This week we are kicking it off with a project from SCI-ARC by Kyd Kitchaiya, as we check out Black Box.  The project looks straight out of “Tron”, and maybe with good reason, as it designed to be a museum about energy.  The project at first glance goes right against green design in a hot climate with a black facade, but with good reason.  Check it out and find out why!

SCHOOL: SCI-Arc
STUDENT: Kyd Kitchaiya
YEAR: 2009

“Black Box was designed to be conscientious of Los Angeles’ social and environmental context.

The museum generates its own energy along with supplying power to its neighbors. Sited on the old Natural History Museum lot, the museum became an addition for educating Angelenos and its visitors about energy.

The proposed design is wrapped in black to challenge the idea that black is an irresponsible color in a hot climate.

The black facade instead became a generative element that harvests energy from the sun to power the building. Minimal openings were made for natural lighting. The glazing pattern was cut to reflect the main circulation paths in the museum.” - Kyd Kitchaiya

All text and images via www.kydkit.com

Today we head back to SCI-Arc to showcase this spaceship?  Or maybe some sick speakers? Or none of the above as Yaohua Wang won best thesis in 2010 with this proposal to bring back the independent housing typology to Beijing.  A beautifully articulated design proposal to have these pods branching off of an obsolete factory building.  However whether it is a home or a future space ship, it is well worth checking out as we head into the weekend! 

SCHOOL: Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc)
STUDENTS: Yaohua Wang
YEAR: 2010
COURSE: Thesis

“During the modernization of Beijing, except for some historical houses, independent housing typology was almost eliminated. Afterwards, the new model became huge, stacking commercial residential buildings.

Thus, with the support of the client, project Beijing House II is trying to seek new methods of bringing the independent housing typology back to Beijing’s contemporary city life.  This design scheme adds a new house onto the exterior of an obsolete factory building. Inside the house there are bedrooms, a studio and a green room. By doing this, the design uses the empty city space in the air and rediscovers the typology of independent housing in Beijing city.

Meanwhile, this scheme also brings about new challenges because Beijing has frequent earthquakes and this design scheme suggests a big cantilever house, which is attached onto the exiting building.  Therefore, to keep this in mind, a mechanical system is introduced to counteract a potential earthquake.

The design attitude of this scheme is very honest when dealing with the fluid geometry and the mechanical system. This scheme tries to mix and merge these two different styles together instead of hiding any one of the two different systems. This becomes one of the main features of the design.”

All text and Images via yaohuawangarchitecture.com

to answer the question:

“what is architecture?”

you have to first find its enemy, you have to find its Moby Dick. But as i stood on the deck like Ahab, I realised there is no single Moby, just endless Dicks’

Eric Owen Moss SCI-Arc

* BONUS *

Today we’re gonna share a whole variety of great models with you from students at SCI-Arc.  A series of photos from the SCI-Arc 2011 Spring Semester show.  There are no words, just amazingly intricate, inspiring and crazy models.  Check em out.

For more photos from the show, check out ABBS.com

Studio Brief

From the standpoint of urbanism, the city has mainly been defines as a problem between the figure and its ground. The intention of the design studio is to take a materialist position towards urbanism, whereby the figure/ground problem is replaced by a problem between form and matter. The aim of the studio is to design new figure/ground diagrams, actualized by the properties of matter of the urban territory.

Disciplinary Thesis

From a formalist position, urbanism is seen as a figure/ground problem. Within the history of urbanism two figure/ground diagrams emerged. The first one can be called the ‘Nolli’ diagram. Within the ‘Nolli’ diagram, its buildings define the ground of the city. These buildings are seen as an anonymous mass, in which the figurative spaces of circulation are carved out. This figure/ground diagram stands for all the cities: from the Greek Polis until the post-liberal European city of the 19^th century. The second formalist diagram of the city can be called the Piranesi diagram. Within the Piranesi diagram, formulated by his Marte Campi project for Rome, the figure of the city is define by all its architectures and the ground is seen as the circulation spaces in-between these buildings. This figure/ground diagram especially stands for the modernist city where the figure, defined as building mass, floods above a liberated ground.

From a materialist position, the city can be defined by the emergent effects of economical professes. Seeing all morphological formations driven by the forces of money, the figure, as a building, can no longer stand as a unified entity. It is no longer an object. The figure is rather, as Hilberseimer wrote in his book on the ‘Grosstadt’, “the place in which the elementary assemblage of single cells assumes physical form”(1). This means that any figurative object of the city can be understood as an aggregation of inhabitable cells, either being loosely aggregated as in the suburban of defining solid aggregations in our metropolis. If from a materialist position the urban figure is defined as an aggregate, the ground of the city then can be seen as the matter through which these aggregations take their physical shape. Such matter of the ground varies from the physical property of the territory, to the property of curvature of the topography, to the economical value of the land.

Summarized we can say that taking a materialist point of view towards the city, the figure can be understood as modulations of cellar aggregates and the ground can be seen as the intensive property of matter, by which the modulations of our buildings take place.

Design Task

The above described thesis will be applied on a site near Porter Ranch in the San Fernando Valley, a site where the ET movie in the 80′s was shot. The research part of the studio will be a search into some intensive properties of the territory. These properties will reach from the intensive property of curvature of the topography, to an economical value map of the ground. The second part of the research is to identify an extensive or metrical property of the territory. A typical housing environment in LA will give the metrical properties, due to its particular subdivision of land and housing types. While the circulation space will be mainly driven by the intensive property of the topography, the agglomeration density of houses will mainly be defined by the economical values. The intention of the studio is to intertwine the space of circulation with the space of inhabitation to come up with a series of ground/figure modulations. These modulations should have the intrinsic property to allow patterns of circulation to emerge, which are beyond the conventions of accesses known in the suburb.

1. Ludwig Hilberseimer’s Groszstadtarchitecture, qouted by Manfredo Tafuri in his book: “Architecture and Utiopia-Design and Capitalist Development

Readings

Kwinter, Sanford “Landscape of Change” Assemblage nr. 19, dec 1992

Peter Eisenman “Unfolding…”, written in the Void, Selected Writings 1990-2004 Yale University Press

Todd May “Gilles Deleuze – An introduction” Cambridge University press 2005

Peter Trummer “Associative design – from type to populations” AD Computational Techniques reader, Wiley London 2011

]]> http://chihanglo.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/6/ Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:37:55 +0000 chihanglo http://chihanglo.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/6/

This portfolio on my works on different points
if it is to do evaluate to the education and its
author. First is the main role played by this
portfolio within the overall work; one more is
the design process, which is presented by way of
a conversation among diagram explanations that are
interesting; highly informative and comprehensive
photos that provides interesting last-chance views
of the hidden world behind the now-finished project
of the design process. In view of the unusual and
spatial dimensions of what is a unique portfolio
in architecture study, the entire academic and
architectural latitude of the work of me.

We are heading back to the 2011 Solar Decathlon to showcase CHIP a collaborated design by Sci – Arc and Caltech.  The project itself is amazingly designed and focused much more on creating a Net-Zero home of the future.  The project placed very well in the competition and we highly suggest you check out their site after the jump!

SCHOOL: Sci-ARC & Caltech
COURSE: U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon / chip2011.com
STUDENTS: TEAM
YEAR: 2011

“CHIP is a prefab, net-zero solar-powered house designed and built by a student-run team from two Southern California schools: Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The house is the team’s entry for the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 competition.

CHIP (which stands for “Compact Hyper-Insulated Prototype”) is designed to challenge every architectural and engineering preconception regarding the net-zero-energy home. CHIP is the result of a 2-year research, design, and construction collaboration between both schools and various consultants. CHIP announces a new generation of energy-efficient, affordable housing.

The 750 sq.ft. plan consists of five platforms. Each platform is assigned a program. The platforms further south are more public spaces while the upper levels to the north are more private.

Each program platform is an open space served by adjacent “poché” walls running along the east and west sides of the interior. All mechanical accoutrements are situated along the western poché wall while the east is composed of dynamic reconfigurable furniture and storage elements.

CHIP’s shape begins as a primitive box, which is then faceted in several dimensions. The first facet negotiates between an optimal roof angle for year-round solar energy collection, and a comfortable, vaulted interior space. Further faceting of the primitive shrinks and torques the plan to minimize the building’s footprint on the exterior, while accommodating the programmatic needs of the occupant on the interior.

CHIP uses conventional and affordable Type-V (light wood) framing methods, yet is able produce unconventional angles and a dynamic architectural space within. The majority of the framing components do not require any compound angle cuts, thus ensuring the structure can be produced by a typical wood house framer, eliminating the need for specialized skills. Engineered wood was used along the module splits instead of steel to reinforce the edges of the modules. Engineered wood is stronger and more sustainable than lumber, but can be handled in the same way.

CHIP turns the conventional wall assembly inside out. A soft fabric exterior expresses the character of a thick insulation layer that helps CHIP conserve energy. This inversion results in a counter intuitive, yet surprisingly plausible and affordable design. While the unconventional exterior may seem unique for a house, it is created through the use of the most standard of construction materials. The soft skin is seamed as a whole and attached from top to bottom. The use of the skin eliminates the need for the complicated waterproofing systems found in conventional building envelopes. Like a sock the fabric is unrolled and stretched around the insulated frame.”

The rest of the project is on their website www.chip2011.com and well worth your time to check it out!

All Text and Images via www.chip2011.com

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Maysam Ghaffari,
Tutor: Andrew Atwood, Robotic Fabrication/
Sci-Arc Robotic Lab/Fall2011
Real Time Robot Simulation test /
Arduino ping sensor+Grasshopper+ghowl+TouchOSC

Today, we’re skipping all the Black Friday hoopla to bring you a sweet project.  All though you may have seen it a couple of years ago, we’re showing it cause we thinks its awesome, and we wish we were at Coachella right now, enjoying awesome music and great weather.  SCI-Arcs pavilion for the festival created a space for concert goers to escape the crush of crowds, and an environment to just relax, whether in an altered state or not.

SCHOOL: SCI-Arc
PROFESSORS: Benjamin Ball, Gaston Nogues, Andrew Lyon

Most concert goers are not there to understand form active structures or to look critically at a design methodology. In working on a festival, designers can have these agendas for themselves but it is not the same as exhibiting in a gallery or an art fair where there is an expectation that the audience will try to understand the work as developing through a methodology and set of intentions outside the creation of spectacle and atmosphere. So we were advancing different agendas – one for the Festival organizers and one for the team.

It had clear spatial typologies within it – an amphitheater space, a vaulted passage space and individual gems which became private chill out pods. It had clear spatial typologies within it – an amphitheater space, a vaulted passage space and individual gems which became private chill out pods. The passageway was oriented with the festival ground plan in mind so that the crowds moving from stage to stage would see it and pass through – it had misters , people would pose in front; it was a continual photo opportunity. All of this was expected.

So we asked student Benlloyd Goldstein what he learned from this studio…

First of all, the Rock n’ Roll Fantasy studio was a fun semester. This was hugely do to our professors. Benjamin, Gaston, and Andrew led us through a studios dream semester : design, build, party. Normally a semester involves digital pinups and printouts, hours on end in front of the screens, and evaluation based on imagining how the design could be experienced at full scale. However, we started this semester knowing that we would be working through both physical models and computer models to build a full scale space for Coachella as a team, and that it had to rock.

I think 2 important lessons i learned this semester was one relating to design and one relating to the execution of a project.

design//

No matter how much we seem to be enticed by the sensations of form on the screens, one thing alot of us students took away from this semester was the idea of “listening” to a material that has embedded complex structural logics and abilities.

For example, Joanne and I spent a while working with tube models, looping them and bending them to make them strong and springy ; every different scale model and material would generate its own unique set of curves, its own solution. The final gem solution was more of a discovery brought forth through working with the material at its specific scale than an imposed “image” of what the design should look like. The result was a system of Lissajous like curves that yielded an optimized physical performance of the unit as well as an inspiring “image”.

Lesson : listen to matter

execution//

Some design studio semesters focus on developing an individuals methods and production, causing the student to rely on him/her self to achieve design goals. This semester was different.

This semester gave us an invaluable lesson in getting a project developed and built as a team for a real client with a real budget in a short time frame. There really is no way this could have been done without the efforts of the whole studio and the instructors. From the jig construction , fabrication process, budget, designing the transportation, deployment, down to the healthy eats of the kitchen; we worked, camped, partied, laughed, cried, and bonded as a studio.  As we met constraints we would respond as a team, and the design would evolve further, until we met our goals. Then came the final mission which was to party! It was an awesome semester, and Im so glad I got to be a part of it.

Lesson : healthy team dynamics are essential to the success of built work

Observing the way the public responded also provided important lessons.

So how did the concert-goers respond to the installation? Was it used as you expected? Were there any surprises?

During the day it was a sculptural curiosity that cooled people off with mist. At night it completely transformed – people flocked to it like moths around a light – it was a different place, they came there to soak up the atmosphere; the atmosphere affected them. It was a kind of psychological oasis apart from the mayhem of crowds and loud music; it was soothing. People hunkered down inside of the gems (except for a few times when we needed people to clear out to take “architectural” photographs devoid of people). People smooched, lounged, and smoked in it.

Text, interview, and photos via Archinect

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CONDITIONAL RESPONSE
A system of organization between alignments, agreements and collaboration that investigate gestural forms of dialogue
between inhabitants and an evolving human/robotic environment. Using choreography as a class of ideas that combines
complex relationships, patterns and process as a study model for a kinesphere involving human and robotic functions with
multiple types of interactions in non-linear space
WORK FLOW
CHOREOGRAPHY IK/FK SOLVERS [MAYA] [R]
POiNT CLOUD DATA
[KINECT TO OPENKINECT W/ XCODE + X11 TO MOULLINEX PROCESSING APPLICATION TO MAYA W/ CACHE CLOUD PLUG-IN]
IMAGE/VIDEO
[CAMERA TO PHOTOSHOP OR AFTER EFFECT]
MOTION CAPTURE
[KINECT TO 1.0.0.23 OPENNI/ NITE/ PRIMESENSE TO MIRAGE SERVER TO MAYA W/ MIRAGE PLUG-IN + TORBINSKO PLUG-IN
TO ESPERANT_O TO VAL3] [R-T]
SKELETON TRACKING
[KINECT TO 1.3.2.3-DEV OPENNI/ NITE/ PRIMESENSE TO PROCESSING TO MAPPINECT TO MIDI TO MAYA

Last week we joined 6,000 attendees from all over the country at the annual ULI Fall Meeting which returned to LA this year.  To give the visiting urban land folks a taste of LA, we worked with KCRW’s Frances Anderton and ULI LA‘s Sandra Kulli and Clare De Briere to curate a selection of pop-up shops set up around a mini-zocalo, each offering a native take on place making.

The Square proved to be a draw throughout the conference, with Homeboy Industries‘ graphic tees flying off the shelves, Conscious Commuter‘s electric fold-up bicycle attracting waves of other conscious commuters, and wanderlusters lusting over notNeutral‘s map-inspired dishware. Live performances by singer/songwriter (and chemist!) Dafni, the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, USC’s “Spirit of Troy” Marching Band, and the Finn Kappe Sextet brought even more local flavor to The Square (which ironically could be found under a very triangular sign!)  Judging by the fact that the seats were packed throughout the conference, we think they liked it.

More importantly, for us it was a great opportunity to hang out for a few days with some of LA’s best and brightest.  The only downside: arctic LA Convention Center temperatures and not seeing daylight for three days.

Special thanks to Haworth and Unisource for providing the furniture for the entire Square.  Without their contribution, the wheelers and dealers would have had nowhere to do their wheelin’ and dealin’.

Also, a huge thank you to all the amazing LA participants: Art Center’s Advanced Mobility Research group, Bloom Energy, Community Arts Resources, Otis College of Art and Design, SCI-arc, USC, Woodbury University, HOLA, Skylight Books, Watts House Project, Bill Kleiman, Behn Samareh, Standard, Tiffany Tedesco, Oyler Wu Collaborative, Rethink LA, John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects, and Tom Schnabel.  Also big ups to the Finn Kappe Sextet for performing for a small-but-quality crowd and DJ Raul Campos for hanging out with us.

This project just further proves to us that LA is filled with some pretty awesome, talented, and ingenious people.

Below are couple examples of Robots being use to fold, print or fabricate components which could be used as building block.

First, lets start with London, ROBOFOLD offers workshops, and rents out their large 6 axis Robotic Arms which are mainly use for Folding Metal sheets.

Above: Robofold at 100% Design 

Above: Connection between the Grasshopper Interface and the Robots through Lobster

In Sci-Arc’s Robotics Lab   Zachary Schoch used robots to spread threads around a frame which he later removes to leave the amazing structures shown below.

Above: Video of Zachary Schoch’s Masters Thesis at Sci-Arc

In Vienna,  Robots in Architecture is an association set up by Johannes Braumann and Sigrid Brell-Cokcan which owork with a KUKA KR 5 SIXX R650 Robotic Arm to draw or punch holes. They also use Grasshopper but with the KUKA plugin. Below are couple images shown on their website:

Above: The Kuka Grasshopper GUI

Above: Sigfrid and Johannes with the Kuka Robotic Arm

Above: Video of Robot in Architecture’s Workshop at the Design Modelling Symposium 2011, Berlin.

You will be assimilated: The Borg ship has landed in LA.

The residents above, for instance, were able to merge the practicality of right angle architecture with their fondness for the Borg of Star Trek.

Twin tower chimneys flank each end of the house like warp drives, echoing the tailpipes of the similarly designed SUV in the driveway. Tan textured stucco wraps no-nonsense aluminum windows that, despite their views, remain sealed with vertical blinds (“Shields up!”) The glass block windows on the left continue the security-minded design, providing enough protection against phaser blasts, yet allowing solar radiation to enter the bowels of the ship.

The architects preserved the original front of the dwelling as a nod to history — or to create the impression that the ship landed directly on the back of the house.

Resistance is futile: Before shacking up in LA, the Borg had a few skirmishes with Jean-Luc Picard

Friday 19 Aug 2011

Original from World Architecture News(原文出自World Architecture News)

Jason Payne replicates curled Raspberry Fields roof system for SCI-Arc exhibition

Jason Payne 为南加州建筑学院展览会再造卷曲的山莓场地屋顶系统

All images courtesy of Joshua White

Los Angeles-based architect Jason Payne is recognised for his highly inventive and exploratory forms, classically showcased in 2010 project Raspberry Fields, a textured residential build in northern Utah. In this modest scheme, Payne – and his boutique architectural practice Hirsuta – encased the building in shingles which have curled drastically over the years in response to the freeze-thaw nature of the local climate.

洛杉矶建筑师Jason Payne因其2010年的一个位于犹他州北部的有质感的住宅项目“山莓场地”经典性地展示了他的极具创意性和探索性的形式而闻名。在这个不太显眼的方案中，Payne和他的精品建筑实践Hirsuta用彻底卷曲了的木瓦包住建筑物，这些木瓦是在当地气候的冻融自然条件下经过几年而形成的。

This abundance of twisted wooden shingles has been perfectly replicated in part for an exhibition at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). Payne and Hirsuta have recreated the roof of Raspberry Fields at 1:1 scale which will form the centerpiece of the gallery exhibition Rawhide until 11th September 2011.

在南加州建筑学院的展览会，大量的弯曲木瓦已经被部分地完美再造。Payne和Hirsuta已经以1:1的比例再创造了山莓场地屋顶，这将会形成Rawhide展览会的画廊中心装饰品，展览将持续到2011年9月11日。

An exploration into the relationship between a building’s ‘skin’ and an animal’s ‘hide’ forms the basis of this display piece, the mass of curling shingles presented as an architectural representation of a beast’s pelt. This theme has been continued into the surrounding space, where real cowhides grace the room ‘refigured as abstract bodies’.

建筑“表皮”和动物的“皮”之间关系的探索性成了这个显示块的基础，大量的卷曲木瓦呈现出动物皮毛的建筑表现。这个主题在周边空间中被延续，真牛皮美化了“作为抽象躯体而重塑”房间。

In order to achieve the desired look and feel of the roof – a weathered coiling of the wooden protrusions which would take years in a natural environment – Payne steam-curled the coat of cedar shingles, encouraging it to ‘take on the quality of an animal hide par excellence, moving architectural cladding toward something more wild and feral…the becoming animal of architecture’.

为了达到渴望的屋顶外观和感觉——原本需要在自然环境中放几年才能形成的天然弯曲的外露木——Payne把雪松木的外部蒸成卷曲，促进其成为“穿上最好的动物毛皮的特质，将建筑保护层转向一些更野性的东西……建筑正在变成动物”。

Boxetti wall unit incorpates desk, lounge chair and storage

We are always on the lookout for cool ways to conserve space; we’re especially interested in modular design ideas for furniture and fixtures that can fold into the wall or transform into something else.  These ideas were shared with us by Dovid Feld, the SCI-Arc student who is design for our trailer was featured in a another post.

In the YouTube video below, Michael Harboun’s  “Living Kitchen” features kichten fixtures made from nanobots, devices made from materials that transform along a programmed path then fold back into the wall when no longer needed: