Ben GaleaI grew up in Melbourne creat-ing buildings, towns and cities whilst playing with Lego with my younger brother. The idea of cre-ating, designing and building and the joy that came with it must have stuck because here I am study-ing my third year of architecture.

My current experience with digital design tools extends as far as Google Sketchup and stops there. I have never used Rhino, Grasshopper, Photoshop, InDesign or even Illustrator and this course looks to be a steep learning curve for me as I attempt to get my head around these various programs.

However, Parametric Design intrigues me and the use of computer aided design opens a whole new world of possibilities in spatial creation and experimental design outcomes.

A. Case For Innovation

As digital architecture continues to grow in prominence in our cities, so do the ques-tions about reliance on digital tools and what real capacity we as humans have to create, when so much is reliant on computer programs.

Innovation in architectural form has been largely digitised in the new millenium due to the abil-ity to expedite experiments. This is because of digital models and their capacity to be altered at the click of a button. The ease with which a model can be redesigned, reinspected and eventually re-placed creates a need for the digital environment to encourage continued innovation. However, form is only one cog in the architectural machine. It is the responsibility of architects to ensure the fi-nal designs remain relevant to the target audience and do not ostracise themselves due experiment for experiment’s sake. Although difficult to define, architecture is essentially the creation of space for people to inhabit and this should not be lost. When buildings are built as a means to themselves, this human aspect and social relevance of archi-tecture is lost and the structures risk becoming large, ineffective sculptures awaiting demolishing.

Contrasting these potential pitfalls in over-ex-perimentation, digital modelling tools create the the environment to enhance the social significance already prominent in architecture. Redifining space to maximise efficiency and qaulity of life can be achieved through intuitive use of computer aided design. Effective data analysis alongside contin-ued discourse between the architectural profession and public needs are requirements to achieve this.

The Gateway Design Proposal asks for cohesion be-tween archituctural design and public interface. Creating ‘forward-looking’ symbolism that is both stimulating and relevant relies not only the spe-cifics of the design but how well they are aimed at the target audience, predominanlty visitors.

Building externalhttp://farm5.static.flickr.com/4145/5018446312_12582fea15.jpg

Paper Experimentationhttp://people.brunel.ac.uk/dap/machu-ma.html

A.1 Architecture as a DiscourseSon-O-HouseStimulating both tactile and aural senses, the Son-O-House by NOX was built around the extrapola-tion of human movement and algorithmic design based around the resulting data. The overlapping forms en-courage movement throughtout the strucuture, which in turn transforms these movements into digitised sound. This creates a new concept of dynamism with-in a structure that behaves differently depending on how the individual interacts with the space.

The theory behind the design of Son-O-House was de-rived from the typical motions of the human body. Analysing the movements of the limbs, joints and extremities of people (similar to data points in Grasshopper). Paper strips were cut in areas corre-sponding with the different bodily movements (below) then connected, resulting in intertwining lines and curves. The way the building reacts to people is a reflection of the way in which the building was first conceived, giving it a ‘natural’ and ‘human’ element.

This method of design would be quite use-ful in relation to the Wyndham Gateway Proj-ect through the use of data point input and ensuing parametric modelling techniques.

View from inside memorialPhoto taken by self

Libeskind’s simi-lar stelaehttp://farm3.stat-icflickr.com/2215/2240561192_84655c85ed_z.jpg

A.1 Architecture as a DiscourseMemorial to the Murdered Jews of EuropeEisenman’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin is a distinctive peice of place-making architecture. It was commisioned to symbolise the Jewish victims of WWII but uses no symbols or sig-nage. space is divided by concrete stelae creating the feeling of isolation and dizzying disorienta-tion. However what is particularly interesting to this studio is the use of dual sets of statistical data to create the contoured effect of both ground level and the tops of the concrete stealae.

Through manipulation of input data, the design was able to take shape by creating a flowing undula-tion from the edges of the memorial site. Similar to Libeskind’s Jewish Museum, also in Berlin, the use of undulation can create signs of physi-cal nausea through the manipulation of gradient on site and disorentation of the senses.

The data input aspect of this project is of in-terest to this studio as examples can be directly referenced to Grasshopper. Differing results can be obtained through manipulation of algorithms and the same data overlay techniques can be utilised to experiment with different outcomes.

A.2 Computational ArchitectureThe Rational and the IrrationalComputation in architecture has altered archi-tectectural process by giving the designer a mul-titude of independant choices existing at the same time. A large breadth and depth of options is now available to be explored alongside each other to aid the search for the ‘right’ design solution to the ‘right’ problem. Through the use of manouver-able data, instead of a commited line or point, design space can be altered to achieve a plethora of outcomes before evaluating the possible out-comes.

Yehuda claims however, that computation can only provide the rational side of arhitecture, for ex-ample algorithms and analysis, and that the irra-tional understanding of human behaviour, aesthet-ics and ‘feel’ of a building must come from the designer. The trend of computation in architecture will go on to create a co-dependance between ma-chine and human to create architecture that fits the contemporary mould. Whether this is progress or regress remains a widely debated issue in the global architectural community. __________________________________________________Yehuda E. Kalay, Architecture’s New Media : Principles, Theories, and Methods of Computer-Aided Design (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2004)

Woodbury, Robert F. and Andrew L. Burrow (2006). ‘Whither design space?’, Artificial Intelligence for Engineering De-sign, Analysis and Manufacturing