Brandspace program_mix & shape

How do we generate a successful mixture of program, shape and structure to generate a unique spatial consumer experience?

problem & dialectic

The architectural production of recent decades can be characterized as striving to be autonomous and heterogenous in comparison with the anonymous and homogenous proceedings of a repetition of modern ideals.

Of interest for you should be now only the misreadings of modernist architecture by the neo-avantgarde, which distinguishes itself for not using icons and copies that are typologically driven. This is not a mere repetition, which relies on the ideal or identity through historicist replication as in postmodernism. It is also a process that does not refer directly to an origin as did Corbusier’s use of industrial products of the time (ocean-liner, automotive etc.) to generate design ideas and in this sense was proto-machinic, but one should operate distinct from the functional-formal dialectic of modernism and all its reconstructions. You should localize the inherent characteristics in your design process of “repeating with difference”. In this sense one adheres to certain rules of an existing language or an pattern armature, but trangresses the underpinnings of the project referred to.

One precisely needs to define “the problem” to engage into the disciplinary discourse. The discourse of architecture often referred to a series of dialectics such as inside –outside, vertical – horizontal, center – periphery, frontality – rotation, solid – void, point – plane, figure - ground etc..

Note: A close reading of architectural examples (Palladio –villa Malcontenta, Corbusier – villa Garches, Mies – Glass house , Eisenman- Houses 1-10) helps to understand the discourse of other projects. This supports you to understand and delineate your design and clarify your employed formal design strategy.

For this initial step is not concerned with function or structure, nor with the social context, technology, economics, but simply with the formal manifestations revealed to the eye.

“Only that which is alike differs” (Deleuze)

Students are supposed to search for the generating diagram, to construct “the abstract machine” as an evidence of dynamics that give the decisive change to the process of developing the project. Related to project aspects of past pattern developments.

The next step is to look for its material configuration. There is always a certain relationship between the information it contains and the transformation it instigates. Which are the critical patterns to be implemented for a successful evolution? What is the underlying principle that activates the diagram? How does one isolate and direct its strategy of transformation?

In order to understand its specific operational technique, an organizational prototype is developed in several sequential stages where parameters change to test the performance before it is mapped onto the studio project.

The students will assemble their own proposal that will develop from physical 3D-pattern models.

Students are required to make digital 3D-parties displaying the process of the design evolution; Importance is laid onto the recording of each successive step, the parameter changes that lead to differentiation between the models.

ref.:

1. B.Tschumi: Glas video-gallery, Groningen
2. P.Eisenman: pavilion Groningen
3. Coop Himmelblau: pavilion Groningen
4. Toyo Ito: tower of the winds
5. Diller & Scofidio: slow house, Long Island, NY
6. Zaha Hadid: Mind Zone, Millenium Dome, london

Assignm.:

Description/ Program:

Site:

The whole site development ( “island masterplan”) envisions areas of offices in the center and mixed use at the beach front, both dedicated for the longitudinal stem at the bottom of the island.

Student groups are supposed to locate their clusters in the respective area at the east part of the island/ mixed use area, taking into consideration other groups already in place.

Volume_form_shape concept;

Each student develops the spatial distribution of program (axonometric diagram); plans (scale 1:200, 1/16”); infrastructure, circulation (axonometric diagram);

1. diagrams; plan & section ; initial scale 1/32”~1:500;

2. mass models/ 3D-pattern models/ parties; scale 1/32”~1:500; minimum 3 schemes; materials- wood, foamcore, acrylic;

3. sketch drawings, draw up your first concept thoughts! the concept has to sit! plans & sections (what is necessary to explain the scheme); rough door swings & fenestration as notational process; scale 1/32”~1:500 & 1/16”~1:200 (xerox enlarge or CAD plot larger)

You will receive extra bonus, if you can already move up to the next scale!

4. diagrams; plan & sections diagrammatic - scale 1/16”~1:200 to illustrate the sketches;

Print:

11/2x17” sheets

Digital:

in .pdf in letter size, saved to the folder.

Dubai & BRANDspace

Why is Dubai undergoing a singular unprecedented city expansion?

How do we generate an innovative spatial concept that appeals to brand labels, without reference to the popular eclectic, the Disney revival and the vernacular?

In order to continue the project on Brandspaces, we will invent a Brandspace package, as an environment featuring a unique combination of program and spatial tectonics to satisfy the leaders of the Made in Italy “label-league”. The major criteria is certainly the consumer behavior. For a lot of shopping sectors, the most striking changes are found in the consumers themselves, who are increasingly asking for “shopping experiences” that are exciting and emotionally attractive, as well as functionally convenient to their requirements. In many sectors, merchandising with a range of tactics offers the solution to requirements of this nature.

The studio will critically inquire the recent phenomena of Villa Moda, a brandscape development and fashion mall concept, spreading across different cities like Dubai, Kuwait etc..

Assignm.:
Make yourself familiar with the developments of Dubai and the potential site on The Palm Deira;
Look into the development of the retail concept for Villa Moda, and analyse their typical program composition.

The class work will proceed in creating a multibrand agglomerate, a village type new retailing concept with clusters of individual showrooms or pavilions, all having their own program. These pavilions will have same volume but differ tectonically from each other and allow to design-customize the brand labels appearance, which are located next to each other.
The class project in a common effort will contribute to a unifying urban strategy for the placement of the individual showrooms/pavilions. In a first step, students will layout single showrooms (initial footprint of 1400 qm, 26x54m, app. h 7.5m) and their potential program composition as a conceptual diagram, and then continue to design preliminary massing and plan strategies;

Groups of students are encouraged to form planning clusters to coordinate the position, integration or distance of their respective showrooms/pavilions.

Ref:
www.villa-moda.com
www.thepalm.ae
www.theworld.ae
www.nakheel.ae
www.emaar.ae
www.dip.ae

of totally another scale:
http://little-people.blogspot.com

cad-file of pavilion size in ARCH_Pongratz_3502 on 'archlab': 0-example-folder-pongratz\2cp-2D_plans: VF-pavilio.dwg

Print:

11/2x17” sheets and suitable for presentation

Digital:

sheets in .pdf in letter size, saved to the folder.

structure & material/ pattern & building

Could these figures be scaled from ornament to structure and then to full building structure?

What if these single initial components are three-dimensional solids, and have intricate joint-work like in wood joints, in order to allow for a structural assembly. And then, if we look for a derivation of self similar variations, like changes in size and shape, would the joint-work stay the same but the rest of the form change, or would the whole component undergo evolution, being similar to the parent and proliferate into a certain number of child components. What are the consequences in transmitting structural loads, what about relationships and behaviors of these components?

…. continued

b) The other direction to be explored more in depth, is load bearing, structural stone. Here the design will deepen the potential of selected pattern geometries and develop a structural cladding system of particular cut stone blocks and slabs.

The research is supposed to establish or refine design rules according to the experiments with constraints of individual geometry, shape change, module size change, joint position and detail solution etc…
Reading:
-Mostafavi;
-Toyo Ito;
-Herzog & de Meuron

Assignm.:

Material selection & single component design (assembly and composition must be made clear and readable with additional drawings, renderings) & fabrication of one potential pattern application as load bearing façade and exterior wall cladding, which plays on the theme of light-filtering screens.

Print:
11/2x17” productsheets and 36x48” presentation sheets
Digital:
productsheets in .pdf in letter size, saved to the folder.

pattern & structure

Could these geometries now also be scaled from a product design level to building component structures?
Can those patterns be applied to non load bearing and then load bearing cladding systems with complex shapes?

infinite continuity
concept of the transformation process of a diagrammatic (figural) scheme into multi-scalar, multi-usable properties, achieving multidimensional structural configurations and instances that reappear as a repetition with variation.

STONE:
There are two directions, which form the basis of exploration in the next phases:

1.) one is a building envelope with non load bearing stone veneer surfaces, with or without compound curvature. Here the design research will elaborate a non-structural suspended cladding in stone experimenting with 3D patterns and their surfaces.

The research is supposed to establish or refine design rules according to the experiments with constraints of individual geometry, module size change (-weight for handling and installation), joint position with backup structure etc…

Reading:
Mostafavi, Surface Architecture
Detail:
-Bauen mit Naturstein (issue 2003/11)
-Hugues, Th., Detail Practice:Dressed stone, types of stone, details, examples

Assignm.:
research on cladding systems & steel support structures for detailing (either traditional steel anchors bolted to structural wall or clips with horizontal aluminium rails and vertical support profiles),

stone material selection & single component design & (assembly and composition must be made clear and readable with additional drawings, renderings) fabrication of one pattern application as a non load bearing suspended façade cladding, which could be a solid surface or dependent on the building position a perforated screen (which might be also back-illuminated to enhance the geometrical pattern in depth). The design description should clarify the number and size of different typical modules necessary to accommodate eventual edge conditions and varying lengths in building height as well as in width. The dry installation of the cladding should be explored in detail (1:10) with corresponding plan, section horizontal+ vertical and elevation, and 3D model detail. Section standard with 200mm reinforced concrete wall, 30mm mineral wool, 50mm ventilated cavity and stone thickness according to design requirements.

ref
http://www.claddiator.com

http://www.fischer.de/

http://www.halfen.de/

http://www.marmomacc.com

Print:
11/2x17” productsheets and 36x48” presentation sheets
Digital:
productsheets in .pdf in letter size, saved to the folder.
Fabricate: pattern scale model(s) 1:5

pattern & material & fabrication

How does design lead to industrial manufacturing?
If we use digital craft, can we fabricate something which follows the foam model?And how do we relate this model to material and substance?
Can patterns be applied to load bearing surfaces with complex shapes?

Here we are talking about an evolution of the manufacturing system towards the industrialized “one-of a kind”, a new way of mass-customization of “true art” on any scale from products to architecture.
It is a new concept of luxury linked to the craft and techniques of transforming materials, seen already in the beginning of last century, a revolutionary tradition of craftsmanship in the emerging laboratories such as the “Werkstaetten”, the “Werkbund”, or the “art deco assemblier” unfolding in different cities in Northern Europe.

If we explore the characteristics of material and the making, then for the reason to understand also the particularity of their surfaces, which is not only a wrapper, but deep structure as well.

The possibilities offered by new fabrication technologies permit great freedom to give an organization to material first, which in a second step is conferring a new skin to objects. It seems another evolution with respect to the designs of two dimensional decorations, as one suggests three dimensional surfaces with aspects of dynamic and tactile repetitions of geometries, stimulating effects that often surprise and stir emotions. At our hands are now lasers for carving embroidery motifs, but also technologies which insert new materials to enhance the textures, leading not only to a visual but more so to a multi-sensory nature of materials in general.

Ornament is a part of the world, and it cannot help but but resurface, reinvented, with a strong communicative thrust. (Alessandro Mendini, Writings 2004)

In the prototyping phase, students will experiment with materials in order to permit the evaluation of design variations and, or to test an assembly.

Reading:
Mori, Immaterial-Ultramaterial
Addington, Smart Materials
Detail:
-Laeden und Verkauf

Assignm.:
research on mobile room dividers - paravents, (contemporary and past époques such as oriental Arabic, Indian, african etc..); images min. 144dpi, reference to project name, book reference.
design , material selection & single component (prototype assembly, composition must be made clear and readable with additional drawings, renderings) fabrication of one paravent or interior space divider. Typical dimensions are 180x60x4cm or 130x90x8cm

ref
http://www.armanicasa.com/armani_casa_index.html
furniture complements:
http://www.armanicasa.com/index.jsp?language=en&site=AH&movieSession=armani_casa.swf&audio=acceso

http://www.paravent-art.de/

Print:
11/2x17” productsheets for each of the two products
Digital:
productsheets in .pdf in letter size, saved to the folder.
Fabricate: scale model 1:5

pattern repetition & difference

Do certain techniques accelerate new strategies towards the formation of original organizational structures? Can one push the underlying principle to its limits? What is the right tactic to get to the point when the systemic behavior proliferates variations?

Peter Eisenman’s term of repetition with difference is certainly one determining criteria.

Difference

In the nonlinear evolutional model must be an excess of information that allows each element in space (similar to cellular automata or other generative systems) to place itself. In this case all parts are aware of their function and spatial relationship to the neighbors and the whole. This message of the “difference” predominantly triggers knowledge-sharing and the evolution of the system, which being interrelated to time and program, allows form and space with a new organizational structure to emerge.

An important question to answer will be: When does surface become deep?
How do solids transform when air appears at unexpected locations?
What is the process like?
What are the respective formfinding techniques?
Geometric-metaphoric-evolutionary?

Assignm.:
Finished shape design of selected parties. Finalized modularization, and design of components. Performance check-up. Parties with perforated surfaces or perforated patterns and solid surfaces..

Component shape design scalable for:
1. interior design application size
2. exterior, façade modul size.

Print:
-2D development in -36x48 “ sheets
-3D development in -36x48 “ sheets
Digital:
2D & 3D development in .pdf in -letter size, saved in folder.

pattern & color

“Ornament is crime”, thundered Adolf Loos. So who would have imagined that the concept of decoration would be a hot topic in the third millennium? A topic so timely, so successful, that the ranks of the design star systems have set about decorating everything in sight, to give both environment and object a new dimension. It’s concepts bring to the forefront a new revolution, with respect to the purist, and minimalist habits of the related professions.

Décor and patterns involve the surfaces of objects and their materials, and the effects of transparency, luminosity, carving, embroidery or three-dimensional design in general become a new form of narration. The geometries are no longer seen as a superfluous skin, but a seductive form of expression indulging in material and color..

“Design is the unexpected welcome” moooi

In order to explore the visual perception of the patterns further, the geometry proposals are enhanced with a study on a color pigment mix to obtain a wider range of differentiation. The experimentation starts with a very basic palette of complementary colors up to suddle color tonality variations.
It will be necessary to develop further the suggested product design, in order to bring the geometric modularization into a harmonious relationship with the color pattern.
This experiment might also consider the potential integration of LED illumination and play on the effect of nocturnal illuminated patterns.

Reading:(on reserve in library)
-Albers
-digipop, Karim Rashid
-Material World I
-Material World II

Assignm.:

Exploration of 3D pattern parties – the evolution in color for further differentiation and variation.

Test the pattern application in product-design, and design an example of a floor lamp and a bistro table.

The design of the floor lamp will explore the combination of several materials. The base and the vertical “stem” could be in metal (die cast aluminium….) or plastics (polyethylene..), while the lamp shade might express the particular geometry with a suitable material depending on the pattern (acrylic glass, polycarbonate, unodised aluminium, other metals...). The illumination technology should experiment with LED systems, which offers additional potential for design patterns and decorative effects.

The possibility of applying the patterns to the design of a table, in particular to revisit the classical French Bistro table, will offer another challenge in material transformation. The design will employ the ironic strategy of the “new antiques”or “barock & roll”, combining a new and modern interpretation of the classic Baroque, Gothic.. base (legs, the vertical “stem” or load bearing column(s) in lacquered wood), with a complementary and at the same time contradictory table top in a modern design and material finish according to the pattern chosen (stone, metal, plastics, polyurethane...). A particular effect of surprise might be obtained by invisibly illuminating the table top with LEDs.

The “concept design materials” employed are foremost wood, plastics and metal, in some cases also layered by laminating thin sheet materials onto laser cut supporting material. It is predominantly the laser cut which offers again the possibility of additional material tactility and surface decoration.

Ref.:
Table: new antiques, side table tall (http://www.marcelwanders.nl/wanders/pages/tables-newant_3_7_grouppage.shtml)
Design strategy: barock & roll_Pink Dime
http://www.sawayamoroni.com/old%20web/collectionhome.html

French precedents
http://www.frenchgeneralstore.com/home/bistro.html
http://justinsomnia.org/2006/08/seeking-french-bistro-table/
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/fur/273037377.html
http://www.antiquescolony.com/pg1023.html

Lamp: fringe 5
http://www.moooi.nl/content/collections/collection.php?unid=72

general:
http://www.edra.com
http://www.bebitalia.it/
http://www.driade.com/
http://www.kartell.it/

Fabricate: Small pattern sample of the selected geometry for each of the designs applied, in scale 7x7”.

Print: 11/2x17” productsheets for each of the two products, including pics of sample

Digital: productsheets in .pdf in letter size, saved to the folder.