Actualizing

2012

A r i e G r a a f l a n d ( s e c t i o n e d i t o r ) a n d H e i d i S o h n ( a s s i s t a n t e d i t o r )

Oz, 2001

CTBUH Journal 2014 Issue III - for the Shanghai Conference September 2014

2017

The precision of digital simulations is breath-taking and seems omnipresent. No matter how closely one zooms in on a drawing, its lines remain thin and sharp, its corners well-defined. In turn, calculations afforded by BIM-modelling or similar programs support the perception that all aspects of a building can be modelled, their properties can be viewed and juxtaposed at any moment. This feeling of control and precision extends throughout the digital workspace enabled by computers. This feature makes digital drawing the great equalizer throughout the design process: in all stages, maximum precision is possible. This precision extends well beyond the design process proper: it directly feeds into the construction process, as digital drawings can be used to manufacture prefab parts, extending digital precision into the physical world. The processes of conception and realization are as it were united by digital technology: In the past, the realization phase seemed to represent a clear break with the design phase, while digital technology removes this break altogether by introducing great precision in virtual space, allowing its seamless translation into its physical counterpart. In this paper, we argue that despite the ubiquitousness of digital simulation architectural design has a vital role to play in research, especially in problems regarding urban sustainability. First, we examine two deep-seated assumptions about architectural practice, and explain how these assumptions are still structuring thinking about the architectural design process (section 2). Then, we expand on a short theoretical excursus explaining how these assumptions structure thinking about achieving urban sustainability (section 3). Subsequently (section 4), we explain in a short theoretical excursus how we can bypass these assumptions. Then, we demonstrate with examples from our own research how this theory can be put in practice (section 5). In the conclusion (section 6), we reflect on some of the consequences of our methodology for the architectural practice and the role of future-making.

Hungary Within the field of architectural education, a huge hiatus has arisen between the architectural idea dictated by disciplines typical of schools and the real architectural feasibility. Not only the trendy architectural slogans of the virtual context have lifted the plans from the ground of reality, but also architecture, which is educated bona fide on high level, actually ignores the level of visual development of average people. At the universities the consultants' visions are manifested into the designs of the students: the knowledge of the "master" is transmitted to the students in a verbal form, and after a personal transcription they use this for answering an architectural problem. The plans may live on paper, models, virtual space-but they are not connected to real social needs. The actuality of this antagonism becomes obvious when the newly graduated architects start to work in offices or get their first works. The need for feedback is getting stronger. Our architectural studio offers an alternative against the method of designing in "unreal" situations. Our course small in number provides the "reality" of a two-semester work and it is finished in a workshop. The task of the first semester is the analysis of specific building types. This introductory course is finished with an ideal-design, however it is not judged primarily by architectural aspects but by the relations between function-space form-mass. The second semester starts with the analysis of construction aspects; there the definite situation generated by the location is discussed in a complex approach through the elements of material, space and composition. The method of reacting the social contacts in the field of architectural education is a need of cultural communication. The use of site-specific material, the handmade construction, the planning process of consensus gives legal status for architecture of sustainability.

Materials actively affect the design of new product families that will change the way we live. MADeC’s aim and responsibility here are to stimulate those seeking new design instruments who want to revolutionize the way of conceiving the function of traditional objects.

Simulation solves real world problems safely and intelligently. It is a convenient analysis tool: it is visual, easy to understand and easy to check. In various areas of business and science, simulation helps to find optimal solutions and gives a clear understanding of complex systems. Bits Instead of Atoms: Simulation is an experiment to faithfully digitalize any system. Unlike physical modeling, such as creating a layout for a building, simulation is based on computer technology using algorithms and equations. The simulation model can be analyzed over time, and the animation can be viewed in 2D or 3D.

2008

Proceedings of the 30th National Conference on the Beginning Design Student, 2014

Embracing Imperfections: Bridging Digital Tools with Physical Reality "But, as nothing in "real" reality is exact, and as the software is fully exact, we also had to define small gaps to account for "errors" in the production and assembly..." - Bernard Cache, Towards a Fully Associative Architecture1 Imperfections in materials and processes are inherent to the nature of building. The master craftsman brings with him the ability to pre-empt, adjust, and accommodate for imperfections, honed through countless hours of practice. Increasingly widespread access to digital fabrication tools such as laser cutters and CNC mills provide the opportunity for students to engage in the direct process of fabricating and prototyping, confronting the literal translation of the digital line into reality. As argued by Kolarevic, "craft is no longer entrusted to the realm of production, which was its operative domain historically; it is manifest everywhere - in the definition of geometry and its manipulation, the engagement of the material and its production process..."2 As authorship over material and process become ever more complete, so too are the flaws and mistakes. While the profession embraces these "precise" methods of production and design, how do we prepare students to design for imperfections in the physical world with perfect digital models? When does physical reality begin to inform and supersede the digital construct? Can we structure a course to embrace material and process imperfections, imparting students with the ability to become the master craftsman? This paper uses the case study of a design+build digital fabrication course primarily focusing on CNC milling techniques with a short but intense 3-4 week format. Aptly titled "Fabricated Realities", students engage in the process of translating their digital constructs into physical constructs, culminating in a series of full-scale installations or furniture objects. Two iterations of the course have been offered, with conceptually opposite approaches. The first iteration students were allowed complete confidence in the digital models and the precision of the fabrication tools; all discussion and critique of the design assemblies were carried out in the virtual realm. The issue of tolerances was addressed within the digital models which were moved directly into final fabrication with virtually no physical prototyping. In the second iteration of the course extensive material tests and physical prototyping was carried out, with the feedback from the physical models leading the modification of the virtual models. Partially owing to the more ambitious geometries and unpredictable nature of the material, it was soon discovered that this "digital" project was extremely difficult to model and simulate accurately in the virtual realm, leading to the construction of scaled physical models in alternate materials that were surprisingly accurate representations of the final construct's bending and joining behaviors. 1 Cache, Bernard. 'Towards a Fully Associative Architecture.' Architecture in the Digital Age: p144 2 Kolarevic, Branko. Manufacturing Material Effects: Rethinking Design and Making in Architecture. New York: Routledge, 2008, p120

Immense operable datasets provide new operationalistic environments , which become to greater and greater extent " realities ". In this essay, I consider the overall Information Retrieval process as an objective physical process, representing it according to Melucci metaphor in terms of physical-like experiments. Various semantic environments are treated as analogs of various realities. The readers' attention is drawn to topos approach to physical theories, which provides a natural conceptual and technical framework to cope with the new emerging realities.