Architecture Design Stiduo: Air

DESIGN STUDIO AIR

Week 3 Paremetric Project

The Mercedes Benz Museum - by UN Studio

The design is based on the geometry of a clover, with the spaces connected between two helical ascending ramps, around a central atrium. According to Ben van Berkel, joint founder and director of UNStudio “The Mercedes-Benz Museum sets up an interface for a series of radical spatial principles in order to create a completely new typology”.

Waffle GridCoping the structure of waffle biscuit, the waffle grib is another

About My Self

My name is Yaokai Wang, coming from a island at southeast of China, which is called Xiamen(Amoy).

Personally, I was not very familiar with using the digital tools when I was designing, however I was pushed to use some of them for example: photoshop, google sketchup, Autocad and so on, and I am perticular like model making additionally I had earn the 4th ranking in a National Model Ship Model Making compitition at 2009 in China. At this moment, studio air has turned my interesting in using Rhino due to its ability in making curve surface which I was thinking to achieve something in this area.

Previous Project

During year 1 and year 2 studies in university, I had done several design studio which required us to design a facility in a choosen site such as royal melbourne garden and Herring Island. The pictures shown below are the work on Herring Island.

*The series of image show both the physical model and the perspective google sketchup model. In this case, its design concept is about from heavy weight to light weight, and also the interior travel from dark underground to the raised up stage which locate on the roof which reflected the history of the indigeous .

* The ‘skin’ was made during the design studio earth, under the target of achieving interesting shadow and making a design more completed.

Here is the two architects who i appreciated and influenced my thought of architecture, the ways of designing and the design theory part.Leoh Ming Pei, the Chineses American architect, mu first notice of his project when i was a under 10-year-old boy was the Bank of China Tower(HongKong) and the Louvre Pyramid(Paris). As being a kid i was surprized that a building could help to create a incredible beautiful urban view and influence the people living at the town, but also changing the value of the site after a well designed and built buidling standing there. On the other hand, as i was dreaming about to be a archaeologist however i quit because i was afraid of it, when i saw the glass pyramid in front of the Louvre meseum i was shocking that two different test of the culture in the world had been conbimed perfectly by him, more over, he use steel fram and glass to form the structure with the light shining on it during the

Le Corbusier, his earlier project “Villa Savoye” gave me the idea about living place and “house as a living machine”, and more over, his design priciple of the “five point” suggest me to be a architect with personal training and principle, so that you carry on with your career and redevelop through your life and it would get more mature, like a design system in your own brain.

In this particular building, it demonstrate the movement of the floor, from ground to the air, which provide a good view of the owners, as today building the ecological architecture is a popular main theme in architecture aaspect and “villa savoye” had desplayed a early modern living space as the architect - Le Corbusier create the “free plan” so that the space can be variable according to the different use of the room.

Addition sum up of my thinking, i prefer the organic building with focusing on “space management” and “ organic system” like all the recycle facilities puting into the one buidling to achieve the target of saving enegy rather than design a very complecated structure of the building just with high tecnique but does not mean anything with “function”, maybe this is not justified enough or maybe i did not explain well but the aiming is “less is more” with another great german architect!

Part A : Case of Innovation

Content

ContentZaha Hardid

Bjake Injels GroupUN Studio

Studio Gang Architects

Week 2 The role of computation in architecture design processAs known as the limitation of human’s brain does not work as much efficient as computer does, computer program were introduced to help the designers to solve the multiple achieve problems due to their superb analytical engine characteristics. So, the roles of computation in architecture design process could be concluded as the “problem analysis & solve”.

The range of computation located from “Drafting” to “Modeling” systems. In this way, architects can initially make a simple model and see if it is a target that can be achieve, if not, they can easily change the data in the program instead of redo the whole project beacuse it is in the computer system.

Digital technologies are changing architectural practices in ways that few were able to anticipate just a decade ago. In the conceptual realm, computational, digital architectures of topological n non-euclidean geometric space, kinetic and dynamic systems, and genetic algorithms, are supplanting technological architectures.

Möbius stripThe Bjarke Injels Group (BIG) won an international competition with their design for Kazakhstan’s National Library, a flowing twist of metal and glass. The finished building will be shaped like a Möbius strip. The interestin gpart of the Möbius strip type is the wall of one side would change to be the roof of the another side, and it create a spining space when you are standing in the middle hole.

Steps of making a Möbius strip model.

MetaballZaha Hadid designed a flowing Building in Beijing.

Simpily the model of metaball in rhino could be conclude to make several points related to the point, and then change their position and create sphere at every point, move them rendomly and change their size rendomly.

Argument of Advantage & Disadvantage of the Möbius strip As the structure twisting and warping, some part of the library would gain less light while other part gain a lot of light. On the other hand, if the mobius strip was a surface, it is not possible for human to walk on it continuously due to it swist 180 degree, howver for a small scale such as bench or chair, it would be possibleto seat on the flat zone but there is some waste of the mobius strip structure. In this case,

Part B : Case Studies

Week 4 Case Study 1.0

Pattern: Focusing on the surface. Attractive Facade

By using the double layer facade in trompe l’oeil pattern of vertical mullions making the building vertually scale-less as the structure provides no hint as to how many stories it contains, the skin of the building provide two different view of the people, as the layer cooperate with computer design of the light pattern change on the sikscreen. During the night , the sikscreen is performancing a wave like movement on the screen plus the color change in stylizad way.

Arguement of the Double Layer Facade: the view from inside is a fake one, created by the computer with the purpose of the give people the wrong scale of the real one, it possiblely loss the natural communication between outside and inside of the building.

Aqua Tower / Studio Gang Architects

The pattern of the building is target to achieve the biggest possible shading for the oc-cupant, however, the parametric design help them to make more attractive skin on the surface. Also the original idea of the sculpture is from tone of the Great Lakes area. With the help of parametric design, it can be series of the surface changing irrationally by change the slider somehow and easy to make a change.

Week 5 Case Study 2.0Re-Engineer of Aqua Tower / Studio Gang Architects

Aqua Tower is located at Chicago which was built by the Studio Gang Architects, its original design concept was the great ocean rock which could be considered as the changing contour line vertically which could be re-engineer by and create by the rhino and grasshopper software. Furthermore, the parametric façade was trying to gain the maximum shading of the building which can provide the glass curtain directly heat up by the sun.

Step 1: create the curve by using ‘curve’ command in rhino and make it surround the grid show up underneath which fit the structure of Aqua Tower who had the cube like main building shape.

Step 2: copy and paste the curve that been create and using the “control point” to change the shape slightly so that can get a changing outline from the first floor and the top floor

Step 3: “loft” the surface

Step 4: create a line by using the “line” command that fit the size the lofted solid.

Step 5: open grasshopper, create two “curve” and one of it set one curve and the other one set multiple curve, and link the “curve” who has set multiple curve to the “loft” command, and connect the “curve” who has set one line to the “PFrame”. Add a “Number Slider” whose domain form 1 to 90 natural number because the number of floor could not have decimal place. Link the “slider” to the “PFrame” with the “N” income.

Step 6: using Brep/Plane to insert and “Sec” command , and link the “loft” and “PFrame” to the “Sec” income, as some of the frame is out side of the building so use “Clean” to ignore those frame who are not sit in the buidling area.

Step 7:Add “Planar” command so that the surface would be created by the interaction of the “PFrame” and “loft”, furthermore, add the “Extrude” and “ Unit Z” so that the surface would be extruded along the Z direction by 1 unit, and the equation in grasshopper would be the image shown below.

Last Step of Re-Engineering Process

This image was create be “export to 2D graph” in rhino, give the all view of the facade after those process what has done in rhino.

By adding a “cuve” in the parametic facade to the size who just fit the interior space, the rendering image has been displayed in the next part.

However, this is not exactly what the Aqua Tower lool like, and the analysis of ther similarities and the differencies would be included in the next page.

Discussion of the Re- Engineering

SimilaritiesThey both have the flowing facade dressed up the cube like building, and the follow some irrational changing from the bottom to the top of the building.

DifferenciesNeverthless, the re-engineering process was not totally accurate with the origianl building bucause form picture that the differencies between the actual buildin and the model would be original building has some flat surface rather than the whole building with teh skirting.

ImprovementThe possible improvement could be making more curve to be lofted so that the changing between floot can be controled more accurately so that the flat surface can be made. Even make it bigger so the curve can be created with more changing degree which would drive the model more like the original buidling.