Thesis Project – Southgate Bridge Pavilion

We can conclude that the humanistic evaluation of architecture tools such as parametric design programs have created a concept of instability and de-centralization of static form. The paradigm in architecture has also been conceived as an ideal form captured as single entity. It wasn’t until architecture theorists such as Reyner and Banham noted the possibilities of mutable relationships between building systems that we were critical of the architecture process and outcome.  Today, we can see a much more interactive process influencing the evolution of form. The shift to morphogenetic concepts is a result of the evolution of design tools commonly used in industrial design and aeronautics. Within the process of creation, form is now understood as a process of individualization of components, or modulation that behaves singularly to its specific condition.

This adaptive process is inherently new to the architecture profession and can only be applied if there exists a productive difference amongst the local conditions, such as weather or light levels. For example, if every element in the system receives the same amount input, it will produce a similar output. So as designers, we need to be methodical about the system of inputs we feed into the parametric utility.

The point of departure for the design project was informed by overlaying current trends in curtain wall methods and parametric design techniques. The project focus will be prioritized on the relationship between the composition of the enclosure elements and the existing constructs of an particular site condition and program.

My thesis design project objectives include an architectural proposal for a new bridge enclosure for the use of pedestrians. This enclosure will be physically attached to existing automobile bridge that spans from the heart of downtown Cincinnati, Ohio to Newport, Kentucky. The new pedestrion bridge will include a rooftop garden, observation deck, bar and open gallery space. In order to attain realistic structural integration, some preliminary calculation will be necessary for load distribution.

This bridge enclosure system will employ the use of a curtain wall-like assembly that is parametrically generated and controlled. By integrating a context and program to the design project, a set of global, local, and environmental parameters will be present to drive the design of this architectural project.

Grasshopper Script (Designed w/ Entirely)

Exploded Axon

Section Perspective

Interior Rendering

Exterior Rendering

Exterior Rendering

Exterior Rendering

Site Plan + West Elevation

North, South, East Elevation

Section + Plan

Site Diagrams

Google Site Plan

Design Research

In the past, mathematical and geometric algorithms were present but not visible, or spatially understandable. Now that programmers have generated a graphical platform for designers to see the mathematics behind the forms and structures, it has become understood and usable.

Rule-based computation is changing physical form from static objects into more adaptive machines that are able to respond to different conditions; light, temperature, and what does this mean theoretically about space and form. Here, form is no longer about Cartesian coordination; rather it is about a multitude of relations and movement. In the following example, the authors developed a procedural to use light information to drive the parametric modeling process such as panelization or perforation.  Each adaptive component is responding the environment input independently. (Figure). The idea of adaptive components has also found applications in architecture such as adaptive façade systems, lighting systems, mechanical systems etc. Designers today no longer need to view the world as static objects but as adaptive machines that are driven by various local conditions. These sophisticated building systems have capabilities to monitor and modify interior environmental conditions.

 

 

Adjacent to the topic of adaptive morphogenetics, the topic of adaptive topological creation has also influenced designers to think of form as a part within a system where identity and position of each element is a multiplied across a field of constraints. Here, the formal order of components is decentralized from the predetermined form and exclusively ordered through its relation with all other elements within the system. So instead of thinking about the form as the center, parametric design has taught students to specify the process of creation first before defining the multiplicity of elements and local sources that will determine the formal elements adaptation.

 

 

Parametric Process

As we move forward into information-based future, it is important for the architecture practice to utilize the technological advances in industrial design, computational design and rapid fabrication processes. These advances bring with them the tools needed for architects to innovate, analyze and construct new dynamic enclosure systems for the future.

Parametric design and thinking can aid in this problem in two ways. One, it has the potential for establishing architecture as a material and theoretical genesis device – a design tool that makes environments and ideas about nature come to life. Its use can help solve the dilemma of misuse of potential environmental qualities and orientation of particular instances as drivers to orient building systems to their particular context. (Diagram Below – Andrew Newman)

Parametric modeling offers users the ability to develop a hierarchical system of rules, constraints, features that can be driven by an external or internal parameters. External would be data that you are bringing into the design program, such as weather data. Internal would be properties you set up internally such as a point cloud, grid, or something as generic as a point.

‘In a very generic case, parametric form is shaped by values of parameters and mathematical equations are typically used to describe the relationships between the forms.’ The relationships are set up to establish a hierarchy of interdependies, or equations, between forms. This allows designers to backtrack and manipulate values along the series of equations Hence, the forms relational behavior under transformation can be defined as a scripted data tree of information (values, equations). (Diagram Below – Andrew Newman)

 

Computational tools have heightened the potential of facades to marry functional and formal possibilities. The choreography of surface articulation using scripting and parametric method has evolved appearances of new curtain wall systems that combines traditional tectonic elements and new tectonic phenomena, such as by animation, association and flexibility. The rigid thought process of traditional tectonics has been reformed into something more malleable, and animated, through using this powerful tool. (Below – Cause/Effect Project – Tim Choate)

 

Digital architectural design has been influenced by parametric design since the early 1990’s. Parametric and generative design techniques differ slightly but have created an digital environment where volatile iteration is at the center of attaining an optimal solution. The process of iteration means the act of repeating a process with the aim of approaching a desired goal, target or result.44 Each iteration is characterized by changing the parameters or the objects relationship to that parameter. It would also mean changing a value in the mathematical algorithm. Each repetition of the process is also called iteration, and the results of one iteration are often used as the starting point for the next iteration. (Below – Huangzou Tennis Arena – NBBJ)

 

Thesis Research

In the broadest sense, the aesthetic language and performance of the curtain wall are the most important issues we address in designing any enclosure today. The first step in my research of the curtain wall system was to cultivate a historical account of the development as a way document of its evolution over time. By analyzing the typological methods and techniques, I built a foundation of knowledge in this particular tectonic method. Through historical and technical research, I was able to acknowledge when and what influences changed the function and aesthetics of the curtain wall system;

Before the modern curtain wall system was adopted in the early 1900’s, exterior architectural systems were used as load-bearing systems to distribute wieght down the wall to the foundation, along with interior columns. The wall’s structural obligation limited the amount of openings and limited the chance to articulate the envelope in a way that was aesthetically pleasing.

By contrast, the modular curtain wall system freed the exterior wall of structural obligation and allowed designers to concieve newly articulated patterns, enhancing the quantity and quality of interior and urban space.

Frank Gehry, with his invention of Gehry technologies, was the first to implement and adapt these programs to a purely architectural means of production. ‘Gehry technologies used NURB surface creation, a process of tessalating fluidic forms into panelized components that could be constructed. The concept of tessalation would eventually revolutionize the tectonic language in archticture.’

Digital modeling software inspired designers to re-formulate tectonic expressions for construction. These new operative functions such as weaving, folding, flexing, sectioning, and so on, were still unresolved but challanged designers to revisit the process of making.

Articulation, on curtain wall facades, is sought to be a powerful device to reveal trends, attitudes and correlations that exist in the current era it is concieved.

Through evolution, patterns in architecture have had a variety of aesthetic meaning and an equally varied function. New patterns often arise out of new functional purposes, losing the ones prior or in some cases new and old patterns are superimposed to create a hybrid articulation. Functional purposes might be used for enhanced decoration, accentuation, camouflage, identification, differentiation or a combination of any of the above.