Intensive Fields

LOS ANGELES | USC | INTENSIVE FIELDS | 12 December 2009
Intensive Fields: New Parametric Techniques for Urbanism
Conference, Harris 101, University of Southern California

For some time now, digital technologies have had a substantial impact on architectural design. From the use of standard drafting packages to the more experimental use of generative design tools. But how might these digital technologies – and parametric design tools in particular – help us to design cities?

The conference brings together USC Professors Francois Roche, Marc Fornes, Roland Snooks, Qingyun Ma, Neil Leach, Roland Ritter and Anne Balsamo alongside other leading experts from the world of digital technologies, cultural theory and urban design, including Patrik Schumacher, Manuel DeLanda, Tom Kovac, Marcos Novak, Benjamin Bratton, Hernan Diaz Alonso, Elena Manferdini, Casey Reas and Greg Lynn.

Entrance is free on registration: http://arch-pubs.usc.edu/INTENSIVEFIELDS/

Exhibition “Tiles”

There is another exhibit of recent work of Neil C. Katz coming up shortly, this time in New York City:

“Tiles” is a juxtaposition of computational studies and handdrawings inspired by tiling patterns found in Prague. The show is going to take place at Simino Architect offices in Red Hook, Brooklyn. And yes, you can take the ferry from Wall Street to get there.

Building Fluency

Image courtesy of Gehry Technologies

Gehry Technologies is finally doing its own marketing – as part of which GT started a series of tutorials in Webinar format titled “Building Fluency” that give a hands-on introduction into the BIM modeling capacities of Digital Project. What does it mean? Maybe the economic downturn is worse than we thought! Anyway, following is some marketing speak:

This introductory webinar series offered by Gehry Technologies is meant to provide a starting point for exploring the rest of Digital Project™ in detail. They are conducted in a classroom format with live demonstrations of all topics. Each weekly session demonstrates a different topic related to building and managing a BIM model in Digital Project V1,R4™. Following this introductory series, further webinars will delve deeper into topics requested by our Digital Project™ User Community.

If you’re interested, you can sign up here.

As Nick is pointing out, GT now also has its very own Youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/GehryTechnologies

Not bad. We want more!

Subdivide Space by Point

subdivideSpace_byPoint_cells by tobesch, on Flickr

subdivideSpaceByPoint.rvb — This is the third example of subdivision based on the containment of lower dimensional geometry within higher dimensional objects – in this case space subdivided by points. I wrote a series of these scripts a while ago but never managed properly categorize them. There are more to come.

Six Not-So-Easy Pieces

Feynman

Just finished reading a book titled Six Not-So-Easy Pieces by nobel-laureate and teaching genius Richard P. Feynman. As its subtitle is suggesting it deals with Einstein’s theory of Relativity, Symmetry in physical laws and Space-Time. The book is based on a series of lectures that Feynman gave between ‘61 and ‘63 to undergraduates in Physics. Feynman had the talent to break down the seemingly most complicated topics and making them accessible for everyone genuinely interested.

He starts off with a review of Vector Algebra, introducing vectors and explaining how Newton’s laws of motion are indifferent to the transformation of coordinate systems, e.g. translation, rotation, etc. Since every course of computational design should have a primer in mathematics this first chapter should definitely be on any reading list for that matter. Also, once you start reading you won’t be able to stop and learn all the other beautiful things about Einstein’s theory of Relativity. I highly recommend this book!

Bitmap to ASCII Translator

BitmapToASCII.ghx by tobesch, on Flickr

A while back, probably at least 5 years, I was looking into Bitmap to ASCII converters for the design of biothing’s old flash website where we decided that instead of just showing portraits of people we’d use their portraits composed of text. This was, I’d guess sort of an allusion to the idea that the world is coded all along the lines of “The Matrix”…

90th Anniversary of the Bauhaus

http://www.modell-bauhaus.de/

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the foundation of the Bauhaus… This anniversary is being celebrated by the exhibition “Modell Bauhaus” which is will be on display starting next week at the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin. (Martin Gropius was a great uncle of Walter Gropius). The exhibition is staged by the three German Bauhaus institutions: the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin, the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau and the Klassik Stiftung Weimar in cooperation with the Museum of Modern Art in New York. For those not fortunate enough to live in or be able to travel to Berlin, but lucky enough to be living on the other side of the big pond, there will be the opportunity to see this exhibition in New York in the fall when the MoMA is hosting the exhibition “Bauhaus 1919 – 1933: Workshops for Modernity“ as part of its 80th anniversary year. Following is an excerpt from the exhibition brief:

‘Random’ Walk of Pi

random walk of pi by tobesch, on Flickr

This post is a follow up on a previous post on a project titled Random Walk – The Visualisation of Randomness. The Grasshopper definition featured here is an implementation of an algorithm described in this project which I find inspirational for at least two reasons: It is dealing with the number Pi, and the notion of (pseudo-)randomness produced on a computer.

Numbers of Pi

numbers of pi by tobesch, on Flickr

Did you ever wonder if there are certain numbers in Pi that occur more often than others? If not, that’s no problem. I didn’t either until yesterday. Anyway, this post is probably more about how to use Grasshopper in ways that is wasn’t necessarily meant to be. Ok, take the first 1,000,000 digits of Pi after the decimal point from here, add them to the following definition and let Grasshopper do all the work. Of course there are hundreds of websites about Pi trivia (e.g. this one), but it’s still nice to be able to confirm some of the facts yourself. At least that’s what I thought.

Computer Capability

The computer is a unique tool. Its flexibility and variety contribute to the design process. Computer analysis can be readily applied at all scales of activity from the total city plan to the most minute structural detail. Professional capabilities are highlighted by the computer, and productivity is enhanced through streamlining complex, repetitive or tedious tasks. [...] These broad functional uses establish the computer as a valuable contributor to the team of architects, engineers, planners, and interiors architects who work together on a project.

A primary advantage of using the computer in the design process is its ablility to organize complex information and display this material in a versatile manner. [...] Standard analysis in a typical situation is often enlarged upon to meet the needs of a unique project. One area of computer usage frequently develops into a wholly new system of application.

Since 1963, when SOM first installed an IBM 1620 computer, rapid and accurate analysis has been applied to sophisticated building configurations, complicated structural systems, detailed energy demands, building materials selection, and project and financial management information. SOM’s abilities today are based on nearly 20 years of development and application

Computer Capability, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1980