Advisor: Viola Ago
C O L L A B O R A T O R - E S T E L L A L I U
Toolkits - Rhinoceros, Maya, Grasshopper, Zbrush, and Photoshop
TModels - Venture Lab, Robotic Flocking, Laser Cutting, 3D Printing, and Thermoforming
Year 2023
Project Published: PressingMatters
In the existing contemporary landscape of visually oriented fields of study, casual compositions and other formless expressions have begun to re-emerge, particularly in the disciplines of art, architecture, and popular image culture. In architecture, with the rise of the digital, the last two decades have witnessed a field in pursuit of novel styles through the use of the latest digital tools and the newest software release package. More recently, over the last five years or so, one of the conditions that the field has experienced is a more noveltyapathetic attitude; one permeated with project proposals that use digital software platforms in order to generate a form in a state of duress, or aggregate a collection of volumes and objects into casual, non-hierarchical compositions.
Notions of disordered and formless aesthetics are not new to the discipline of architecture. Prior to the wholesale immersion of computers in the practice, deconstructivist architects such as Zaha Hadid, Peter Eisenman, Bernard Tschumi, and Frank Gehry to name a few, were working through projects that defied the laws of physics, confronted wholeness with finite libraries of elements, challenged geometric truths, and resisted conventional typologies and assemblies. In a way, the deconstructivists were intuiting digital processes before they became widespread.
At present, the architectural discipline is occupying a moment of cultural and visual (even representational) disorientation and a subsequent digital reprieve; a cleansing of sorts that emerged out of a collective—and I would even argue an almost mandatory—desire to question the present status of the digital. During this moment of pause, some emergent practices have returned to more de-constructed, dis-assembled, and formless affinities. One can argue that an alternative mode of decon is resurging as a result of an intricate contemporary condition that demands a pluralistic architecture with the capacity to respond to cultural and visual phenomena, economical and political instabilities, and geological and ecological problems.
In a world that is missing a central theoretical voice (for example what Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deluze with Felix Guattari provided for deconstructivism and the digital project), now more than ever it is time to solicit these emergent voices on the topic of an alternative formlessness through a sense of destabilization.
Assignment-1
In Phase 1 we need to 3D model a series of facade chunks that span one floor and approximately two bays (roughly a square-ish shape overall). The workflow covered a two part process. The first part was focusing on using a collection of primitive geometries and clustering them in the Maya MASH interface. And the second part was focusing on bringing the volumetric collection of primitives geometries and projecting them in the 2.5D environment in ZBrush in order to create low relief elevational studies.
Compositional: we were looking to describe the compositional qualities of these design chunks through the use of repetition (repeating the same unit over and over again) and difference (the differences between the transformational qualities of the unit in the composition). Seriality: It was really important that we understand the design chunks as a series. They didn’t have to be chronological, but they had to be serial - meaning that the design chunks built on top of one another and that their compositional qualities built on top of one another
Assignment-2
Part 1: The first part of the assignment focused on producing color/graphics iterations based on the selected compositional study selected from assignment 1. With this assignment, we aimed to develop a painterly and color aesthetic that is in line with
some of the concepts covered in the lecture, also listed here:
- shaped support
- misregistration
- glitch/compression
- pattern/painterly
Part 2: The second part of the assignment required us to fabricate small swatches of the graphic articulation. This part of the assignment became clearer during our desk crits which covered all the different methods of producing and fabricating these color/graphics visual studies that we were producing.
Swatch-1 Misregister
Swatch-2 Transparency
Swatch-3 Pattern
Swatch-4 Layer
Swatch-5 Gap
Model Pototype
Final Production
rom a design perspective: there were two primary areas of study that we have looked at so far: formal (geometry) and visual (graphics). - From a formal perspective: we were looking for haphazard compositional strategies that did not prioritize rigid organizational qualities. - From a visual studies perspective: we were interested in graphic behaviors that challenge the formal compositions in friendly or contentious ways. Creating visual interest by articulating architectural surfaces (or facades), we held visual attention longer and in turn hoped that the facade (surface design) could activate the space of the viewer. - From a production and fabrication perspective: of utmost importance in the course was the use of fabrication and other production methodologies. More specifically, we were referring to Corian Solid Surfaces thermoforming and robotic motion-controlled fiber focking.
Materials
1⁄4” Clear acrylic/plexi to denote glazing
1⁄4” Plywood or MDF for structural members, painted
- Hardware to be purchased from McMaster Carr, Home Depot, etc.
- Flocking fibers - colors based on each design proposal.
Other misc
