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DESIGN STUDIOARCHITECTUREAIR

Qi Wei 531474

CONTENTS

ARCHITECTURE AS A DISCOURSE WEEK 1

Hello,My name is Qi Wei, also called Bella. I am a Chinese girl came to Australia 5 years ago, finished high school in Brisbane and then came to this wonder-ful city, Melbourne! I study as an international student in University of Mel-bourne Bachelor of Architecture degree and this is my third year in university.

Before I came to university, I only able to do some basic AutoCAD drawings and ArchiCAD designing in high school. Then I start to learn Rhino in my first year at university in the course of Virtual Environments, however, I still know little about digital design or digital designing tools. When I finish the course, I realize there are limitations that using Rhino to do 3D models without any plug-ins. Grasshopper is the plug-in I first meet in this course, the air studio. I find it is amazing.

Therefore, the main reason I want to join this course is to enhance my digi-tal drawing or modeling skills, especially with Rhino. Parametric architecture looks cool and is become more and more popular nowadays, which make me highly interested in learning Grasshopper.

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ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STUDIO - AIR WEEK 1 - Architecture As A Discourse

Part 1 - Case For Innovation Part 2 - Cut Case Study Part 3 - Expression of Interest Part 4 - The Gateway Project

INTRODUCTION


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PREVIOUS WORKThis is the BODYSPACE Project, which I finished in my first year at university in Virtual Environments. The aim of this project is to build a complex form that is made from paper, can be lit from within like a lan-tern and is worn on the body. One requirement for this project is to develop three-dimensional forms from the analyses of existing natural process.

Module one in this project I remember was to engender stage. I used drawings and physical scale models to develop a series of three-dimensional forms based on the analyses of existing natural processes. Module two was digitizing and elaborat-ing. I tried to use orthographic method and contour-ing method to describe my model and then digitize the model into three-dimensional computational representations. Rhino was the main software used. Module three was fabricating. This stage was altered several times, but each time the model became bet-ter.

During this course, I understand that digital designs would somehow limit our ability to engage with creative work. Even now I bury this in mind.

My experience with digital architecture is just like what I said before. Technically, to be honest, I feel more confident with AutoCAD then Rhino. AutoCAD is normally used for digital design and drafting. We can draw both two-dimensional and three-dimen-sional drawings in the software. Unfortunately, I haven’t try three-dimensional drawings in Auto-CAD. Rhino is also a digital designing software has the advantage of making complex three-dimension-al NURBS models. Though it is my weakness, I am highly interested in this software. I look forward to exploring Rhino in this course.

Theoretically, it is obvious that digital technology is a great impact on architecture design. And I think it is just a beginning of that. It is undeniable that those enormous and complex building designs could grab people’s eyes, which I think will be the trend of future architecture design.



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ARCHITECTURE AS A DISCOURSEArchitecture can be simply understood as a shelter or a building in ancient time. In other words, architecture is “a material one” (Richard, 2005, pp103). But it is abso-lutely not what architecture means nowadays. With the fast development of technology, architecture possesses its new meanings; “architecture is as much a philosoph-ical, social or professional realm as it is a material one” (Richard, 2005,pp103). Architecture is indeed a complex field. In my opinion, architecture in a broad sense is not only a single build-ing, but as well as includes its built environment. This environment consists of all kinds of theoretical issues, social relations, cultural values and so on. On the other hand, the word “discourse” as I understand is hard to define as well. Therefore, I suggest a discourse is like network relations around a particular field and can in-fluence this field somehow. Then we could have a bet-ter understanding of architecture that it has network relations with art, technology, theory, society, environ-ment and etc..Architecture as a discourse is examined by saying “buildings with no capacity to change can only become slums or ancient monuments.” (Archigram, 1966) An successful modern architecture needs to be creative and adaptable. Multi-influencing factors should be con-sidered and the overall design needs to be eye-catch-ing. Examples could be seen in the following pages.

- Archigram, dir., Archigram, bbc Productions, 1966.- International Journal of Environmental Studies; Apr2009, Vol. 66 Issue 2, p259-267, 9p, 9 Charts.- Richard Williams, ‘Architecture and Visual Culture’, in Exploring Visual Culture: Definitions, Concepts, Contexts, ed. by Matthew Rampley (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), pp. 102-116.



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Fig 1 - http://onlyhdwallpapers.com/world/architecture-beijing-water-cube-desktop-hd-wallpaper-2727/Figure 1

This project is the National Aquatics Centre of China finished in 2008. It located in the Olympic Sport Park in Beijing, which also known as ‘Wa-ter Cube’. The dimension of ‘Water Cube’ is 177m in length *177m in width *31m in height. Inspiration of this design comes from the natural structure of a water molecule. The reason why I like this project is it has a strong idea of new architecture.

In terms of cultural values, the cube represents strict, well-behaved in Chinese background. It makes a contrast with the Bird’s Nest beside, which has a meaning of harmonious. The central designing idea, water is a natural element, which represents happy and exciting in China. Like most other important structures in Beijing, Water Cube lays just aside the axis of the central city. The architecture has its cultural connec-tion to the city. By looking at its appearance, the creative design of the exterior fabricate is eye-catching. It attracts most people to walk inside and have a look around. The architecture is creative. Technically, the building is mainly steel framed with ETFE cladding exterior. The advan-tage of ETFE cladding is it is transparent, which means the building is natural lighted during the daytime. It is environmental friendly. The building is also user-friendly. There are 6000 spectator seats and 11000 removable seats in the Water Cube.

I love the design of this architecture. Water Cube is thought to be a successful example of modern architecture. It combines cultural, technical, environmental and visual features together making a ‘simple’ cube interesting.

WATER CUBE

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http://baike.baidu.com/view/779442.htm?fromId=95252


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http://www.zaha-hadid.com/architecture/galaxy-soho/

GALAXY SOHOThis amazing project is designed by a female architect, Zaha Hadid. The project began in 2009 and just fin-ished last year in Beijing. The building has two major functions, which are a big shopping center and an elite office building. The plot area of this building is about 46965m2. Mainly, there four towers, which is 15 floors high, connect each other with continuous lines or flow-ing volumes.

In terms of cultural values, this building is a re-invent-ing of the classical Chinese courtyard and located at the central area of Beijing. It aims to create an internal world. Another inspiration of this design comes from nature, the terraced fields in China. It makes a connec-tion between a modern city to nature. Aesthetically, it is also 21st century architecture. The building lines are no longer straight all the time and the corners are not sharp any more. A creative and continuous form ap-pears. Technically, the roof, lighting systems, air con-ditioners and surface fabricates are all environmental friendly. 360 degrees view on the building is also users-friendly.

I love this design because I am impressed by the liquid geometries designed by Zaha. It is a successful para-metric design, which brings up a new way of thinking architecture. It also combines cultural, technical, en-vironmental and aesthetic features together to make a creative building.

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