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picon

In Cybernetics in Architecture and Planning, Picon elaborates on the history of the integration of computer aided technologies and the theories behind the integration thereof. According to Picon, what unites the natural world with cybernetics is a system of patterns. Much like in any niche of the natural world, whether that be the water cycle or morning traffic, life is consisted of patterns, which can usually be observable to humans. Post WWII architects were charged with answering questions and solving problems at both the domestic and urban level. It was the wartime/cold-war turbulence that pushed corporations and architects alike to utilize systematic urban planning. These computer-based patterned approaches to urban-planning proved that cybernetics could not be the solution. There are too many variables and accommodations for singular and communal needs with a complexity that could not simply be plugged into a 1 size fits all. This not only showed the importance of the middle ground between the digital and human world, but that this middle ground would have to be the designer who has the capabilities and awareness of the situations that cannot be reduced to numbers and algorithms. The responsibility of the designer becomes even more paramount as they are charged with creating a holistic urban environment that shapes the social interactions of humans. This yields the question of what environments are we as humans being conformed to. 

[ghsu-arch]

Exercise 7.02a: Stereo Fidelity | Investigating the production of advanced typologies through 3-D stereometry and the fidelity of photometric scanning (Rhinoceros, Grasshopper, KUKA)

“ ‘Is it a school where #[i]madethat is the easiest way to caption an Instagram story with #[one of twelve lab assistants who has been adequately trained to toolpath in Mastercam and safely taught to operate our only reliable router]madethat?’ ” (Knot, Issue 13) 

Asa deserves a raise after this week.

[ghsu-arch]

radical technologies (adam greenfield, 2017)

In Radical Technologies, writer and urbanist Adam Greenfield discusses the visionary potential that technology holds in digital fabrication and its ability for efficient and sustainable production. Now in the “post-scarcity” age, technology is extremely prevalent and will continue to promise to transfigure lives as much of society is defined by their relationship with the digital. Navigation of the virtual and augmented are already present in almost every aspect of today’s culture, and with accessible technologies such as the 3D printer and CNC mill, anybody can take control of production, but there is concern in how to deploy the technologies in a way that resists exploitation. The inevitable revolution of digital technologies is maintained in a trust between developers and business leaders to change things for the better, in a brighter future. As Greenfield mentions, “at every point in history, control over the shape and distribution of matter has been tightly coupled with the shape and distribution of power,” so how can emerging and efficient technologies stay inviting and accessible? (112)

[masiaaaaa]

Material as a Special Concern

This essay addresses on three parts of the materiality: the measuring method, the structuring body, and responsive nature, of it. As in a stance of paying most attention to the form during the UG, I first look for the reason that this article almost establishes material treck as the next main trend of architecture.

The central argument tells that architecture as a layered assembly has direct formal relevance to its materiality: material has a potential to build up a responsive machine to bridge the communication between the architecture and the environment. The point here is that material is supposed to be understood not only as a physical essence but as an element of linked surroundings: environmental responsiveness as pressure, atmospheric attributes as light, and also the manufacturing process. MSMS introduced as a group intend to better understand this relation is summarized into 3 stages of learning: tooling and observing the material behavior, exploring computational methodologies to understand the material logistics, and finally embedding the specific into a spatial material system to let the parts interact.

The digital control over the feedback loop is shown in the project of the Glass Cast, happen to be the one of three I picked on the reading of RTM series. The digital computation enables the control of the inputs and outputs; the simulation experiments accelerate the progression of the research and effectively lead to the outcomes. The Cast Glass is an elegant example that breaks through the conventional way of thinking glass, explore the architecture through the manufacturing process.

The most fascinating part of the reading is the explanation of how the understanding of the material in a comprehensive level will reflect on the overall design. Also, the structural organization and the sensing integral which is tactile for each other is where Functionalism comes to a common ground--the similar part-to-whole relation is also mentioned in the introduction of Function by Adrain Forty. Understanding of the force will facilitate the form-finding; I really wonder how the study of the material “will introduce a new way of drawing. (Alquist, Thün, Newell, Velikov 23)”

[ghsu-arch]

Exercise 7.01: Stereo Fidelity | Investigating the production of advanced typologies through 3-D stereometry and the fidelity of photometric scanning (Rhinoceros, Grasshopper, KUKA)

I literally do not understand what we are supposed to be learning in this class besides making random curves and calling it architecture

[masiaaaaa]

Affordance, Constraints, Props, and Jigs

The concepts mentioned in the three readings this week all concern about the rethinking of the process of involving machine into our design or making. There is one worry that the more sophisticated the system is, the more loss of our state of being and thinking. Also, the efficiency the machine brings up may result in more product but less iteration. Also, the logistics used by the specific machine may lead to a degeneration of skills, and that skill may include creativity. 

Also, Crawford mentions the error of commission and omission that we may become complacent when using a machine: we trust the technology and the problems are generated due to the reliance. Thus, we should pay attention to the material specificity and process itself, since we human, are critical thinkers. The awareness is necessary when engaging an activity with machines. 

On the other hand, mastering does not exist in the field of the machine, because the product we produce is also a feedback from the machine. It is a repetitive process that never ends. That the interface development should be considered seriously. For example, when we do the robotic exercise, the interface of the machine integrate me as part of the machine. The order requires a person to take active control that keep the machine run safely, and the task is clear for everyone. Since our group had trouble figuring saving problem and I was already good at the task, I operated the board tens of times that night, that I felt myself a jig called “safety control.” Thus, the interface development comes vastly significant that it is supposed to simplify the machine operating but really becomes a tool, a method to express design.

[masiaaaaa]

Research Through Making?

Having read through Monica’s proposal of RTM that aims at gathering more funding for the architecture, I realize that the academic architecture exists in the no-funding land. However, the method is confusing somehow about what is the reason that most funding goes to humanity or problem-solving studies? RTM wants to integrate two ways together to achieve attention absorbing, but is there also a possibility of dividing architecture into the two specific strategies into the later stage of learning instead? One of the reasons that architecture students or architects in the industrial or economic market can’t find their positions is that the stance is missing: what our roles are in erecting physical structures--none tells how to deal with multiple parties of interest simultaneously. Moreover, the uncertainty comes originally from design constitution, that which weighs more in our design: art or humanity or problem-solving. If we selves don’t know the answer, how the world pay us back in investment?

However, The methodology of RTM is meaningful since the product is applicable. Such as the Glass Cast in 2012 (1), the experiment of the form of a traditional material gains new possibility for designing the shell an inhabitable structure; simply speaking, it arouses the beauty of the material that hasn’t been discovered before. The project of Social Sensory Surfaces in 2015 (2) engages effort in interdisciplinary approaches that can collectively achieve a degree of artificial intelligence to speak to the humanity: material, form, computational design, media, display strategy, all together offer a sensory interactive experience. The knit architecture in 2014 (3) displays how design strategies can vary when encountering different material.

Even though I don’t think RTM is solving the rooted problem in the architectural industry, Research Through Making is gaining potential for Design Through Making. Nevertheless, the binary here is that the problem-solving part is undervalued here. Is that the complacency of designers?

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Exercise:  Fünf W.2

The premise for this addition to the project was to challenge the perception of depth vis a vis color and the contour lines. The middle figure shares the same grid pattern and color as the primary surface. It is, however, situated deeper into the plane than the surface as it lies between two primary figures separated by color and different depths. The pain seeps onto the edges where a cut is made to give to the illusion that the figure extends far beyond its border. The shape was originally found through the suggested paintings, drawn and manipulated in Rhino, and then put into MasterCam. A problem arose, however, when previous geometries from the demo file were found. In the final cut out it turned out just fine. We started early enough to give time for painting it in a way that conveys our premise while not sacrificing craft. In all, it was an adequate exercise that did not garner much stress.