Mensa is an altar made for the restoration of the Antica Chiesa Plebana, a XV century church located in S. Maurizio Canavese (To). The project was developed by the artist Elio Garis in collaboration with craftsman Bruno De Masi and Co-De -It a computational design research studio that were in charge of operating as a mediator between the digital realm of the information model and the physical sculptural aspects of the project by translating the initial design into a coarse fabricated model in plywood.

Description (from the site)

When it comes to the use and implementation of digital strategies and tools one of the most common temptations is digital exhaustion: the project starts and becomes perfect in the digital realm. According to this obsession the digital outcome takes command and dictates the rules to which all material aspects should be subjected. Emergence material effects and any kind of post-machine work is seen as a flaw in a search for a fully file-to-factory process. Another common temptation which usually pairs the one we just described is the pursue of digital perfection: since digital tools allow accuracy and precision extreme specificity is often seen (and not without reasons) as a goal or an improvement. These are the case that serve optimization for iterative production, but we think that this shouldn’t be a universal rule.

Digital strategies and tools in our mind are not a substitute of all existing tools and techniques, rather they have their own specificity; they integrate and expand the existing set, adding new extended potential and novel possibilities to it. Substitution happens when the new tool is not only performing the same tasks than the old one but also adds new or improved qualities (performance in speed, accuracy, variation, added features, etc.).

This is an exploration of the territory that lies in-between the digital and the physical realm, using the digital as a resource to amplify the expressive palette of an artist (Elio Garis) working in tight connection with a craftsman (Bruno De Masi, we already worked with him for the Bosco project) for the design and realization of Mensa, an altar which should enrich the restoration of the Antica Chiesa Plebana, a XV century church in S. Maurizio Canavese (To). The design was conceived by Elio Garis, then developed by Bruno De Masi under his guidance, while Co-de-iT operated as a mediator between the digital realm of the information model and the physical sculptural expressive potential, translating the initial design into a coarse fabricated model in plywood. The model was purposely kept coarse to allow a final physical interaction by the artist in order to let him orchestrate material properties and effects according to his sculptural sensibility and experience.

Sculptural sensibility is not a pure hylomorphic process. There is an intensive logic underneath, something that is even more evident in pottery making, where the potter should constantly interact with material properties in order to tease a shape out of clay: temperature, finger pressure, rotational speed of the plate, humidity are all intensively interacting at the same time and directed by the artist’s sculptural sensibility. To that extent, this project explores vagueness as a quality that could be implemented through digital tools: sculptors often take inspiration from pieces of material, guided by vibrant sensibilities they feel resonance and envision a potential to be disclosed.

Our contribution with the digital tools is to explore through generative strategies a wide range of rule-based vague forms that can be coupled (according to material and fabrication logics) to several material palettes and let the final part of their morphogenetic process to be directed by the artist’s material sensibility.

Workshop Rhino / Grasshopper

Curso destinado principalmente a Arquitectos y Diseñadores interesados en el aprendizaje  del diseño parametrico y la creación de algoritmos generativos para su implementacion en distintos processos de diseño ,s e explicaran los conceptos teoricos para abordar   proyectos de diseño a través de algoritmos mediante programación. Se utilizara el entorno de Grasshopper y Rhinoscript como herramientas para desarollar los ejercicios . No es necesario conocimiento previo de Rhinoceros ni de programación.

Fecha y Lugar
Mayo 28, 29 ,20  y Junio 4,5,6
Instalaciónes Plataforma de Arquitectura (151-SA)

Cupo maximo
15 plazas

Costo
Estudiantes : $ 2,500.ºº
Profesionistas: $ 3,000.ºº

Importante
*Los participantes deberan traer su propia laptop con todo el software y actualizaciones (originales o verisones de demostración oficiales) previamente instaladas.(se fijara una fecha unos días antes para revisar que todos los equipos esten en orden y listos para trabajar)

Proceso de Inscripción
El participante debera pagar la matricula haciendo un deposito bancario a la cuenta que aparece a continuación.
Banco:Banamex
Nombre:Daniel Camiro Salgado
No.Cuenta:5204 1670 5605 3697
CLABE(transferencia interbancaria):002010437100818177

Una vez que el deposito se haya llevado acabo el participante debera enviar a cualquiera de estos dos correos electronicos: rodrigo@designplaygrounds.com – chidostudio@gmail.com la siguiente información.
-Nombre Completo
-Email
-Telefono
-Institución Educativa u Oficina
-Archivo adjunto de la copia del recibo del deposito bancario

En cuanto se reciban los datos inmediatamente nos pondremos en contacto para especificar los siguientes pasos a seguir.

Imagenes del Workshop anterior

CHIDO STUDIO + PLATAFORMA ARQUITECTURA WORKSHOP from chido studio on Vimeo.

Organizado en conjunto con:

Often we tend to think that parametric design is for the exclusive use of complex projects with lots of variables and complicated morphologies, here is a simple example of how this methodologies can be also very helpful in more simple and traditional design processes.

The main part of the definition made for this project for creating diagrid patterns is available for download.
Don´t forget subscribing my RSS or follow me @Rodrigo_Medina to keep updated for similar projects.

File Name:DiagridCladdingSurface.ghx

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Some new updates on the Pneumatic Panels Project , Toni Österlund an architecture student at University of Oulu (Finland) ,revised  my code and made some improvements,the script  now supports non planar polygons for creating the cushion cladding system, the problem that the code originally had, was that I used a “planar surface” command to create the primary surface to extract the centroid point ,needed to create the cushion surfaces , these new version instead uses a “patch” command , that makes possible working with non planar polygons, the whole code has also been cleaned up and simplified.

I also included here a simple Grasshopper definition that creates a honeycomb cladding which can be used to create the polygons for the panels, just one of the many tools you can use for design testing and integration into your workflow.

Have fun and don´t forget to send your feed back.

NOTE:The script is for the free domain feel free to use it and modify it for your personal research and educational purposes, For implementation in commercial projects you should notify the respective authors (that would be me and Toni )

Grasshopper Definition:HoneycombCladding.ghx
Rhinoscipt File:PneumaticCladdingTool_revised.rvb

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Project Description
An architecture “des humeurs”

Apparatuses for the architectural assemblages on transactional and structuring protocols :

- One aspect is comprised by computational, mathematical and machinist procedures designed to produce an urban structure following certain protocols of improbable and uncertain successive indeterminations, aggregations and layouts to rearticulate the link between the individual and the collective. The layout of the residential units and the structural trajectories are conceived and developed here as posterior to the morphologies that support social life and not as an a priori. These structures are calculated following simultaneously incremental and recursive structural optimization protocols whose principle result is the concurrently generated physicality and morphology of an architecture.

The “algorithm” developed by François Jouve differs from “directly calculated” structural methods such as calculating a load-bearing structure of a building after it is designed. In contrast, the “algorithm” allows the architectural form to emerge from the trajectories of the transmission of forces simultaneously with the calculation that generates them. The “algorithm” is based on (among other things) two mathematical strategies, one taken from the derivative initiated by the research of Hadamard and the other from of protocol of the representation of complex shapes by Cartesian meshing through level set.

The mathematical process of empirical optimization makes it possible for the architectural design to react and adapt to previously established constraints instead of the opposite.

- The other aspect is the collection of data regarding the chemical body, based on the

neurobiological emissions of each future owner. Until now the collection of information involved in the residential unit protocol has been exclusively based on visible and reductive data (surface area, number of rooms, access mode and party walls).

Instead, this experiment will be the occasion to interrogate an obscure area that could be called “the emission of desires” by the capture of these physiological signals based on neurobiological secretions, and to implement a chemistry of the humors of future purchasers, taken as inputs generating a diversity of habitable morphologies and the relationships between them.

The groundwork for this architecture of “humeurs” is a rereading of the contradictions inherent in the expression of these desires, both those that traverse public space through the ability to express a choice by means of language, on the surface of things, and those that are underlying and perhaps more disturbing but just as valid. By means of the latter we can appraise the body as a desiring machine with its own chemistry – dopamine, hydrocortisone, melatonin, adrenaline and other molecules secreted by the body itself that are imperceptibly anterior to the consciousness these substances generate. Thus the making of architecture is inflected by another reality, another complexity, that of the acephalous body, the animal body.

An architecture of “humeurs” means breaking into language’s mechanism of dissimulation in order to physically construct misunderstandings. A station for collecting these signals is offered. It makes it possible to perceive these chemical variations and capture the changes in emotional state so that they affect the geometries emitted and influence the construction protocol.

The experiment represents a tool to create modular structure systems that can be adaptable to different scales and context spaces, The objective of this project was to develop a generative design strategy for architectural design that could be developed under digital fabrication methods. I have to mentions these are the first steps of  this research project  , currently working in scripting the constructive unions of the modules , tagging the pieces and extract the information for its digital fabrication.

How it Works
The Grasshopper definition extracts the honeycomb structures from two surfaces, this allows the system to adapt better to a pre established place (interior spaces for example) , once you have selected both surfaces they get subdivided and then a VBscript component extract the honeycomb patterns from the surface , which are then used to create lofted surfaces.

As I mentioned befor these are the first steps, I´m woking in a similar version that generates apprtures depending on a distance to a point , if you want to keep updated with this and other projects you can subscribe to my RSS Feed
Rhino File: Honeycomb Surfaces.3dm
Grasshopper Definition: Honeycomb2surfaces.ghx

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So I tried to see if I could achieve this kind of aggregations using a 4-pod element like the one I saw on that project , to do it I revisit a code I saw once at Kokkugia´s wiki about recursive aggregations and tweaked a little bit to adapt it to the 4-pod elementmentioned before. The aggregated component was modeled using T-Splines for rhino as I´ve said in other occasions is great for organic modelling.The code it´s a little buggy and generate some replications in the same places but for a one day experiment I think is ok . If you are curious of trying it out and improve it please let me know.=)

In the next days I will be posting some experiments for surface tesselations on surafces using  Grasshopper if you want to keep updated you can suscribe to my RSS Feed

Script File:RecursiveAggregation01.rvb

Rhino File :Recursive4-Pod.3dm

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I like that this practices dedicate many of their time to teach others by giving lectures and workshops all over the place, this helps ideas to propagate at much faster rate which I think will enable to see many of the conceptual ideas being generated become a reality very soon. So go ahead and check out their work, some of them have wikis , and special zones where they share codes and bits of their research which are very useful.

Material Ecology by Neri Oxman an architect and researcher whose work attempts to establish new forms of experimental design and novel processes of material practice at the interface of design, computer science, material engineering and ecology.

SJET was initiated by Skylar Tibbits, as a catalogue and source of inspiration for work in experimental computation + design. SJET remains open to growing opportunities that provide for investigation in architecture & design, fabrication, computer science, robotics, media, art, electronics.

THEVERYMANY created by Marc Fornes is design studio and collaborative research forum engaging the field of architecture via “Explicit and Encoded protocols”. Territory for design(AND/AS/FOR/FROM)research via Rhinoscripting

EMERGENT is a platform for architectural experimentation created by Tom Wiscombe, dedicated to the transfer of techniques, logics, and sensibilities from science, technology, and computation into architecture. EMERGENT’s primary directive is to move beyond categorical thinking and the stratification of building systems toward a more integrated future.

SPAN is a Vienna based Architecture Firm , headed by Matias del Campo and Sandra Manninger, is driven by a compulsive desire to speculate about architectural opportunities in the presence of animated matter, organic entities and their underlying geometrical and mathematical logics. Their award winning architecture designs fuse these obsessions into projects applying the most advanced digital design tools and cast them into form by computer-controlled machinery.

Biothing is a design research initiative created by Alisa Andrasek ,working on an algorithmic articulation of the interface between the material behaviors and computational instruments in an attempt to engage with complexity. Computational patterns are understood as deep in terms of their potential to produce expressions at various scales. At the core of the work is an accumulative library of scripts and methods for their trans coding, networked with constraints of materials, structure, aesthetics, fabrication and assembly.

Kokkugia is an international design practice based in london and new york that operates through design, research, experimentation and teaching. kokkugia works across scales on design projects in a range of fields including architecture, urban design and industrial design. kokkugia’s ongoing design research involves the creation of generative design methodologies developed from the complex self-organising behavior of social, biological and material systems.

Release Improvements:
* BoxEdit: Can now accept units other than active unit system.
* Dimension Properties: A new button takes the user to the Style configuration page in the Options dialog box.
* Open: It is now possible to cancel opening files that are locked by another user.
* Purge: Options now persist between Rhino sessions.
* Save:DWG/DXF: Schemes can now be imported and exported through the Edit Schemes dialog and the AcadSchemes command.

Bug Fixes:

* BoxEdit: If you are in “Transform objects individually” mode, and if all objects have the same x, y, and/or z dimension, the corresponding edit fields did not show a delta. The same applies to the position fields. If objects share a pivot coordinate, then the position fields not longer display a delta. This is fixed.

* Contour: Some failure bugs have been fixed by new intersectors.
* CrvSeam: A failure bug has been fixed.
* DimRadius: Improvements in leader placement and editing.
* DimRadius: The behavior of the arrow location has been improved.
* ExtrudeCrv: Additional checking for invalid extrusions has been added.
* Object Snap: The object drag osnap is now delayed by default. When you select an object to drag it, you now have 250ms to do an old style non-osnapped drag. If the osnap was able to snap to something, the cursor tail will disappear, and after the delay the osnap will be activated, and you can do a precise drag from the osnapped point.
* Open/Save: The open and save file location incorrectly returned to the default location if Rhino 5 is closed without opening a file or using the SetWorkingDirectory command. This is fixed.
* Open:PDF: A problem with the unit settings has been fixed.
* Open:STP: A problem with importing onto layers that are off is fixed.
* Paste: A problem with pasting from the Edit menu selection has been fixed.
* Print: Minor changes to the dialog box layout have improved readability.
* RemoveMultiKnotSrf: Some problems with updating the display have been fixed.
* Save:DWG/DXF:
o When exporting or saving to DWG/DXF, the “Primary text length factor” is incorrectly not being set in the “Default” imported style from Rhino. The AutoCAD control variable DIMLFAC is now set to match the corresponding length factor.
o Special characters in layer names were lost. This is fixed.
o Layer names with mixed upper and lower case were incorrectly converted to upper case. This is fixed.
* SelLast: A problem with selecting inappropriate objects has been fixed.
* VariableFilletEdge: Several failure bugs have been fixed.

Spread the word =D

Apparently  2010 seems to  be te year of Grasshopper lately we have been watching the appearance  of some grasshopper plugins like Rabbit 1.0 , WaveBird and Modetools developed by independent design studios , I predict this tendency will grow this year and we will see some pretty amazing stuff developed for this tool.

If  all this  was not enough  today David Rutten anounced the new WIP version 0.6.0055 Grasshopper 2009 Gold Edition , sounds very fancy right? actually it is this incorporates some new and interesting widgets, one that calls my attention is the Markov widget wich chains to ‘guess’ which component you want to use next based on your behaviour in the past.

I still can remember a little more than a year ago when I downloaded the first version of Grasshopper , (called Explicit History in those days ) it had very few components but for somebody who had to learn rhinoscript the hard way was easy to see the hidden potential of the tool, I ´m happy to see what it has become, with every realease they appear lots of  features I wouldn´t even imagine it could have, can´t really say how version 1.0 is going to be, but I can say its going to be something HUGE for the world of parametric design softwares.

While that happens I invite you to try out this version wich can be downloaded from HERE and as always have fun.

What features do you thing will appear in the future or which ones you thing are missing ?

Improvements for this version (straight from the site)
This release fixes a number of reasonably serious bugs:
- VB and C# components would have problems loading referenced assemblies from unexpected folders. This is (at least somewhat) fixed.
- Enabling objects would fail to properly enable input parameters for components, this is fixed.
- Probably some other ones too, my bookkeeping skills leave something to be desired.

It also offers some new functionality:
- A new Group object has been added. Groups allow you to visually link several components. Group colour cannot yet be changed, but by double clicking the group, the outline mode can be toggled.

- A new Markov widget has been added. This widget uses Markov chains to ‘guess’ which component you want to use next based on your behaviour in the past. It takes a while for it to get accustomed to you as a special and unique and lovable individual, so don’t expect miracles right away.

- A new Profiler widget has been added (off by default). The profiler lists worst-case runtimes for parameters and components, allowing you to track down bottlenecks in networks and to compare different components in terms of performance.

- All widgets now have proper tooltips.

- Mouse picking has been improved. Different actions are now handled better and especially making new wires should be somewhat easier.

- Toolbars now draw separators between different groups of objects. Separators can be disabled via the View menu.

- Fuzzy searching has been improved.

- Scribbles now allow font sizes up to 100pt.

- All Complex Number components have been moved into their own Tab.

- Tabs are now scrollable when the width of all tabs exceeds the width of the window.

And of course a couple of new components (to be honest, I have no idea which ones are new since the last release):

- Repeat Data
- Random Reduce
- Domain Inclusion
- String Concatenation
- Sinc (Sinus Cardinalis) trigonometry function
- Spherical Cloud
- Sort Points
- Vector Rotate and Vector Mass Addition (are these really new? … I forgot)
- Curve Dash pattern
- Nurbs Curve Control Points
- Metaball with custom charge overrides
- Curve self-intersections