The research is rooted in the work Gustav Theodor Fechner, who laid the foundations for an inductive aesthetic perspective by empiric experimental research, Vorschule der Ästhetik (1876). In 1933 George D. Birkhoff first proposed a quantifiable aesthetic value for simple shapes. Today we start to see the concept of Aesthetic Complexity finding its way into the discourse on aesthetics. It focuses on larger compositions of elements using a computational approach.

The ongoing research seeks to extend the findings by Guy Birkin on Aesthetic Complexity to a spatial architectural setting. Birkin proposes a framework for measuring visual complexity by correlating it with image compression. The transfer to a spatial domain in done by linking the perceived level of detail to the distance to between viewer and object.

There are possible links to be made to the findings of empirical aesthetics in music and literature by Menninghaus / Wald-Fuhrmann at the MPI for Empirical Aesthetic

The ongoing research was presented in a lecture at the Städelschule, January 14. 2016.

The work is digitally altered by correlating quantitative analytics with generative design strategies. The result is presented in a series of rapid prototypes and silk-screen prints.

Städelschule I9 – 8 digitally altered and 3d printed versions of Maria Immaculata (Steinl 1688)

Nylon prints – Sabina Eivazova, Yulia Kuzhleva, Mehran Rahmani

Maria Immaculata

Mary is standing on a globe and it seems she is elevated skywards in a spiralling movement. The back of the sculpture gives in immaterial expression and reminds one of clouds. This impression is in contrast to the curvaceous body which was originally gold plated. With this sculpture Matthis Steinl illustrated the Bible quote from the Apocalypse in the Gospel of John. It depicts a woman dressed by the sun, the moon at here feet and crowned by a ring of twelve stars.

Maria Immaculata – Matthias Steinl 1688, Liebieghaus Frankfurt

Mesh Acquisition – Surface Scanning

The scan of the sculpture was taken by a handheld structured light scanner delivering a high resolution polygon mesh. The data was cleaned, the mesh smoothed and adjusted in resolution. Along with the 3d information a series of images was acquired during the scanning process which were mapped back onto the final mesh. The main interest in the mesh was its richness in formal features such as folds, directions, movement, taut and slack areas, as well as the difference in depicted material like: flesh, hair, cloth.

Mesh Geometry

Polygon meshes are one of the first and simplest method to handle shape information in computer graphics. They describe form by a set of vertices (points), edges (lines) and faces (polygons). Any form can be approximated by a such a polygon mesh given a certain sampling tolerance. This often results in the mesh being optimised so smaller faces occur in areas of finer detail or heigh curvature and lager faces within areas of little change.

Properties of form such as roughness, curvature, topology have to be computed of mesh. This can be done by evaluating the changes between adjacent faces. Along with these methods comes the opportunity to optimise the mesh for certain criteria. A benchmark polygon mesh model for testing new and existing analytical and optimisation algorithms is the Stanford Bunny.

MeshCurvature v0.31 on Stanford Bunny

APD developed its own analysis tool to evaluate any given mesh for local curvature values. These include the direction and radius of minimum and maximum curvature, the Gaussian curvature and the Mean curvature. The last two give single values which determine surface qualities such as: synclastic, anticlastic, developable, flat. These numeric readings could be visualised against a colour scheme.

Realising Forms with Discrete and Smooth Elements

Architecture always requires to think a lager entity through the assembly of elements. This notion comes with its inherent challenges. An obvious and well studied one is traditional brick construction. Here, a single, standardised element is used to realise any given form. This is quite different to a construction logic used in Gothic structures where stones where cut individually each for a specific location to fit.

Maria Immaculata and reconstruction with uniform LEGO® bricks.

There is also a different approach in architectural design where form is developed by embracing the inherent challenges of a given construction system. The work of Eladio Dieste is a great example of taking brick constructions to its very limits. This bottom-up strategy comes at the cost of excluding a vast array of possible results. In recent years digital design focused in on such bottom-up design strategies. The work shown here tries to unlock this method of operation by introducing an expressive form rich in features. It references works by Antony Gromley but is not interested in its relation of the human body itself more so in thinking through form given a flexible system. By doing so the well rehearsed mode of bottom-up design is not neglected but questioned as it has to adapt more radically.

Expressive Form

In 2008 Patrik Schumacher first introduced Parametricism as Style. He argued for something that was already happening in digital design at that time: intricate correlations between elements and subsystems [which] should accentuate and amplify difference. An illustrative comparison could be made to the work of Philip Ball who describes the science behind animal fur patterns such as leopards and zebras and how they adapt different to the different parts of the body.

8 digitally altered versions of Maria Immaculata

The work on Digital Bodies embraces the notion of expressive difference without committing to either a Manifesto on Parametricism nor to biomimicry. It aims at negotiating the boundary between performative design and exuberant formalism.

Students

The DRX 2013 is taking place from July 22nd – September 13th at HENN in Berlin. This year, DRX researchers with backgrounds in architecture, engineering, mathematics and computer science explore novel design strategies for the design of high-rise buildings: Vertical Net Structures

Three experts are invited to nominate 2 researches each to form the core team for cross collaboration between practice and academia. SAC Guest Professor Mirco Becker who is one of the DRX 2013 experts nominated recent APD graduates Kavin Horayangkura and Sean Buttigieg to participate. They are working along two architects form HENN, two mathematicians form TU Berlin and two structural engineers on high-rise buildings as an extreme examples of structure-dependent architecture.

Week 1-2, in a first workshop Clemens Preisinger and Moritz Heimrath the developers behind Kramba joint for a couple of days. The second workshop was conducted by Daniel Piker the developer of Grasshopper and member of Foster & Partners SMG

Things shaping up for the mid review

Final presentation of the results and interviews with the researchers

All videos by Dog Ear Works

Thesis on Flexible Formwork by Kavin Horayangkura

Thesis on Node Folding by Sean Buttigieg

More videos in the APD vimeo group

APD Students 2012-13

An overview of the work has been complied in booklet format:

APD SS13 Booklet

In an earlier workshop in the semester Daniel Büning developed some formes employing topological optimization. These formes used as an research backdrop for investigating the behavior of linar planks for surface patterning. The physical behavior of planks was translated into an geometric algorithm and implemented into a Python component for Grasshopper: gPlanks.

Different patterns were tested and the planks itself were used as a tool for surface analysis.

by Mirco Becker

The lecture is the precursor to a the Design Thinking Symposium on April 11th. It is giving an insight into the processes governing design and traces the different mindsets that developed along with the architectural discipline in history. With a look at design theory it will focuses on the reciprocal relationship between modes of design thinking and proposed artifacts. It advocate a designers self-awareness in a discipline between communication and making. Methodically, it will give an overview on design thinking as non-rational method for innovation.

Symposium

Hosted by Mirco Becker

The symposium brings together three different perspectives on architectural design thinking. It is based on the notion that a designers mindset is a critical factor in shaping the design process as well as the artifact. A craftsman thinks differently through a given design task than an engineer does, a mathematically inclined individual different than a visually biased one.

The speakers are all trained designers with a high degree of specialization. As much as they are experts in their filed they have all cooperated with an array of different architects thus are used to reading and adjusting to different modes of Design Thinking.

Each speaker will introduce their work and reflect on their very own design mindset as much as on the mindset of collaborating designers. In a panel discussion these different perspectives will be further explored for their uniqueness and as a rich source for design communication.

Hendrik Schwantes – Publishing Art and Architecture

Hendrik Schwantes is an editorial and graphic designer based in Berlin. Together with Michael Heimann he runs the studio Heimann und Schwantes since 2007. The firm’s focus is the conception and design of print media, identity programmes, exhibitions and interactive work, that are unique in terms of their artistry and craftsmanship. Heimann und Schwantes maintains collaborative relationships with individuals and institutions mainly in the areas of fine arts, architecture, and design, such as Olafur Eliasson, Sauerbruch Hutton, the Zumtobel Group and the Bauhaus Foundation Dessau.

Tobias Nolte – Constructing Geometries

Tobias Nolte  is a designer based in Berlin and New York.  He is currently Director at Gehry Technologies in New York where he leads a team of architects, engineers and builders in the implementation of parametric and computation methods to improve design, engineering and construction performance.  He was previously a director at the Europe office of Gehry Technologies in Paris where he has worked with a variety of leading international design firms including Gehry Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects, Snohetta, UNStudio, Coop Himmelb(l)au and several others.
His areas of interest include design computation, integrated product and process design, construction automation and  concurrent design.  Prior to Gehry Technologies he was a research fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Design and worked for Preston Scott Cohen, Inc. on the New Building of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. He has taught courses on digital design at Ecole Speciale d’Architecture in Paris and Universität für angewandte Kunst in Vienna and has been a design critic at Harvard GSD, MIT, CITA and others. He studied in Berlin and Los Angeles and holds an Engineering Diplom in Architecture from the University of Technologies in Berlin.

Johannes Wolfgang König – Visual Imagination

Johannes Wolfgang König, grew up im Hamburg and graduated with a degree in Architecture form TU Berlin in 2009. Already during his studies he was working as a visual artist for several architectural practices such as KW Berlin, Hascher Jehle Architektur. Post his Diploma he specialist further into the creation of architectural images working with the competition department of Hascher Jehle Architektur. In 2011 he joined bloomimages in Hamburg and is leading their Berlin office since 2013.

Lecture and Symposium are part of the Staedelschule Architecture Class 2013 Lecture Series.

Installation at NODE 13 by SAC Architecture and Performative Design

The design developed for NODE 13 is the result of a design competition among Architecture and Performative Design students, mentored by Mirco Becker.

Prototype for projector housing in light ceiling, Frankfurter Kunstverein

The competition was initiated and run by Meso, NODE and SAC and won by Moritz Rumpf and Sean Buttgieg. The winning project utilizes Heat-Pressure laminating techniques of recycled plastic bags to create and aggregate a modular polyhedron unit into what they call a “three dimensional spatial exploration and propagation through a binary-based guiding system.”

Plastic bags are widely used but hardly reused and often don’t find their way into the recycling chain. Their potential for upcycling seems to be limited due to their relative small size and tendency to tear or puncture. Laminating PE material sourced from used plastic bags has the potential to form a robust sheet material and as with any layered build-up fabrication technique leaves room for a wide range of forms with a comparatively minimal cost of formwork.

Along with developing the new material fabrication technology a strategy for sourcing sufficient used plastic bags became part of the challenge. A “fundraising” event was run at Kaiserpassge, where people were asked to bring their bag-full-of-bags and by donating it helped to lower the beer price of the night.

The project was installed on time and below budget and presented at NODE Festival in a Q&A Session with Max Wolf from Meso.

Moritz Rumpf developed the process as part of his ongoing research with the Architecture and Performative Design specialization and will continue the research towards its thesis project in summer 2013.

Rapid Prototype Towers – image by studio-b / DRX

Besides the results which keep a fine balance between design speculation and the application scientific methods in mathematics and engineering this demonstrates the point that there is scope for innovation in architecture which can happen in practice prior to projects.

According Martin Henn and Moritz Fleischmann this format has proven to be so successful that planing for 2013 is already on the way.

Minimal surface tower diagrams – image by studio-b / DRX

Informance was kindly invited to review results.

The body of design-research on assemblies addresses performance driven differentiation and part-to-whole relationships. It is framed by investigating two very different systems. Firstly, Topological Interlocking Assemblies, assemblies of solid parts where the structural integrity of the overall relies on each element being kinematically constraint by its neighbours. In the most narrow definition these parts are topologically identical and of convex shape, thus ruling out any mechanical jointing detail. Secondly, Bell Kites, similar in topology but fundamentally different in performance these kites are made of clusters of tetrahedrons. Compared to the first system these structures are super light and their performance is dominantly driven by wind force rather than gravity.

EXTREMELY HEAVY AND INCREDIBLY LIGHT by