Recently, friends at Studio Mode co- hosted a workshop with Tietz-Baccon entitled Material Intelligence. The week-long workshop capitalized on the momentum of hands-on material research through the creation of informal organizational strategies, subsequent prototypes and arriving finally at aggregate topological manifestations. Iterative testing frameworks were developed in Grasshopper and realized as tangible artifacts in prototype. Participants in the workshop not only benefited from intensive work sessions and collaborations, but also from the availability and use of digital fabrication tools, namely, a CNC 3-Axis Mill and CNC High-Force Cutter. A reception capped the event where the resultant aggregations were on display.

Studio Mode/modeLab is a Brooklyn-based design studio and research collective founded by Ronnie Parsons and Gil Akos. As a studio committed to design as a form of applied research, Mode engages in practices that have a requisite and deep connection to material and the processes by which it is formed and informed.

TIETZ-BACCON is an office for Architectural Design & Digital Fabrication established in 2007 by a core group of Architects/Designers who teamed-up at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Armed with diverse skills and a deep passion for making, our office approaches each project with ambitious innovation and detailed rigor.

Photos and Workshop descriptions after the jump…

MS

Material Intelligence was a one-week intensive design and prototyping workshop held in New York City during the week of August 16-20.

Brief:

The relationship between the designed object and the forces surrounding that object are always present, perceivable, and tactile. These forces span, among others, material, fabrication, economic, cultural, as well as political domains. In this manner, the object can be thought of as simultaneously existing within a charged field of pressures while adding its own charge back into the field. Contemporary tools (digital fabrication) and technology (associative environments) provide a strategic means for navigating the multitude of forces at play, while the prototype serves as the activating link between material research and design innovation.

Methodology:

This workshop progressed through a series of focused strategies beginning with material testing, followed by the development of prototypes, and arriving at aggregations of a single topological type. Each prototype was created by simple operations, undertaken through a specific disposition, and evaluated for performative potentials. All assemblies were designed in an associative environment (Grasshopper) and iteratively tested utilizing digital fabrication equipment (CNC 3-Axis Mill and CNC High-Force Cutter). The workshop concluded with a reception that exhibited design prototypes and full scale assemblies built by participants over the course of five days.

Material Intelligence was conceived through a collaboration between Studio Mode/modeLab and Tietz-Baccon. More details and images can be found at the following links:

http://materialintelligence.nu

http://studiomode.nu/
http://www.tietz-baccon.com/

flickr set 01

flickr set 02

As it is easy to regularly be consumed by digital practice and technique, I would like to (re)introduce one of hopefully many discussions on Tech v. Touch, that is, techniques that are specific to digital proliferation compared to those who employ the analog as a primary vehicle for exploration.

The goal then, is not to pit one against the other, but simply to bring to light how valuable each can be in informing the other; notably through craft, narrative and methodology.

In that spirit Clark Thenhaus of Endemic Architecture has used drawing and the narrative of “Alien Marlboro” as a means to explore the possibilities in the ad hoc nature of the vernacular coupled with the non-conformity of delinquency, best described by the artist himself.

Delinquency in the city exists as one of many unintended outcomes from cultural, political, and economic (trade) conventions and regulations. Gangs, slums, criminal acts, hackers, protests, union strikes, and corruption proliferate along culturally elastic boundaries between localized populations and national policies and rules. When removed from the city, delinquency exists not as ‘problem’ populations seen somehow as non-conforming, but rather as rogue and transient micro-cultures that freely linger and migrate along the margins of agraria. Latent in these margins… the residues of culture, politics, economies, and ecologies…at the interstice between agrarianism and urbanism authenticities in tectonics, trade, migration, and ecologies emerge and over generations evolve geo-conditional patterns embedded with the ability to reprogram, or recode, accepted norms and conventions through the direct, and perhaps unknowing, undermining of established and deterministic, lobbied, and hierarchical codes.

The typical notion of ‘Vernacular’ assumes an internalized set of rules based primarily on utility. Utility, however, we recognize as ambiguous and largely inconsequential with regard to tectonic evolution when seen not from a standpoint of norms and conventions. Likewise assuming the vernacular is built from internalized and concentrated rule sets (totalities) is to assume the vernacular, both tectonically and socially, is introverted and without ability to emerge new models across social boundaries through the direct transience of feral populations. Rather, the vernacular is much more an open source network of transient persons mobilizing resources and initiating new rules through notions of exteriority (assemblages) tailored to specific geographic conditions. This is to say, that rogue agrarian cultures are transient, populated with nomadic persons who move at varying rates, bringing with them “foreign” materials, tools, and techniques that are re-deployed and transmitted across various ecologies, which over time instantiate new rules and tectonic coding not through introverted and closed-loop cycles, but through open-source networks and transient evolutions to and within ordering systems. These evolutions may be a temporary occurrence within a permanent system, or conversely a permanent evolution within a temporary system…such as harvesting versus a barn raising.

It is this migration of both delinquency and vernacular where Alien Marlboro existed. Alien Marlboro left behind many drawings, most found buried, that foster a new agrarian tectonic. His Spindle Houses were built on stems equal to the width of the modern furrow to eliminate the disconnect between production and homestead (governmentally promoted). Other drawings, such as Carthage Kansas were built high into the sky to launch TNT into the atmosphere. Science of the day claimed that “Air Blasting” created and brought together clouds and increased rainfall for increased agrarian production. Alien Marlboro imagined a free zone of agrarian production, roamed by grazing harvesters operating not under direct governmental quotas and tracking, but as a collective of nomadic infrastructures integrated within the larger transportation networks.

http://www.endemicarchitecture.com

MS

MS

It has been argued that “Capital A” architecture’s position within the industry is being progressively marginalized to smaller and smaller portions of the built environment and maybe even within buildings themselves. This can be attributed to any number of factors, if you believe this to be fact; economy, perceived value, schedule, cost – the suspects are always the same. The stalwart few who refuse to go unheard have found outlets where those factors play less of a role in producing a quality product that our lives deserve.

I actually don’t put much weight in this argument, rather, I think what we (or maybe just me) are seeing is perhaps a maturity, or better yet, an acuity, amongst designers to find where they can have to most significant, and immediate impact in buildings. We’ll call it, for lack of a better term “opportunity”. The distillation of an idea, client enterprise, program, cultural precept, etc, into one moment of a built environment that can be exquisitely controlled and fed to other, less impactful portions of a project is something that designers have begun to recognize as a way of finding architectural agency in a sea of constraints.

Curtain walls have become one major vehicle for the materialization of this notion for a variety of reasons. They offer the best, and sometimes only way of interfacing with the majority of people who come in contact with the building. They are easily consumed as a billboard for a project. They also offer quantifiable data we can point to specifically, relative to energy and performance. By their very nature, they exist in the realm of 2.5D and they offer a means of formal investigation that coincides with academic and technologically driven ideas about surface.

Princeton Architectural Press has a book entitled Contemporary Curtain Wall Architecture which catalogues this unspoken discussion within our profession. In it, each project is documented through detailed drawings, color photography, and insightful descriptions of the aesthetic and technical considerations that make these projects best-case examples of curtain wall technology. The best aspects of the book, in my opinion, are the drawings that provoke as well as demystify what is, for most, the most complex aspect of the project. The descriptions are matter-of-fact, and the book focuses on what we like most: pictures and drawings.

The book is written by Scott Murray, an architect and assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he teaches graduate seminars on innovations in building envelope design.

MS

A very interesting movie by Etérea Studios illustrating the connection between nature and it’s mathematical underpinnings (Fibonacci, Golden Ratio, Voronoi, Delaunay, etc.).

Fans of Donald in Mathmagic Land, rejoice.

MS

Thought everyone would find this amusing. A website that turns your text into a data graphic, based on frequency of use.

MS

http://www.wordle.net

via dezeen

So for the coming of age designer who has traded in long nights in the studio for long nights tending to newborns, check this self heating bottle by Karim Rashid.  As a father myself, I can tell you that a portable, energy conscious method of heating bottles (not through your car) would be of tremendous value, especially with breast milk that needs refrigerated.

iiamo go is a self-heating feeding bottle that gives parents on the go the ability to serve body temperature milk to their baby anywhere anytime without the use of electricity. iiamo go is the only bottle in the world with this unique combination of a portable, non-electrical, throw-away organic heating cartridges (iiamo warm) and a patented heating technology that is integrated into the bottle itself. The process is very simple. Pour the mother’s milk, formula or milk powder in the bottle; insert the cartridge in the bottom of the bottle and then just push, wait a few minutes and serve the milk.

I would encourage all to read the article and comments, as Karim defends his design, and if you are like me, you might appreciate something else besides cynicism and negativity.

MS

If you like supermodels, the desert, and old-ass pictures, your train has finally come in…

PULP ART BOOK is a collaboration between supermodel Joni Harbeck and photographer Neil Krug, and if you have $250 burning a hole in your pocket, you can buy a piece of cool.

http://www.pulpartbook.com

MS

For those that didn’t have the pleasure of growing up when the original movie, Tron, was one of the most visually ambitious movies to date, you will absolutely have the pleasure of enjoying a follow-up film with an equally ambitious style, the original set of actors, and a film-maker who has his roots in architecture. It is set for release in 2010.

While this might be old news to those that frequent Comic Con, I still think it’s relevant in the design community, mostly because I love to see how worlds get (re)interpreted and crafted within their respective media. This film specifically for me always ran style parallel to substance, thus Kosinski was a very compelling choice to helm the project. Kosinski was once half of KDLab, and has worked in varying capacities with Nike, Chevy, Lincoln, and Hummer amongst others. His style is refined, beautifully desaturated, and overtly architectural. If you’ve thought it might be a good idea to buy a Lincoln after you saw this commercial, you can thank Kosinski.

In any event, talking about the nuances of the actual film will remain pure speculation at this point, and I would run the risk of aggravating a much nerdier crowd than I with mis-hits about the history, plot, or specificities relative to character development. So for now I would say, enjoy the trailer and visuals. Be inspired.

http://www.josephkosinski.com/

http://www.flynnlives.com/

MS

Negligence is the rust of the soul, that corrodes through all her best resolves.

Owen Felltham

I will post again…fear not. Thanks for your patience.

MS