Neoarchaic Design

Sereolipi: Limon Lab

admin — Tue, 01 May 2012 04:11:39 +0000

Sereolipi

Produced for Limon Lab

Developed for the Sereolipi Primary School project by Limon Lab, the exercise was to create a simple rhinoscript which could conceptually represent a structural grid system which would house a modular stretched fabric canopy. The canopy needed to be designed to have set states between semi open and closed to create a balance of full daylight permeation and complete direct solar shading. The structure was given as an adaptation of the Trusset system by proxy arch. The scope was to deliver an adaptable and flexible tool to quickly test and represent deployments of canopy patterns, while allowing for a basic degree of optimization in limiting the number of unique fabric types. The timeframe was one evening. The images are samples of the beta testing of the script, and do not represent the final project, which can be found at: Project Link.

firm: Limon Lab

program: Fabric Canopy

location: Kenya

date: 2008

team: Enrique Limon, Michael Caton

Canopy Wall: Roy Design

admin — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 08:48:08 +0000

Canopy

Produced for ROY

link to Roy Design

Developed for Roy Design, the charge was to develop a signature paneling system for a flagship store in NYC. The concept began with an interest in capturing the depth and richness of the tree canopy visual experience from beneath in a relatively planar panel system. The goal being to capture contrast of light, dark, and the subtle gradations between with non repeatable variation in a simple to assemble screen system. Beginning with inspiration from the material perfomance of expanded paper, specifically its ability to produce subtle gradation in its expansion from open to closed. The material achieves this effect through alernating the fold directions in the perforation. Additionally it is achieved through a series of linear cuts and relatively planar elements, connected by a deforming lattice. From this the technique, a modular approach to the assembly was developed and deployed in a conceptual scenario to test its range. The above representation is not of the final application, but of the initial conceptual performance tests.

firm: Roy Design

program: Interior Cladding Concept

location: New York, NY

date: 2008

team: Lindy Roy, Jason Lee, Carrie Mcknelly

relative^n(form)

admin — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 01:53:37 +0000

Studies of Relationships between Three Dimensional Geometry

A continuation of the exploration from relative^n(shape) these studies look at the relationships between two basic forms, linked to one another through an gridded distribution of vectors. The differences in position and scale of these forms conversely push outwards defining an new interpolated form. The basic geometries studied were sphere’s, ellipsoids, and toroids as they are the primary closed forms which can be made from a single surface. A second subset to this series looked at distortions of the torus though the use of crossed sin and cos wave amplifications. Though visually interesting, this was a dead end tangent as it disrupts the clarity of the results of the other studies. It is included in this set, as there were some interesting similarities in the results from this series and the pure relational studies.

platform: Grasshopper

typology: Geometry

date: 2012

reflections

admin — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 04:13:22 +0000

reflecting vectors in a volume

A few samples from recent tests of a vector reflection tool. The images are captures of a series of vectors spaced around an ellipse being projected onto a sphere and bouncing off the surface of a rotating cube which surrounds the collection. The component can be downloaded at:

http://neoarchaic.net/2012/04/reflector-beta/

platform: Grasshopper

typology: Geometry

date: 2012

BIT

admin — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 06:36:24 +0000

XYZ = RGB = (a+b+c)/3 = 0-1

BIT is an experiment in using spatially placed images projected though cubical volume to derive form. The concept is simple, cross and mine the interpolated greyscale values though the use of cubic voxels in a three axis gradated color space. Use residual values to find form, assign relative color and visualize the data. The goal is surprise and discovery though a process of play and intuition.

Taking advantage of Grasshopper for Rhino’s fast paced dashboard production and easy access to image sampling, along with its ability to use quickly generate color data, the production and use of a easy tool/ toy made the ability to follow intuition in the discovery process fast and clear.

BIT uses volumetric pixel samples from a combination of 6 images cubically arranged. Each tested point acquires its first value from a unitized increment taken between two images arranged across the cube from one another. These two images are then sampled to create a volumetric gradation of values.

From these values which represent a low and high greyscale, the function samples linear gradient at a set range of numbers. This returns a unitized values between zero and one which can be converted to any function from rotation to scaling to color to culling.

This process is then repeated for all three pairs of faces, called front, right, and top, which are reflexive to back, left, and bottom. Crossing sets of these three oriented numbers, a spatial point, returns three values which are summed and divided by 3, giving the average value at a given volumetric point.

The use of the three pairs of faces is then used to drive rgb values through the volume. The sample value from each aligned face determines the weight of the sample. The cross of these three results in a smooth transition of colors through the volumes, representing the weight of each sample point in the volume.

A cut off threshold is then applied to each volumetric points associated value. When a simple boolean process is applied, the resultant carving of the volume, reflects the weight or density of the sampled values. The forms that remain are residual images of the volumetric crossing of images.

The mapping of these volumes onto a planar sampling gives a better sense of the relationship between the color, form and the volume. Other transformation processes can be applied based on the data to better understand the spatial formations within the volumetric crossing of values.

Each differentiated spatial placement of the images creates a unique texture, form, and association.

BIT is a simple and ongoing exploration both of the potential to derive know forms though a unique process and to discover unknown and unexpected objects through play and intuition.

platform: Grasshopper

typology: Volume, Colour, Voxel

date: 2012

volume

admin — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 05:49:03 +0000

elli

admin — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 20:20:04 +0000

An Object of Craft for a Pioneer Age

elli began as an exploration in elliptical tiling which happened to coincide with a discussion about the future of the space station and the possibilities of future development and craft of objects that would be required to sustain life in space. The discussion ranged on topics from the tooth brush to the dishwasher to the dish. From the conversation, one idea resonated with the formal and material potentials that were emerging from the elliptical studies and sparked a direction in the materialization of the object itself, the elli pod.

In the discussion of domesticity of future colonists of orbital dwelling, the idea that as a dwelling in atmospherically isolated micro-climate, the use of plants as air replenishment/ purification and the local production of food would make locally grown edible plants a domestic necessity raised the intriguing possibility of a new direction in industrial design. Similar to the American pioneer where a strong relationship between cultivation and domesticity led to the development of a craft around the idea of the garden, an evolution of this interest in the plant might become the designer item of the non terrestrial inhabitant. And perhaps that in a future scenario influenced by the 20^th century rise of the emphasis on the relationship between form and function, the craft would not be in the representation of the plant, but in the objects needed for the cultivation itself. Given that the growth of plants would require a completely artificial substrate and environment and that growth would be omni-directional, the design of the traditional pot would need to dematerialize to spatially contain and choreograph the growth of the plant while engaging spatial and gravitational territory in which it would inhabit. As such, the craft of the plant, or the act of raising it would give rise to an artisan aesthetic, the growth and display of the plant as a designed object that spoke to the sensibility of its owner, what the designer chair or lamp of the 20^th century was. elli begins with an engagement of this idea though interrogation and response to the primary requirements of low gravity plant growth in an artificial environment. Forming in response to the low gravity horticultural needs of retaining a rooting substrate, nutrient and water injection in a low gravity environment, omnidirectional UV lighting, a guiding trellis, spatial location and density, and maintenance. elli is formed in response to these functional criteria, and articulated with a sensibility geared towards a domestic design aesthetic for the 21^st+ pioneer.

The pod itself is derived in response to a layering and interlocking of functionally responsive components. At the heart of an elli pod, a sphere of a nitrate rich condensed substrate acts as a rooting platform for for growth, wrapped in a permeable and biodegradable fabric, which as the rooting system of the plant grows in multiple directions and the budding pushes outward from the center of the sphere erodes and is replaced as a binding member by the root network. The sphere is held in place by 6 cubically distributed magnetic retention rings, which allow flexing and distortion in the base sphere, while still providing pressure and influence in the direction of growth. These rings are held in position by a series of tangentially aligned elliptical cones which provide an open cage for the growth of the plant. They also serve to hold a series of directional rings which contain and direct the functional tubes for the pod. The first of these tubes are 4 slow injection water/ nutrient canisters which puncture the central growth sphere and inject nutrients to the spatial center of the sphere at a slow controlled rate, allowing equal access to all directions of the growth substrate. Around these nutrient tubes, 8 horticultural LED light tubes provide omnidirectional sources of UV light to the growth of the plants. These light is amplified by the inner surfaces of the elliptical scaffold, which are a reflective magnetic metal. While the outside of the elliptical rings are a polished porcelain meant to retain and regulate heat while providing a low maintenance visible exterior surface. At the 8 outer corners of the pod, carbon fiber cable nodes provide anchor points for the positioning and clustering of the pods.

As a collection, the pods are envisioned as a flexibly deploy-able system, which can be packed to meet the functional, spatial, or aesthetic desire of the end user. They can stand on magnetic feet as a stand alone object, or mount to a wall panel as an anchored element. As a packed system, the electrical and nutrient delivery systems can be clustered to increase efficiency. Since the light sources are local the packing could be dense, space only needing to be allocated for the potential growth the plant. This cluster packing, enabled though the use of aircraft cable as a spanning member would allow for thick cubical or tetrahedral packing, as allowed for by the geometry, which would only need to open to allow access for harvesting. This mode of deployment would be the spatial garden and would turn the collection into a floating object. However, the application may also want to wrap a space, still allowing for occupancy with out an imposing object. Therefor the tiles can be daisy chained into a parallelogram two dimensional lattice, which can span a planar wall, or wrap a non planar surface through the use of flexible cable as a joining system. The lattices could then be layered as plies to increase efficiency over a given area, or simply double layered to allow for direct physical access to each pod. The system is meant to serve as either a stand alone entity or a interlocked network of balancing shared resources. As an exploration of a hypothetical future of domesticity, the elli concept seeks to project a possible scenario of engagement with a new context and social idea. Its looks to mine contemporary fabrication techniques and existing material applications to engage an speculative opportunity for a new design typology.

program: Object

location: Orbit

date: 2012

table_se

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 02:57:31 +0000

Mathematical Craft

Table_se blends mathematics and computational methods with the practice of a material craft. The concept for the table arose when studying the transformation of the parametric form of the super ellipse. The form of the super ellipse can move between a pure elliptic curve to a tangential pinched cross. By using a conic curve to control the rate of three dimensional plotting of the equation the resultant surface forms a broad flat surface then rapidly but smoothly peals down to a vertical condition. This behavior, analogous to functional requirements of a table additionally suggested an unexpected condition of tangent curvature at the axial division of the elliptical quadrants. The quadrants then not only to function collectively to form a complete elliptical table, but detach and serve as independent desktop surfaces. Table_se’s (table_super-ellipse) material realization of its underlying equation looked to the industry typology of woven metal rod as a fabrication process. This process, though time intensive, allows for the integration of cnc technology to pre kink the metal with hand assembly, minimization waste product relative to a cast of stamped approach. The ability of the woven wire to follow the path of the original parametric plot maintains the mathematics beneath the form in the final materialization of the working furniture concept.

program: Furniture

location: Brooklyn, New York

date: 2012

Lilypod

admin — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:07:47 +0000

Drawn from the beauty of simplicity

Lilypad’s began from a desire to create a system which would hold a level of intrigue and beauty as object, cluster and field while maintaining a similar visual vocabulary. Inspired by the beauty of fields of water lilies and the strong function driven formal qualities of podded plants, Lilypod ‘s looks to create a simple unified system whose materiality pulls from the subtle veining color of these plants while allowing for moments of flowering exuberance. At the same time formally reflecting an internally driven base geometry, a wrapper about a tube which bulges to create an order for nesting in a cluster and larger field. Lilypod’s produces a simple repeatable base unit which can be clustered in multiple configurations to meet multiple functional environments all in a single expressive language which blends, form, materiality, and application.

program: Lighting System

location: Brooklyn, New York

date: 2012

amazon front

admin — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 05:20:08 +0000

A concept for a social front end to a virtual marketplace

a recent article in am new york(a) focused on the peripheral impact, of the loss of the borders books chain in new york city. the article discussed how new yorkers would use borders not as a place to purchase books, but a place to relax, have a coffee and wait for friends. the article posed the question about the social impact of loosing the store as a social space and an urban oasis.

this secondary result of the stores content became the primary function of the store. borders served as a meeting place in the city, a space to relax and read a book, to browse and learn, to speak to someone for reference, and lastly to purchase book. the value was not about the purchasing of a book from the store, because in the end everyone would find the book they liked go to their phones and purchase it from amazon.com, have a coffee and go home. the hole left in new york from the loss of borders as well as other large box stores such as virgin megastore is not the product, but the service, the social aspect. so, how can this social function be re implemented into the city without the concern about market sustainability? this project proposes a solution add a human font end to an existing marketplace, amazon.com.

amazon front is not a proposal for a store, it is a front end for the virtual market, a place. a space that is not designed around the sale of commodities, but the experience of interfacing. it is a space for gathering, relaxing, learning, escaping. a simple space that is not about the sale of items on shelves, but unlimited open access to virtual databases. what is proposed is complete access to the amazon cloud of data in a single space, where one can browse e books and online magazines, archive content, or purchase it on the cloud. amazon front proposes 5 distinctly programmed spaces each based around a combination of an existing facet of the amazon marketplace, and a social experience lost with the loss of the box store.

the atrium

the first experience of entering is a four story clears space which is flanked on one side by a floor to ceiling paneled media wall below which sits a single information desk the only object in the space. the atrium primarily serves as a gathering place and the primary information point of the space where users can talk to experts in books, music, or local community information. additionally, the media wall and open space provide the ability for special events such as book readings, lectures, and discussions to take place.

opposite the media wall in the atrium a multi layered green wall spans the space creating a passive sound and privacy buffer while cleaning the internal air. housed between the layers of this green wall a suspended public staircase

provides direct access to the 3 programed rooms.

the amazon mp3 cafe

on the ground floor behind the green wall the first programmed space is conceived of as a social interaction space. a cafe supports a flexible seating area while at the tables and bar dedicated mp3 players with complete access to the amazon mp3 cloud are available for use and browsing.

the kindle lounge

above the cafe on the second floor, an informal lounge area proposes public access kindles and tablets for browsing and reading the complete amazon ebook library. reference experts are available at two information stations to make suggestions.

the reading room

the third floor is conceived of as a quite space for study and reading, like the lounge it has public kindle and tablet access, but its experts are geared towards research and the environment is classroom like. the space provides as secondary function as an event space for interactive tutorials and seminars.

the backyard

if central park is new yorks front lawn, what is proposed is the back yard. a quite secluded space where one can relax under a tree with free wifi or read a book. it is an urban oasis, an escape from the energy of the area. the backyard would also provide an amenity, an extension to bryant park or an event space for the new york library, a space for barbecues or outdoor film screenings buffered from the noise of traffic and the city.

amazon front is a space not about product, but about access, about socialization, about escape, and about the human face to a digital marketplace. it looks to sustain the confluence of information and human interaction that the dissapearing big box stores provided for, but have left missing.

a: http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/new-yorkers-mourn-the-passing-of-big-book-stores-1.3040129

program: Social Space

location: New York, New York

date: 2011

Project GT

admin — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 01:28:42 +0000

A lone tower on the edge of Brooklyn

The typology of the lone tower within the New York skyline often contains a distinct history and intent behind its implementation. Three particular towers each of different era’s created with unique intent in varying political climates have all become emblematic components in the development of New York and the conception of new urban centers. The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower in downtown brooklyn. Project GT finds itself centered between the three towers, learning from and growing upon the legacies of the typology.

The Williamsburgh Savings Tower Bank was conceived of as a magnet for high rise development in downtown Brooklyn, an aspiration which has taken 90 years to come to fruition. Yet, in its isolation it is an iconic emblem of a time and a history past and a point of distinction for the Brooklyn Skyline.

The United Nations Secretariat Building while thought of as a part of the New York skyline is in actuality a tower floating in the U.N. campus with a skyline backdrop. The design intent of which not only strongly engaged global yet internal program, but through the integral relationship between building and site engage the context and environment. Though the final tower does not reflect the complete vision of Le Corbusier the spirit and intent of the core concepts are still typologically fundamental today.

One Court Square currently epitomizes the challenge of introducing the tall tower typology into an underdeveloped area. While a viable office alternate to Manhattan with an vibrant urban art culture, PS1 and 5 Pointz, and with immediate access to a rail lines and public transportation, the tower suffers from regional commercial resources to support the tower population. While the tower does not possess the historical or cultural significance of the UN or Williamsburgh Bank, it defines the importance of engagement and contribution in the relationship with a neighborhood.

Project GT is a proposal for a new tower/ urban commerce node on the waterfront of Greenpoint in Brooklyn, New York. Located at the edge of Brooklyn between the tallest tower in Brooklyn and Queens across from the UN building, Project GT draws from the history of challenges the single tower typology has faced and proposes not a new focal point for the region but a node that can interface between Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens while providing new public and commercial amenities to the industrious and innovative northern tip of Greenpoint.

Greenpoint has a unique distinction as a neighborhood of brooklyn in that it still houses a diverse mix of industry commerce and residences. The site is near the GMDC building, a concentrated collective of artists, designers and fabricators, Project GT proposes a “designers market” providing a for entrepreneurial designers and artisans. The projects adjacency to a ferry port provided direct bridging PS1, a cultural icon of New York and other renowned galleries and work spaces in the immediate area with the highly trafficked Brooklyn Bridge Parks.

Located on the edge of the East River directly across from the United Nation Building, the Project GT looks to define the east river waterway as a region of new development creating a gateway to both River and Newton Creek. The tower as a development looks to instegate new momentem towards the onging cleanup/ restoration of the highly industrially damaged Newton Creek which if restored and developed would be a completely unique experience in New York.

program: Residential/ Retail

location: Brooklyn, New York

date: 2011

Tongji – RPI: Collaborative Workshop

admin — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 10:42:29 +0000

Tongji University – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: 2011 Summer Parametrics Workshop

I recently had the privilege to co-teach a one week design workshop with Evan Douglis, the Dean of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The workshop co-sponsored by Tongji Universities Graduate School of Architecture and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was hosted at Tongji University in Shanghai. The 5 day course titled "Autogenic Futures" was headed by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institutes Dean of Architecture, Evan Douglis and hosted by Philip Yuan of Tongji and MIT.

During the five days, thirteen highly talented graduate students from Tongji were challenged to engage the concept of the pavilion in a post expo Shanghai. These students were asked to re-imagine the pavilion as an event that projected a future architecture capable of engaging the ecosystem and climate of Shanghai as a participant that contributed back to both occupants and surroundings. Additionally, as an extension of Dean Douglis’ ongoing research, students were encouraged to conceptualize how an architecture of yet unknown materials might engage its surroundings on a level spatial and material performance. To achieve this goal the course focused on an intense introduction to parametric principles using Grasshopper 3d as a means to rapidly prototype and experiment with new architectural concepts.

The result was a diverse and rich series of proposals which ranged from inflatable pavilions which would float as a new urban strata in the sky cooling the city below , to pavilions which would open and fray like trees cleaning the air while harvesting and reclaiming airborne pollutants.

Each one of these phenomenal student teams not only took on the challenge of the concept, but took ownership of complex concepts, projecting what they saw as a future architecture for China.

students:

Wang Jiannan, Guan Junlin, Yao Youning, Liangfeng Ge,Lei Xin,Xinyi Gao, Zhang Sheng Kan, Bai Wen Feng, Wu Wei, Tao Jia, Wenlei Lu, Zhongxing Lu

location: Tongji University Graduate School of Architecture, Shanghai, China

educators: Evan Douglis, Philip Yuan

date: Summer 2011

Fabrication

admin — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 07:25:18 +0000

Geometry

admin — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 07:15:46 +0000

Studies in the production of geometry through the relative positioning of geometry in space

relative^n(shape)

admin — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 07:09:16 +0000

Studies in the Relationships between Geometry

The inspiration for beginning these experiments comes from recent work in developing setout points for architecture projects which require rules for the placement and distribution of conceptual shapes in the real world without the aid of gps technology or cnc production, but instead basic geometry which can be measured, subdivided and marked in physical space. The simple idea these experiments look to explore is taking two shapes, breaking them into faceted sections and exploring the relative positions of the facet nodes by drawing lines with computationally derived lengths.

The first set of trials in the relative^n series focuses on the study of two dimensional shapes derived from the relationships between different primary curves, polygons, and euclidean primitives. The new shape profiles are derived by simply placing one curve inside the other, then dividing the curves into equally and equal number of points. A vector is then created between each point on the inner and outer curve with the same index numbers. These vectors relative amplitudes are then inverted, the smallest becomes the largest and largest the smallest and the positions are moved from an origin on the inner curve to the outer curve producing a derivative curve that in most cases encompasses the two generative base curves.

platform: Grasshopper

typology: Geometry

date: 2011

Vector Shell

admin — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 05:53:17 +0000

An Exploration of an Editorial Relationship Between Design and Fabrication

Fiber placement technology opens the opportunity to address structure and skin as a synthetic and synonymous system who’s aesthetics can be directly tied into a structural methodology. The architectural factors of light and translucency, stress and structure, material and effect, and function must by simultaneously addressed and reflexively informing in a cyclical relationship seeking a moment of optimum stability. Vector Space proposes a body as a shell which is a ghost of the forces which invisibly act within it and visibly are affected by it. What is explored is a relationship between fabrication and function in search of a new paradigm of of building which disintegrates and blends what historically were individually factored components of assembly. Through the use of scripting via the processing, java based formats, inputs of structural vectors, moray patterning, and aperture gradation can be individually controlled and intensified resulting in automatic adjustments of other parameters to maintain their programmatic functions. The result of which is a complete fabrication ready set of machining parameters which maintain the integrity of all specified criteria.

collaborator: Michael Caton

program: S-Glass Fiber Structure

location: Miami, CA

date: 2007

FLUX

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 08:44:50 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

FLUX, a landscape developed for the back yard of a typical Brooklyn Brownstone, attempts to collapse dense program requirements into a unique architectural event which is able to spread the existing planted landscape into an active section. As simple assembly system consisting of only 7 unique pieces, it explores the common contemporary building typology of the laminated sectional buildup, within the restrictions a mass repetition industry. Restrained by the need for mass identical fabrication but inspired by the desire to create a fluid transition between several predetermined programmatic configurations the project begins with the approach of developing a mechanism. The resulting components are both manifestations of the need to maintain mechanical, rotational, relationships and the capacity to sequentially produce a smooth continuous form. In addition to these two concerns at the systematic level, several components required geometric configurations which could produce continuous trough conditions allows for a plant-able landscape. FLUX is the manifestations of these concerns, fabrication mass production, mechanical transformation, multiple programmatic requirements, and plant-able surface conditions blended together into one fluid motion. Within these restrictions the result is a form which driven by limitation seems to curl and fold into itself while continuously arriving at moments of distinct characteristics. Beginning with programmatic requirements occurring at predetermined sequential steps, bench- table- planter- lounge- greenwall- storage- lounge the geometry of the component pieces between their moments of connection, attempt to produce consistent concavity relative to the ground allowing for continuous planting.

program: Furnish/ Installation

location: NYC

date: 2010

VU

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 08:44:34 +0000

A basket woven of strands, form and function

VU derives its title from its geometric makeup. Re-adapted from earlier studies is weaving, VU, derived in grasshopper, explores the basic u v structure of a nurbs surface and exploits this grid as a template for exploring a warp and weft relationship of a series of intersecting curves through the application of a adaptable pattern rhythm. The resulting form is a true weave made of threaded pipe material which in this iteration changes density with the Fibonacci sequence of numbers to match density with rate of curvature across a surface. The form itself is derived from the concept of a formal weave in section in which the volume of the vessels when stacked seemingly weave in and out of one another, while the individual vessel still maintains a symmetrical whole to its form. The plan definition falls at the opening falls on a circle, creating a normative end condition which could potentially interface with other systems, while in section the form saw-tooths across its quadrants allowing for rotational interlocking between vessels when stacked, The resulting space within creates pinched cylindrical chambers for storage of items, the capability for stacking allows for an efficiency of storage, while generating a unique formal expression to a standard function system.

program: Modular Basket

date: 2010

(F.A.T.) – via. form-ula

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 08:44:27 +0000

Face Lift

Produced at form-ula

Text via form-ula.com

link to project page

Proposed as a Face-Lift to one of New York City’s high rises, F.A.T. (Fluent Adipose Tectonic) re-evaluates how a façade can be understood and manifest itself within today’s given current technological and cultural landscape. The project is an opportunity to program a multi-purpose façade that utilizes the idea of a thickened surface to stratify material and performance. The end result is an inflated skin that challenges the conventional role of the façade, which in most cases, is to keep the exterior forces out. In this case those undesirable forces are absorbed, transformed and then redirected into and throughout the building in some form of energy. This becomes possible through the negotiation of design and function in conjunction with the use of advanced environmental/tectonic analysis software and cutting edge fabrication hardware. These hard and soft tools used in concert allow for new ways of understanding the built environment and they become indispensable tools for envisioning and developing hybrid architectural systems of enclosure like the F.A.T. (face lift). In this case, we have aggressively pursued the use of desktop simulation as the formula to push energy modeling, solar modeling, day-lighing modeling, and CFD modeling (computational fluid dynamics) to potentially get a glimpse of what the future holds for high-performance-facades.

firm: form-ula

program: Curtain Wall Overhall

location: New York, NY

date: 2010

team: Ajmal Aqtash, Richard Sarrach, Tamaki Uchikawa, Neil Katz RA, AIA, Ashley Murphy

Choice: Evan Douglis Studio

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 08:44:19 +0000

Choice Bakery

Produced at Evan Douglis Studio

Choice presented a unique opportunity to synthesize the baroque and rococo typologies with a contemporary digital practice. Using contemporary digital production methods and current fabrication technologies with classical techniques of mass production the design consistently demanded a consistent balance between the contemporary and the classical. The program, a classic French coffee and pastry store, market and bistro, demanded a warm material sensibility which opened the potential to express architectural surfaces with the richness of material effect to compliment the beauty of the pastry’s the space would house. As designer, project manager, and fabricator, Choice allowed for the development of a space as a jewelry box, which would encase and enhance the high design objects of the pastry’s and the ceiling. Throughout the space a combination of a wood-like stone cladding, corten steel menu boards, oiled Brazilian walnut custom furniture and hand made ceramic tiles evoke an aged rustic sensibility. Began in early 2008, as the economic climate plummeted during the projects development, a constant revision of design became necessary to address alternations in fabrication, the focus always being upon maintaining the integrity of the design through the application of custom design fabrication techniques designed to optimize material effect with minimal cost of finishing. The result was as strengthening of the architectural expression as each element had to pull as much energy within the space as possible.

The Moon Jelly ceiling scape is a contemporary repositioning of a classical european typology of the relief ceiling. Taking the conceptual agenda of a continual fluid fabric capable of mainifesting through cellular development. The economics of the particular program demanded the development of a single cell which when radially arrayed would create an infinite tiling which dissipates the the effects across the field, negating emphasis on any particular center. The system seamlessly inegrates several functional components including speakers, lighting, and fire supression equipment within the pores of the ceiling. The dense geometric structure of the Moon Jelly ceiling is composed of the overlapping geometry of a subdivided hexagonal grid with three triangulated focal point grids overlayed, a sine bases undulation establishes a rectalinear subgrid within. The surface is pulled into tension about a series of dropped cones which express a latent energy that peaks about moments of emergence of a secondary system, in this case the Chrysalis chandelier. By treating these cones as tangential verticies the interlaced spirals of surface effects create a hyper activity of surface. The Moon Jelly tile sytem floats above a secondary filligree systems which begins with the same geometeric structure as the master tiles. In the case of the filligree the system works through radial symmetry exploring the relationship between figure and void as dynamic counterparts in as infinitely tilable relief.

The blown glass lighting is a mediation between a highly designed engineering of a tensioned spatial cage and the unpredictability of the interventions of a liquid material, glass and its artisan. Collaborating directly with a glass blower at Brooklyn’s Urban Glass, the design learnded from the process of glass blowing and was reflexively informed the glass blowing process. To locate a series of points in space which capture piano wire at critical moments of tension, weaving about a central void. The cage itself holds its form through the tension of the material, finding a balance which is an honest representation of the relationship between form and materiality. This volume this corset forms around becomes a point of injection for the glass, which inflates to the tolerance of the material and the cage, creating a volumetric body frozen in time at the peak of stress. This relationship of reconfiguration where one material creates a space and another plays within it, speaks a dialog of the control of the designer and the probability of the world in which a work lives. By respecting the latent physical characteristics of a material and challenging the limit of this material, new life can be breathed into ancient techniques of making. The lights represents a pinnacle moment in the sought after goal of the design development of choice, a juncture between the old and new which is not imposed but emergent from the material itself.

firm: Evan Douglis Studio

role: Project Designer, Project Manager

program: Restaurant

location: Brooklyn, NY

date: 2010

team: Principal: Evan Douglis, Designer: Richard Sarrach

motion

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 08:39:53 +0000

Tracings and production of objects in motion

Colour

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 08:37:27 +0000

Structuring, Sorting, Deriving, Generating color (colour)

Generations

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 08:30:02 +0000

Self referential sequential evolutions

Time

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 08:28:33 +0000

Exploring, expanding, materializing moments

NIC NAC

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 08:16:40 +0000

Insert, Reverse, Repeat, Cross

NIC NAC, a modular fabric, creates a system by which a small tow dimensionally packable module can be cut with minimum material waste and coupled together with only a small amount of surface area reduction in overlap. The resulting fabric creates a continuous surface which is flexible, yet can hold form through friction slip joints, is a solid membrane, yet porous, and is translucent, yet textured with differentiated opacity. The resultant fabric can take a nominal 8.5 / 11 sheet of paper and produce a vast surface area. Average cut time for 1 sheet, 12 modules, 32 seconds, average assembly time for a 4×4 swatch 62 seconds. The initial prototype consists of one unit which is meant produced entirely of arc'c and straight lines. The project is ongoing.

program: Paper Assembly

location: Brooklyn, NY

date: 2010

Fabrication 01

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 08:11:39 +0000

Simple and Spherical

Produced using the Expanded Surface Rhinoscript, and fabricated with the Craft Robo, paper cutter, Facet 01 is a simple spherical shell produced by faceting a sphere, introducing an oculus, unfolding it into strips, and adding tabs. The sphere itself was chosen because it is an accurate and simple test case for tollerance and accuracy of building method. Correct results should be and were radially symmetrical, proving concept.

program: Paper Assembly

location: Brooklyn, NY

date: 2010

ReVal

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 08:04:44 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

(REclaimed Material + Residual Process + Passive Assembly) = VALue

Designed around the concept of reclaiming waste material and composing it into a functional objects, ReVal is a self contained method of production which provides a passive platform for design. By introducing an automated method of breaking down a functional surface into non uniform pieces within a certain scale, fabrication material can be much more efficiently used. Based on milling as a method of fabrication, the form can extremely flexible, yet the output pieces being cubically based chunks are still fabricatable. Built from a single grasshopper function, it takes a surface the through analysis of rates for curvature and position relative to gravity evaluates this surface returning scaled "chunks" of the surface. Several options/ iterations are presented allowing the designer to consider aesthetic, function, and form in selecting and editing a final piece. The system then automatically produces a block/ pin joinery method, producing a broken down model of masses ready to mill. ReVal proposes that contemporary methodologies of design and fabrication, parametrics/ milling, can be conceptually implemented to produce value from that deemed waste as an approach both conscious of economy and environment in making.

program: Furnishing/ Material Reclamation

location: NYC

date: 2010

sin(|)cos

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:59:57 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Capturing a Four Dimensional Moment in Light

Light: a particular light or illumination in which an object seen takes on a certain appearance Wave: a progressive disturbance propagated from point to point in a medium or space without progress or advance by the points themselves, as in the transmission of sound or light. Sin(||)Cos, a light derived from capturing abstract mathematics in a material form to produce effects using physical properties. Deriving a structural lattice from the deployment of radial plotting of sin() and cos() as parametric drivers of scalar and rotational coordinate systems about a volume, a mathematical concept creates a seamless weave. Capturing a volume of light within the illumination casts outwards through the pattern fluid moray of shadow upon its context. The pattern itself evokes a formal relationship to natural floral precedents, producing resonance spirals through composition. The ABS material sits upon laser cintered chrome casters illuminated by a diffused LED light tube, seemingly floating above pools of mercury. The sin(||)cos light is solidification of the abstract mathematics which produce light itself.

program: Light

date: 2010

ORGA

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:57:10 +0000

Rethinking the Brick as a Growable Programable Diverse Functioning System

Organization: organic structure; composition

Organic: characterized by the systematic arrangement of parts

Organism: Any complex thing or system having properties and functions determined not only by the properties and relation of the individual parts, but of the whole that they compose and by the relations of the parts to the whole

ORGA: A system of interdependent building components each building upon the other to develop a larger functional body, but each being able to maintain its on individual intrigue. The formal contours of each respond to the functional properties of the component or interface to another part of the whole. Position and cellular deployment determine programmatic potential, as each rotational position of the base cell either activates or negates a potential input, making layout not only compositional but functional.

ORGAnizm: The chose primary deployment of the ORGA system was a garden wall which could serve a as a source of illumination storage and planting, integrating function an aesthetic with a limited pallet of highly tailored cellular units. For ORGAnizm, the functions were a porous brick, a lamp, a planter, and a storage pod. The final deployment of these functions creates a wall which is both highly functional abstractly beautiful and programmatically growable.

program: Modular Brick System

date: 2009

n-Bloom

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:54:28 +0000

Infinite Modular Illumination Scape

(n) the standard mathematical nomenclature for an infinite variable.

Bloom, “to glow with warmth or with a warm color” / “to produce or yield blossoms”

The (n)-bloom system works around the concept of infinity. Applying the tangential continuity of the sin() curve as a base geometric structure, interplay between a tiled series of striated bands allows for a non uniform distribution of lighting effects off of a two unit normalized system. The translucent plastic material unfolds, blossoming about a central light source, dispersing light through the layers of material. Larger field applications result in tonal diversity through concentrations and dispersions across and applique surface. Designed for both single compact fluorescent or LED set sources of illumination, (n)-bloom serves as an ambient luminance scape which uses the median of light as a transformative source of material redefinition.

program: Modular Light

date: 2008

vertaBlock

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:51:32 +0000

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Stackable, Flipable, Packable, Lovable, Huggable, Vertablock

vertaBlock, a conceptual study in luminaires, is inspired by the vertebrae as an objects, a shell which is identifiable in a form derived to meet its function as a stacked housing for communications hardware. Much like the vertebrate of the human back, the geometry allows for a nested stacking, creating a continuous protected volume, yet has formal derivations which allows for interface with secondary systems, in the body, the ribs, in the block, adjoining stacked columns. A secondary network which can transmit information, having to do with changes in color and illumination from one unit to the next through contact points to its inner core is housed within the shell. This information chain drives two LED systems, housed within each unit. One, nested at the tips of the block is a variable color diode which derives the tone/ effect of the block, the second, clustered in the core is a high intensity diode set which controls the intensity of the unit. The master unit, can communicate a macro order wirelessly across the field to describe a primary program of affects, but much like the minds in a society each responds to the macro environmental factor in its own unique time. Creating a society, not a system.

program: Modular Light

date: 2008

Bezilamp

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:48:10 +0000

Mathematical Materiality

Materializing the construction method used to derive a bezier curve produces a beautiful spatial fabric which acts as a structural bridge between structural moments and an LED tube light. The assembly of these modules into larger clusters through magnetic sphere's at the structural joints allows the user to modulate the density of light. The resulting construct is a dense lattice of light and shadow implying undulating surfaces and linear grids simultaneously defining each other.

program: Modular Light

date: 2009

Tetrable

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:44:43 +0000

Scripted Table

Tetrable, the current phase of an exploration into self documenting processes, presents an automated design process for the production of a custom table product.

The Tetrable system allows for maximum user customization within a rigid structural system. Utilizing a packed tetrahedron for maximal structural rigidity and “pixel” packing the materialization allows for rapid formal alteration without compromising structural rigidity. Using Rhino Script as a platform to generate a custom interface, the user specifies the length, width, and height of the table, then simply selects a greyscale gradient image of their own creation generating the topography of the table structures and any color image to be transposed through the material. The system then produces a layer by layer set of plans describing the assembly of the final model, a preset laser cut template, broken apart by color as well as 3d model of the table system for representation. The table itself provides a functional top surface which exposes a pixelization of the users chosen image and a substructure that exposes the abstracted color space through sectional cavitation of the image. The resulting effect acts on both the image and the table with the same methodology, blending both a from an identifiable and functional norm to an abstracted condition which maintains functionality without becoming restrained by it.

program: Table

date: 2008

Wasabi

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:40:17 +0000

The Complete Sushi Dish

Developed from the [}{] series, Wasabi consists of two mirrored container surfaces which provide four bays for different mixes of soy sauce, a central pore for wasabi, and four flaps for the placement of ginger while allowing for the placement of chopsticks within the contour of the vessel. The reverse side serves as a radial serving surface for cut pieces of sushi. Before use the twin units can be stacked to house a light for aesthetic experience.

program: Dish

date: 2007

LUD

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:38:39 +0000

LUD

program: Light

date: 2008

Chronome

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:36:11 +0000

Genome of Time

Marking the Genome of a Moment of Time through the crossing of the cycles of the year, month, day, hour, second, millisecond.

program: Sculpture

date: 2009

(i) station

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:33:54 +0000

Proposal to Address Change in NYC Subway System

In evaluating the current state of the MTA transit system the growing divide between the infrastructural system and the end user interactivity raises serious concern about the efficiency of the functionality of the Subways. (i) station is proposed as an informational interface and economic engine which at the point of confluence seeks to synthesize the system with its users through branding and information transmission. The form derived as a mediation between program, an entrance to a subterranean system, environmental mediator, water/ dispersion and solar alignment of surface and acknowledgment of urban vertical occupation as relating to visual axis. Cladding this form is an information and advertisement LED display system which continually updates the user with current transit system data. This display system is held in a series of colored custom milled aluminum panels whose color reflects the dominant subway line for which the entry serves evoke the iconic form of the subway car window as they transition across the faceted surface. Supporting these panels a structural systems meets at cylindrical nodes, which serve as lighting for the entries interior, crossing aesthetics, structure and function into one architectural moment. The lights, which are easily accessible from the outer surface are capped with brushed aluminum radial caps which contain and high intensity LED icon of the subway line contained within, further developing the branding/ visual accessibility of the system. Each station entryway, displays all currently available information, which is normally dispersed throughout a station in various often temporary wasteful formats, into a stable and predictable readout system, which is available before one even enters the system. The advertising space, which flows across the surfaces display panels is oriented in all primary axis, service not only sidewalk traffic but urban vertical office traffic as well, in a density 9 times that of the average current station. (i) station proposes a genesis for a true rethinking of the NYC subway system, in response to a greening culture which is information dependent and brand conscious.

program: MTA Subway Entry

location: NYC Metro Area

date: 2010

Aura

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:30:36 +0000

Programmatic Integration Installation for the Japanese Shinkansen System

Aurora: A brilliant display of bands or folds of variously colored light in the sky

Aura: A distinctive but intangible quality that seems to surround a person or thing; atmosphere

Aura is a response to the highly saturated culture of Japan and the speed of the Japanese Shinkansen system. Embracing the beauty of a complete immersion in color at a simultaneous velocities Aura, produces a wall scape that can respond the the experience of the occupant and the passer by. Designed as an installation into existing bullet train station, Aura addresses two simple typologies, the bench and the vending machine. The form flows from a continuous bench surface to a series of steel ruled surface slits. These steel fin’s axis allow visual permeation from seating surfaces across platform and outwards from within the station run perpendicular to the axis of an incoming train, creating a wall of color. The linear aggregation of the Aura bench when chromatically sequenced undulate ,allowing a blending of color. The result on a train bypassing the station is a flash of color, a moment of excited expression, before opening back to the local context. For the slowing train, the consistent meter of the fins, produces a moray through the space between parallel installations, creating a depth to the color field. Each Aura unit contains a single color across the finned surface. At the end of each, the surface curls back to produce a implicit volume which can house a vending machine. A common component of the Japanese high speed culture, which often floats without context. Aura acknowledges this component and gives it a place, much as for the occupant of the bench, it is a moment of rest, a chance to become a beautifully framed part of the passing texture.

program: JR Station Installation

location: Japan

date: 2006

|pfp|

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:28:51 +0000

A pre Fabricated Park

|pfp|, a pre fabricated rapid deployment urban mini park proposes a rethinking of the scale of the park to a single moment. Designed with the intent to serve either as an integrated enhancer to an existing city park, or a standalone instigator for development, |pfp| attempts to create an isolated moment of escape in the urban environment. Each unit contains a bench capable of supporting 3 people supported on a perforated aluminum frame which contains an internal colored light source, improving the environment/ safety of an area. The perforated block uses the concept of a pixel screen to provide a space for information, art, or iconography to brand a particular area. Adjacent to this block an area of green space, which sits above a field cast structural counterweight, is partitioned out to allow for whatever local application is appropriate. The scale of the park is based upon the philanthropic paradigm of the donated park bench, and proposes a private subsidization that can respond rapidly to a particular neighborhoods desire. Congruently application in larger parks reveals secondary intents to functionality, a field of units could produce a light scape at night, or a color scape in the day. Park’s could brand themselves through color and pattern within the open system. The relatively modest materiality of the |pfp| system anticipates derivation of alternate formal manifestations within the same family, tied together through material composition.

program: Park Bench

location: NYC Metro Area

date: 2006

Paramech

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:27:04 +0000

An Analogous Building System for an age of Digital Design

Para_Mech is a reflexive assembly mechanism, developed as a structural scaffold and skinning system for a multifaceted look at the transition of the architectural body. By working through Rhino Script and Grasshopper, reality/ fabrication based constraints are pre-programmed into a tool set which allows for free form design based on a uniformly faceted linear rib system. Freeing the designer to work with form and design development as a primary concern, the Para_Mech system can be applied to an end form as an automated digital evaluation tool. The designer, once satisfied with the digital representation, simply runs the final portion of the system, which within user specified constrains of member length, density and tolerance, produces a digital document set analogous to a materially uniform fabrication process. . This set produces an index of angles for rib construction, a drill pattern for the secondary skin and a total material area readout, generating all required information for immediate production. With rapid full scale fabrication as a primary desire, a series of easily machinable components, requiring no specialized CNC tools to produce are produced, forming the primary structural system, Tooled onto these members are a set of digital analogs, angular markers, drilled holes, etc. which become primary guides for the direct translation of the digital model. To produce an accurate shell, the user simply aligns the bend angles to the provided output indexes. Once the members are assembled into the large rib bodies, a corresponding series of holes are drilled into a pre-measured set of ply strips, as designated within the systems output. When fastened to the structural ribs, the result is a direct fabrication of the digital model. Within the uniformity and geometric constraints of the assembly system the possibility, the development of secondary plug ins, enhancers and appliques become possible to enhance the functionality/ programmatic specificity of the desired end application. By development of a direct relationship between a methodology of design and an economy of fabrication a rich diversity of end applications becomes possible, presenting a new material system into the architectural world.

program: Parametric Assembly System

produced in: Rhinoscript, Microsoft XL

date: 2009

[jnt]

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:25:04 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Assembly without Mechanism

Developed from Japanese joinery and American millworking techniques, [jnt] is a project which looks at assembly without hardware. Each member serves a purpose, each it tooled to suit that purpose and interface with the larger assembly. No mechanical fasteners are needed, gravity and friction alone hold the final piece together. Assembly can be done by a single person and each component breaks down to a single modular element for ease of transport and assembly.

program: Wood Assembly

location: Brooklyn, NY

date: 2006

Terra Firma

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:06:25 +0000

An Agricultural/ Environmental Enabler for the Banaue Rice Terraces: World Heritage Organization

Produced in Collaboration with Takuma Kakehi

Acting as an environmental mediator for the fields dual function as an active agricultural region and World Heritage site with a large scale economy of Tourism, Terra Firma proposes a minimal body of architecture densly loaded with programmatic responses to the growing functional needs of the site. Repetition of simple components constructed dominantly from native matallows for rapid redistribution of the structural system. By condensing the program of grain harvesting and storage into a self sustaining structure a framework upon which a system of panels with the capability to serve as both solar array and tourist viewing platform allows for minimal interference with the terrain of the site. While condensing the surface area required for both economic programs what is provided is a field upon which secondary programs, Worker Housing, Jatropha Curcas biofuel oil planting, etc. can propagate synthetically with the existing economic typologies of the site. This provides a system capable of either response to economic needs in the form of sprawl or isolated function without the necessity to diversify the basic architectural components, creating an architectural body which enhances the function driven attraction of the site while maintaining its economic viability.

In collaboration with Takuma Kakehi under NeoArchaic/ OPTMYSTActing as an environmental mediator for the fields dual function as an active agricultural region and World Heritage site with a large scale economy of Tourism, Terra Firma proposes a minimal body of architecture densly loaded with programmatic responses to the growing functional needs of the site. Repetition of simple components constructed dominantly from native matallows for rapid redistribution of the structural system. By condensing the program of grain harvesting and storage into a self sustaining structure a framework upon which a system of panels with the capability to serve as both solar array and tourist viewing platform allows for minimal interference with the terrain of the site. While condensing the surface area required for both economic programs what is provided is a field upon which secondary programs, Worker Housing, Jatropha Curcas biofuel oil planting, etc. can propagate synthetically with the existing economic typologies of the site. This provides a system capable of either response to economic needs in the form of sprawl or isolated function without the necessity to diversify the basic architectural components, creating an architectural body which enhances the function driven attraction of the site while maintaining its economic viability.

collaborator: Takuma Kakehi

program: Tourist Viewing Platform/ Agricultural Storage

location: Banaue Rice Terraces, Philippines

date: 2008

SCALE

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:04:17 +0000

Winner: What If NYC Competition

Produced with Otto Ruano and Robert Wrazen

Text adapted from text authored by Otto Ruano

Outside the realm of typical architectural practice, SCALE uses the car manufacturing industry as a solution to create lightweight, reusable, flexible, and adaptive structures. The strength and weatherproofing of a manufactured car door is the paradigm used for creating SCALE’s exterior wall panels. Rethinking the existing paradigm of the existing FEMA trailer as a premise to propose a mobile expandable building typology. Furthering this concept, collapse becomes critical for distribution at the urban response scale. The body of the structure must move from a minimized mass to a maximized volume, yet maintain high weather resistance while still interacting with the environment.

SCALE is pre-assembled within the standards of global shipping parameters, using scissor lifts integrated with manufactured car panels and composite flooring to “scissortain’; expanding into three-story housing. Hinged wall panels akin to Lambo car doors unfold from within the”scissortainer”into a fully weather-sealed living environment. The scissortainer contains both standard MEP systems and vertical circulation, making it an all-inclusive design which is rapidly deployable, easily maintained, and fully reusable. Using existing foundations, i.e. parking lots, sidewalks, and highway underpasses, as key sites for deployment, the scissortainer will not interfere with the reconstruction of private lots. SCALE propels provisional housing off the grid as an ecological model of manufacturing.

collaborators: Epochcore: Otto Ruano, Robert Wrazen

program: Emergency Housing

location: NYC, New York

date: 2008

Celebrate Brooklyn Friends Tent

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:02:32 +0000

Synthetic Nature

Produced for Coggan Crawford Schaut

The concept as established by CCS was to develop a topiary of light and shadow for the contributors to the Celebrate Brooklyn performance series. The installation was to freeze the sky scape of the park through the night maintaining a contextual sensibility in the absence of natural light. In response the pattern developed as the isolation of 3 local leaf types and a five stage abstract morphing process held in a branching lattice as a textural component to create a diverse lattice. Fabrication, using tyvek and a laser cutter, produced an enormous cost to lifetime ratio and a simplicity of reproduction for future applications. Beginning from an interest in maintaining the Zen principles of appearance natural randomness through systematic control and the concept from No theater of all elements even the audience being a component of the performance, a rich series of criteria and opportunities emerged. By creating a system which deals in scale, rotation, density, morphological diversity as parameters of deployment, a seemingly natural light scape could be produced that responded to specified occupant locations, opening above service area’s to expose more light and closing above seating area’s to produce a more intimate environment. Through a custom developed methodology of production this program could be sketched into the drawing as a diagram which, when acted upon by the system produced a fraying and softening of the pattern, masking the intent in an ambient transition from one need to the next. At the level of detail the “leaf” formations often maintain connection to the main field through only the “stem” portion of the figure, allowing each piece hang loosely from the larger pattern creating a fray which moves in the wind, bringing life to the ceiling. The resulting light scape gently hovers above the occupants, creating textural richness at the level of detail, visual intrigue upon approach and a soft tone from a distance, so as not to draw attention from the performance space.

client: Coggan/Crawford/Schaut

program: Lightscape

location: Brooklyn, NY

date: 2006

Protoculture

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 06:54:49 +0000

An Architectural Response to an Impending Environmental Crisis Through Agricultural Sustainment and Economic Diversification

China is the world’s largest growing agriculture producer per population, with over 60 percent of its population classified as rural. Yet, recent rapid urban migration has increased demand on these regions while reducing supply producers, the effects of which have been a further exhaustion of an already depleted landscape, resulting in desertification at a rate of as much as 900 square miles annually. Protoculture addresses this high demand market presenting a prototype architectural body capable of sustaining an intra-dependent culture while stabilizing a depleted landscape. Since its initial typological definition, agriculture as a practice has shifted away from its cyclical origins towards complete dependence on synthetic stabilization. Through hybridization of agriculture with fuel production practices, reconstitution through alteration of existing landscape footprints, and exploitation the adaptive nature of the architectural material practice, Protoculture seeks to re-embed these cyclical processes as self supplying programmatic layers. The process is opened in recognition of the distinct entities within Agra Culture and the duality of scale embedded in this history. First the people and small communities which develop around the typology of the farm and their unique growth provide a rich regional heritage from which Agra Industry, consisting of product production and markets which network these communities to their consumer markets, has emerged in the now global economy. Protoculture always address the smallest scale with the intent of stabilizing the unique properties of the individual, while at the same time seeding a common market base which in time begins to network into larger entities. It is developed around recognition of the need for permanent sustainment of site, yet acknowledges the architectural construct must be responsive to transitional nature of the market. Protoculture proliferates within a regional culture of mass transition, feeding upon the synthesis of programs into macro clustering’s of hyper dense tertiary synthetic ecosystems for the sustainment of contextual environments and economies.

program: Agricultural Construct

location: Shanxi, China

date: 2008

Reciprocity Horizon

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 06:48:10 +0000

A Reflexive Redefinition of the Formal Elements of Architecture Through Materiality

Between the ever changing plain of earth on which the house finds itself and the predictable and filterable light of the sky there exists a Reciprocity of Horizon. The house, a moment between two systems, a covariant derivative between light and ground. Within natural systems there is a play, an essential exchange between energy, it is consumed in order that it may further consume, it is stored only to be later expelled, and it is emitted back into a ubiquitous system that it may be retained at a later time. Its use is multifaceted, yet its essence is the same. The Horizon house provides a rhythm, structure, to which the systems are measured against. They dance across each other in units whose reactions are minuscule accumulate pressure and through its expulsion enable space. Their intricate differentiations of the single unit cross generate identifying relationships which establish their function. These relationships form a language and by growth and incursion into the space between, generate a program in the horizon.. This emergent space in turn demands new dialog between the passing systems, this Reciprocity breeds reactions back into the system which form identity unique to the house, the collective, no longer storing and mediating, but applying the energy. Material from matter.

partner: Matthew Standeven

program: Parametric House

location: Beijing, China

date: 2006

Interference Plexus

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 06:42:37 +0000

An Urban Synthesis of Transit, Commerce, and Global Competition

The Interference Plexus, an Olympic aquatic center and community space, is an architecture composed of disruption and mediation of a highly varied range of speeds of transit, located across from the PS1 in queens. It is a place of arrival, interchange, and ultimately synthesis. Sited at a junction for the, BQE, LIRR, the MTA subway, and MTA bus system, it serves at one level as a mediator between these networks and a disparate personal transportation based community. However it is not a transition zone, instead it is a moment of collision where these systems are forced to engage a the unique program of the aquatic center. This program provides a sensory contradiction to the transit aspect exchanging intensity in speed with that of atmosphere. In addition an open park and international exchange ground making contact with street level presents a field for expulsion of pressure, while at the same time acting conversely as an ambiguous accelerator into the transit system. Therefor the form, the architectural enabler of the programs, takes on a unique quality for each individual aspect, transit, shopping, athletics, etc.. It is the release of the pressures embodied in these components which express and explore Interference as a means of creating place within a plexus of interchange.

The form of the Plexus is differentiated by the programmatic qualities. Through the process of tessellation as a means to establish meter in plan and a strict hierarchy in terms formal intensity in section, the three strata, a dissimilar collection of elements is allowed a means of communication. The strata’s which interchange at one point in plan and section each house unique qualities. The top strata presents itself as an ambiguous park scape making contact with the street level at three points. This park scape is populated regionally by shell eruptions which are appropriated as kiosks. Puncturing this plane, two towers emerge which serve as administrative facilities as well as the primary interchange for circulation and the highest pressure zone in the Plexus. The towers are deformed and yet capture two vortex’s which mediate the two transit intakes of the train and bus. Reflexively across the surface, the seating defines the material quality of the vortices’s, and begins the materialization process of the Plexus. At the interchange of the vortices’s contained within the towers there is a plunge through the base plane, which becomes the single access point to the aquatic centers activities layer. The combination of these systems forms the bases upon which the relationships of interference and synthesis begin to play against each other. The final form is held as the complete reciprocity of all systems. This applied against structural, spatial, and programmatic limitations results in the current moment of architecture.

collaborator: Otto Ruano

program: Olympic Swimming Pool, Transit Hub

location: Long Island City, NY

date: 2006

Populous

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 06:35:43 +0000

A Hybrid Biological Park/ Ecological Lab Facility

Populous is an urban park, educational complex, and aquatic nature reservoir for indigenous life forms on the Hudson river along the west side of Manhattan. Grappling on the resident typology of the pier as a collection of pylons, Populous creates an aggregated of programatically diverse units within a single morphological typology. Using structural/ skinning expression to actualize programmatic function and volumetric parameters as typological controls a single system takes of a diverse array of functions in a single population. Small low profile area’s become a diverse urban park growing from planter to park bench to boat launch before rapidly expanding to highly functional enclosures. Conic formations act a rain water collectors feeding through filtration centers into bubble shape biological research labs. Pylons plunge into the water creating points of collection and isolation for local plant and wildlife reserves. The system evaluates itself post mapping by measuring the diameter to specify program potential, according to each diameter relative to functional range/ density to determine typological stage. With typology established an independent mapping is read against the each position to establish diversity and intensity of program relative to planned intent. Populous is a system of rules who’s complex self actualization when combined creates a diverse and rich texture of function.

Typologies > 1a:plates, 1b:pores, 2a:pools, 2b:benches, 3a:eddies, 3b:launches, 4a:columns, 4b:canopies, 4c: huts, 5a: amalgamations

Program> 1 : urban park, 2: biology lab, 3: aquatic nature preserve, 4: educational complex, 5: ferry port, 6: boat launch

Materials> 1 : prefabricated faceted aluminum, 2: prefab/ site cast concrete, 3: on site thermal formed glass, 4: earth/ grass/ water, 5: wooden lathe, 6: composite wooden beams

program: Bio Lab/ Urban Park

location: Hudson River, NYC

date: 2007

Alpha Omega

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 06:28:59 +0000

An Open Archive of Knowledge

A library for the memory of knowledge, sited at the edge of an ocean adja cent to a graveyard evokes an ever growing critical question about the life and death and rebirth of objects and information. The architecture of this place will capture the essence of detach ment and isolation, the ephemeral quality of information in a time digital transition, and celebrate the life of a community provid ing a gathering space in the current time. The approach to the project was one of embodied sketch, studying the rapidity at which concept can pass to matter. Concrete channels define passages of isolation and contemplation, which release into a vast common space open to the infinite ocean. The space covered by a canvas upon which light casts the silhouette of the occupants, creating an fleeting imprint in time between the resting place of objects of knowledge and an ephemeral sea of information. If one passes below to the resting place the space will reveal the stacks containing books which can be read but not removed. If one moves above a ring houses glass shells which project fluid streams of information, from which moments can be captured and taken, but whose origins are in flux and object less. This balance between the book and the network only needs a shell to frame its presence. And a can vas upon which to project its existence. In this space there is a joint between our life, death, and means of immortality. It is a reminder of speed of memory, and is a Library to Mortality.

program: Library

location: City Island, New York City

date: 2003

Performance

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 06:24:14 +0000

Capturing a Performance in Material

description coming soon

program: Performance Space

location: Undefined

date: 2004

Sustain Ability

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 06:20:48 +0000

Passively Sustainable Low Income Housing

The program breaks away from its context revealing a facade as a shell, split by light opening spaces for a Community within. The ground between now exposed the contextual private and public now fl ow through this chasm. Draped over this concrete scaffold a skin of ivy binds the space together, its life and death cycle a tempo for the existence of the occupants and a mediator of the environment. Facing the hollowed void the program of housing nests itself introverted into its own place. The building should not only be responsive to environment in form, but in materi ality both in essence and in behavior. Passive systems and living organisms form skins mediating the sun to maximize living conditions without mechanical appa ratus. Water is fi ltered through gardens encased upon the roof which thrive on the heat of the bodies and the spaces they occupy below. Occupants dwell between the skins, encased and implied, in terraces and greenhouses private to each unit. Through the creation of interdependent systems and environments the program of low income housing can maintain architectural clarity through its effi ciency over time. It is in the death and rebirth of the skins that the architecture of a Beautiful Decay can be found.

program: Low Income Housing

location: Downtown Brooklyn, New York

date: 2005

Illumination

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 06:10:51 +0000

An Education in Light

A body enters a defined space. Before it is a datum array of light and shadow. As the body moves through the field the juxtaposition of light and dark pass over the contours of the body heading cooling, illuminating and concealing. Light as a force, as entity, as unique from dark is defined. Before the eye a threshold is illuminated. Light as intrigue pulls the eye towards it. The stimulated mind moves through the threshold into a darkened chamber. Once corner of the space illuminates its surface. The mind drives the body to touch the wall, feel its warmth, light becomes material. The physical and ephemeral unite and the mind and body become being. Aware of self and freed, the being turns and views light projected from above. Stepping into the light, the being is immersed, and the physical and mental being to change. The being is drawn upwards into a nexus space, where all facets of light exist individually, yet merge. The student dwells in this space contemplating and exploring becoming a master. The master moves from the chamber and passes outside the body of the form, observing the mechanisms of education and carries the knowledge out beyond the machine itself.

program: Educational Mechanism

location: Undefined

date: 2003

Facets

admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 03:36:51 +0000

The new project Facets is the first test of several of the old fabrication scripts with a newly purchased Craft Robo machine.

These projects are meant to test the tolerances, limits, speed and accuracy of the machine. So far so good.

Link to Project

Colour Series

admin — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:56:01 +0000

Colour is a series of recent studies in image reading and ways of recomposing pixels based on sorting and sequencing color values. One of the early studies called RGBands looks at a pixel by pixel breakdown of image spread across a strip like a genetic tag of the image. These studies have focused on simply re-sequencing the pixels into ordered sets, current studies are shifting to evaluating and extracting information from the data sets. The series were developed in Processing.

Grasshopper Updates

admin — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:22:33 +0000

Two new tools have been added to the grasshopper section relating to interfacing with Ecotect.

The first set of tools are three meshing functions which produce consistent directionality to a mesh.

http://neoarchaic.net/2010/08/regular-triangular-mesh/

The output of which can be analyzed in ecotect using Solar Analysis.

The second tool is an importer of the csv output from ecotect's analysis.

http://neoarchaic.net/2010/08/ecotect-translator/

Core.Formula_ Craft Series, August 2010

admin — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 04:27:00 +0000

Core.form-ula will begin its first intensive-hands-on craft series workshop at the de Castellane Gallery located in the heart of Brooklyn, minutes away from Manhattan by subway. The workshop will cover the use of Ecotect andRhino/Grasshopper to develop techniques of evaluating performative form in architecture.

The goal of the workshop is to understand methods of translating geometry from Rhino/Grasshopper into Ecotect, and specifically, the process of shaping geometry that performs optimally within a specific location on earth. The workshop will begin by covering intro + advanced grasshopper techniques, followed by an introduction to using Ecotect to produce solar radiation studies, day-lighting studies, shadow analysis studies, climate analysis studies, and computational fluid dynamics analysis studies. The last stage of the workshop will cover the process of manipulating geometry in grasshopper via analysis/values obtained from Ecotect.

All levels are welcomed (students & professionals), the only requirement is knowledge of Rhino. At the end of the workshop, each participate will be asked to produce a 12in x 12in x 12in physical model along with flat art to be displayed at the de Castallane Galley for public viewing.

Back Shortly

admin — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 04:36:19 +0000

Weve been busy in the real world. Well be back to the world wide shortly with new toys!

Periodic Inspiration

admin — Mon, 17 May 2010 06:54:51 +0000

The thoroughness and simplicity of the original periodic table's graphic function has always fascinated me as a model for simple legibility through structuring of complex data. Several works have been developed based on either the structure or aesthetic which have caught my eye over the year. This is a sample of a few such interpretations.

The Periodic Table of Typefaces

Produced by: Squidspot

The Periodic Table of Controllers

Produced by: Pixel Fantasy

Source: Glyph Design

16 Million Colors

Source: The Next Web

Mayan Periodic

Source: M ayanPeriodic.com

Lie Groups

From: An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything

Source: sifter.org

Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

Source: visual-literacy.org

Launch

admin — Wed, 12 May 2010 22:01:07 +0000

The goal of NeoArchaic.com is to provide a focal point for the educational/ collaborative aspects of NeoArchaic. General resources and works can be found at www.neoarchaic.net