersive environments. Atmospheric design removes the individual nature of objects into a cohesive whole in which each elements works to develop a larger idea.
The notion of transitioning from objects to form takes place through a conceptual, and sometimes physical, scale shift. From a distance, the Limousine Yatai project by Atelier Bow Wow has the characteristics of a food cart, but when seated around the yatai, the user is enveloped in the atmosphere of a restaurant: the bustle of servers, the smells of food and a feeling of shelter. The yatai becomes immersive in that the individual characteristics of seating, counters, and food preparation space are integrated cohesively into the creation of a culinary experience surrounded by a changing urban milieu.

Exhibition Layout:

iterative rotate

I'm going to post a few images of the "iterative rotation" that I have been working on with my brick design. These studies started out by looking at the properties of brick laying: how much rotation can you get with a standard mortar joint, and how much can a single brick cantelever. I have been working on perfecting an iterative rotation script where I can specify the number of bricks in a chain, the minimum and maximum rotation, and let the script "agitate" the surface accordingly. Still not perfected yet, but here a few images to show where this project is at.

no images...

Its been over a month since I last posted, so I figured it was about time to get something new up. Unlike in previous quarters, it seems I no longer produce much visual work to post. I need to download a java applet so I can post some of the animations I have been doing for programming class. We started dealing with user interaction a few weeks ago and I have created a few simple programs which generate pattern and colors based on mouse movement and clicking.
I've been able to use a similar programming syntax to script part of my studio projects. I've decided to focus in on two simple areas for the time being: brick patterns and a woven screen. The bricks were fairly easy to deal with using a simply flow command to array a primitive (brick) along a surface. The next step I have started to address is rotating the bricks based on surface curvature at a given point. I'm looking to use the brick as more of a screen rather than opaque wall, so as the brick rotates it creates small openings in the surface of the skin.
The screen uses user inputed variables, controlling starting and ending diameter as well as middle diameter in both vertical and horizontal directions. I would like to make the variables in one direction user controlled, and then control the variables in the other direction based on diameter size at the intersection points. I haven't been fully successful with this yet...
I will try to get images posted soon. Review is on Friday, so I am being forced to produce!
In other news... Architecture in Helsinki concert tomorrow night!

Fall Lineup

Classes began last Friday. This quarter I am taking Advanced Topics Studio with Craig Hodgetts, Research Studio with Kivi Sotamaa, Computer Programming, a seminar titled "Soft Monstrosities" by Marcelyn Gow, as well as TA'ing for the Introduction to Computers class. I think the lineup this quarter is one of the strongest yet and will allow me to work between a variety of topics and mediums. The research studio and Soft Monstrosities are heavily interested in a contemporary discourse on affect in architecture, and will develop ideas through both written and graphical means. The studio will focus on implied movement in architecture, working with computer animation software, particle fields, generative scripting as well as physical studies of form and material.
The Advanced Topics Studio has developed in a very hands on manner. Our first project, a large scale light study model, is due this coming Friday. Hopefully this contrast between analog and digital approaches to design will prove productive and not frustrating.
Meanwhile, in the Computer Programming class, I will learning how to write parametric design programs. This quarter presents a very broad spectrum of work and I hope to be able to merge these approaches as the year progresses.

Fall '06 - Purple Line Subway Terminal

The terminal developed through the transformation of a single surface, embedded with program and funicular logic. The upper, exterior surface is walk-able and intended for primary circulation from bluff to beach. Sectionally, the “pocket” space is the interstitial condition created by the sandwiching of two materially dissimilar surface conditions.
The exterior surface is rendered with a uniform consistency and subtle texture. Linear flow is implied through surface line work created by planking/board formed concrete. This tactility is intended to delineate high-usage surfaces in a rugged manner. The intense sunlight will create small, but distinct shadow patterns which will shift throughout the day, creating subtle animation and highlighting the exterior condition.
Much attention was given to construction techniques. Where surface curvature is the most extreme, the surface was divided into two foot sections and individually pre-cast using a standard set of rubber inserts to create the window openings. This created a distinct cross grain to the project which was carried into the interior as well as immediate site for continuity.



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the last weekend of freedom...

The last year of graduate school begins in three days. I am sure the intensity levels will be much higher in previous years, but now that I am out of core classes the direction of my work and research will be much more self driven. This fall quarter I am hoping to be able to focus on smaller scales of detail and perfect the transition between digitally designed work and fabrication. I enjoyed the taste of fabrication which I experienced during the Superglow project, but the experience was lacking in many respects.
Last year's technology seminar was an exercise in futility. Sure, we learned to take a design from the computer screen to the storefront, but the methods to accomplish this were outdated, inefficient, and highly wasteful to non-renewable resources. The money that was spent on plastics, foam, lights and finishes would be enough to build a small house in many parts of this country.
The 3-axis CNC mill is yesterday's toy, and the process of vacuum forming plastic as we know it, came into use in the 1920's. I'm tired of hearing about "cutting edge" CNC fabrication; I am ready to experiment with new techniques and technologies. For example, when are architects going to stop describing their work through biological analogies, and instead actually learn to "grow" a building, if not literally in a biological sense, shouldn't we at least be focusing more energy on efficient means of design, construction and usage? Why do we devote so much effort to writing and speaking about the design of architecture, and so little on the physical ramifications of real design? Why was the full size 3d printer developed by a civil engineer and not an architect? Perhaps architectural education needs to focus less on learning the latest software package, and instead research physics and the biological sciences. Perhaps we need to pull our heads up from the computer screen and look around at the rest of the world. Perhaps innovation doesn't come from talking, but from doing.

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Or maybe not. At any rate, I feel there is still much to be learned, and I am hoping to find some answers this year. This marks the culmination of many years of schooling and I hope to be able to pull together some meaningful research and cap my education off with an innovative project.

I'll leave you with an image from a recent trip to San Fransisco:
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St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral, by Pier Luigi Nervi 1971

Oakland Airport and the end of year two

Finally finished up second year, and the Oakland Airport project. For the last half of the quarter we zoomed in to a smaller scale of work, concentrating on only five jetways and a portion of the support core. The initial circulation and program studies were heavily interested in developing a skeletal sort of architecture drawing from examples in nature. The airport's circulation core, and support program such as shopping, dining and restrooms nested within a central spine, branching out to connect to the jetways.
Since the beginning, a series of linework diagrams informed the design process. The plan became a layering of slabs, structure and systems, with each part complementing the next. On a macro scale, the linework flow is linear down the length of the building, but at a detail level the plan starts to work laterally with flows fingering out from spine.
The project was developed primarily through polygon modeling in Maya, with a couple scripts being used to automatically generate the secondary structural system based off surface isoparms. Looking back, it would have been nice to use some of the animation tools a bit more. The process was always initiated through 2D drawings which meant a greater degree of control over the linework and plan, but perhaps animation could have introduced some nice sectional variation and a smoother flow between surfaces.

Sunny Days, Millipedes, and Airplanes

After an intensive couple weeks concentrating on wrapping up Superglow, I am finally back full time on the Oakland Airport Terminal. This past Monday the class took a short flight up to Oakland to get a behind the scenes tour of the facilities. We also were able to spend some time enjoying San Francisco on the nicest day so far of this year. The weather was sunny and in the upper 80's. Beautiful! The SF Federal building is nearly complete, and I was also able to see Pier Luigi Nervi's incredible church. It never ceases to amaze me what architects and engineers were able to accomplish fourty years ago using hand drafting and slide rules.

I've been studying examples of joints and scales in nature, looking a lot at millipedes and iguanas. Our airport terminal is developing around the idea of programmatic and circulation core from which grow jetways, much as many legs attach to a central skeletal system.

Pictures

Apparently "this evening" really means 4 am... I am posting some images from the past week of our project. I have some higher quality images of the final installed pieces that I will try to get uploaded soon.