In Part 3 – Manual Reset, SmartGeometry 2010, Barcelona, Working Prototypes, architect Don Chong explains more of his observations at the event. He describes some of the presentations and people present as well as their presentations.
We have to think that design, is less about composition, and more about seeking and unearthing ‘rules’ or ‘opportunities’ that are naturally dynamic. And my suspicions would lead me to think that Sabin and Jones want to advance these prototypes to instigate a level of necessary morphologies and taxonomies both ready and resilient in a built environment that needs intelligent connections, and in a built environment that chooses to evolve and learn from itself as nature itself would.
Inflatable Fabric Envelopes If there was a moment at this year’s SmartGeometry when one wondered just what century we were in, it was at this Workshop cluster tutored by Axel Kilian and Adam Davis. If you squinted, you’d think you were in an textile factory in the early 1900s. If you thought you saw sewing machines furiously pumping away to get onto the next pattern, well, you weren’t seeing things.
That’s because Kilian and Davis fascinatingly employed, literally, teams of multi-talented seamsters ready and willing to flip their bobbins over to a GC parametric script and then get right back onto their pedals. The goal here was to explore techniques of fabric tensile strength with standard sewing techniques as the main means of construction.
With a series of patterns defined, the team members would stitch the various pieces so they could inflate what had ostensibly been flat 2D surfaces into bonafide three-dimensional figures. The cluster team created dynamic light ‘structures’ that demonstrated the strength of an efficiently surfaced and enveloped enclosure. These prototypes would be perfectly suited in advancement towards some of the types of work that University of Manitoba’s Mark West’s renowned studies have created by using fabric-based formwork in concrete structural components. It would be useful to see how these exercises here in Barcelona, though using pressurized air to create volume, would advance any stitching details and stitching directions in an effort to resist the significantly added outward pressure of mixed concrete, and how they might transform based on favourable depths of concrete from reinforced bars on tensile surfaces.
Parametrics and Physical Interactions
This workshop led by Hugo Mulder, Flora Dilys Salim and Przemek Jaworski explored and questioned the fluidity and interface of users to their GC models by introducing new modes of analog input. To enable a tangible connection and therefore manipulation of a virtual parametric model would help to demonstrate how parametrics can be an extension of our bodies, even and extension of our social networking infrastructure.
It provided some profoundly interesting conditions, especially with the ability to tweet in manoeuvres and watch a realtime solid adjust to a collective transformation by one-word commands like ‘stretch’ or ‘twist’. Even Wii-motes were adapted to capture motions into input for the GC architectural models, giving new meaning to recreational activity… Suddenly, the Minority Report user interface that Stephen Spielberg envisioned – which was highly intuitive and virtually tactile – doesn’t seem to be sci-fi anymore.
High Tech Design – Low Tech Construction
This cluster took a very honest and elegant approach to parametric models. David Kosdruy and Juan Subercaseaux focused on simple construction techniques, with available tools and technologies. It was an intelligent approach on the nature of materials and the limitations of the componentry and available assemblage practices. It made for an impressive three-dimensional array of overlapping tiles which had employed a conventional desktop printer, laser beams and projectors to key in the critical joints. The stiffness of the plywood tiles helped create joints which provided hingeresistant, rigid connections. The platelet style connections were particularly fascinating in their aggregate amount of plate-to-plate ‘give’; much as a chainmail suit of armour would take form on bodily curvatures.
The practical applications of this would be wide-reaching, certainly in North America, where wood stud construction is prevalent; therefore, providing a real and ready context to stitch in componentry to standard conditions. This is where this cluster had foresight and good, practical vision: it would be the most likely to be adopted into real construction at affordable rates.
How often can you see a GenerativeComponents design find its way so quickly into to your local platform-framed wood structure, and with easy start-up tools and no high-capital start-up technologies? Better yet, could one idea be about taking labelled components, packing and shipping them, and then reassembling them with the simplest of means.
In areas of the world with no available electricity, but with just manual labour. Or in areas where a natural catastrophe might have occurred, but easy-to-erect shelter is a must. It’s nice to see form take a backseat, isn’t it. The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum’s ‘Design for the Other 90%’ exhibition was an eye-opener for design, and how it urged people to think how design can be a real tool, for real situations and for base needs. And how design may not be relegated to an elite exercise but, rather, an creative opportunity to make things work more elegantly and with more availability. This cluster reminds me more and more of that spirit of design…
Applied Thinking…
I am profoundly intrigued at the subject matter of this year’s SmartGeometry, Working Prototypes. I’ve been thinking about this for years since I’ve been engaged in architecture since graduating in 1994 in Toronto. For me, prototypes are a way to test new ideas and do not exclusively relegate themselves to an in-studio mock-up or a one-time test.
The prototype is something that can be embodied in the very project at hand. One of the things I have been studying, and in many ways exploring in my own work, is the ongoing interest of the skin-to-structure condition in architecture – particularly where reinforced concrete systems continue to evolve with respect to their own stabilizing cores, columns and moment-resisting frames. It’s part of an ongoing, collective project, I would argue for over a century.
I believe it has been running since August Perret’s 25 Rue Franklin project, as described above, through to Le Corbusier’s Dom-ino declarative sketch, to Toyo Ito’s stunning Sendai Mediatheque that decentralized the vertical core as we know it, to Peter Zumthors’s elegantly clad concrete Kunsthal in Bregenz, Austria. These are simply my conjectures, my personal notes. But it’s my view of how prototypes – intended or not – have been ongoing, iterative and evolving over the many years and across the many projects that we have the ability to visit and to study.
For my own work, I see it fit to take part in these ‘conversations’ and to attempt, with an idea toward a prototype, to address ongoing challenges and opportunities in the built world. It’s the reason why I believe we as a civilization can ‘work’ together and ‘learn’ together. As far as I’m concerned, any good history of architecture book is a thorough and well-edited inventory of prototypes in design; all the projects that dared to shift differently, and dared to evolve. It’s a very Darwinian suggestion, but one that I think we are all a part of.
It would be disingenuous of me not to convey some of my personal thoughts on ‘prototype’ in my own practice, and to reveal how some of that feeds off of the work I do, too. In this way, SmartGeometry is exciting because I myself am looking for real-time, real-life solutions…
Shop Talk Day The one-day line-up of conversations for ‘Shop Talk’ was a small modification from years past at SmartGeometry.
Rather than calling it Alumni Summit as before, ‘Shop Talk’ was designed to provide a healthy transition from many of the key Workshop leaders as they stepped back to reflect on the previous four days of intensive design and construction. We were able to hear about the various workshop clusters as they were in the midst of wrapping up.
The titles themselves can give you an offering of what the SmartGeometry organizers were positioning themselves around. The following are the SmartGeometry Shop Talk moderators – most of whom were also participating tutors/ leaders for the Workshop portion (held at IaaC giving could credence to the real-time notes and observations): Eric Ellingsen – ‘Make Sense: Learning How to Learn’ (Institut für Raumexperimente, Berlin), Brady Peters – ‘Make Some Noise: Sounding Out Possibilities’ (Centre for Information Technology and Architecture, Copenhagen), Xavier de Kestelier – ‘Make Work: Manufacturing Procedures’ (Foster+Partners/Syracuse University), Joy Ko – ‘Make it Add Up: Mathematical Models’ (RISD/Brown), Jeroen Coenders – ‘Make or Break: Structuring Prototypes’ (Arup/TU Delft), Rob Woodbury – ‘Make a Difference: Educating Guesses’ (Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada), Axel Kilian – ‘Make it Snappy: How it All Comes Together’ (Princeton University), Makai Smith – ‘Make Do: Programming Prototypes’ (Bentley Systems), Jenny Sabin / Peter Lloyd Jones – ‘Make a Living: Biological Prototypes’ (LabStudio/University of Pennsylvania).
Symposium Day
The following day rounded up choice speakers who spoke under the following headings: ‘Ripples in Time’, ‘Reality is Another Output’, and ‘Complexity and Systems Design’. It was also interspersed with the highlights from the Workshop clusters. Beyond Mark Burry and Enrico Dini who I’ve touched on earlier, the range was still broad. It speaks to the practice, theory and technology that continues to weave through all the discussions in computational design, and of course through the angle of what prototyping may mean. This certainly helped to neatly wrap up the conference, particularly since the entire event began with the Workshop sneak previews and would end with a bang, with the Reception back at the IaaC building to showcase the final Workshop resulting displays.
The Symposium Day agenda included: ‘Geometry as Gaudi Design Driver,’ Mark Burry (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology); ‘Full-size Stone 3D Printing,’ Enrico Dini (D-shape); ‘Racing Prototypes,’ Darren Davies (Wirth Research); ‘From Termites to Buildings,’ Ruper Soar (Freeform Engineering Ltd / Loughborough University); ‘Machinic Control: Design with Customized CNC Devices,’ Marta Male-Alemany (IaaC); ‘RepRap – The Replicating Rapid Prototyper, Adrian Bowyer (Bath University); ‘Engineering as Prototype,’ Hanif Kara (Adams Kara Taylor); ‘A Working Prototype of Networked Design,’ Jeroen Coenders (Arup / TU Delft); and ‘Parametric Design Futures,’ Lars Hesselgren (PLP Architecture).
The Elephant in the Room:
The Other Difference-Makers So where does the software come into all this? Without the people, true, there is nothing. But – to be fair – let’s try to reverse this. Without the software, irrespective of platform preferences… where are the people? A level of brilliance from Bentley is their mature sense of open vs. closed platform appeal. Everybody knows (if one is remotely aware of Steve Jobs vs. Adobe) of the future of playing a strong role in fostering community.
I don’t envy software developers in their careful balance between espousing great ideas, but trying to uphold not just the economics of running a business but one which emphasizes and is equally committed to leading edge technologies and to a community genuinely interested in working closely together. Hats off to Bentley for their clairvoyance on understanding the true currency in development of software, designers and the planet around us. And this currency? It would be ideas.
SmartGeometry and Bentley get this. They understand that a repository for ideas, particularly an ongoing dialogue is essential to the network of players involved in making our sustainable world ‘go round’. Between the two, we see a library, a publications list, on-line lectures, support for awards ceremonies, workshops (in person, or online), gallery exhibitions, lectures… the list goes on. What’s at stake here, is that there is a wiki-like approach to the knowledge-base surrounding sustainable solutions in the computational environment within which we all work. As enamoured as we are with the subject matter of the conference or as enamoured as we are with the latest software updates or applications, It’s about creating a living resource centre. One with a propensity to share notes and techniques.
The Petit Palau venue where we had all gathered, was indeed a tasteful choice for SmartGeometry. The striking adaptive re-use project in the Gothic quarter of Barcelona provided excellent levels of discourse whether formal or informal. The aboveground courtyard was a great place to remind oneself of the people involved in SmartGeometry, and the mingling of weary-eyed but razor-sharp students along with the professors, professionals, software developers, manufacturers and numerous experts. We would then descend down a cascading stair into a sparkling auditorium fittingly ‘underground’ to reveal some of the latest ideas, many of which were being debuted in Barcelona.
Any of the great findings and new trajectories in Barcelona’s SmartGeometry event is not solely that of the speakers and users. It’s also a time to witness the key relationships being forged between the those that use the software, and those that create the software. It’s about that simple. We cannot speak to any of these great ideas without the luxury of affordable, advanced and evolving software solutions. Bentley as the primary sponsor is beautifully complicit in these somewhat ‘underground’ proclamations of sustainable solutions and inventive ideas in the evolving AEC world.
Bentley, the company, reminds me… of a great application. Quietly, fastidiuously, loyally… it simply let’s you be you, let’s you focus on your creative work, and let’s you feel comforted and confident that you are ushered into the best possible position to perform. It takes a lot of effort, experience and know-how to get to this point. But, I suppose that has to do with the feedback cycle that is part of any good application, or for that matter, for any good software company.
Once it is recognized as an ongoing relationship of building great projects, and building great tools – as we see most clearly and decidedly in the role of prototyping as a design process – then suddenly we’ve got the most sustainable, in my mind, way to make better environments, buildings, components or infrastructure. We can’t pretend that this is not a vital condition in a digital era with digital tools. To ensure the role of something so open, honest and realtime as a SmartGeometry speaks to the strengths and longterm commitment to the user community as well as the software company, in this case Bentley. It’s a real case of synergy, which allows this critical type of coexistence to thrive and evolve. How’s that for sustainable thinking? And how’s that for working prototypes…?
Postscripts
Two big pieces of news rounded out the formal events at the Petit Palau. The first was Huw Roberts’ big announcement that Bentley’s GenerativeComponents would now be available for the first time as a free application downloadable from www.generativecomponents.com. This is a pivotal moment for GC and one that is certain to build onto a community as strong as SmartGeometry has already recognized, and excellent news for architects and engineers who are looking for sophisticated and accessible ways to make advancements in their own design projects.
The other news was the passing of the torch from the three founders Hugh Whitehead, J Parrish and Lars Hesselgren. In a poignant moment, like proud parents, they introduced Xavier de Kestelier (Foster + Partners) and Shane Burger (Grimshaw Architects) as the new directors to take the helm. While a significant move, SmartGeometry will be sure to undergo a seamless and smooth transition.
Since the original founders would still continue to have a presence, they will surely usher in the next generation of leaders who had many years to help build the SmartGeometry community into what it is today and under the shared tutelage of the original founders. A very good day for SmartGeometry indeed as it winded down with a special closing event at the IaaC building, the site of the four-day Workshop event and which became the celebratory venue for a display of all the ten clusters’ pieces…
To see the IaaC once again at the reception, and to top off two days of lucid discourse at the Petit Palau was a nearperfect symphony of ideas and production. The gathering was fabulous, and the high spirits was contagious. It was clear the participants had learnt a great deal, and had the all-important fun in doing so. And to see all the finished works, sans worktables and tools, gave better insight again as to the prototypes. And what it means to the leading edge participants from SmartGeometry.
And, after all the hard work in each of the clusters, I started to recognize that there was a common target among all clusters: it was an elegance in balancing economy in structure, heightened expression and tidy performance. It is no coincidence that most of the conversations with the clusters had boiled down to this. And, we can’t possibly require an economic downturn nor an environmental rethink for us to be reminded of fine, resilient design principles in a truly long-term and sustainable way.
Because what else, then, are we after?
Just good looks? Only widened profit margins? Efficient engineering? Merely fast lead times? An earth-first attitude?
For me, none of these five attributes are mutually exclusive. We can, indeed, aim for getting it all. It seems that the most elegant of solutions can indeed be good-looking, good business, good structure, good on time and good on our planet. Among other things, too, I’m sure. And these were never not on the list of things to achieve in design. They didn’t just come about since Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, or during September 2008’s Wall Street meltdown. I think we can agree that it’s been this way always.
Sustainability is nothing new. Only, the general population has finally started to take notice with the impeccable convergence of the earth and the economy appearing to teeter. If anything, the earth called the economy’s bluff – and both are starting to have us, the humans, to retool. Why not tackle these things together? How can we not see the earth and the economy together anymore? In this same way, design – as a process, as a tool, as a culture, and as a way of life – can help us get it all. We just have to start seeing it all…
And maybe with events like these in Barcelona, we remind ourselves of that positive sense, the warming encouragement and the shared strength of knowledge that always propels the human spirit to stay focused, to stay ambitious and to stay creative.
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Part 1 of this article is available.
Part 2 of this article is available.
Don Chong is a V1 Magazine columnist and architect based in Toronto, Canada. His work and studio information are available at www.donaldchongstudio.com
