Time, Culture, and Loops

response to Contemporary Techniques in Architecture by Ali Rahim

If there is one outstanding observation from this piece it is the emphasis on the culture and time. Some key phrases in their relationship with technology were:

Cultural proliferation, production, and transformation

Temporal processes, organizations, and cycles 

Rahim outlines his perception of contemporary techniques: their processes and effects. He argues that  technology is essentially a development of cultural progression. It is a feedback loop of constant evolution that cannot be defined by a single moment, but rather as a "qualitative set of relations that interact with cultural stimuli". To see technology through a lens of reactions to cultural interactions, he sees the computer as an object that can only be understood in its context, as a technological object that exists temporally. It is part of a "continuous temporal organizational process of cultural proliferation."

Creation lies in the possibility of what does not yet exist and these possibilities can be discovered through the use of technology. I really like this idea that Rahim brings up. The power of technology doesn't exist in its speed of completing otherwise lengthy operations, or its crisp appearance, but instead, it is able to do so much of what architects used to do by hand that now we can take full advantage of discovering the possibilities that can be accomplished with this extremely powerful tool. 

While I understand many of the points Rahim repeats throughout this reading, my one critique is that his entire passage is focused on (and entitled) "Contemporary Techniques" yet not once does he stop to give any attempt at defining/ specifying these somewhat ambiguous terms. I received some answers towards the end of the piece, with the example of Variations (a residence in Islamabad) in which he uses inverse kinematics to asses temporally changing programmatic elements and opportunities. This multi-faceted use of water he discusses, and the way it can serve as both a swimming pool and a retention pool is a unique opportunity that is available with contemporary technology.

I am most interested in the discussion of materiality and technology's opportunity for digital fabrication. Properties of materials such as density and porosity can move from stagnation to more dynamic effects. 

"The threshold of the line is moved to a gradient so that opaque, translucent and transparent effects can occur in one surface in continuous variation."

MoMA Installation- Contemporary Architecture Practice

MSK Lobby Wall- LTL Architects

The flexibility and freedom that contemporary technology gives us can enable us to find solutions that are more responsive to the ever-challenging demands of our time.

Constructed Morphology

For the manipulation of a surface of the object I have been modeling, I chose the surface of the handle of my water bottle. I chose this surface because it is the most complex, moving in the x,y, and z directions along the control points.

original surface

For the transformation, or morphology of this surface, I wanted to go about it in a logical, rational way. I transformed control points of the surface beginning with the y direction, moving onto the x direction, and finally the z direction. The matrix can be read as a gradual process of morphology starting in the top left corner and ending in the bottom right.

top view of matrix

process

front view

side view

 By the end of the transformation, I felt as I was loosing control of the surfaces. Manipulating the shape of the surface became challenging as the curves and folds of the surface were more and more complex. I hope to regain control and reduce some of the unnecessary complexities.

After stepping back to capture images of the matrix, I realized I unconsciously transformed the handle of the water bottle into surfaces that fold like fabric, which is a particular surface I love studying through drawing. 

Progress of Model

Continuing work on my model of the water bottle cap, I identified the several surfaces in colors that add up the whole. 

The one addition I was able to make was of the mouthpiece. I used the boolean2objects command to subtract the volume of the mouthpiece from surface.

I am still having trouble with the spots I was last week. If anyone has suggestions, please let me know.

The Perspective Hinge

response to Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge: Prelude- Mapping the Question by Alberto Perez-Gomez and Louise Pelletier

Translation vs. Transcription

What is the hinge between intent and interpretation? This is the question I thought of as reading the beginning of this prelude. The answer I got from Gomez and Pelletier: the drawings that architects produce. We rely on projections as formal deliverables that serve as the set of instructions to pass along to have our ideas become reality. I guess the authors are questioning whether the entirety of archtiects' intentions in fact are translated through standard architectural drawings, or are they merely transcribed? Or if there is perhaps a better way to communicate our thinking (perhaps through digital means)?

hinged section- Travis Rozich

 I didn't really get a sense that the authors wanted to challenge this question as the remainder of the prelude boiled down to a history of representation.

Architectural Meaning and the Tools of the Architect

Where I thought a discussion in contemporary tools, those used for projections versus digital tools would take place, I instead found a history, beginning with Medival and Renaissance construction methods. I thought the architects/builders of the past were not given due credit by the authors. The builders of the Gothic time are referred to as "bands of stone masons" and those from the Renaissance are mentioned as "magician-architects". In an age where representational standards did not exist, these expert master builders and architects relied on their knowledge of construction to create masterpieces.  

Chartres Cathedral

Vision and Light

Looking at a history of vision Gomez and Pelletier begin with the Ancient Greeks, with Euclid and "The Optics". It is interesting how one idea can begin to embed so many meanings throughout time. The study of vision began with the Greeks who saw it as an understanding of mathematics, yet as it was translated (or transcribed) to the Middle Ages, its focus was shifted to theology. The light of God is then translated to built forms that allow people to not only understand the light of God spiritually but experience it physically (or at least heighten their spirituality). Gomez and Pelletier here make mention to Hagia Sophia and Chatres Cathedral to illustrate how it was not the structure that was important to the builders of these magnificent buildings, but the way in which they used light to create spaces of heightened spirituality. Light can be dramatic, it can be playful, it can be serious, and poetic. It is all up to the way that the architecture of a space captures it.

playful light in Sagrada Familia

Points, Curves, and Surfaces

To construct this model, I began with the simplest part: the cylindrical base. I  traced circles of varying diameters and then lofted them together. For the lid, I traced a contour in profile and revolved it 360 degrees. The tricky part was modeling the handle, as seen below.

drawing control point curves from images to construct handle 

To construct the handle, I broke it into surfaces to model individually. I traced the base images with control point curves that moved in the x,y, and z planes to the desired contour and then lofted the curves to form the various surfaces that form to make the handle.

Editing surfaces with control points

This process of editing included a curvature analysis, in which I adjusted the number of polygons that comprise the surface.

curvature analysis

The problem I am having is creating surfaces from open curves (the surface edges).  This image below shows the back of the object, where I need a surface to form the backside of the handle. 

Problem creating surface
Below are some rendered views of the model thus far with some basic materials, experimenting with the level of reflection.

"Death Cube K" The Neoformations of Morphosis

Reading by Anthony Vidler

Metamorphosis. Morphosis. Modernism. Modernity.

define...

[metamorphosis: a major change in the appearance or character of someone or something]

[morphosis: development or change of form of a (specified) thing of space]

[modernism: modern artistic or literary philosophy and practice; a self-conscious break with the past and a search for new forms of expression]

[modernity: of or relating to the present time or the recent past: happening, existing, or developing at a time near the present time]

Embodying these definitions, Morphosis changes the forms of space. Their work defies the traditional, the pragmatic, and the orthogonal. Instead, they employ forms that are "all-enclosing, elliptical, ovoid, womblike." Rather than indirectly suggesting the psyche of modern society, the forms Morphosis creates are literal expressions of modern society: a revamp of modern architecture to reflect late twentieth-century modernism. 

Clyde Frazier's Wine and Dine

Modernism to Modernity. Mies van der Rohe to Thom Mayne.

Vidler discusses "mainstream modernism" as the act of aligning corporatist agenda with aesthetic alibi, coupled with with rejection of ornament. This results in mass architecture that lacks the individuality that comes from responding to the many issues that architecture is supposed to propose innovative solutions.

Seagram Building

This reminds me of a recent trip to Chicago in which a friend kept pointing to 'Mies'-looking buildings asking "is this the Seagram building?" until I informed him that the Seagram building is in fact in New York City. Should streamlined, uniform forms define our urban settings? Or should form making that is grounded on a basis of synthesis/poetics/derivative form inform design....?

(not the Seagram Building)

Metamorphosis & Morphosis

Typology begins as attempt to connect the "macrostructure of the city with the microstructure of the individual building" but is rejected in the late twentieth century in favor of "expressive vocabularies and high technologies".

It is apparent that the ability to morph typologies lies in the opportunities of digital parametric modeling.

Interior of Cooper Union

In its' Cooper Union building, Morphosis morphs typologies into a new identity for a building that has many programmatic requirements. By flipping the Italian piazza on its side, new possibilities are opened in which programs can be situated around the 'vertical pizza'. The computer allows this ability to see design from all angles to, for an instant, leave behind the physical, practical considerations of construction to imagine new solutions.

Exterior of Cooper Union

In order to morph typologies, there is a dichotomy between an "aspiration to invent the new and the inevitable reliance on the form of the old". The two don't necessarily have to reach an agreement; it is possible for them to be in an argument that results in the two smashed together, creating a metamorphosis.

Water Bottle Cap