WK10 Reading

The mouse means a potent prosthetic. When placed in front of our desktop we do not even have to think consciously about reaching for it. Unseen and unfelt, the mouse has to disappear in order to work. The transformative power of the mouse is tied to the simple logic of the generic graphic user interface, the set of icons on the screen that suggest that bodily movements on the desktop are actually movements in a virtual desktop, with its documents, folders and trash cans manipulated by bodily gestures of cutting, pasting, dragging and dropping. This first mimetic step from the horizontal desktop in your room to the vertical desktop in your computer supports the wider multidimensional ability to move through other rooms, cities, social networks and data sets. Indeed, the ultimate effect of the mouse is that the mouse itself can become redundant. The idea of the computer as a discrete object with a mysterious interior now gives way to massively distributed systems accessed through the lightest possible local interfaces. A history of 20th-century prosthetics can be written in terms of the ever smaller movements of the fingers that have ever greater effects over ever larger domains. This trajectory towards increasingly powerful micro movements is also a story of domestication. To reach out to the world is simultaneously to pull the world inside. As the mouse gives way to the touchscreen, the architectual metaphor of the desktop remains. Indeed, it becomes ever more detailed, with increasingly precise textures, shadows, colours, reflections, animations and sounds. The role of the mouse is first and foremost architectural. Indeed, the contemporary experience of space is unthinkable outside an object that is designed to be overlooked. The spaces we occupy and the way we occupy them turn on an inconspicuous prosthetic whose own disappearance, losing its wheel, then its ball and then its umbilical wire before slipping away, is the final proof of its transformative effect. As the mouse starts to leave the room wiht the successful completion of its almost half century campaign to quietly re-engineer our species, we can re-examine the prosthetic logic in architecture.

WK9 Reading

Over the past decade we have seen in architecture the emergence of complexly shaped forms and intricately articulated surfaces, enclosures, and structures, whose design and production were fundamentally enabled by the capacity of digital technologies to accurately represent and precisely fabricate artifacts of almost any complexity. With the different methods of technical reproduction of a work of art, its fitness for exhibition increased to such an extent that the quantitative shift between its two poles turned into a qualitative transformation of its nature. In a dramatic departure from the formally and materially reductive norms of much twentieth-century architecture, it is now possible to materially realize complex geometric organizational ideas that were previously unattainable. Furthermore, in a paradoxical way, the new techniques and methods of digitally enabled making are reaffirming the long forgotten notions of craft, resulting from a desire to extract intrinsic qualities of material and deploy them for particular effect. There is a close relationship of materiality in architecture to the extended realm of effects and affects. Articulation of surface and formal effects can have a tremendous affect on the experiential veracity of architecture. Digitally based technologies have introduced new spatial and formal capacities in architecture. This digital technological shift led to several lines of investigation in contemporary architecture, one aimed at seamless materially, in which fluid smoothness was primary design consideration, a second trajectory explored the outcome of digitally crafted, two and three dimensional non uniform patterns and textures, and a third sought out the unity of skin, structure and pattern. Beyond the pragmatic instrumentallty implications of manufacturing material effects lies a provocation of new ways of thinking about architecture. The idea of a harmonious whole being greater than and dependent upon the sum of its parts is examined today directly through interconnected relationships, layers of information, and a search for elegance in architecture.

WK8 Reading

In principle a work of art has always been reproducible. Man-made artifacts could always be imitated by men. Historically, it advanced intermittently and in leaps at long intervals, but with accelerated intensity. The Greeks knew only two procedures of technically reproducing works of art: founding and stamping. Bronzes, terra cottas, and coins were the only art works which they could produce in quantity. All others were unique and could not be mechanically reproduced. The enormous changes which printing, the mechanical reproduction of writing, has brought about in literature are a familiar story. However, within the phenomenon which we are here examining from the perspective of world history, print is merely a special, though particularly important, case. Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be. This unique existence of the work of art determined the history to which it was subject throughout the time of its existence. This includes the changes which it may have suffered in physical condition over the years as well as the various changes in its ownership. The presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity. Chemical analyses of the patina of a bronze can help to establish this, as does the proof that a given manuscript of the Middle Ages stems from an archive of the fifteenth century. The situations into which the product of mechanical reproduction can be brought may not touch the actual work of art, yet the quality of its presence is always depreciated. This holds not only for the art work but also, for instance, for a landscape which passes in review before the spectator in a movie. The concept of aura which was proposed above with reference to historical objects may usefully be illustrated with reference to the aura of natural ones. The uniqueness of a work of art is inseparable from its being imbedded in the fabric of tradition. This tradition itself is thoroughly alive and extremely changeable. With the different methods of technical reproduction of a work of art, its fitness for exhibition increased to such an extent that the quantitative shift between its two poles turned into a qualitative transformation of its nature.

WK7 Reading

BIM's Seven Deadly Sins

BIM as the building information modelling, has become very popular nowadays. Professionals from a diverse range of backgrounds in the building industry such as architects, have high expectations towards BIM for efficiency gains and for more integrated collaboration with their partners. The first sin is Technocentricity - focus on software instead of design culture. BIM is often misconceived as being a new version of what the industry associates with CAD and its uptake over the past two to three decades. CAD helped designers to carry out these processes on the computer for higher speed, accuracy and for real visualisation. However, the difference is that a technology-centric view on BIM will inevitably lead to fundamental problems in understanding BIM as a method for conceiving buildings in the first place. By talking about culture, when BIM gets introduced to a practice some staff will find it easier than others to embrace the new possibilities it has to offer. A practice's leadership is well advised to consider those who will be taken out of their comfort zone and who will be anxious about the changes BIM may bring to their work. The second sin is Ambiguity, during the Australian industry forums on BIM, building industry's workers agreed that one of the major hindering factors in the adoption of BIM in design practice is the high level of ambiguity about the range of services it constitutes. Lacking a differentiated view on the value BIM adds to projects, clients are likely to be reluctant to compensate their consultants for BIM related services. Less well informed users may be tempted to associate BIM with everything interesting on could achieve in architecture with the help of computational design. This is not helped by the fact that the term "Building Information Modelling" is general in nature and it could be used to describe any activity that involves 3D architectural design. BIM users experience an overall increase of the interfacing capability between multiple, previously segregated, areas of computational design. BIM's potential for linking intelligent building information throught various types of enquiry and during various stages of design should prompt users to define a spectrum of BIM related activities. The third is Elision, one diagram in particular has been central to progagating the benefits and effects of BIM in the building industry. It is a graph created published by the American Institute of Architects via one of their members, Patrick MacLeamy. Base on the graph, it shows a positive contribution to the progagation of BIM in the industry as it communicates in very basic terms what can be achieved through BIM and it highlights the ineffciencies of pre BIM work methods. When considering the MacLeamy diagram in retrospect and in more detail, it seems to present processes in the uptake of BIM in an overly simplistic manner. The smarter the BIM, the more useful information it will contain specific to each of its contributors. In order to achieve a high level of usefulness, that information needs to be managed, coordinated and associated with individual objects in the BIM. The forth is Hypocrisy - the IPD excuse. BIM by itself makes little sense in design practice. Integrated Project Delivery is hailed as BIM’s twin sister as it associates project procurement and a predefined partnership among collaborators with the appropriation of design data through BIM. IPD allows us to tap into the potential BIM has to offer, based on procurement and collaboration principles that foster teamwork rather than litigation. Fifth is Delusion, despite the continuous development and industry uptake of BIM over the past 8-10 years, the ultimate deliverables for designers still remain the submission of 2D documentation.While the end product has stayed the same, the means of achieving it have changed drastically. The effects of BIM on any established work methods are disruptive by nature.The process change intrinsic to BIM implementation is substantial, and it requires a venturous mindset plus the willingness to take risks by a practice’s leadership in order to succeed. A step by step approach with small increments will in many ways not suffice to enable true change.

Raffles City Research

Design Concept

According to Ben van Berkel, “The philosophy behind the Raffles City concept is to integrate mixed use in an urban context, but in such a way as to give this concept a twist; by focussing on where the urban context meets the landscape of the city. In the design of the towers the urban element of the project twists towards the landscape, whilst the landscape aspect, in turn, twists towards the urban context, thereby effecting the incorporation and consolidation of these separate elements in one formal gesture.”

Construction Supporting

Raffles city tower was consisted by using the central core tube and peripheral frames
Reinforced concrete core wall material. In order to meets the requirement of the building's complex facade, the peripheral frame tilt in different directions along the curved facade, forming a unique curve shape. However, this unique shape makes the construction design become extremely difficult. As the frame is parallel shifting on every floor, the pressure and forces make the columns into a harmful situation.

By using 3D modelling software, testing the building's supporting parts and high pressure zones. After the model test, base on the data collected, with certain levels, the pressure produced is over the limit of the supporting frames, as the result, those floors required an appropriate increase in the ratio of reinforcement, in order to prevent cracking or pulled concrete shear damage.

Sustainability

The incorporation of natural ventilation principles and the ways in which materials are employed, all work in concordance with one another to lower the energy and material demands of the building. Urban sustainability is also an important consideration in the design. The program mix creates a dynamic, continuous 24/7 cycle of activity, a hub for business conduct, a new destination for visitors and residents alike and will become an all-in-one destination for working, living, leisure and entertainment.

Raffles City Hangzhou

The building promote informal sustainable architecture, the people live in the city use the inform structure less by introducing many diversity and combine programs within the project.

The view of the urban will twist from the lower part and move slowly towards the top.

What can we learn from today's architecture, and whaat can we learn from research and practice and argue that today although how difficult this produced in the time as difficult as we are in right now. The production of research and at the same time producing an architecture by constantly learn and for that reason I argue that also the worker to be right in the serial instead of promoting constantly the idea that at each building needs to be and highlight along.

This project is so fascinating to learn from china, in a sense to learn from quickness, and to learn from sustainable ideas who are really heavily  promoted now.

So here, we going for everything thats related to the most extremist comes down to white hall, we can deal with the energy of the building so for that reason, we twist the facade is connected to where we can lower the energy load coming on the south side of the facad where could be close as much as possible, and be open more on the north side. For that reason, we constantly test the white hall, this formal expect the building could related itself to sustainable.

Close to 200 metres high.

WK2 Reading

The term of versioning is not relies on the necessity of the archetype to be manipulated and changed over time with the end goal of producing a master type for eventual mass production. Instead, versioning can be characterised by a set of conditions organised into a menu or nomenciature capable of being configured to address particular design criteria. By not replying on a formal apparatus or protoform, the practice of versioning is capable of responding in a nonlinear manner to multiple influences. By developing an elemental vocabulary of conditions in the planning stages for each project or project type, the practice of architecture becomes less about a search for a specific overriding form and more about a specific formal means of production to address variable conditions. Versioning also extends to methods of practice where nontraditional use of architectural theory is appropriated by other disciplines. If versioning operates at different scales within a design it should also operate at different scares of practice. It allowing the structures to controll all aspects of the work. Versioning is instrumental in allowing the practice of architecture and design to return to a vertical organisational structure similar to the 'master builder' of the Renaissance. Their invention of new forms of digital drawing and manufacturing is closer to Brunelleschi's systems of variable brick models than it is to the image-gemerating machines of the architects of the 'dot-blob bust'. When building the Duomo in Florence. The work of the architects can be local or international, but the designers use the technology to create a true integration of the process of construction no matter what space/time conditions exist. They are using innovating building materials and construction techniques to expand the possibilities of design and effect, and to keep all aspects of construction under their control. The forces that shape it, and the assemblage of materials in which we execute the ideology are part of the same gesture. This is not a call to replace the human act of design with algorithms, but a critical search for a common language between design and execution. The resulting control of these processes empowers the architect to take on the role of the translator of unforeseen relationships simultaneously in imagined and real space. The terms of Kolmogorov's definition of descriptive complexity: a printout of the program code together with a table of all parameter-sets still needs less paper than all the workshop-drawings. But this is misleading: both descriptions define the same degree of complexity, only in different languages. The algorithm is much easier to handle than the set of drawings - especially when it comes to changes - but it is just a translation of the same description. This translation, does not come for free. It takes energy in the form of brain action to come up with a clever algorithm. All the parametric planning effort would be largely useless without digitally controlled(CNC) fabrication tools that allow the production of individual components at almost the price of mass production. Those tools are widely available by now, but they are neither small, nor cheap. This knowledge is available at early design stages, in order to optimize the design towards the fabrication method.

WK1 Reading