AA Projects Review

[raha]

Claudia White | DIPLOMA​

[de]laminate This architectural proposal is an event and educational public strip, or otherwise known as a Norwegian Allmenning, located in the west coastal city of Bergen Norway. The proposal provides a fundamental link with the city, the infrastructure hubs and the waterfront. The project primarily deals with the exploration and potentials of timber lamination, to which has been my interest over this year. I have focussed this within Bergen, where I can capitalise on this readily available resource, and where they have for generations had a keen eye on glu laminated design. Norway is known to export unrefined timber globally. I am looking at its refinement – the potential for detail. The Allmenning that is carved out through the new building densities that populate the site, providing a new laminated street layout and street profile. The program distributes as a series of laminated details that link together, providing spatial variation for a new education centre and public event space. The technical adgenda investigates the curve in laminated timber within a bifurcated system. Bifurcation is the splitting of a main body into two parts. As an example condition, the bifurcation will transit from a structural wall to the detail of the ballustrade. Each visitor providing themselves a unique perception of their environment, the city, the waterfront and the local industries at work. It is a catalyst for public life and public education.With my interest in glulam, I have collaborated with the engineer Tomrod Dyken, an expert in timber bridge construction, from the Norwegian Public Roads Administration and the company Moelven Laminated Timber Structures.

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[raha]

Cellular Solid Morphologies​

Revano Satria

Introduction

By definition, a cellular solid is an interconnected network of struts or plates that form the faces of cells. Low-density cellular solids appear widely in nature. One example is in the porous areas of human bone, called cancellous bone. Bone organised in this configuration minimises overall weight while providing structural capacity to bear high loads. Based on the many biological models of cellular solids, synthetic materials have been created, such as honeycomb material used in the aerospace industry as lightweight structural components.
While cellular solids are abundant in other fields, there are few examples of architecture that incorporate their use. One prominent example however, is the Water Cube in Beijing, designed for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. The Water Cube implements the Weaire-Phelan structure, a complex three-dimensional polyhedron structure, which is said to be a packing logic with the least amount of surface area possible. Even though the structure appears to be a random configuration, it actually uses just two different cells of equal volumes packed together, meaning that the structure does not take into account specific external forces from the surrounding environment. Thus the system is unable to represent the complexity and the adaptability of natural cellular solids.

The Design Problem

The design started with the creation of a linked network of functions. These functions were then divided into different types of zones, and connected with specific circulation links. A branching network algorithm was then used in order to generate an adaptive network. This same logic was used and developed further to create what can be called a Hierarchical Branching Network algorithm. This algorithm allows the network system to memorize different variables of rules at each branching node and store them in different hierarchies. The first network function is then stored into the desired hierarchies and combined with the previous algorithm. This resulted in an initial set of points consisting of different functions and hierarchies with the ability to maintain connectivity and adapt to the insertion of new functions.

Cell Development

Each point in the hierarchical branching network represents a function; a Voronoi algorithm is used to generate compartmental spatial arrangements from these initial sets of points. However, the limitation of this system is its inability to divide each space into the required area necessary for each programmatic function. Therefore, a Cell Ratio algorithm was developed in order to readjust cell size and meet the specific spatial requirements for each cell.

Natural cellular solids have the ability to adapt to specific external forces within their surrounding environment. In this design, therefore, the sun is simulated in computational experiments as an external environmental force, generating site-specific geometry. Beginning with two-dimensional geometries, an algorithm was developed, called a Global Sun Exposure algorithm, which takes the data of the sun’s path on the site as a parameter in the generation of cell formation, minimizing sun exposure throughout the entire body of the object. The second algorithm, a Local Sun Exposure algorithm, calculates and compares the area of the cell bodies that have a high ratio of sun exposure with those with low sun exposure. The cells then readjust their positions toward the direction of the sun in order to minimize exposure.

 

[raha]

Seed to Scene - Soft Space

This years project of the Interprofessional Studio 'Seed To Scene' ('S2S') is the result of new forms of networking and collaboration within the creative disciplines. Therefore 'S2S' can not merely be defined as architecture, a performance space or as a social and political event but rather as the sum of this components. With Seed to Scene we created a platform for the discussion of experimental collaboration in the creative field, as well as showcasing live and active practice of a new overarching discipline. Bringing together social and creative components of design, the events in London's Covent Garden demonstrated new innovation strategies for creative networks and are the starting point for a series of further collaborations and events within the UK and Europe. The leading Theme of 'Seed to Scene' aimed to explore the scalability of creative processes through new forms of collaboration within creative disciplines. Taking inspiration from the structural scale of seeds at microscopic level, S2S is as well the literal seed of the discussion of how to frame creativity today and offers a platform for artistic performances, interactive installations as well as workshops. It develops into large-scale social projects through the negotiation between the different participating disciplines and finally into a multi dimensional filmic scene, highlighting and documenting the creative networks at work. The overall space started to shift the perception of event, daily activity, scale, time, physical and virtual construction and thus the perceived area of activity of the creative disciplines. For these events the AAIS collaborated with many professional individuals and companies such as Rosa Bosch, a renowned film producer, Ben Wolff and Andy Dean, award winning Music Producer (Music Technology Ltd) as well as organisations like 'New Deal of the Mind' initiated by Martin Bright, that seeks to create new possibilities of work and employment for the creative industries, c/o pop, the organisers of Europe's biggest convention for the creative industries in Cologne and 'New Movement' an innovative group of dancers that brought the installations to live. The entire design of the events from furniture, to stage design and installations as well as fashion and music was designed by this years participants in close collaboration. Again we tried to make the impossible possible and achieved a lot. The Architectural Association is the only environment where this kind of innovation in the creative fields can become reality.

The Hexagon Dress becomes a moving extension to the overall installation of the softroom.

Hexagon installation in the 'soft room' designed by this year's AAIS participants Emu Masuyama, Eugene Soler, Raluca Grada, Prayrika Mathur and Vikrant Tike.

Dance performance of 'New Movement' in the 'soft room'

The structure of the 'soft room'; the chairs and tables are made from leftover sheet materials.
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