Computational Material Culture

Computation offers considerable possibilities for architecture, going well beyond the conventional sphere of design that focuses on the generation of complex geometries. Achim Menges , a regular contributor and guest-editor to 2, and Founding Director of the Institute for Computational Design (ICD) at the University of Stuttgart, is renowned for his pioneering approach to computation and materials. He describes how computation is enabling a convergence of the processes of form generation and materialisation, hailing in new areas of architectural speculation and experimentation, as demonstrated by the ICD/ITKE pavilions illustrated here.     

ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2014–15: Fibre Placement on a Pneumatic Body Based on a Water Spider Web

Process-based biomimetics focuses on the transfer of biological principles to architectural construction. To realise the ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2014 -15, presented here by Moritz Doerstelmann, Jan Knippers, Valentin Koslowski, Achim Menges, Marshall Prado, Gundula Schieber and Lauren Vasey of the Institute for Computational Design (ICD) and Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) research team at the University of Stuttgart, sensor-driven robotic fabrication was combined with advanced design computation and simulation. This enabled the construction of an architectural fibre structure on a pneumatic mould, drawing on the complex design of the web of a water spider.     

Material,Form and Force

Conventionally, material in architecture has been treated as the ‘servant’ of form. An iterative design process, though, that continuously integrates material, form and force has the potential to unfold a new generative logic of form-finding. This offers ways of processing the flow of forces through a material object and balancing variations of form with the organisation and behaviour of material. Toni Kotnik and Michael Weinstock present a series of experimental construction projects, developed within the Emergent Technologies and Design (EmTech) programme at the Architectural Association (AA) in London, that explore the intricate relationship between material, form and force. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2013-14: Modular Coreless Filament Winding Based on Beetle Elytra

The ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2013-14, presented here by Moritz Doerstelmann, Jan Knippers, Achim Menges, Stefana Parascho, Marshall Prado and Tobias Schwinn of the Institute for Computational Design (ICD) and Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) research team at the University of Stuttgart, is based on biological lightweight construction principles. It demonstrates how the development of integrative processes of design computation, simulation and robotic fabrication enable the simultaneous exploration of novel design possibilities, constructional effectiveness and robustness through the expression of material characteristics.     

Upgrading Computational Design

Shajay Bhooshan heads up the computation and design ZHACODE group at Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) and is a course master at the Architectural Association Design Research Laboratory (AADRL). Here he argues that Parametricism 2.0 has a vital role to play in the progressing of computational design. Assimilating the exploratory developments of the last 15 years, he asserts how the next phase of Parametricism will enable a further consolidation and evolution of digital practices.     

Drawing into the Cloud

Architectural designer, maker and researcher Birgir Örn Jónsson describes Islands of Vision, a speculative design project that he developed while in Unit 23 at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL). Acknowledging the predominance of the image and the underutilisation of the full range of visual experience in contemporary life, Jónsson set out to explore the entire field of vision, reasserting the periphery ‘as a rich and dynamic mode of sensation’. With the aid of ScanLAB Projects and their 3D point cloud scanner, Jónsson scanned the project's site at Lee Valley Park, East London.     

Fibrous Tectonics

Living nature is characterised by ubiquitous and all-pervading diversity. Over the course of evolution, highly differentiated and infinitely varied systems have emerged in biology. Given the vast range of natural variation, it may come as a surprise that almost all load-bearing biological structures are fibrous composites. Guest-Editor Achim Menges , Director of the Institute for Computational Design (ICD), and Jan Knippers , Director of the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE), both at the University of Stuttgart, have conducted several research projects exploring how the principles of biological fibre systems can be transferred to architecture. Based on advanced design computation, simulation and robotic fabrication, these explorations not only open up a new approach to fibre-reinforced composite structures, but also enable the discovery of novel fibrous tectonics.     

Close Up

The last two decades have brought with them unprecedented technological changes that have had a far-reaching impact on design ethos and culture. Hernan Diaz Alonso , Principal of Xefirotarch and Professor of Architecture at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), reflects on the nature of these changes: observing that as ‘criticality in architecture’ is ‘replaced by talent’ or ‘virtuosity’, there is a greater ‘focus on specific architectural or design problems’. This brings with it a shift from the design detail, reliant on technical expertise and precision, to ‘the close-up’ that is more concerned with resolution and the conceptual, bridging the gap between the intellectual and the physical.     

Architecture of the Occasion

In an age of casual dressing and informal, fluid social meetings, Pia Ednie-Brown , Associate Professor the School of Architecture and Design at RMIT University, Melbourne, highlights the paradox of the highly formalist nature of many temporary structures. Often designed to be the event itself, pop-ups have become the ‘architecture of the occasion’. These are epitomised by the elaborate and eccentric one-off designs of cultural pavilions or follies. Could it be, Ednie-Brown asks, that this shift to a formalist architecture is giving us the unique opportunity to embrace the casual informality of today's social interactions, while still getting ‘glimmeringly sequined up for the event’?     

Smart Living Architecture: Solar Prototypes. IAAC Endesa Pavilion Barcelona

Areti Markopoulou and Rodrigo Rubio of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) describe how the institute's Endesa Pavilion in Barcelona responds to the contemporary challenge of constructing intelligent and sustainable prototypes, as a structure that interacts and exchanges resources with its environment. Parametrically designed, it reacts to the data of its specific solar site, and via its flexible solar cells generates twice as much energy as it consumes.     

The Builder's Name: SHoP and the Ethics of Knowledge Transfer

Since its inception in 1996 in New York City, SHoP Architects has fixed its sights on reshaping the relationship between design and construction; not only by pioneering the use of new building and modelling technologies, but by assuming a new level of responsibility for the management and assembly of components. Philip Nobel , architectural author and Editorial Director at SHoP, describes how the practice's longstanding engagement with construction has led to an awareness of the importance of the empowerment of builders, leading to responsiveness to local conditions and a proper connection between designers and those who deliver their designs.