| Lecture 4 | |
|---|---|
| Course | Arch 200c |
| Date | 2011/10/04 |
| Learning Objectives | In this lecture we will introduce the contemporary concept of "Generative Design" - understood as the encapsulation of design intent into formally-defined "design systems". This approach, discussed through contemporary examples that build upon the work of Nervi, Gaudi, and others, presents a challenge not only earlier conceptions of the role of representation in design, but is often regarded as a direct attack on the agency of the architect as author. |
| Agenda |
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| Uses Tool(s) | |
Lecture 4
Digital technologies have enabled new design methods that move beyond representation, and are fundamentally different than those grounded in descriptive drawings. Midcentury experiments in 'form-finding' and allowing designs to 'emerge' from a more basic set of rules have been rediscovered by contemporary architects, armed with more sophisticated and accessible computational tools. This encapsulation of design intent into formally-defined “design systems” presents a challenge not only earlier conceptions of the role of representation in design, but is often regarded as a direct attack on the agency of the architect as author.
Form-Finding
Emergence
Resources
- Perry Hall Studio
- Painter Perry Hall uses a set of experimental techniques that draw upon the organizing principles found in nature. In his Decalcomania paintings, he uses pressure to shape complex networks of interlocking lines and ridges of paint into organic compositions that evoke the notion of 'growing' a painting. In his Livepaintings (time-based paintings), he stimulates paint with temperature changes, vibration, turbulence, and various substances, transforming paint flows into compositions he captures onto video.
- Border Processing
- Digital/physical explorations through scripting, parametric and generative tools/means. Experiments, references and vectors.
Readings
- Terry Knight and George Stiny, “Classical and Non-Classical Computation,” arq: Architectural Research Quarterly 6, no. 1 (2003): 5-10.
- Paul Coates, The Programming of Architecture (New York: Routledge, 2010)
- Manuel De Landa, “Deleuze and the Use of the Genetic Algorithm in Architecture,” in Rethinking *Technology, New edition edition. (Routledge, 2007), 388-393.
- Jane Burry and Mark Burry, The New Mathematics of Architecture (London: Thames & Hudson, 2010).
- George Stiny, Shape: Talking about Seeing and Doing (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006).
- Casey Reas, Chandler McWilliams, and Jeroen Barendse, Form+Code in Design, Art, and Architecture (New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010).