"VISIONS", BEYOND MEDIA 2009 - Nous Gallery

OPENSYSTEMS has been invited by Nous Gallery (Melissa Woolford) to participate to the 9th edition of BEYOND MEDIA, International Festival for Architecture and Media. This year's title is "Visions". BEYOND MEDIA is the most significant event worldwide for the presentation of architecture videos. The initiative was created in Florence by Marco Brizzi and is today in its ninth edition. It is devoted to the most current visions on architecture and to the debate on the relationship between the project and the media.

"The massive production and consumption of architectural images has resulted in a greater proximity to design issues by the general public. But at the same time, images alter the way people conceive of architecture, and they affect the ability and the opportunity to generate visions, and hence theories, that are deeply rooted in our time and, at the same time, receptive to new, possible scenarios. With "VISIONS", the BEYOND MEDIA festival (...) will propose effective visions that may be useful in constructing a framework for the future."


















OPENSYSTEMS will present a video entitled "Attractor Fields" and it will be part of the Nous Gallery space in Stazione Leopolda, Florence, 9 - 17 July 2009.

090515_Attractor Field II

Some Images of the latest research on attractors conducted with Grasshopper. The definition is creating a 3D point grid; for each point of the grid is associated a component using the bounding box. The attractor points calculate the distance to the point grid scaling the components down accordingly; in the setting showed in these images the scaling factor had a threshold below which the geometry get canceled: the result is a sort of boolean operation carving the mass of the point grid.























Above: first investigation on 2D and 3D fields; the colors in these case established a gradient which indicate the average distance of points to the attractors: color is data! the attraction can be regulated according with 2 parameters: the power of attraction and the scale factor which describes the extend of the Gaussian boundaries determined by the overlapping of two or more poles of attraction. Thanks to Panagiotis Michalatos (AKT) for C# support.

sin(WAVE)

Some images of the last (lost) competition entry for the London Tent Art Fund Pavilion 2009. sin(WAVE) is defined by two 5-degree surfaces which are modulating respectively the structural canopy and a lounge area at ground level. The surfaces are generated through a network of sine/cosine curves which are shaping a tripod structure.



















sin(WAVE) addresses the pavilion requirement to negotiate between inside/outside qualities by creating a provisional structure which fluidly supply repair with its roof while offering reconfigurable settings with movable partitions (lounge-scape area, vertical wall..).















































The grid shell is formed by, respectively, 55 longitudinal and 25 transversal ribs each of which can be easily fabricated with a laser cut machine. Above an internal shot of the 1:25 laser cut model. Special thanks to Andrew Payne for its grasshopper definition for waffle structural systems.

AAST 2009

With my great pleasure I've been invited to AAST 2009.
"(...) aast is a group of events intended to spread Generative Computational Design (..) aast is a survey of researches on new generations of architects oriented to understand the huge transformation of contemporary architecture perspectives".

The event, promoted by CASARTARC, has been curated and organized by Lorena Alessio, Andrea Graziano, Davide Del Giudice. On April 7th-8th I'll be taking part of the exhibition and the conference in Turin with a bunch of young (talented) designers. Later this year i will also give a three days design workshop with A.Papeschi (Zaha Hadid Architects). I'll keep you posted.

A big thank to Andrea and Davide for the fantastic effort and passion they put into it.

Last Lost Competition

Last (lost) entry for "ARCH+ Competition, Simple Systems - Complex Capacities"

Brief:"The design of a material system that is in exchange with is context-specific environment and that, in doing so, can fulfil functional and performative requirements."

The entry proposed a profilerated field of homeostatic cable structures addressing pluri-potential capacities such as structural, organizational, environmental and spacial ones. What is promoted is the articulation of a heterogeneous, differentiated structure.

"Without modifications to the social and material environment, there can be no change in mentalities. Here, we are in the presence of a circle that [...] postulate the necessity of founding an "ecosophy" that would link environmental ecology to social ecology and to mental ecology".(F.Guattari )

HOMEOSTATIC serie: cable nets_05

Homeostasis (from Greek: ὅμος, hómos, "equal"; and ιστημι, histēmi, "to stand"; coined by Walter Bradford Cannon) is the property of a system, either open or closed, that regulates its internal environment so as to maintain a stable, constant condition.

Special thanks:

The AA: Brett Steele, Michael Kubo, Vanessa Norwood, Lee Regan, Luke Currall
Steelwork Fabricators: Chelsea Metalworks
Installation erection: All helpers including Ricardo Bittini Miret, Derek Wong, Sarah Ord, Aoife Bloomer, Alvaro Gonzales, Adiam Sertzu, Ifeanyi Oganwu.
All photographs by: Valerie Bennett

HOMEOSTATIC serie: cable nets_04

The cable structure has been designed for the AKT exhibition at the Architectural Association which i've been honored to organize and curate. The exhibition is going to open in January 16th and it will be on untill the 14th of February. After a few logistic problems we seem to have solved most of the issues related to the structure and its fabrication within budget. Above the construction drawings of the frame holding the cables which have just been sent out to fabricators. The design was carried out by a team led by myself with the preciuos collaboration of structural engineers from AKT:

structural analysis / design_eng. Carlo Diaco

structural consultants_eng. Ricardo Bittini Miret, eng. Martjin Veltkamp

management / curatorial assistent_eng. Eleni Axoiti.

HOMEOSTATIC serie: cable nets_03

Above some images of the 1:10 prototype built to simulate the behaviour of the cable structure and study its setting out. The supporting frame is made of 5mm perspex sheets. Due to the restrict scale of the model we opted for the setting out of 30 sections of cable out of the 60 envisioned at full scale. An accurate estimate of each cable length is very important for the correct setting out of the structure: to minimize the load on the frame the cables are cut to the right length so that each of them is meeting the two neighbouring cables at one intermediate point in space reaching its straight position without as little additional tensional force as possible.

The present iteration is still presenting problem as, due to the geometry of the cables, some of them are not working or result working in compression causing displacement of the position of the cables. Different geometrical arrangements are currently under scrutiny; Iterative structural analysis are carried out by Eng. C.Diaco.

The project is currently soffering some budget restriction: the long wave of credit crunch is hitting us: fingers crossed!

HOMEOSTATIC serie: cable nets_02

Some images documenting the evolution of developable structure. The overall geometry is still evolving according to the increasing definition of the model. Each cable is measured to the right length to allow precise cut and adding as little tension as possible to the supporting frame. One of the crucial aspect is to how to take up the tolerances of the overall structures given that all need to work in a state of reciprocal equilibrium without using internal compression element; all the cables need to work in tension finding their balanced form.

Above the Grasshopper definition of the model develop in Rhino. As it shown the model is fairly simple - controlled by few control points which can update the whole structure- but ended up being very usefull to test quickly and accuratly different geometrical configuration and to extrapolate data for structural analysis.

HOMEOSTATIC serie: cable nets_01

I'm currently doing some research into cable structures; the idea is to create some self-stabilizing cable structures where tensile elements (the cables) find a state of equilibrium through their connection in space. Initially it was thought as an interaction of rigid compressed element shaping the geometry of the structures and tensile cable; tying the cables, though, in three directions help stabilizing the structures without the need of internal compression frames. this research is intended to become a 1:1 installation but I'll talk about it a little bit later.
This initial phase has been developed with Grasshopper which seems to be surprisingly powerful, easy to use and with great potential. Thanks Rhino!





























The structure is also interesting for the fact that it develops a Moire' effect through the overlapping of its cables. It creates a higher or lesser degree of transparency and visual porosity. "In physics, a moiré pattern is an interference pattern created, for example, when two grids are overlaid at an angle, or when they have slightly different mesh sizes". (Wikipedia)

ACADIA 2008: Silicon + Skin.

M.V. will present and exhibit his work at the ACADIA 2008: Silicon + Skin conference held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This year's conference is organized by Marc Swackhamer (UMinn, Site chair), Andrew Kudless (Matsys, Technical Chair) ,Neri Oxman (MIT, Technical Chair), Billie Faircloth (UT Austin, Exhibition chair), and Kiel Moe (Northeastern, Exhibition chair).
"The upcoming conference entitled Silicon + Skin: Biological Processes and Computation fosters design work and research from the worlds of practice and academia which lie at the intersection between design, biology, and computation. More specifically, this conference seeks to identify and examine current trends in digital design technologies developed and applied in the framework of biologically inspired processes and digitally assisted sustainable design."
openSystems will partecipate to the conference and the exhibition with the project/paper Pluri-Potential Branching System.

EVOLO: SKYSCRAPER FOR THE XXI CENTURY

Cell System Morphologies has been featured in the EVOLO: SKYSCRAPER FOR THE XXI CENTURY book, out now. The book is a collection of the winning entries of the past three editions of the competition: a very interesting look to the future declinations of one of the most innovative and radically fascinating building type of Modern architecture.
Here my entry.

Open systems: approaching novel parametric domains

Following an extract from an article featured in the new issue of VERB - From Control to Design- Parametric/Algorithmic Design coming out soon. The publication is A synthetic look at the impact of parametric and algorithmic design on architectural practice. Contributors include: Mutsuro Sasaki, Arup’s AGU, Aranda-Lasch, Michael Meredith (mos). Special thanks to Albert Ferre and Michael Kubo.

Abstract

Some of the most relevant shifts in contemporary architectural discourse and practice are intrinsically connected with evolution in computation techniques and software development.

The novelty in architectural design brought forward by new computational tools is often related to software packages or digital techniques developed in other design fields. Innovations in computational as well as manufacturing processes, in fact, experimented and developed by naval, aero, automotive and products industries have represented seminal undertakings for innovation in the construction industry and, moreover, for experimentation in architectural practice.

The introduction of parametric software packages in the world of architecture and structural engineering, despite being a fairly new paradigm, is already redefining the discipline from within.

Traditional CAD products create lines, arcs, circles and a great variety of geometrical objects; making design changes to a given geometry requires changing all appropriate components in order to make the drawing correct.

A new generation of parametric design systems establishes models defined by a collection of constrained relationship between objects. In other words it allows setting up parametric geometrical arrangements capable to build anticipated variations between objects. To better understand what is a parametric set up let’s imagine, for instance, two circles whom centers are connected by a line. The length of the line is, at a time, the sum of the radiuses of the two circles. In a parametric model, varying one of the radiuses affects the length of the line and the mutual dimension of the two circles along that line.

A parameter thus is a variable to which other variables are related by means of parametric equations: design modification and creation of a family of component parts can be performed efficiently by setting up reconfigurable smart models capturing the underlying logic of the design.

The instrumentation of parametric setups into architectural practice is starting to shift the role of the architect in the design processes: from the design of specific shapes to the determination of those geometrical / algorithmic relationships describing the project and its components. The design shifts from drawing surfaces to setting up rules of interdependency - genotypes - leading to potential differentiation – phenotypes -[i].

The novelty represented by parametric tools in architectural culture hasn’t found architects unprepared to conceptually understand its potential for contemporary practice: the responsiveness by which architects and advanced design firms gathered the resources of associative design has triggered a fast implementation of parametric tools in the software industry as well as an increasing curiosity to apply its potential in contemporary architectural design.

Nevertheless, despite the receptivity of some of the most interesting cutting-edge architectural practices, it is possible to trace certain tendencies concerning different approaches, some limitations and novel developing scenarios.

Part to Whole relationship

Architecture is ultimately characterized by the need for a coherent design logic between different elements forming a whole constituted by an interiority and an exteriority; quality and meaning are achieved through the rigorous determination of all those elements contributing to the interfacing between the different components and the building in its entirety: facades, detailing, proportions, symmetry, modularity just to name a few. Thus, parametric design is important for that: the possibility to establish intricate system of relations between different objects and their properties fusing the hierarchy between parts and whole.

“So far experimental architects have just jumped from top-down determination of parts to bottom-up determination of wholes.”
Greg Lynn[ii]

What Lynn points out is the delay by which architects have employed parametric design in the development of bottom-up approaches where the determination of components has been prioritized over the design of the whole. Lynn is probably referring to the great production of component-based design or the –often acritical- recent proliferation of pattern-architecture.

This approach, though, has just represented an extreme case. Nevertheless, reshaping the traditional dichotomy between the building and its parts, new digital parametric tools still leave behind some unexpressed potential for contemporary architecture, particularly in relation to the possibility to define highly modulated wholes together with the determination of differentiated non-standard components.

Problem-solving approach

In contemporary construction industry, instead, parametric softwares are often employed in design processes of rationalization and post-rationalization where, given a certain project, the answer to specific problems is required to actualize the desired shape [problem-solving approach]. In this case the potential of computational tools is utilized for its higher degree of precision and speed to deliver tailored ad hoc solutions: the parametric modeling is driven by the need to engineer rational solutions in order to fulfill structural, geometrical or fabrication requirements. In this case, in fact, the potentials for a generative approach are set apart in favour of more pragmatic strategies.

Traditional program packages can initially develop quick and precise 3d models; at the same time any occurring change would imply rebuilding the model over and over again until a fixed determination of the design and all its aspects. This is where parametric models come into place.

The paradigmatic innovation of parametric design originates from its modus operandi: the intrinsic resilience to free-form sketching exercise of Digital Project, in fact, requires a sharper understanding of complex geometry and induces the designer to think through the system logic before even starting to draw a line [iii]. In this sense it is projecting desirable perspectives where architectural design is generated from a set of rules and the interdependent relationships between parts governing the manifold aspects of the design. The advent of parameterization increases the complexity of the design task in relation to the necessity to build up not only the model to be designed but also the conceptual structure that guides the parametric variations.[iv]

Parametric design, on the contrary, despite the more complex and, to a degree, time consuming developmental logic, offers greater advantages: from accommodating unpredictable changes happening during the design process to extracting precise data for structural analysis or fabricators.

From a design point of view it is possible to imagine the advent of design methods based on codified geometrical operations proliferating and interacting to achieve a higher level of complex order: the development of a specific design vocabulary based on parametrically codified instances prefigures a fully integrated design approach where complexity and differentiation emerge from the set-up of coherent and controlled operations.

In this sort of scenario the role of the architect and that of the engineer is contiguous and inform each other in a truly cooperative and generative holistic design process.

Open System: branching structures

A second approach towards parametric design is represented by the attempt to build up a deeper understanding of structural systems as multi-performative design set-ups.

Moving away from the homogeneous standardization of the Modern paradigm, this research, through the generative use of parametric tools, is seeking to investigate open systems as multi-performing, differentiated organizational systems.

In line with the experimentation on branching structures developed by Frei Otto, the research unfolds through a series of exercises aiming to open up a generative approach to parametric design: specificity is achieved through iterative differentiation, adaptation through redundancy, robustness through structural-geometric interdependency.

Understanding architectural design as a process of formation leads to the exploration of a pre-material state of a given systems: namely, the state prior to the crystallization into a specific design form is explored. In this way, open systems act as virtual machines prior to the actualization into a given design scenario.

Methodologically, different paths are followed in an attempt to open up potentials for inclusive performance:

Organizational logic> branching is explored as an organizational system. Different network topologies are analyzed and compared.

Geometrical logic> the geometrical logic of branching is created and developed through parametric tools: Digital project is employed to generate the geometrical structure; in addition differentiation is achieved by the instrumentalization of the defining principle: angle between branches, number of branches, length, displacement of the nodes in space…

An intricate matrix is then emerging from the proliferation of differentiated geometrical operation.

Structural logic> the structure and the stability of the various configurations is analyzed through finite element analysis software [FEA]. Thus running structural analysis necessitates specifying a range of parameters to set up likely structural scenarios.

Running structural tests on differentiated geometrical arrangements is possible to detect certain general behavioral patterns happening during the process of extracting precise data for structural analysis or fabrication.

The possibility to establish interdependent relationships between different system logics contributes to the redefinition of common fitness criteria: each system logic, instead of responding to a specific optimized scenario, informs each other towards a multi parametric performing whole. Geometrical arrangements, spatial affects, structural performance and organizational logic contribute to the formation of the system and its performance-based logic.

The development of such a research shifts the architectural paradigm from a problem-solving to a problem-caring approach where integral design logics contribute to the coherent employment of novel design method.

Marco Vanucci, London, May 2007

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[i]Patrick Schumacher – Interview AJ 21.12.06

[ii]Greg Lynn – AD Programming cultures, Wiley Academy, 2006

[iii]Patrick Schumacher – Interview AJ 21.12.06

[iv]Robert Aish, Robert Woodbury – Multi-level interaction in parametric design, Smart Geometry Group.

Attractor Fields, Smart Geometry 2008

I've just got back from Munich where I've participated to the Smart Geometry 2008; it was a very interesting week of workshop and events; the Generative Components workshop has been a very intense and rewarding experience; I'd like to thanks SG for organizing the event and I look forward for next year, maybe on the West coast...
Following some images regarding the work I've been producing in four days. I've been playing around with Generative Components trying to investigate concepts related with field condition and surface population.


























"Vector fields are often used in physics to model, for example, the speed and direction of a moving fluid throughout space, or the strength and direction of some force, such as the magnetic or gravitational force, as it changes from point to point." (wikipedia)
In the above diagrammatic chart is represented a field with two main attractors positioned at the vertices of the present line. The vector field gets attracted to these points according to the proximity to it. The attraction was generated by a C# script thanks to the support of Jeroen Coenders (Arup). A whole series of gradient conditions originate from such a set up and it is what makes the exercise interesting for the capacity to become an abstract differentiated machine: zones of attraction (or even repulsion), orientation, differentiation between similarity, self-similarity are just some of the interesting characteristics to be exploited and potentially applied for design.









The surface population exercise is fairly straight forward and simple to implement: in the case shown above the components that populate the surface are provided of local coordinate system. In this way is possible to orientate one axis of each single component towards an attractor point (sun?).

080205_Vertical Proliferation 2

As promised, some improvements on the previous script; this time the "vertical proliferation" operates through a better control of the points defining the overall structure.Parameters: Number of floors, number of control points defining floor plates, number of points along the perimeter of each floor plate. The current set up allow for a more precise determination of the overall geometry as well as a better control on local manipulations. the points displaced at the perimeter of each floor can be used, in fact, to further articulate the skin.
These structures remind me some images of the Japanese Metabolism; in particular, projects like the 1961's Helix City by Kisho Kurokawa. In this case the helix became some slightly more complex parabolas; multiplying for sine or cosine functions the displacement of the control points of each floor plate increases the whirling rise. The results are some quite articulated, still symmetrical, vertical vortex structures.


































Call Main()
Sub Main()

Dim N
N = Rhino.GetInteger ("Number", 25, 1 )
Dim p
p= 2*Rhino.GetInteger ("Number", 3, 1)
Dim radius
radius= Rhino.GetInteger ("Number", 5, 1)

Dim Curve
Dim arrStoreys()
Dim arrPoints()
Dim Columns()
Dim arrCurve()
Dim x

Dim i, j
For i= 0 To N

For j=0 To p Step 2
ReDim Preserve arrPoints(j)
arrPoints(j) = array((radius*(N-i/2)/N)*(cos(2*Rhino.PI*j/p)),(radius*(N-i/2)/N)*(sin(2*Rhino.PI*j/p)), i)
If j+1 <>
















End If

Next

Call Rhino.AddPoints (arrPoints)
Curve = Rhino.Addcurve (arrPoints,1)

ReDim Preserve arrStoreys(i)
arrStoreys(i) = arrPoints

Next

For i=0 To N
ReDim Preserve Columns(i)
Columns(i) = (arrStoreys(i)(1))
Next
Call Rhino.Addpolyline (Columns)



End Sub















The script was developed in collaboration with eng. Carlo Diaco (openSystems)

080117_Vertical Proliferation

The code consists in a vertical extrusion of planar closed curves; each curve rotates a certain degree every level; the coordinates of the control points defining each curve are variable; some are also following a path determined by a sine function.
We are currently looking into some improvement of this -rather simple- algorhythm. More soon.



































close-up view of the floor plates articulation.
























Option Explicit

Call Main()
Sub Main()

Dim N
N = Rhino.GetInteger ("Number", 25, 1 )

Dim a,b,c,d,s
Dim curve

Dim i
For i= 0 To N
a = array(-1,-1,i)
b = array(+1,-1,i)
s = 5*sin(0.25*i)+6
c = array(s,s,i)
d = array(-1,+1,i)

Curve= Rhino.AddPolyline(array(a,b,c,d,a))

Call Rhino.RotateObject (Curve, b, i*5)


Next

End Sub





















In collaboration with eng. Carlo Diaco (openSystems)