StudioReverse: tea set

This past summer I started a side office with several former UCLA classmates. Currently we're working on several renovations and additions here in Los Angeles, but I have also been toying around with designing a tea set that we'll try to get manufactured.


The cups are inspired by traditional Asian tea boxes, but blends the boxy cups with more figurative baroque geometry. Each cup uses supple spline curves for ergonomics while maintaining selective creased edges to define the form. When all four cups and saucers are placed together, they become periodic, creating a larger symmetrical composition. In section, each cup thickens towards the base and where ones fingers would rest, so as to provide insulation against the hot liquid. The cup thins out by the rim.


The first pass was an attempt at making a western style set with rounded cups with handles. I felt like the set was looking too figurative and wanted something simpler. The boxy cups provide a good background to more complex patterning.

Currently we're working on designing the tea pot, and looking into some graphic options to apply to each cup. I'd like for the tea pot to somehow complete the set, perhaps sitting on top of the cups or nesting on a side.


The entire set, composed into a square


Individual Cups


Plans and Elevations


A first pass at patterning using the scriptographer plug-in for Illustrator. The pattern is an array of rotating and scaled hearts which wrap the cup. Ideally, the pattern is something which has commercial appeal, but also can be appreciated for technique and aesthetic effect.

so its not architecture....

recycled toy furniture video

This is the video from the recycled toy furniture project that I worked on this past summer at Greg Lynn's office. The project was exhibited at the Venice Biennale and won the Golden Lion award for best installation.
While the actual toys used in this project were not recycled, the idea is for them to be in the future. At the office we have digitized versions of several different plastic toys, which can allow us to custom make any piece of furniture from our library of toys. Since each toy is individually cut via robotic arm, the complexity of the overall composition is almost irrelevant. As an idea I think this is quite provocative and forward thinking, but it is still in the early stages of implementation.


Greg Lynn Form

Santa Monica Parking Garages

Since completing school in June, there isn't much work that I am able to post on this blog. Most of my professional work at the moment is still in schematic design and somewhat secret for the time being. I did stumble across the following post on Curbed LA Blog for the Santa Monica Parking Garages renovation that I worked on while at Pugh Scarpa. One of the garages is a renovation to Frank Gehry's original Santa Monica Place parking garage from I believe 1967. Didn't double check the date on that, but I seem to remember reading that at one time.
I did most of the design and presentation work on the garages and were the last project I worked on prior to leaving P+S.
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2008/08/santa_monica_approves_pugh_scarpa_parking_garage_designs.php

Hernesaari Yacht Club Final Images

Following are images from the Sotamaa research studio final review as well as project descriptions:

The research studio, titled “Spasms, Convulsion, Eruptions”, explored sensations of movement in architecture at both the scale of a building as well as at the scale of the city. These sensations of movement were first explored through still images, carefully analyzed for visual traits which conveyed movement. A gradient of light, blurry colors, contorting linework or ripples in a surface are all visual signs of physical movement. When translated to an architectural scale, these sensations move architecture from a purely functional endeavor, but instead provoke an emotional response from the viewer and directly engage them in the work. This studio focused on the role which aesthetics play in design and how to integrate aesthetics with functional concerns.

Architectural examples of movement based design, most notably the work of Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Aero Saarinen, and Antoni Gaudi were studied for the experience they produce. These architects, without being directly metaphorical in their approach, managed to create work which moves beyond the practicalities of program and context and engage the user at an emotional level. At a smaller scale, we also researched automobile design and specifically the use of lines, creases, and folds as a graphical means conveying emotion in design. Car designers are able to highly specifically create designs which are “aggressive”, “cute”, or “rugged”. This kind of design integrates aestheticism and functionalism without becoming superfluous.

This sensibility reinterprets the baroque into an architecture conveyed with a high level of detail articulation, but without superfluous formalism. The Hernesaari urban proposal is treated holistically, not as a collection of individual elements, but as a series of untraceable design moves working in concert to produce overall sensations. Just as in product or automotive design, lines serve both an aesthetic and functional purpose. The site linework both develops structure and program as well as aesthetically ties together the vertical accumulations to the horizontal landmass.

Each tower is programmed using ratios of residential, office, entertainment, retail, essential commercial and hotel which are applied to each tower individually based on contextual information, parking, transportation infrastructure, views and proximity to boat berths. After the program ratio is determined, a scripted process creates the inner core to each tower. This process offsets the tower surface to create an inner skin. The offset distance varies depending on the program mixture. The residential spaces receive a low offset, so that they sit very close to the outer surface, while entertainment and commercial spaces get offset farther inwards, creating a situation where the public programs sit within the poche space of the wall section.

HERNESAARI YACHT CLUB

The yacht club is located at the narrowest point of the site, and is situated almost entirely underwater. The yacht club questions the relationship between the marina and the city. While the use of the water is public, yacht clubs traditionally are highly exclusive environments which attempt to isolate themselves from the rest of the city. In our proposal, this isolation comes through the use of water as a material.

Rumble and the end of academic life (at least for a few years...)

June 9/10 saw the first annual "Rumble" being held at UCLA AUD. All student projects from the undergraduates to the graduating third years were on display and the entire architecture building was turned into a big gallery. Many alumni, local architects and a handful of "stars" made it to the opening show on Monday night. I think everyone was a bit apprehensive in the weeks leading up to rumble as to whether such a large scale operation could be pulled off successfully. Despite a minor few equipment problems everything went very smoothly and the actual event was deemed a success by all in attendance.

I'd like to extend a special thanks to everyone in the Sotamaa research studio, and especially my group partners for their hard work in both completing their own studio projects, but also in setting up the studio's exhibition.

Cool Graffiti Video

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Tokyo Now Colloquium

Joshua Howell and Aaron Forbes will be presenting a paper titled "Tokyo: Techno City, a Study of Theory, Architecture and Popular Culture" at the Tokyo Now Colloquium this coming Saturday, May 31 at UCLA AUD. The colloquium will be held from 9am-3pm in DeCafe.

Paper Synopsis:
Since the 1960's, personal electronic devices and mass communications has altered the physical development of the urban fabric. Theorists from all social and cultural arenas have hypothesized how these mobile objects could become primary agents of the next generation and impact every facet of culture. This paper simultaneously traces social theory, architectural projects and popular culture examples of how mobile electronic devices and mass communication have altered urban environments.
Raynor Banham, in the 1960's writes of small self contained, low cost, electronic devices which have the ability to transform circumstances into conditions of human desires. Banham's vision has become a reality in modern day Tokyo, where personal electronic devices have given people more power than all of Banham's gizmo's combined. The extraordinary power of these devices have called into question the need for physical space and transformed the way in which architects and planners design environments.
The screen becomes the new cross roads of Tokyo. Cell phone and text messaging have reduced physical landmarks to a relic of the past and even begun to eliminate the need for face to face physical interaction. Electronic communication mediums break down cultural distinctions of language, and location through the use of universals such as sequential images and soundtracks. In this new electronically immersive environment, the mobile telephone is no longer just a device to talk into, but a remote control for your life.

Installation Update

A few images and video from the interactive installation I am working on with two other UCLA students. Using code written in processing, the servos will be controlled through an ultra-sonic proximety sensor. The box for the installation is divided up into 5 zones, each with its own servo. A single sensor is able to control behavior for all 5 servos separately based on distance of an object (person).

Hernesaari Urban Plan: Tower core and surface articulation

As a programmatic strategy, we have been working towards creating a "vertical urbanism" within the towers. This idea obviously ties back to several previous posts about the vertical urbanism of Tokyo, yet in this situation we are dealing with a new development in a significantly lower density urban milieu. However, Helsinki already has an interesting mixed use typology already in place, which we are closely trying to follow. There are many vertical and underground shopping centers which are very different from developments you would see in the US. There are also several successful instances of restuarants and bars being located on the top of residential and office towers, which is an example of time based use as a device to increase the vibrancy of singular buildings. This was a large part of the thesis for my Little Tokyo project from last Winter Quarter.

In the programming of the towers, we have developed ratios of residential, office, entertainment, retail, essential commericial and hotel which are applied to each tower individually based on contextual information, parking, transportation infrastructure, views and proximety to boat berths. For example, the two largest towers are located at the entrance to the development, with the best access to public transportation (tram and bus) as well as close proximety to the bridge connecting Hernesaari with the new development being planned for the peninsula directly West. These towers at 20 stories also have the best views of the city, ocean and marina, as well as being a logical transition between the city of Helsinki proper and the new cruise ship terminal on our site. Because of these factors we have given the towers a ratio of 40% high end residential, 30% office, and 30% recreational shopping.



For the articulation of these program mixtures, we've scripted a process which offsets the tower surface to create an inner skin. This offset distance varies depending on the program mixture. The residential spaces receive a low offset, so that they sit very close to the outer surface, while entertainment and commercial spaces get offset farther inwards, creating a situation where the public programs sit within the poche space of the wall section. As a happy, but unintended side effect of the script, this also tends to create "bleb" spaces... to borrow a term from Greg Lynn. These blebs topologically follow the surface direction and curvature, but also as applied ornament.





The script is posted below:

/* --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OFFSET POLYGONAL SURFACE BASED ON PROXIMITY TO LOCATORS

begin by manually locating locators in space to define offset amount. polygons will offset linearly from locator through distance
defined by variable "offsetDist". first select object for offset prior to running the script. can use a maximum of 3 locators.

script written by Joshua Howell
UCLA Spring 2008, Kivi Sotamaa studio

Status: 05-25-2008: working!


*/

$cvCount = polyEvaluate -v;


$list = `ls-sl`; //define variables
$object = $list[0]; //define object for offset

int $offsetDist = 3;
rename "object";
xform -cp;


vector $ptLocatorA = `pointPosition -w ("locator1")`;
vector $ptLocatorB = `pointPosition -w ("locator2")`;
vector $ptLocatorC = `pointPosition -w ("locator3")`;

for ($i = 0; $i<= $cvCount; $i++) { vector $ptObject = `pointPosition -w ("object" + ".vtx[" + $i + "]")`; float $aa = (($ptLocatorA.x) - ($ptObject.x)); float $ba = (($ptLocatorA.y) - ($ptObject.y)); float $ca = (($ptLocatorA.z) - ($ptObject.z)); float $ab = (($ptLocatorB.x) - ($ptObject.x)); float $bb = (($ptLocatorB.y) - ($ptObject.y)); float $cb = (($ptLocatorB.z) - ($ptObject.z)); float $ac = (($ptLocatorC.x) - ($ptObject.x)); float $bc = (($ptLocatorC.y) - ($ptObject.y)); float $cc = (($ptLocatorC.z) - ($ptObject.z)); float $da = sqrt(((($aa*$aa) + ($ba*$ba) + ($ca*$ca)))); float $db = sqrt(((($ab*$ab) + ($bb*$bb) + ($cb*$cb)))); float $dc = sqrt(((($ac*$ac) + ($bc*$bc) + ($cc*$cc)))); select ("object" + ".vtx[" + $i + "]"); if (($da<$db) && ($da<$dc) && (($offsetDist-$da)>0))

moveVertexAlongDirection -n (-($offsetDist-$da));

else

if (($db<$da) && ($db<$dc) && (($offsetDist-$db)>0))

moveVertexAlongDirection -n (-($offsetDist-$db));

else

if (($dc<$db) && ($dc<$da) && (($offsetDist-$dc)>0))

moveVertexAlongDirection -n (-($offsetDist-$dc));

else
moveVertexAlongDirection -n (-0.5); //move faces too far away from locators 1/2 meter in from outer surface

}

Yacht Club Mid Review 05.19

Helsinki Hernesaari Yacht Club and Marina

Mid review model photos from Kivi Sotamaa's research studio, "Spasms Convulsions Eruptions: New Sensations of Movement".

Render Tests

Medium Cool + Studio Update

A lot has been happing in the past month. The week of February 11-15 I participated in the Medium Cool workshop here at UCLA. Four up and coming Japanese architects taught a fast paced design charrette looking at medium density housing solutions for Los Angeles. I worked under the direction of Kumiko Inui, who is well known for her simple, but elegant retail designs in Tokyo. The client was Christopher Hawthorne, architecture critic for the LA Times, who owned a house in Eagle Rock (near Pasadena) and was looking to build a new house on the lot with potential for expansion. Working with two undergrads and another graduate student, our proposal created a micro-urban condition on the site with four separate buildings. We pulled the buildings in towards the center of the site, keeping the site corners as garden space so as to create a buffer between the street and neighbors.

The final review was filmed and covered by A+U Magazine (I should have a few quotes in the article when the issue comes out). The jury consisted of Greg Lynn, Sylvia Lavin, Neil Denari, Jeff Inaba, Hitoshi Abe, Christopher Hawthorne, Roger Sherman and Dana Cuff.







Below are a few images from midreview for my studio project. The design is driven by a continuous parking ramp which winds to the top of the building, feeding a central commercial core and infilled with residential units. Several "attractor" commercial programs such as movie theaters, atheletic centers and high end restaurants are strategically located within the structure. These attractors then serve to feed the secondary commercial programs and open spaces.
The images are several weeks old... Final reviews are in a little over a week and there is a lot to be done still.