markboynton-blog

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found objects

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It took a bit to figure out that a component was missing in the grasshopper file (Rhatt). Once that was figured out, I began drawing and manipulating curves, going back and forth between using iterations of the same curve, or drawing new curves each time. Above are two pursuits. I will say it was very difficult to have control over this project. Once I restricted myself to drawing curves that were parallel to the block surfaces, it became easier, because I didn’t have to visualize how the curve would be flattened to the object’s surface. 

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Material Systems

Toward a Pedagogy of Material Systems Research (Alquist, Thun, Newell, Velikov)

In their essay regarding fabrication and experimentation at the University of Michigan, the authors establish the material system and how to approach it. They emphasize the importance of recognizing the inherent material qualities of building components. No longer do architects follow Le Corbusier’s definition of architecture; the assemblage of masses in light. The authors claim that “now our attention is turned far more intently to the processes of formation and production that define these “masses”—which are increasingly understood as thickly layered assemblies with very specific material characteristics and environmental behaviors” (23). This is a result of access to new materials and new ways of affecting and controlling them. Physical materials have to be controlled through multiple systems both in the digital and physical realm in order to gain agency: “No single method is considered robust enough to manage the entire design space of a material system” (28). The difficult part is to now make these new, adaptable materials available for actual implementation within construction.

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Upon testing the robot, the tighter turns within the curve had to be relaxed and smoothed as to not over saturate that part of the image, as the light creates a fairly thick line in the air. 

Kuka KR60-Light Drawing part 1

The curve proposed for the light drawing aims to appear to be folding and unfolding, as well as hoping to achieve the illusion of depth/dimension through the use of forms that appear foreshortened.

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Light Drawing; Part II

Collaboration with: Mark Boynton (@markboynton), Aileen Cano (@aileenca-no), and Mikehl Hafner(@mehafner97)

The final result of this two week project. Previous designs were changed to engage the z axis in order to see how the distribution of light might change; however, the changes were too slight to be seen. 

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RTM: Formwork

PANOTS & MOSAICS: THE PLASTICITY OF HYDRAULIC CEMENT THROUGH MAKING ELEMENTAL | ORNAMENTAL

Since the inclusion of cement in architecture, the issue of formwork has always seemed to puzzle the designer. The effort to construct formwork makes it a shame to simply tear down after curing is complete; it seems as if you are doing the same job twice. However, it is difficult to develop processes that include the formwork, and in which the formwork is visually appealing enough to leave up in the first place. You would be surprised and disappointed to see a gothic church ceiling cluttered with wood scaffolding and supports. The Romans were the first to develop some means of integrated formwork, by constructing the shell of a wall with bricks and infiling it with cement to strengthen and thicken. 

In these two Research Through Making projects, we see an example of integrated formwork and lost formwork. In Panots and Mosaics, a mechanical system of compression and a variable table is reused for each piece. Not only does it not waste excess formwork for each tile, it is dynamic and can create a unique tile each time it is used. In the Elemental, Ornamental project however, the formwork is unfortunately lost. A ceramic, 3D printed formwork is then cast with metal and discarded. Here, we feel a sense of loss and waste by the time and effort needed to 3D print in ceramic not being represented in the final product. The first project deals with thin surfaces, making the adaptation of formwork easier, but it would be interesting to take on reusable and dynamic formwork for solids and forms.

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Agency Continuum

Crawford, Carr

Agency is the understanding of something. It is understanding something and making decisions based of this knowledge. In our first project, I understood the process of folding and how that resulted in a complex form. Then, I derived a graphic that interacted with this crimped surface. The agency and understanding of the paper construction allowed me to design. However, in the grasshopper projects that followed the agency lacked. In one of the definitions, a graph was present. Sure, I can move sliders around, understand their implications, and design from there. But, I did not perceive how the graph affected the output; this was a case of moving something around aimlessly until I liked how it looked. In this case, I did not have agency, however, I could earn that agency through experience and deeper study. 

Carr and Crawford seem to think that something new has entered our culture that is taking away from craft or from our attention (and at a great cost). I do not agree that we have taken a turn, or that some new condition has arisen from advanced technology and softwares. Agency is a continuous spectrum. When the wheel was introduced, we no longer had our face up against the stone that we were persuading across the landscape. A technology shifted our attention and focus resulting in a shift of consequence. With the wheel, we avoid the problem of grinding the stone on the earth, but are at risk of losing control and watching as our limestone chunk goes tumbling down the hillside. In current times, the technology is different, and the mistakes and stakes are different. These essays call for attention and understanding of these truths, but I do not see where something is to be done about it. 

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Robotic precision in cahoots with a still, mounted camera results in an effortless and easily identifiable form. A human held mirror attempts to attain the perfect reflection while the shutter remains open, but cannot; we unfortunately have to breathe. The camera receives both the immediate image from the robot arm and the human filtered one. Between the two images, the strive for reflection perfection is apparent. 

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Things to note:

-form resulting from multiple moves

-nesting suggests protrusion from base rather than excavation from surface

-layer of logic added with paint-then manipulated and distorted in other locations

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It kinda sucks that I have no idea how this definition works, but it was pretty fun to use and control. Maybe it’s time to start watching tutorials and creating my own definitions. 

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Greg Lynn, “Animate Form”

23Architects have long perceived their buildings as permanent and static. They are designed and built as if they are to last forever, with a heavy focus on how to withstand the dominant force of gravity. We often deemphasize the other undeniable forces such as lateral winds, uplifts, and shearing. Lynn writes, “Of course architects and structural engineers do not ignore these other structural factors, but the primary perception of structure has always been that it should be vertical. A reconceptualization of ground and verticality in light of complex vectors and movements might not change the expediency and need for level floors, but it would open up possibilities for structure and support that take into account ’orientations other than the simply vertical” (14). Lynn is not arguing that the form of the building must actively change resulting from forces, but that it act like the hull of a ship, specifically designed to persist through any number of unique naval forces. The building should no longer fight against gravity for solitary goal of height, but react elegantly to the many unique forces that a specific site condition brings. Lynn argues that the way to do this is with dynamic surface conditions: “Curvature in a temporal environment is the method by which the interaction of multiple forces can be structured, analyzed, and expressed” (23). While these skins and surfaces are static by definition, they express a dynamism that also wrestles with the unique forces of a particular site condition. 

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Manuel DeLanda, “Deleuze and use of Genetic Algorithm in Architecture”

This reading comes back to the continuous theme of yes, computational design is crazy, and yes it is scary, but the human twist will always be needed in order to make it worthwhile or meaningful. It becomes a bit tiring seeing how much architects must convince themselves that they are necessary. DeLanda particularly discusses the idea of evolutionary design and how we might be able to mimic nature when we approach the design of a column and desire never before seen forms. The problem is that we are unable to set up a context in which a design process motored by natural selection would be completely comprehensive and effective. As DeLanda mentioned, forces and stress need to be included in the mockups. Also, I do not see columns mating with walls anytime soon. The evolution occurs within a virtual mockup, and is then placed into the world that we are familiar with. This jump seems like it would break the system. As soon as something becomes built, it will be frozen and no longer interact with the survival of the fittest game happening within the computer. The column can’t have mutant offspring. 

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vase_01 Embraces the tabs’ obtrusion into the composition by allowing it to be a featured element of the object. 

vase_02 Allows the tab to distract from the image of a smooth container.

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Stan Allen, “Practice: Architecture, Technique, and Representation

In his writing, Allen wrestles with representation’s responsibilities in architectural practice. Rather than disregard it altogether, or herald it as some higher art, he finds its place between the two;

“To work critically today is also to function instrumentally — that is to say, it is to be willing to bring projects and proposals into direct confrontation with the complexity of the real. To work critically is to learn to be comfortable with the paradox of simultaneously affirming and calling into question the means of representation employed. Practice works in the gap between theory and the world.”

Allen evaluates how the historical development of the axonometric and perspectival drawing types have lent themselves to being used critically or not. In discussion of early 20th century artists, he states, “perspective records what already exists, whereas axonometric constructs that which does not yet exist”. 

Allen’s message is clearly stated in “architects who have aimed at acquiring manual kill without scholarship have never been able to reach a position of authority to correspond to their pains, while those who relied upon theories and scholarship were obviously hunting the shadow, not the substance”.

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unwind/rewind

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“Underlying rules of the system”

In her article, “The construction of a problem: Architecture modelling after Descartes”, Jane Burry identifies and explains how architecture’s relationship with geometry has changed with the infiltration of the computer. Before, architects implemented established geometries in their buildings in creative and formal ways. Now, architects that embrace the digital world develop “generative and parametric systems in which it is the underlying rules of the system that are manipulated rather than the form itself”. It is easy to interpret the “established geometries” side of this argument as extremely western and greco-centric. However, in comparison to the ability of the digital age to create unperceivable spaces, all historical work, no matter where constructed, can be seen as using pre-understood geometries. This is by no means attempting to simplify this kind of work. It is interesting to note that Burry promotes the argument that there is still need for the human intuition in the design process. In the Sagrada Familia digital models, it was necessary to integrate “certain local hand wrought changes and irregularities in the model” to allow for the desired result. Burry leaves some parts of her arguments foggy, such as what she means by “constructed problems”. Is an architectural constructed problem the solution from a set of real, given building constraints, or the manifestation of prodding geometrical algorithms for the sake of it?