Smart processes for smart buildings : ‘sustainable processes’, ‘recyclable processes’ and ‘building seeds’ in parametric design

The rapid evolution of digital technologies and the resulting emergence of novel design methodologies are coinciding with climate change, population growth and increased pressure on global resources. This concurrence evokes opportunities to harness the new design methods to develop smart design solutions and processes that respond effectively to sustainability requirements. Meanwhile, parametric design is emerging as an ideal design methodology to support sustainably in design, whereby the associative parameters in parametric design systems enable automation and synchronicity in generating design forms and evaluating these forms against their environmental performance. This research explores the multifaceted way in which parametric design supports sustainability, and how this can lead to a more holistic understanding of sustainability by shifting the focus from sustainable buildings to sustainable processes. In addition, the work shows how the reusability of parametric definitions in parametric design applications can enable designers to recycle the design process, where a parametric definition acts as a building seed that can be ’planted’ in different projects to automatically generate different forms. This may enable practitioners from all over the world to collectively develop a ‘seed library’ that has the potential for architects to empower, automate and enhance the environmental values of their processes. To achieve this, the main changes and shifts in computational design are reviewed, together with the impact of parametric design and its related applications on the architectural design process. In addition, a case study is conducted to explore how parametric design can significantly accelerate processes in real practice, and how the overlooked potential of reusing parametric definitions can make distinctive results in real architectural projects. Finally, the efficiency of the seed library is discussed as opposed to the apparent issues such as validity of seeds, motivation for sharing, and copyright

Gridshell as Formwork: Proof of Concept for a New Technique for Constructing Thin Concrete Shells Supported by Gridshell as Formwork

This paper documents an empirical experiment conducted in August 2014 as proof of concept for a new method of constructing concrete shells. An idea initially presented by the first author in 2012, it uses redeployable gridshells onto which fabric is midstressed and concrete applied. Primarily, this system addresses key issues that led to their decline in use: construction methods/formwork systems were not reusable, nor were they easily customizable to create different shapes. Employing 27 man-hours over seven days, two concrete shells were achieved using the same reusable and reconfigurable formwork. Lightweight (0.6 kg) PVC gridshell formwork supported 106.92 kg of concrete to create a concrete shell that covered 1.11 m2 (floor area). The construction verifies a low-cost (£6.06/m2) efficiency and material utilization in the construction of very strong wide-spanning thin concrete structures. Detailed analysis of formwork behavior during construction and detailed measurements of resultant shell results prove this new method of deployable gridshells as a reusable and reconfigurable formwork to construct very strong concrete shells very quickly. Whilst the emphasis of the research focused on the construction process, the vaults were tested and sustained a failure load of 4.2 kN (4.32 times their deadweight), applied as a point load at the crown

Negotiated matter: a robotic exploration of craft-driven innovation

This paper introduces a novel approach to craft-driven robotic innovation in architectural research. Here craft is not portrayed as a source of ornamental or historical inspiration, but instead as an open-ended process described by a framework involving material properties, diverging modes of knowledge production and representation, emergent tectonic configurations and embodied interaction with technology. To do so, this paper firstly contrasts a definition of craft (Pye 1968) with practices of robotic architectural production. Additionally, the notion of emergent tectonics resulting from negotiated material and technological processes is addressed by critically situating the theories of architectural tectonics by Kenneth Frampton (2001) and digital tectonics by Leach, Turnbull and Williams (2004) in the context of robotic fabrication in architecture. Finally, the ongoing project “Computing Craft” is presented as a case study illustrating a proposed framework for robotic craft-driven innovation

Enactive individuation: technics, temporality and affect in digital design and fabrication

The nature of creative engagement with computers and software presents a number of challenges to 4E cognition and requires the development of analytical frameworks that can encompass cognitive processes as they extend across material and informational realms. Here I argue that an enactive view of mind allows for better understanding of digital practice by advancing a dynamic, transactional, and affective framework for the analysis of computational design. This enactive framework is in part developed through the Material Engagement Theory (MET) put forward by Lambros Malafouris, in part from the phenomenologically inspired philosophy of Bernard Stiegler. Both advance temporality, technics and technique as key to understanding human creative imagination and their work can support each other in different ways; Stiegler allows for a theorisation of digital tools largely missing from the cognitive archaeology of Malafouris, whilst Malafouris provides a cognitive theory to further develop key ideas in Stiegler’s philosophy. Bringing their work together through Gilbert Simondon’s theory of individuation, I develop the concept of enactive individuation and apply this to the analysis of a case of robotic design and fabrication from my fieldwork with digital architects and engineers. This case allows for further exploration of how enactivism might productively be extended into the digital realm by underscoring the explorative engagement at heart of even highly systematic work with computers and software

CAD@HKU

Since 1993, we have experimented with Virtual Design Studios (VDS) as an on-going research project that investigates the combination of current computer-aided design (CAD), computer networks (Internet), and computer supported collaborative work (CSCW) techniques to bring together studentsat geographically distributed locations to work in a virtual atelier. In 1993 the theme of the first joint VDS project was in-fill housing for the traditional Chinese walled village of Kat Hing Wai in the New Territories north of Hong Kong, and our partners included MIT and Harvard in Boston (USA), UBC in Vancouver (Canada), and Washington University in St. Louis (USA). In 1994 we were joined by Cornell (USA) and Escola Tecnica Superior diArquitectura de Barcelona (Spain) to re-design Li Long housing in Shanghai, and 1995 added the Warsaw Institute of Technology (Poland) for the ACSA/Dupont competition to design a Center for Cultural and Religious Studies in Japan. The 1996 topic was an international competition to design a monument located in Hong Kong to commemorate the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. Communication was via e-mail, the WorldWide Web with limited attempts at VRML, and network video. Several teaching and research experiments conducted through these projects have demonstrated the viability and potential of using electronic, telecommunications, and videoconferencing technologies in collaborative design processes. Results of these VDS have been presented at conferences worldwide, explained in journal papers and published in Virtual Design Studio, edited by J. Wojtowicz, published by HKU Press