Larry Sass Lecture
Larry Sass a professor from MIT lectured last Thursday on using the power of digital technology and applying it to the building process.
It would be hard for anyone to say they weren't impressed with Larry Sass's lecture. While most architecture lectures seem a like an hour of ego stroking and explaining design ideas that really aren't that revolutionary, this lecture broke away from the pack. In discussing building techniques that he had helped develop with students at MIT Mr. Sass, walked us through ideas that were on the cutting edge. The basic concept of his work was to apply to the digital technology that has opened up new worlds for more exact and interesting design and apply that to construction. The system that was developed was a system of interlocking wood pieces.
By using the computer to create pieces that snapped together, a building could be created completely out of plywood, plastic, and glue. The designer must create every individual piece on a computer. Once the pieces are created they are sent to a machine that is essentially a large laser cutter. The piece are cut into plywood and plastic boards and shipped to the construction site. There the piece are fully cutout and assembled. The building created is stronger then conventional stud wall construction and more exact. The beautiful thing about this system is anyone can now put this building together not just a contractor. Also the since the actually construction piece were created on a computer the building is very precise. Mr. Sass talked continuously about taking error out of the construction process and with computers the natural human errors that occur in construction can almost all be eliminated.
The idea of this new construction is tantalizing. Now architects can watch their exact designs be built and not buildings that are partly representative of interpretation and skills of contractors. These techniques are promising and a important thing to continue to study going forward but they have lots of question marks surrounding them.
This process is not cheaper or more efficient then the standard building methods employed today. It may be stronger and faster, but none of the prototype buildings has survived long in bad weather. A new material or better plywood must be developed for these structures to make sense. And then their is the design point of view. An architect now must create every structural piece of a building, this costs time and money and a master builder could probably build as fast as it takes to create every piece.
Mr. Sass's work should draw the attention of everyone in the architecture world. His work is important and holds significant promise. A lot of questions remain around his work, but that doesn't lower the necessity to be looking for new and better construction methods. I believe his work is leading us in the right direction. I believe Mr. Sass's philosophy of bringing the computer that revolutionised the architecture design process, to the building process is a logical and important step.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Techniques and Technology
Techniques and Technology
By, Rahim Ali
In his essay "Techniques and Technology" Rahim Ali talks about the relationship between three easily confusable words, Technology, Technical, and Technique. The Relationship he says is something called the "technology and cultural feedback loop." In this relationship new technologies effect the way artists and professionals do their work. These changes in techniques force new innovations in technology and the loop starts all over again. The technical efficiency helps show the productivity of a new technology with a new technique. This is measured numerically and is independent of outside forces that would usually judge a technologies success This relationship can be seen extremely clearly in architectural design in the last ten to fifteen years. The new technology of digital design has revolutionized the techniques used by architects to do their jobs.
Ali exams the work of the Eameses brothers who created create fiberglass chairs that have become the cheap and typical chair of many schools and other institutions. He walks the reader through the development of the chair's technology and then its effect on society by providing a extremely efficient, cheap, chairs to the market place. His main focus is not on the success of the chair, but on the innovation needed behind it. The brothers had successful plywood designs and laminated wood designs, but those designs had flaws, and by adopting new technology they changed their technique and over came their design flaws. Their practice was busy exploring new ways to fill the void for low cost durable chairs. When they discovered the use of fiberglass from a set designer, they created new techniques to use the technology effectively. Soon fiberglass was being used in many applications it originally wasn't intended for, but the extra uses raised the technology (fiberglass) to a new level of relevancy.
The new chairs in turn effected culture and society greatly and eventually became so popular they became monotonous with large institutional settings. The story of the Eameses brothers is to show how technology is pushed forward by the innovative and creative techniques of the Eameses brothers.
Ali writes about how technology that may have been revolutionary just five years ago is common place in firms today. Noticing that technology is quickly changing is key to a firm that may become stuck in design techniques that are out dated in a mere couple of years. To stay current a firm must adopt temporal techniques. This means taking a "bottom up" approach to architecture. The process is "non-linear" and has less formal structure then the usually design process. It stresses lots of exploration of new ideas and intensive analysis. The bottom-up method also creates a building that has many elements designed in unison making the final project a more united piece of work. The use of technology is vital in this process. The computer makes organization of analysis and working on a building as a whole easier. It allows the designer to discover new patterns and ideas that might have been lost or unforeseeable otherwise. It also makes innovation easier and more possible to explore.
Digital design has allowed temporal techniques to become effective in architecture. The technology changed the way architects work and practice. These temporal techniques allow for maximum innovation in design and force the need for newer technologies and better computer programs. Therefore after adopting digital design it is important to keep a open mind and continue to innovate. An architects cannot be become entrenched in a single design method or attached to a single computer program, but must be willing to adapt and be flexible enough to change the techniques and programs he or she uses extremely quickly.
Ali makes a valuable point about "the Loop" he recognizes the need for innovation in the techniques used by architects to force the computer programmers to create new and better products. He also promotes a work place that is maneuverable and adaptable to a quickly changing world. In all the most important thing to learn from this essay is that the architecture design world is changing all the time (if we notice or not) and innovation in technique is just important to stay one step ahead of the competition as the newest computer program is. Following linear and rigid design technique will not continuously produce original work even if done on the latest technology.
By, Rahim Ali
In his essay "Techniques and Technology" Rahim Ali talks about the relationship between three easily confusable words, Technology, Technical, and Technique. The Relationship he says is something called the "technology and cultural feedback loop." In this relationship new technologies effect the way artists and professionals do their work. These changes in techniques force new innovations in technology and the loop starts all over again. The technical efficiency helps show the productivity of a new technology with a new technique. This is measured numerically and is independent of outside forces that would usually judge a technologies success This relationship can be seen extremely clearly in architectural design in the last ten to fifteen years. The new technology of digital design has revolutionized the techniques used by architects to do their jobs.
Ali exams the work of the Eameses brothers who created create fiberglass chairs that have become the cheap and typical chair of many schools and other institutions. He walks the reader through the development of the chair's technology and then its effect on society by providing a extremely efficient, cheap, chairs to the market place. His main focus is not on the success of the chair, but on the innovation needed behind it. The brothers had successful plywood designs and laminated wood designs, but those designs had flaws, and by adopting new technology they changed their technique and over came their design flaws. Their practice was busy exploring new ways to fill the void for low cost durable chairs. When they discovered the use of fiberglass from a set designer, they created new techniques to use the technology effectively. Soon fiberglass was being used in many applications it originally wasn't intended for, but the extra uses raised the technology (fiberglass) to a new level of relevancy.
The new chairs in turn effected culture and society greatly and eventually became so popular they became monotonous with large institutional settings. The story of the Eameses brothers is to show how technology is pushed forward by the innovative and creative techniques of the Eameses brothers.
Ali writes about how technology that may have been revolutionary just five years ago is common place in firms today. Noticing that technology is quickly changing is key to a firm that may become stuck in design techniques that are out dated in a mere couple of years. To stay current a firm must adopt temporal techniques. This means taking a "bottom up" approach to architecture. The process is "non-linear" and has less formal structure then the usually design process. It stresses lots of exploration of new ideas and intensive analysis. The bottom-up method also creates a building that has many elements designed in unison making the final project a more united piece of work. The use of technology is vital in this process. The computer makes organization of analysis and working on a building as a whole easier. It allows the designer to discover new patterns and ideas that might have been lost or unforeseeable otherwise. It also makes innovation easier and more possible to explore.
Digital design has allowed temporal techniques to become effective in architecture. The technology changed the way architects work and practice. These temporal techniques allow for maximum innovation in design and force the need for newer technologies and better computer programs. Therefore after adopting digital design it is important to keep a open mind and continue to innovate. An architects cannot be become entrenched in a single design method or attached to a single computer program, but must be willing to adapt and be flexible enough to change the techniques and programs he or she uses extremely quickly.
Ali makes a valuable point about "the Loop" he recognizes the need for innovation in the techniques used by architects to force the computer programmers to create new and better products. He also promotes a work place that is maneuverable and adaptable to a quickly changing world. In all the most important thing to learn from this essay is that the architecture design world is changing all the time (if we notice or not) and innovation in technique is just important to stay one step ahead of the competition as the newest computer program is. Following linear and rigid design technique will not continuously produce original work even if done on the latest technology.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Digital Morphogenesis
by Banko Kolarevic
In recent years new digital design technology has started a revolution in architecture. The advances in design on the computer have created new tools for architects to use to create more diverse and complex structures. Today architects are able to build structures with amazing accuracy that only decades before would have been impossible. Banko Kolarevic argues in his essay "Digital Morphogenesis" that digital design as helped transform and progress the architecture profession to new heights. I agree that the use of computer designed buildings bring a new level of sophistication to architecture, as well as helping to build structures that are more efficient, and cheaper and faster to construct.
Kolarevic begins his discussion about digital design by talking about revolutionary buildings of the industrial age. He points to the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Crystal Palace in London as buildings that helped start a revolution in iron and steel design. He says that this is architecture adapting to new technology. He then points out that digital design technology is very similar to these iconic structures of the industrial age as it allows us to use our new technology to produce buildings once thought impossible. Kolarevic is correct in his assessment. Digital design is allowing architects to enter a whole new world of building design. Architects can now create shapes and distort forms that would have been to complex a generation before. Look a Frank Gehry's work at the Guggenheim Museum in Spain. The unconventional shape of the building could only have been produced on a computer and without a computer it would have been almost impossible to create the construction documents.
The revolution is moving architects from creating boxes to creating "blobs." This movement Kolarevic argues is a change to a more intelligent building. As we use computers the precision of our construction will increase, this allows us to build structures that aren't subjected to the constraints of a basic structural system. This is a massive release for architects. Architects now have more freedom over their design work as the structural systems that can be built advance tremendously.
The design process has also changed in this revolution. No longer does the architect work so strongly in plan and section. Now an architect has the ability to design with 3-D modeling and perspectives. Borrowing a design tools from ship builders (who work almost exclusively in model and 3-D form) architects can now work on all aspects of the building at one time. This simplified process allows the architect to deal with forces and problems faster and with a better understanding of what is going on. The designer also has the ability to take risks with designs that can easily be corrected at a later date. The form of the structure also begins to take a more important role. Now an architect can work with form while working in plan, meaning he can give a form a more meaningful purpose in relationship to the plan. Architects also have the ability to distort a form creating unstable curvilinear forms. This level of complexity is interesting, but the architect now must edit. The architect must edit his work to make sure the form doesn't overwhelm the function.
Kolarevic, make a strong point about the future of the digital revolution. The production of "Blobs" is interesting today, but if architects don't edit and redesign their work to complete functional tasks then their the novelty of their work won't survive. "Blobs aren't enough," Kolarevic says and he is right. Architects have been given great new tools to build structures inconceivable 100 years ago, but if they can't preform functions beyond their facades then they are doomed to fail. The new forms created by the computer should still follow the motto "form follows function." We should use the computer to progress our designs and create better buildings, not just use this new technology to entertain ourselves with interesting forms.
by Banko Kolarevic
In recent years new digital design technology has started a revolution in architecture. The advances in design on the computer have created new tools for architects to use to create more diverse and complex structures. Today architects are able to build structures with amazing accuracy that only decades before would have been impossible. Banko Kolarevic argues in his essay "Digital Morphogenesis" that digital design as helped transform and progress the architecture profession to new heights. I agree that the use of computer designed buildings bring a new level of sophistication to architecture, as well as helping to build structures that are more efficient, and cheaper and faster to construct.
Kolarevic begins his discussion about digital design by talking about revolutionary buildings of the industrial age. He points to the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Crystal Palace in London as buildings that helped start a revolution in iron and steel design. He says that this is architecture adapting to new technology. He then points out that digital design technology is very similar to these iconic structures of the industrial age as it allows us to use our new technology to produce buildings once thought impossible. Kolarevic is correct in his assessment. Digital design is allowing architects to enter a whole new world of building design. Architects can now create shapes and distort forms that would have been to complex a generation before. Look a Frank Gehry's work at the Guggenheim Museum in Spain. The unconventional shape of the building could only have been produced on a computer and without a computer it would have been almost impossible to create the construction documents.
The revolution is moving architects from creating boxes to creating "blobs." This movement Kolarevic argues is a change to a more intelligent building. As we use computers the precision of our construction will increase, this allows us to build structures that aren't subjected to the constraints of a basic structural system. This is a massive release for architects. Architects now have more freedom over their design work as the structural systems that can be built advance tremendously.
The design process has also changed in this revolution. No longer does the architect work so strongly in plan and section. Now an architect has the ability to design with 3-D modeling and perspectives. Borrowing a design tools from ship builders (who work almost exclusively in model and 3-D form) architects can now work on all aspects of the building at one time. This simplified process allows the architect to deal with forces and problems faster and with a better understanding of what is going on. The designer also has the ability to take risks with designs that can easily be corrected at a later date. The form of the structure also begins to take a more important role. Now an architect can work with form while working in plan, meaning he can give a form a more meaningful purpose in relationship to the plan. Architects also have the ability to distort a form creating unstable curvilinear forms. This level of complexity is interesting, but the architect now must edit. The architect must edit his work to make sure the form doesn't overwhelm the function.
Kolarevic, make a strong point about the future of the digital revolution. The production of "Blobs" is interesting today, but if architects don't edit and redesign their work to complete functional tasks then their the novelty of their work won't survive. "Blobs aren't enough," Kolarevic says and he is right. Architects have been given great new tools to build structures inconceivable 100 years ago, but if they can't preform functions beyond their facades then they are doomed to fail. The new forms created by the computer should still follow the motto "form follows function." We should use the computer to progress our designs and create better buildings, not just use this new technology to entertain ourselves with interesting forms.
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