From undesired flaws to esthetic assets: A digital framework enabling artistic explorations of erroneous geometric features of robotically formed molds

Until recently, digital fabrication research in architecture has aimed to eliminate manufacturing errors. However, a novel notion has just been established—intentional computational infidelity. Inspired by this notion, we set out to develop means than can transform the errors in fabrication from an undesired complication to a creative opportunity. We carried out design experiment-based investigations, which culminated in the construction of a framework enabling fundamental artistic explorations of erroneous geometric features of robotically formed molds. The framework consists of digital processes, assisting in the explorations of mold errors, and physical processes, enabling the inclusion of physical feedback in digital explorations. Other complementary elements embrace an implementation workflow, an enabling digital toolset and a visual script demonstrating how imprecise artistic explorations can be included within the computational environment. Our framework application suggests that the exploration of geometrical errors aids the emergence of unprecedented design features that would not have arisen if error elimination were the ultimate design goal. Our conclusion is that welcoming error into the design process can reinstate the role of art, craft, and material agency therein. This can guide the practice and research of architectural computing onto a new territory of esthetic and material innovation

From undesired flaws to esthetic assets: A digital framework enabling artistic explorations of erroneous geometric features of robotically formed molds

Until recently, digital fabrication research in architecture has aimed to eliminate manufacturing errors. However, a novel notion has just been established—intentional computational infidelity. Inspired by this notion, we set out to develop means than can transform the errors in fabrication from an undesired complication to a creative opportunity. We carried out design experiment-based investigations, which culminated in the construction of a framework enabling fundamental artistic explorations of erroneous geometric features of robotically formed molds. The framework consists of digital processes, assisting in the explorations of mold errors, and physical processes, enabling the inclusion of physical feedback in digital explorations. Other complementary elements embrace an implementation workflow, an enabling digital toolset and a visual script demonstrating how imprecise artistic explorations can be included within the computational environment. Our framework application suggests that the exploration of geometrical errors aids the emergence of unprecedented design features that would not have arisen if error elimination were the ultimate design goal. Our conclusion is that welcoming error into the design process can reinstate the role of art, craft, and material agency therein. This can guide the practice and research of architectural computing onto a new territory of esthetic and material innovation

Influence of a hybrid digital toolset on the creative behaviors of designers in early-stage design

The purpose of this research was to investigate how diversification of the repertoire of digital design techniques affects the creative behaviors of designers in the early design phases. The principal results of practice-based pilot experiments on the subject indicate three key properties of the hybrid digital tooling strategy. The strategy features intelligent human-machine integration, facilitating three different types of synergies between the designer and the digital media: human-dominated, machine-dominated, and a balanced human-machine collaboration. This strategy also boosts the cognitive behaviors of the designer by triggering divergent, transformative and convergent design activities and allowing for work on various abstraction levels. In addition, the strategy stimulates the explorative behaviors of the designer by encouraging the production of and interaction with a wide range of design representations, including physical and digital, dynamic and static objects. Thus, working with a broader range of digital modeling techniques can positively influence the creativity of designers in the early conception stages

On the aesthetic significance of imprecision in computational design: Exploring expressive features of imprecision in four digital fabrication approaches

Precision of materialized designs is the conventional goal of digital fabrication in architecture. Recently, however, an alternative concept has emerged which refashions the imprecisions of digital processes into creative opportunities. While the computational design community has embraced this idea, its novelty results in a yet incomplete understanding. Prompted by the challenge of the still missing knowledge, this study explored imprecision in four digital fabrication approaches to establish how it influences the aesthetic attributes of materialized designs. Imprecision occurrences for four different digitally aided materialization processes were characterized. The aesthetic features emerging from these imprecisions were also identified and the possibilities of tampering with them for design exploration purposes were discussed. By considering the aesthetic potentials of deliberate imprecision, the study has sought to challenge the canon of high fidelity in contemporary computational design and to argue for imprecision in computation that shapes a new generation of designs featuring the new aesthetic of computational imperfection

Exploring expressive and functional capacities of knitted textiles exposed to wind influence

This study explores the design possibilities with knitted architectural textiles subjected to wind. The purpose is to investigate how such textiles could be applied to alter the usual static expression of exterior architectural and urban elements, such as\ua0facades\ua0and windbreaks. The design investigations were made on a manual knitting machine and on a CNC (computer numerically controlled)\ua0flat knitting machine. Four knitting techniques -\ua0tuck stitch, hanging stitches, false lace, and drop stitch - were explored based on their ability to create a three-dimensional effect on the surface level as well as on an architectural scale. Physical textile samples produced using those four techniques were subjected to controlled action of airflow. Digital experiments were also conducted, to probe the possibilities of digitally simulating textile behaviours in wind. The results indicate that especially the drop stitch technique exhibits interesting potentials. The variations in the drop stitch pattern generate both an aesthetic effect of volumetric expression of the textile architectural surface and seem beneficial in terms of wind speed reduction. Thus, these types of knitted textiles could be applied to design architecture that are efficient in terms of improving the aesthetic user experience and comfort in windy urban areas

Colored skins and vibrant hybrids: Manipulating visual perceptions of depth and form in double-curved architectural surfaces through informed use of color, transparency and light

The past decades of research on color and light yielded vast knowledge supporting their informed use in architectural design. While there currently exists a rich body of knowledge and methods geared to affect the perception of depth and form in tiled, opaque architectural surfaces, not many such methods have been developed for double-curved, transparent, in-mass colored surfaces. The perception of depth and form in these surfaces relies on a complex blend of parameters, such as color combinations, illumination source, angle of viewing, location of shadows and reflections, material thickness and grade of transparency. To determine the visual effects caused by some of these parameters, experiments based on visual observations were carried out involving handcrafted, in-mass colored, undulant architectural surfaces. The insights from the experiments then served to develop four color strategies for architectural surface design harnessing the discovered effects in diverse ways. Through this, the study has sought first to observe and understand the effects of color and light in perceiving undulant surfaces, and second to highlight the potentials of harnessing these effects in the design of expressive architectural elements. The main insight from the study is that informed and deliberate application of color and light yields a wide range of potentially interesting perceptual effects in double-curved architectural surfaces, such as spatial filtering, gradient screening, vibrant massing and animate reshaping. Such effects, applied in an architectural context, can help to fulfill the demand for physical environmental enrichment in the digital era

A design framework and a digital toolset supporting the early-stage explorations of responsive kinetic building skin concepts

In this paper we present the first phase of our research on the development of a framework for early-stage responsive kinetic building skin design. The aims of this study were: to formulate a methodological and instrumental basis for the construction of the framework, to conduct an initial pre-assessment of its features, and finally to provide the first example of how the framework could be applied in practice. Importantly, at this point our goal was not yet to indicate the framework\u27s effectiveness, but rather focus on formulating its foundations. A pilot design experiment, aimed at the probing of the framework\u27s characteristics, suggests the emergence of its two noteworthy features. Firstly, it allows to freely but at the same time also systematically explore six design aspects of responsive architecture: form, functionality, performance, kinetic behaviors, system mechanics and responsiveness. Secondly, it helps to explore these six aspects using diverse means: parametric models, digital simulations, computational analyses, physical models and interactive prototypes. These features suggest that the framework could be a valid and useful means of supporting designers in the complex task of creating architectural concepts of responsive kinetic structures. \ua9 2015, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria

Architecture from textiles in motion

Wind is one important concern when it comes to its impact on textile structures within architecture. One method to limit wind-caused displacements is to heavily pre-stress the structures. We discuss an alternative approach, in which wind is seen as a positive design parameter for architectural textiles. We explore how one could work with the shape and internal structure of the textile to design architectural structures which become kinetic volumes when airflow is applied. The implications of such a design approach are formulated based on a two-day workshop at the conference Advances in Architectural Geometry (AAG) 2018. The explorations embraced digital and physical simulations of textile behaviors arising from the presence of wind. Smart textiles, whose structures can be changed using heat, were employed to explore how the geometrical expressions of textiles under wind load can be affected through local internal textile property changes. The ambition was to investigate the possibility of dynamically altering the 3-dimensionality of the textiles by reshaping them in real-time using airflow. The main conclusion from the workshop is that the dialogue between the digital and physical simulations seems to play an important role in supporting and enhancing the process of designing the geometrical expressions of textiles subjected to dynamic influence. A combination of the digital and the physical design tools enables the creation of a unique workflow to generate architectural design typologies that would have been difficult to develop if such complementary design tools have not been employed

Hybrids

This research blog post reports on a part of post-doctoral research carried out within the Strong Research Environment \u27Architecture in the Making\u27, funded by the Swedish Research Council Formas, and executed in 2013-2015 at the Department of Architecture at Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden). The project resulted in two international journal articles as well as an article and presentation at a major international conference in Asia.Access link: https://morfotactic.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/hybrids

Hybrid CAD/E platform supporting exploratory architectural design

Although computers prove useful in aiding human creativity, there is still shortage of adequate software for early-stage explorations in the design disciplines. One of such under-supported disciplines is architectural design. In response to this lack of proper software, architects adopted tools from other industries with a large level of success. However, despite the fact that several types of such tools have now been employed in conceptual architectural design, their application indicates that they are seldom used altogether. This paper presents a hybrid software platform, bringing these various CAD and CAE tools into one design toolkit. Each platform tool introduces a different possibility of designing, and supports computation-based activities, human intuitive ones, or a mixture of both. The platform user can freely switch between various working styles: algorithmic on the one hand, and fuzzy on the other. Moreover, the designer can perform tasks impossible to execute in traditional design, such as quick generation, exploration and evaluation of large design spaces, containing geometrically-complex solutions. The testing of the hybrid platform in a design experiment indicates its ability to support meaningful early-stage explorations and to yield a highly creative design. One of the aims of investigating a CAD/E platform based on the existing software is to lay the foundations for the development of a future CAD/E system for early-stage architectural design - a tool which is currently missing in the architectural practice. By revealing the potentials of the ready-made software, and by pointing out the technical challenges associated with its integration, we wish to suggest a possible direction for future studies, so that solutions developed by academia have higher chances of being noticed and more widely implemented in praxis. \ua9 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserv