The following papers will be presented during this session on Friday morning, Oct. 17, 2008.

Crafting Complexity: Material / Procedure / Form

Santiago R. Perez
University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture.

What is the role of Craft, in understanding Bio-Computational Forms & Systems?What is the relation between Self-Organizing Systems & Material-Component Assemblages?
This paper will explore the relationship between Material Craft, Procedure and Form, in relation to Complex, Self-Organizing Assemblies. A comparison will be made, between (hand) crafted assemblies, guided by physical constraints and procedural methodologies, and digitally mediated fabrication, guided by recursion and algorithmic generative methodologies.
An attempt will be made to connect various scales of making, in terms of module or unit of assembly, both at the micro-scale of biological structures, and the macro-scale of man-made systems. The goal of this essay is to question the relation between physically crafted component assemblies, as a means for exploring adaptive, complex, self-organizing systems, and bio-computational paradigms as a source of adaptive strategies for making.

Material Bio-Intelligibility

Maria Paz Gutierrez
Department of Architecture, University of California-Berkeley, CA

Through the formation of bio-chemical information networks natural materials possess efficient processes of self-organization, adaptability, regeneration and decomposition. This performative excellence has lead science to draw behavioral models from nature implementing biomimmicry (Benyus 1998) in the pursuit of material systems optimization. Design disciplines influenced by this course are integrating living organisms as models of efficiency through bionic systems ever more into their discourse. Architecture, influenced by this tendency, is becoming progressively more aware of the vast benefits that biomimetics can yield particularly in the development of ecologically sensitive systems. Yet, the emerging incorporation of bionics into architecture is differing largely to that within the sciences by centering almost exclusively in form (geometrical pattern) generation. This paper analyzes a rising material design research methodology implementing biomimetics: matter-form parametrics based on bio-physical properties’ data. Specific study of the incorporation of broad-scalar scientific imaging into the formulation of explorative parametric grammar for the development of material systems is analyzed through a bio-synthetic polymer based wall system (SugarWall, Gensler+Gutierrez 2006b). The incorporation of broad scalar imaging and material interdependencies is propelling the emergence of new programming tactics that will affect bio-material systems architectural research.

Reconfigurable Molds as Architecture Machines

Omar Khan
University at Buffalo

In The Architecture Machine (1970), Nicholas Negroponte postulates the development of design machines wherein the “design process, considered as evolutionary, can be presented to a machine, also considered as evolutionary, and a mutual training, resilience, and growth can be developed.” The book, dedicated to “the first machine that can appreciate the gesture,” argues for developing machines with human like qualities. This paper aims to develop an alternative trajectory to the “evolutionary” architecture machine, this time not towards anthropomorphism but responsiveness. The aim on one level is the same: to create machines that appreciate the gesture. However our approach is tied to more modest aims and means that bring current thinking on evolutionary processes and the forming of materials together. The reconfigurable mold (RCM) is an architecture machine that produces parts that can be combined to create more complex organizations. The molds are simple analog computers that employ various continuous scales like volume, weight and heat to develop their unique components. Parametric alterations are made possible by affecting these measures in the process of fabrication. An underlying material that is instrumental in the molds is rubber, whose variable elasticity provides unique possibilities for indexing the gesture that remains elusive for industrial processes.

ceramiSKIN: Digital Possibilities for Ceramic Cladding Systems

David Celento
The Pennsylvania State University, School of Architecture, Assistant Professor of Digital Fabrication

Del Harrow
The Pennsylvania State University, School of Visual Arts, Assistant Professor of Ceramics

CeramiSKIN is an inter-disciplinary investigation by an architect and a ceramics artist examining new possibilities for ceramic cladding using digital design and digital fabrication techniques. Research shown is part of an ongoing collaborative residency at The European Ceramics Work Centre.
Ceramics are durable, sustainable, and capable of easily assuming detailed shapes with double curvature making ceramics seemingly ideal for digitally inspired “plastic” architecture. The primary reason for the decline in complex ceramic cladding is that manual mold-making is time-consuming—which is at odds with today’s high labor costs and compressed construction timeframes. We assert that digital advances in the area of mold-making will assist in removing some of the barriers for the use of complex ceramic cladding in architecture.
The primary goals of ceramiSKIN as they relate to digitally assisted production are: greater variety and complexity, reduced cost and time, a higher degree of accuracy, and an attempt to facilitate a wider range of digital design possibilities through the use of a ceramics in architectural cladding systems.
The following paper begins with an overview discussing double curvature and biophilia in architecture and their relationship to ceramics. This is followed by detailed commentary on three different experiments prior to a concluding summary.

Adaptive Growth of Fibre Composite Structures

Christina Doumpioti
Architectural Association, Emergent Technologies + Design

The core idea of this research is the incorporation of the morphogenetic principles found in natural systems in the generation of fibre-composite structures by exploiting, at the maximum, the intrinsic performative capacities of the material system in use. The intention is the integration of form, material, structure and program into a multi-performative system that will satisfy simultaneously several, even conflicting objectives, in order to achieve an optimal compromise. This process involves the combination and implementation of concepts and methods based on precedent studies in the field of biomimetics, as well as form-finding digital and physical experiments that inform a coherent design methodology, leading to a structural system able to be fabricated using cutting-edge technology.

Creating Metallic Color Sequences for an Architectural Wall

Seth Berrier
University of Minnesota, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
University of Minnesota, Digital Technology Center

Gary Meyer
University of Minnesota, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
University of Minnesota, Digital Technology Center

Clement Shimizu
University of Minnesota, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
University of Minnesota, Digital Technology Center

A metallic paint scheme for an architectural wall is created using computer aided color appearance design techniques. New computer graphic hardware that allows real-time rendering of complex reflectance functions is employed to produce photo-realistic images of the metallic paint applied to the surface of the wall. An interpolation scheme is developed that permits one and two dimensional metallic shade sequences to be determined between individual bricks in a single row of the wall and between the complete rows of bricks that compose the wall. Paint formulation software, originally developed for auto refinish applications, is used to determine the paint mixtures necessary to realize the metallic colors in the design. A prototype of the wall is constructed and exhibited in a museum gallery.