The GINA Light Visionary is a BMW Concept car which might redefine the dogma of form-making in the auto industry.

The outer skin of the car is fabric, which covers the metal substructure, almost like a tunic. The cover pulls back for certain functions, including the headlights, which are hidden beneath the fabric when not in use. The rear spoiler also lifts from the skin to create more down-force on the rear axle at higher speeds.

The GINA is driveable, with power coming from a 4.4 liter V8 mated to a six-speed automatic. It rides on 20-inch wheels and is built on a lightweight aluminum space frame.

Think of the potential of limitless variations of style. Amazing.

MS

A really great site for information and tutorials by David Fano at SHoP Architects. Focus is meant to be a source of information for the integration of design and technology. The ambition of Design Reform is to publish tutorials and explorations in parametric modeling with softwares such 3ds Max, Revit, Maya, and Rhino.

David’s focus is developing technology strategies on various projects, primarily with parametric systems and BIM implementation. He explores BIM in the schematic and pre-schematic design phases, as well as interoperability with other programs.

Design ReForm

David Fano

Happy Modeling

MS

Reading John Maeda’s book Simplicity was very telling about our nature as humans. Our lives are so complicated that it is overwhelming, hence our current trend to pare down and simplify all that we can . The funny thing is, we don’t want to rid ourselves of complexity, as we are naturally curious, we just don’t want it at the price of complication. Thus, we find ways of subverting complexity through simple processes, methods and packages. The book applies to all of the design disciplines with varying degrees of relevance, but it resonated with me from an architectural standpoint pretty strongly.

Designers are pretty hard to please when it comes to what they find captivating. Some may espouse a specific stylistic approach linked historically, others a methodology that produces something formally specific. To pull value from such a range of subjectivity, I think we could all agree that we value refinement in either material, technique and form (or perhaps all of the above). What perhaps pushes a project or idea beyond those individually, is when those three things have a synthetic relationship that speaks to us on a somatic, visceral or emotional level.

That synthesis happens more frequently than we would think, and I only got to thinking about it because of some recent/not-so-recent projects, I have looked at more in depth. A recent sciARC exhibition prompted my thinking on this.

Sci-Arc Exhibition; Andy Ku, Marcos Sanchez, Jenny Wu

While the project isn’t groundbreaking, it is no less effective. It allows us to see, with utmost transparency, how a one material coupled with an intelligent method can reveal a new way of thinking about the potential of that material. The project isn’t hard to understand, and in that there is value. Designers (myself included) don’t just design for each other, but for people who don’t care what we care about. Their level of engagement varies based on their interest and amount of time they invest in it. So while I want to produce a project that can accommodate a multiplicity of engagement strata, I also want to be able to speak to someone at the first. A curved wall out of something that curves naturally is less interesting to me than a curved wall out of something that is inherently straight, historically or expectedly.

In contrast, in contemporary investigation, while the value of largely formal projects aims at speaking to people on a visceral level, the overwhelming complexity of shape and relationship can be lost amidst a sea of complication, hence the conversation may be limited to a like/dislike scenario because of a level of engagement that can’t be reached without a core level of competency most don’t possess. While this isn’t a criticism necessarily, as I feel the merits of such work move beyond that notion, I think it is important to note that effectiveness in those projects relies heavily on the suspension of a reality that grounds most projects in favor of the potential of architecture to be fundamentally and diagrammatically organic.

Meghan Pryor, GSAPP Fall 2006

The Fifth Law of Maeda’s book is “Difference,” which notes that complexity needs simplicity to be appreciated or registered. These exist as arrhythmic oscillations when most effective. The sciARC exhibition can be understood as a system that would be just as happy being the complex, doubly curved surface, as it would be a straight-forward vertical wall. We don’t need to see the straight wall to understand the curved wall, but sometimes we do. Registration of that difference can at times help the clarity of a project in this regard. Having looked at the oooolllllldddd Signal Box, it occurred to me how effective that strategy was. Add to that the value of the copper functionally, and you have a synthesis of form, material, and technique that produces a real-world affect through simple means. The aesthetic value would not have nearly the impact had the copper louver not returned to an original condition.

Is this the only way to invoke a guttural response in an end-user? Absolutely not; and even while this formula doesn’t always make for an effective project, I think when it is deployed intelligently, it creates a beauty that is empathetic to a larger audience.

Links:

The Laws of Simplicity

MS

Props to Dominic Leong of PARA for this insightful article that basically surmises what we deal with every day, without being overly academic (aka big words.)

The Game of Architecture via CORE.FORM-ULA

MS

For the love of flesh and bone, or part to whole relationships, an interactive spatial investigation of anatomy is available for free via the visible body. One is able to hide or ghost different body systems in layers down to highly specific arteries, bones or organs.

Note: The ability exists to use OpenGL vs. DirectX depending on your graphics card.

Pretty amazing.

http://www.visiblebody.com

MS

“Pollock’s finest paintings… reveal that his all-over line does not give rise to positive or negative areas: we are not made to feel that one part of the canvas demands to be read as figure, whether abstract or representational, against another part of the canvas read as ground. There is not inside or outside to Pollock’s line or the space through which it moves…. Pollock has managed to free line not only from its function of representing objects in the world, but also from its task of describing or bounding shapes or figures, whether abstract or representational, on the surface of the canvas.”

Pollock’s paintings were not paintings like people knew paintings. Hey considered them events, and his immersion in them was key to their success. They were liberations from aesthetic values. Ironically, they in turn, created a unique aesthetic one that polarized its critics.

And now, you too can paint like Jackson! I stumbled upon this site the other day. The mouse path has a function related to speed of movement and thickness of dribble. Clicking changes colors. Have a looksee.

http://www.jacksonpollock.org

A continuation of the last exercise - this time taking the module in the z dimension…

Image copyright NBBJ, LLC  2007

MS

Here is an image of a screen system I have been developing (rendered with a little 50’s newspaper panache) for a project that I have had the pleasure of helping out on. Pretty straight forward, I think the image speaks for itself, but simply put, the screen tries to achieve depth on a flat façade.

The ultimate goal is to accommodate the multiple scales and gradients of its locale (suburban Moscow) through the use of a panelized screen that can be manipulated to achieve varied effects textually and materially that may respond to program elements of the office behind it. As cost can never be overlooked the screen uses only one panel size, and the effect is achieved simply by spacing the panels differently on vertical struts that run the height of the curtain wall.

The buildings abut end-to-end such that the surface condition can both wrap the corner, and translate across from building to building.

I think all too often we associate “random paneling” with “interesting”, in lieu of actually taking advantage of inherent relationships.

All images copyright NBBJ, LLC 2007

On the tail of the Republic Square competition, another *small* project competition emerged in the heart of Almaty’s financial district that was simple in the challenge it set forth; a speculative office complex 160,000 sm, consisting of four buildings, 2 large (flanking the site), and 2 smaller (in the middle). Our team, since having won the competition, is finding in the midst of its development, that the project has grown considerably in size, scope, and complexity. I will try to document this ongoing effort, to bring to light design issues put on the table, challenges faced, and what it might mean for the client, city, and occupants…

Concept.

The client’s interest for the project is one which predicates a desire to create a formidable presence in a burgeoning financial district at the southeast corner of the city. The Kazak culture as a whole has strong ties to the landscape, which for centuries was the enabler of their nomadic lifestyle. They were a people who farmed the steppe between the lowlands, and the southern mountain ranges. It is this affinity for their environs, coupled with a desire to participate in a dialogue with western society that led them to the development of this project.At its rudiments, the buildings of the Al Farabi Business Center have the advantage of being the third project in an on-going collaborative between NBBJ, E/Ye Design, and TS Engineering (TSE). TSE is the client, developer, and shared user of the complex. As stated above, the formal nature of these investigations resonated highest with the client because of their simultaneous addressing of both the desire to create buildings which become part of, and speak to, a larger landscape, as well as situating themselves in a contemporary discussion with the richness and technology of western architecture. The goal of the project is synergistic with this ideal; to create place beyond the realm of speculative office (the parameters of which were dictated by the client to be four buildings of a specific size and location), which amplifies this discussion. Thusly, an attitude held by the project at its inception was to accommodate the programmatic, ecological and metric requirements of the speculative typology by pushing the Architecture to both the perimeter and interstitial space between the buildings, leaving the interior potential to be a flexible as possible for the future tenants.

Differentiation of these spaces is evoked through a shared formal relationship with the building and ground-plane through manipulated splines, to create an abstracted relationship to the life of the landscape and landforms of the steppe in opposition to the imposed gridded geometry of the city and its gardens (as residual from Soviet occupation). These geometries are subverted, however, described only by rigorous deployment of linear construction methodologies, speaking to a degree of machined western refinement, and adapt to certain situations afforded by the site.

All images Copyright NBBJ, LLC 2007

Despite popular belief, this blog still lives, but has been temporarily neglected due to a project which will no doubt be seen here soon. Stay tuned…

In the mean time check out 40Bond, by H&deM that is nearing completion.