Friday, October 30, 2009

Breathing Chair



















The chair is composed of high-density foam and contains 3 layers within one another.
Each layer of the chair has cutouts that create a structure that adjusts to the person's body shape and weight once the person sits on the chair. The cut outs are very specifically calculated according to the properties of the foam and the form that it creates once a person sits on it.

Flat Pack Design to Extreme

Designer Joost van Bleiswijk took the idea of a flat pack design to a whole another level. The furniture pieces are designed as flat surfaces and then put together using a sliding joinery method. This makes it possible to take out glue, screws out of the equation and use the material properties and a digital precision in order to put these pieces together.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

MATSYS Honeycomb

This research develops a honeycomb system that is able to adapt to diverse performance requirements through the modulation of the system’s inherent geometric and material parameters while remaining within the limits of available production technologies. The Honeycomb Morphologies Project is based on the desire to form an integrated and generative design strategy using a biomimetic approach to architectural design and fabrication.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Buildings as scripts?

Storefront for Art and Architecture



A machine that can build buildings without the need of human labor creates a wall as an exhibit at the Storefront for Art and Architecture. What does such a machine mean for the profession? Will architects eventually be designing input for such machines? More importantly, will the limits of the machine limit an architects freedom to design freely? Or maybe the architects of the future will use the new abilities of the machine to go beyond current possibilities.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Apparently Inadequate Data


href="http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/419-france-reconstructed-from-apparently-inadequate-data/">

The use of data (and lots of it) to legitimize design decisions is a widespread practice in the field of architecture. Yet data collection, while certainly advisable, may or may not lead to quality design, and may, in fact, lead to pseudo-scientific justification for primarily artistic, or aesthetic, decisions on the part of the designer. On the other hand, evidence in this blog about different ways of generating a map of France "reconstructed from apparently inadequate data," shows that less data can generate accurate form. I would argue, more data may or may not improve form, but said data should only be used for justification of form insofar as it correlates in reality (and this can be done with data than we may previously have thought necessary) and the guise of pseudo-scientificism dropped and artistic license acknowledged.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

La Rinascente by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands

The standout feature is a three dimensional back-lit ceiling – a bespoke solution inspired by honeycomb which adds sunshine throughout the day and drama at dusk. The ceiling is made up of a frame of aluminium extrusions, the concealed fluorescent light fittings shining on to the soffit and bouncing back down through the translucent panels to create a diffuse light. The effect of undulation and depth is achieved through the use of four types of triangular panel with four visible facets, so that the shoppers experience a different effect each time they view the ceiling. All the triangular elements point towards the front of the store ensuring an appropriate dynamism.


Interesting Aerial Images to Map

http://standardrgb.com/?p=1162



http://standardrgb.com/?p=1162



Both images are rice fields and both have no sense of perspective, which makes them easier to map.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Material Becomes Immaterial




A new iphone app allows users to show clients material samples of Corian and Zodiaq products for surfaces. While useful, the author of the blog apparently ignores, or does not deem sufficiently important, the necessary translation of material qualities that must occur between the digital and physical realms. As we have explored throughout the semester, the differences between these two realms exist in important ways and can be exploited to our own design advantage. Also, having worked in an architecture and interiors office, I can speak to the differences between the image of a material on the computer screen, in a book, and in the physical sample. While this app is perhaps a useful tool, I would not make an expensive material decision for a project based on anything less than a physical sample of the material.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Generating Form




This is an example of a very mathematical-sounding way of generating form, yet ultimately probably involved a lot of highly subjective decisions. With the concept of "Seeing Eye Architecture" - an intriguing concept! - this team used isosceles triangles developed from the golden section to generate a form composed of like units, though with each unit retaining its own unique character (as in within the species of dogs, or any other species). DNA and the golden section certainly provided a starting point for this concept, but the actual decisions of size, rotation, perforation, and composition seem fairly arbitrary. But is this a bad thing? If the overall concept is well represented (though I'm not sure it is here, but that is somewhat beside the point), does it matter whether a rule system was created and whether that system was rigorously adhered to? Perhaps the use of that rule-set as simply a generator of ideas is enough. Or perhaps that would delve architecture too deeply into subjective artsy-ness, endangering its status as a professional occupation.

LED clip turns any object into lamp.





Sungho Lee integrates a battery-operated LED (light-emitting diode) into the area near the gripping points of the clothespin, letting the user become a do-it-yourself lighting designer.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Stack-Laminate Plywood Furniture

http://3rings.designerpages.com/2008/12/06/live-at-design-miami-julia-krantzs-stack-laminate-plywood-furniture/





The images of furniture seen here are the works of Brazilian artist/designer Julia Krantz. To make the forms, Krantz laminates sheets of plywood to create a block of wood. Much like a sculptor chipping away at a slab of marble, she carve out layers of the wood to create curvilinear forms. She then sands and polishes the wood to create the smooth flowing forms. This is very similar to what we did with our milling project, minus the use of high tech tools like the CNC machine. I would be pleased if my project could have the same visual quality as this.




Thursday, October 1, 2009

Make Synergies, Not Sums!




This is an example of adding two things together - concrete and LED lights - and coming out with the sum of those two things - concrete with embedded LED lights. What I really hoped this project would do, is create something new. What if the lights were not just some preprogrammed patterns, but more of a computer that could interact with the user? The lights could respond to conditions in the room or vicinity somehow, or to inputs from people actually touching the wall. The lights could be like keys on a keyboard - similar to those crosswalk signal buttons that are just a light without the button that one actually pushes down. I suppose that would involve a few more hidden parts and a bit more thinking, but I think the result would be more of a quotient than a boring sum.