Fabricating The Bio--digital

Dissertation 2012

S.P.A., NEW DELHI

FINAL REPORT

FABRICATING OF BIO-DIGITAL
An efficient and optimum way to construct

NIKIT DESHLAHRA 11/2/2011 A/2009/2008 III YR. SECTION A

DISSERTATION GUIDE: Ar. PRATYUSH PRASAN

DISSERTATION COORDINATORS: DR. RANJANA MITTAL PROF. JAYA KUMAR

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Fabricating The Bio--digital

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CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ 2 LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ 3 CHAPTER 1: SYNOPSIS .............................................................................................................. 5 1.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 5 1.2 NEED IDENTIFICATION ................................................................................................... 7 1.3 SCOPE .................................................................................................................................. 8 1.4 LIMITATION ....................................................................................................................... 8 1.5 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH WORK ............................................................................................. 10 2.1 WHY GO DIGITAL: Hints from the past and present ...................................................... 10 2.2 HOW DIGITAL MEDIA WORKS: Procedure, precautions and approach ....................... 13 2.3. ARCHITECTS ROLE: Master-builder to Master-collaborator ....................................... 16 2.4 MATERIALS AND DIGITAL SPACE: The interact between the two ............................. 18 2.5 FABRICATING THE VIRTUAL: Realizing the dream .................................................... 20 2.6 NATURES INFLUENCE: The guiding force ................................................................... 22 2.7 BIO-DIGITAL: Biomimicry fused within parametric approach ........................................ 25 2.8 NOT JUST THE SHAPE .................................................................................................... 28 CHAPTER 3: CASE STUDIES.................................................................................................... 29 3.1 WATER CUBE, BEIJING, CHINA (THE NATIONAL AQUATICS CENTRE, 2008 OLYMPICS) ............................................................................................................................. 29 3.1.1 FINDINGS& ANALYSIS ..................................................................................... 33 3.2 THE EMBRYOLOGICAL HOUSES (BY GREG LYNN) ............................................... 35 3.2.1 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS ............................................................................... 40 3.2 SPIRAL PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE, FRENCH PYRENEES .............................................. 42 3.3.1 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS ............................................................................... 45 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 47 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................................... 50

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Fabricating The Bio--digital

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the following:

Ar. Pratyush Prasan for his guidance.

Dr. Ranjana Mittal and Prof. Jaya Kumar for their co-ordination.

Friends for their inspiration.

Family for their support.

Without them this dissertation would not have been possible.

I am dedicating this dissertation to my Mom and Dad.

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Fabricating The Bio--digital

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: STL eTree models. 2000-2003. Source: Dennis Dollens, Architect. Figure 2: Digitally grown Tree-Truss, 14 7 7 inches (35 17 17 cm), 2008. Source: Dennis Dollens, Architect. Figure 3: Ariel view animation. Source: http://asianlanka.wordpress.com/2008/07/28/watercube-beijing/ Figure 4: After Construction. Source: nipic.com Figure 5: During Construction. Source: China Foto Press Figure 6: Source: nipic.com Figure 7: Inside of Water Cube. Source: Vector Foiltec. Figure 8: ETFE soars in vertical, light-filled spaces, like the Water Cubes lobby. Source: Vector Foiltec. Figure 9: Different prototypes of Embryological houses. Source: Greg Lynn, Architect. Figure 10: Form being evolved with the parameters. Source: Greg Lynn, Architect. Figure 11: Working of 12 control point system. Source: Greg Lynn, Architect. Figure 12: morphology from sphere to the final form. Source: Greg Lynn, Architect. Figure 13: Graphically comparing modern kit-of-house with Lynns biological approach. Source: Greg Lynn, Architect. Figure 14 The double skin. Source: Greg Lynn, Architect. Figure 15: Exploded view of a typical type. Source: Greg Lynn, Architect. Figure 16: Fenestrations and their corresponding interiors. Source: Greg Lynn, Architect. Figure 17 Animated view of the bridge. Source: Dennis Dollens, Architect. Figure 18: Silica skeleton of the sponge, Euplectella. Source: http://www.uwlax.edu/biology/Zoo-Lab/Lab-04/Hexactinellida.htm

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Figure 19: Euplectella spicules. Source: Towards Biomimetic architecture, Dennis Dollens, 2005. Figure 20: Spiraling seedpod from a Tipuana tipu. Source: Towards Biomimetic architecture, Dennis Dollens, 2005. Figure 21 Top: Animation sequences for the Bridge. Bottom: Rendering of the bridge on

the site. Source: D. Dollens.

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Fabricating The Bio--digital

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CHAPTER 1: SYNOPSIS
1.1 INTRODUCTION
The ever expanding realm of digital media has not let architecture be untouched and uninfluenced. The term digital architecture has been widely misunderstood as just using the computers potential to achieve unachievable complex forms. The forms and shapes are the way they are, usually organic and jazzy, not just for the sake of it or because of an individuals desire, but because of logics based on the algorithm designed by that individual. It has developed as technique now and has overcome as its prevalent image of happy accidents. A bio-logical architecture draws inspiration from nature, not by imitating its forms, but by understanding its behavioral traits traits which have proven more adaptive, more flexible, and more successful in cultivating life than has our built environment. (Green, 2005, p. 4) The emergent and complex, non-linear ways of nature, which sustains it continuously, has to be adopted in architecture too. These extracted logics are too complex to be transformed into a potential built reality by human brain alone. When these bio-digital logics are fed as digital data into computers they can be operated upon in patterns, loops etc. and generate designs which have the essence of this logic imbibed in it The insanely complex virtual design, made representable through the power of digital software, cannot survive the move to construction in its original state, due to the lack in partnership of digital and material mediums. The dialogue between the two is established through CAD/CAM (Computer Aided Design/ Manufacturing). This also redefines the role of

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an architect as The Master Builder guiding the whole process parallelly, from the stage of design to production. Sometimes the existence of materials is completely forgotten in the cyberspace. This is a possible threat, but has the potential of being a vision for future too, a future where materials are genetically engineered rather than manufactured. All this may seem like a design fiction, but it is indeed a design reality. So, the above analysis leads us to the question: How is fabricating the bio-digital architecture an efficient and optimum way to construct?

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1.2 NEED IDENTIFICATION

There is an indifference spread all over the architectural community towards the usage of science in this age old process of designing and tectonics. So the need for this research is to clear this air and explain what fundamentally digital or computational architecture really is and what its guiding fundamental forces are. There has been a gradual inclusion of computers in architecture, starting from just a medium of representation to simulation and now even as a medium of design generation. With the advent of many expertizes in architecture there is a need for them to collaborate and move ahead, not to hold each other back. The need of going back to the least waste and most efficient ways inspired by nature is due to the present deterioration and over exploitation of resources available to us by global urbanization, leading to global warming and even climate change.

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1.3 SCOPE
The scope of the study will extend only to the projects which have used nature as their inspiration and as their guiding principle along with the help of digital media. Other projects which have used either of them alone to excel as designs will not be explored. To address practicality the fabrication aspect of the projects will also be analyzed. This practicality will be presently achievable in some cases and in others it will be directing towards the developing technologies and their untapped potential of application in the field of architecture.

1.4 LIMITATION
Lack of first-hand experience of spaces designed and/or constructed with a bio-digital approach. Not many conceived projects following this holistic approach have actually been realized in the field. The traditional approach is hard to be erased or substituted. It has an endless history. It provides ease and immunity to the architect by alienating him from the process of building in its totality. Lack of programming and coding knowledge will limit the technical understanding to secondary ways only.

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1.5 METHODOLOGY
The research will begin by drawing parallels between the digital ways of designing and constructing (CAD/CAM) and other successful and efficient approaches in history. This will be followed by the explanation of working procedure and aims and objectives kept in mind by the architects while following this approach. The research will then elaborate on how the digital media approaches materials and tectonics in the present realm of technological advancements. Then it will emphasize the need for this approach to take natures lead and the cautions involved in the process. This will be followed by the working procedure of the systems of nature and the advantages that they offer over the traditional ways. The above stated facts will then be established by analysis the case studies which fulfill the specified criteria for the scope of this research. The above specified analysis will be done on following grounds: How is the potential of digital and computational technology exploited to innovate, ornament and optimize? How is teaming up with nature enriching its evolution? How is the presence of information in digital form assisting in inter-relating expertise and tackling the constraints of tectonics? How it has the potential for dominating the future and extending our boundaries beyond the age old obvious? The research will then be concluded based on all the findings and analysis done and establishing

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CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH WORK

2.1 WHY GO DIGITAL: Hints from the past and present
Architecture is concerned with not only being in the world, but forming it. (Hagan, 2008, p. 24)Gestalt psychology is a school of thought that looks at the human mind and behaviour as a whole. This belief, that the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts has led us to the discovery of several different phenomena that occur during perception. (web1) Architecture has a disciplinary history and responsibility to express parts-to-whole relationships and hierarchy. (Kolarevic, 2000, p. 6) It is immature not do so with knowledge of calculus and all the technological advancements at our disposal. As mathematician Ian Stewart says that linearity of thought was deeply inculcated since 1940s and 1950s. (Leach, Turnbull, & Williams, 2004, p. 17) This subsequent trap of Euclidean geometry and its certainties challenged the emergence of curvilinear forms. These new type of forms were difficult to understand, accommodate and appreciate for them and were often dismissed as just another architectural fad.(Kolarevic, 2000, p. 6) The possibilities in digital realm have renewed interest in the structural logics of the buildings. Postmodern sensibility of 1990s, infatuated with scenographic properties, complex geometry and surface effects, has been replaced by the structural integrity of buildings, incorporating highly crafted, non-uniform surface effects based on complex patterning, texturing, and relief within its system. In order to revive ornamentation to its original stature, the challenge is to avoid creating a singular, outstanding image, pattern or form, but a subtle, sensory, contextually responsive and responsible experience. (Klinger & Kolarevic, 2008, p. 20) Linear and equilibrium behavior, considered the paradigm of the genesis of form historically, have led to the view that material is an inert recipient of form imposed on it from the external

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agents. Deleuze and Guattari defined this through the hylomorphic model, which states that the notion of a law has led to this approach and its coherence to this date because laws lead to the fixing of a form, and conversely, try to produce or explore the property that the form demands from the matter, ignoring things which are affective and active. (Leach, Turnbull, & Williams, 2004, p. 17) The achievements in the building industry have always influenced the creation of architectural forms from the medieval to the present times. Parallels can be drawn between stonemason craft and the form of medieval cathedrals and contemporary skin-andbones buildings and digital fabrication technologies.(Guzik, 2009, p. 12) As the craftsman can compensate for the differences in the qualities of his material through his ability to adjust the precise strength and pattern of application of his tools to the materials local vagaries, (Leach, Turnbull, & Williams, 2004, p. 21)so can an architect using his computational skill in sync with the developing fabrication technologies. The capacity of computational architecture to generate new designs is therefore highly dependent on designers perceptual and cognitive abilities.(Kolarevic, 2000, p. 5) Blind repetition of actions from past would lead to nothing new ever, except by chance. But the paradox is that uncontrolled events make it impossible to organize and manage the work process. The management theory, even today ranks organizing tasks around goals as crucial. These act as the hinges of the planning strategies, which should be flexible enough to provide relaxation in their implementation, not just by multitasking, but by playing with task itself. It needs to be imbibed in ones mind, psychologically and intensively. What is on the bodys exterior can only happen when we have internalized it first. (Leach, Turnbull, & Williams, 2004, pp. 51-52) Due to the advances constantly being achieved in the digital world, architecture is currently experiencing a re-thinking comparable to the advances made during the industrial revolution. The common spirit between the two is: innovation. These innovations changed the 11 | P a g e

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architecture to find its rightful place and relink it with contemporary material science.(BramsMiller, 2005, pp. 2-3) It is therefore not only challenging what we are designing but also how we design.(Kolarevic, 2000, p. 1)

Table 1 The character of design, exchange, and production over time. Source: Keith Evan Green.

The digital advances initiated the shift from what was a Modernist mechanical kit-of-parts design and construction technique of Industrial era to a more vital, evolving, biological model of embryological design and construction of future. (Rocker, 2006, p. 93) New generation is willing to experiment with design process which may be open ended and free flowing, but ultimately focussed. (Klinger & Kolarevic, 2008, pp. 2-4) Whether we like it or not, the computer and the innovations that go with it are here to stay. We have only to harness their power.(Brams-Miller, 2005, p. 19)These are just another means for the architects desire to realise a design idea.(Rocker, 2006, p. 95)

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2.2 HOW DIGITAL MEDIA WORKS: Procedure, precautions and approach

Though its architecture with digits, it needs to be designed. Here designing exposes the patterns and architecture of information hidden within the built form. Any design project has a lot of rules attached to it intricately, like rules of proportion or principles of structures or fluid mechanics or limitation on cost or the material available. The rules are vague, incomplete, contradictory and even open to dispute. These need to be formulated as algorithm. Rules in an algorithm are carried out by computers. Hence, these rules must be open to only one possible interpretation, since no intelligence is available during its application. A highly procedural form of process is followed, in which instructions are applied one after the other instead of being applied all at once. Here 7timing becomes crucial. (Leach, Turnbull, & Williams, 2004, pp. 57-109) Leibnizs differential calculus has the ability to fuse the hierarchy of parts and whole to produce a deeply modulated whole as well as infinitesimal variation among parts. What has been ignored for almost throughout the history is now being taken in account as many of the software used for the digital designing are calculus based. (Rocker, 2010, p. 8)This approach avoids a sequential component design process and attempts to develop the design products in a concurrent manner whereby necessary changes that occur in the development of a particular design component will be propagated throughout the entire design to minimize repercussions for the realization of alternate design iterations.(Panchuk, 2006, p. 4)

Since it is new media for designing in architecture and with continuous upgradations, it has been a relatively unexplored zone. Hence, the learning from happy accidents must be mastered and transformed into a technique. Thereby designers will need to develop an indepth understanding and ability to customize and manipulate their medium. Even then, 13 | P a g e

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learning to design with this medium and its tools is far more significant than learning to write the codes or develop personal and customized software tools. (Rocker, 2006, pp. 9095)Emergent forms evolve over time and the task for the designer would be to fast-forward this process. Programs such as eifForm can potentially integrate structural operations and even other aspects of the building process such as acoustic or environmental concerns, to constructional or programmatic issues. So it has to overcome from its image as a designers toy of affluent West, and grab the role of a social reformer optimizing resources in the less privileged areas. (Leach, Turnbull, & Williams, 2004, pp. 74-75)

Advent of computer modelling has negated the need to use ways like soap film bubble and to generate surface with uniform stress to explore organic forms. So in some ways using the random organic forms through digital modelling has led us to less efficient designs away from the laws of physics. (Leach, Turnbull, & Williams, 2004, p. 45)The lack of control that is criticised here, is the same lack of control that allows architects like Greg Lynn to create architectural fantasies without any real material surface in mind characteristics of a surface, yes, but no surface that already exists. The same lack of precision, however, is going to continue to push the boundaries of what the computer can do for architecture. (BramsMiller, 2005, p. 19)

Space is not an absence of matter and matter has been proven to have energy. So, all the spaces have energy and a lot of forces working within it. These forces are defined and guided by the objects (matter) present inside the space. (Brams-Miller, 2005, p. 5) These internal forces of mass and attraction are defined as parameters and constraints, which exercise fields or regions of influence. They add up at some places and negate at others. This is one of the ways to construct the geometry and create isomorphic surfaces having a composite field of same intensity. (Kolarevic, 2000, p. 2)Another approach is with the use of NURBS Non-

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Uniform Rational B-Spline curves. It is departure from the Euclidean geometry in Cartesian space to continuous curves and surfaces. Any number of heterogeneous and coherent forms is achieved by varying the location of the control points, weights and knots.(Kolarevic, 2000, p. 2)

This new apparent freedom from the old constraints could easily lead us down inappropriate paths. Therefore it is worth looking back to appreciate what have been the major factors influencing the form of what man has built. The key factors being: the material, the ability and the needs. (Leach, Turnbull, & Williams, 2004, p. 41)

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2.3. ARCHITECTS ROLE: Master-builder to Master-collaborator

Gaudi was an architect who believed that if one looks for functionality in a design then he will ultimately arrive at beauty. He thought that if it is beauty that is sought then it is only art theory, aesthetics, or philosophy that will be reached. Gaudis design principles coalesced into a new theory that united three previously disparate areas of architecture where: ...the mechanical fact is geometrically demonstrated and is translated into three-dimensional material, making it structural. Mechanics, geometry and structure have been synthesized to produce a logical architecture in which each active element fulfills its function in an equilibrated way and with the least effort.(Martinelli, 1967, p. 134)

The speed at which construction industry works today is incomparable. It is almost impossible to manage all these traits of a building single headedly. And collaboration often kills the soul of a design due to the mutual clashes. Digital medias ability to deal with innumerable parameters facilitates this collaboration. It only adds more layers of complexity in a design making it more organic and complete in itself.

With the new advances in 3D printing the working models and printed parts have become realistic, thereby helping in exploration of potential in digital media through training, research and education. A design file can be sent anywhere in the world, where it can be printedinstantly communicating this information. This facilitates the sharing of knowledge, distance learning, and cooperation between researchers. (Reisin, 2009, p. 4)

The digital revolution has enriched us with the capability to generate descriptions and even the model of buildings virtually and transfer it around to people and machines from other expertise. (Leach, Turnbull, & Williams, 2004, pp. 41-45)The mathematics and coding by designers is subsequently utilized in machines, making the new output technologies possible, 16 | P a g e

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like 3-d printing, laser cutting, CNC, etc. The disciplinary expertises from almost all the design fields which are capable of working out the problems of a 3-d form are an integral part of architecture today. (Klinger & Kolarevic, 2008, pp. 2-4) Designers may begin to think about designing their own parts and fabricating their own components and not merely rely on standard components specified in manufacturers catalogues. Designing ones own systems and components, we understand construction and aesthetics at a deeper level and are more carefully involved with the full process of building and assemblyand hence can also provide information for disassemblyrecycling.(Dollens, 2006, p. 154) Architects still do the designing part in a project, but in the background these software actually calculate the non-standard shapes. The modifications in these calculated parameters lead to versioning and gradual adjustments of design. This morphogenesis facilitates what is called mass-customization. (Klinger & Kolarevic, 2008, p. 18)(Roudavski, 2009, p. 346) If architect dont take up the challenge and keep avoiding the liability of construction by dividing creation and execution, then the technology of fabrication will be just another trend. All the possibilities of large scale transformation of architecture as a process altogether which ought to be up-to date with contemporary science will just be a dream. (Klinger & Kolarevic, 2008, p. 66)

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2.4 MATERIALS AND DIGITAL SPACE: The interact between the two
The virtual is the space of emergence of the new, the un-thought, the unrealized, which at every moment loads the presence of the present with supplementarity, redoubling a world through parallel universes (Grosz, 2002) The form that a building can take depends on the laws of physics and the choice of material. Ability to use the materials available to us also guides the form. And even the ever-changing needs influences our decision making and hence the forms of building we create. (Leach, Turnbull, & Williams, 2004, pp. 41-45)Digital is about improving process and products of building. (Hagan, 2008, p. 18) Flexibility follows a bottom-up approach to reach a complex inflexibility and Cartesian choice is replaced by an actual sense of tension. Industrial metals, like steel after intense processed uniformity and homogenization of their chemical composition and quality control of over two centuries have led us to reliability and quality control. This also has a social face to it. This discipline has nurtured predictability in engineers and architects to such as extent that at times their job is limited just to look up and follow some handbooks, thereby losing their to creativity to design with non-isotropic materials. The roles that a structure may play can be highly heterogeneous; the repertoire of materials that a designer uses should reflect this complexity. Similar to the biological materials like bone, new designs may involve structures with properties that are in continuous variation, with some portions of the structure better able to deal with compression while others deal with tension. Intrinsically heterogeneous materials, such as fiber glass and the newer hi-tech composites, afford designers this possibility. This doesnt imply that the role played by homogeneity with simple and predictable behavior and institutional and economic arrangement behind it was not legitimate. There have been undoubted gains, but the question 18 | P a g e

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posed is, What got lost in the process? Continuity becomes essential if we want tension between states. Expansive and contractive are not used as finalized properties, but we treat them as tendencies, as working forces, as formative, not as forms. The performance driven form generation techniques till date are either purely tensile-based or purely compressionbased. As next generation performance driven techniques we need to develop the ones with mixed-mode structural forms. (Leach, Turnbull, & Williams, 2004, pp. 20-90) The icons of past like Frei Otto and Harald Kloft have already explored and exploited the potential of efficiencies and possible poetics of existing materials. (Leach, Turnbull, & Williams, 2004, p. 70) So its time to put behind the argument of architecture being born out of the tectonic capacities of the actual materials. The computational potential of digital media has offered insights into the realm of tectonics . (Leach, Turnbull, & Williams, 2004, p. 4)With the rise of emergent materials and innovative application of conventional materials, a new generation of computed, layered materials has come up. They provide unprecedented opportunity to explore new material tectonics and ornamental possibilities as their production can be digitally controlled and engineered precisely to meet specific performance criteria. As said by Juhani Pallasamaa, materials and surfaces have a language of their own, but with the advances that Toshiko Mori recognizes, the language of the buildings production and fabrication will soon be simultaneous. (Klinger & Kolarevic, 2008, p. 6)The purpose of material in such form oriented method is also to affect the perceptions and experience of the design, giving it a meaning to evoke feelings. It should move beyond just demarcating the boundaries of volume, as it usually does in modernist approach. The sole presence of matter is weakened by giving just the form or shape more priority. (Klinger & Kolarevic, 2008, p. 11)

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2.5 FABRICATING THE VIRTUAL: Realizing the dream

It is always more interesting to begin with an inventory of what machines want to do to us before we start asking what we desire from the machines. (Rocker, 2006, p. 89)

We need to extend the virtual building model to virtual construction - not just conception- so that the way a building is fabricated and erected becomes as important a part of design as its efficient use of materials. (Klinger & Kolarevic, 2008, p. 41)

The insanity of virtual world visualized by the power of digital software cannot always stand the test of tectonics and the irregular designs are translated into a regularized built system, thereby losing its identity.(Hagan, 2008, p. 5)A shift from manual construction to industrial multi-purpose robots and fabrication machines not only is quicker, more precise and more productive, but it also helps in realising complex designs even without any optical reference or an identifiable pattern. (Klinger & Kolarevic, 2008, p. 113)

Lynn believes that ornamentation should not be considered as representation and just applied decoration, but rather as a part of process. He explores the potential of tooling artefacts to break away from smooth featurelessness by allowing the decoration to emerge from spline surfaces and its conversion into a continuous tool path. In this scheme of things, decoration is not applied, but is imbibed in the shape through the mathematics of the surface, thereby emphasizing the recognised quality of the surface, like the pattern of an animal that intricately responds to the shape and structure of an animals form. (Leach, Turnbull, & Williams, 2004, pp. 64-65)

Usually such experiments are small scale constructions. What we need is to apply them on large architectural projects which engage with further more important and relevant issues,

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thereby devising new ways and norms.(Roudavski, 2009, p. 351)In the digital realm conceptual processes can flourish, providing an extreme freedom for form-making at times. Direct translation of these forms is not always possible in the constructible world. The architects who choose digital media as their tools for design often face this dilemma of the role and place of materials in the design process. (Brams-Miller, 2005, pp. 1-2) Moreover these architects use design tools which incorporate neither the properties of material and environment, nor the fabrication restrictions. One solution to the fabrication issue is to incorporate the manufacturing parameters into the design process to facilitate the designto-production communication. The other bio-digital way is to use an evolutionary algorithm which leads to an efficient and optimized of tool trajectory thereby cutting the extra time and cost incurred and also discards the possible anomalies in the procedural machine language. Combining the two of them we derive a simulation-based algorithm procedure derived from the inherent logic of a fabrication machine's functionality. (Guzik, 2009, pp. 3-14)

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2.6 NATURES INFLUENCE: The guiding force

Everything comes from the great book of nature.(Craven, 2006) Gaudi was able to recognize the endless variety of structural forms in nature and deduced that there is great wisdom in studying natural structures that are subjected to gravity, look for final solutions, and have evolved maximum function over millions of years. He sought to gain knowledge of these structures and bring them into the architectural realm. (Martinelli, 1967, p. 134)

The parasitical construction industry of humans has contributed largely to the degradation of ecosystem by going far beyond its limits. (Modi, 2011, p. 1)Among all the priorities, like providing shelter, comfort and even pleasure, that architecture needs to take care of, the most important is to conserve material and reduce waste. Nature and its systems have an in-built carrying capacity, which can be used to keep the growth within limits, ignored and exceeded with the consequence of degrading the system or expanded through new technologies and methods of design or planning.(Royall, 2010, p. 3)

Nature has solved many of the mechanical, structural and energetic problems humans have encountered without generating residual, inactive waste. Where biological processes are continuously evolving to manipulate hydrogen, carbon and oxygen to accomplish their objectives, humans have cheaply contracted the unsustainable power of petrochemicals. (Alberti, 2002, p. 3)

Nature being the most efficient designer considers material very expensive and has a way to minimize its use. Nothing is wasted, which alone can be a reason to take its lead. (Leach, Turnbull, & Williams, 2004, p. 45)Efficiency, strength and general compactness of designs present in nature interests designers. The inspirational lowly creatures having a better way 22 | P a g e

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of doing things than considered to be highly evolved human race. The advancements achieved using high heat, high pressure and chemical treatments stand shamefully nowhere compared to their ways of manufacturing. (Alberti, 2002, pp. 1-2) Deeper understanding of lifes code and increasing ability to grow things of our choosing, bestowed upon us by the genetic are likely to affect the future of how we construct, leading to an evolved built environment.(Leach, Turnbull, & Williams, 2004, pp. 41-45) 12 Methods by Which Nature Can Inform the Development of Technology: 1. Self-Assembly The ability of an organism to direct its own process of development. 2. Chemistry in Water Nature produces all of its compounds in normal environmental conditions without a necessity for extreme temperatures or harsh chemicals. 3. Solar Transformations Many organisms respond actively to the sun to maximize their energy absorption. 4. The Power of Shape Nature uses many structurally efficient non-orthogonal forms with which to create its structures. 5. Materials as Systems Nature builds from small to large with a corresponding scaling of function in relation to the materials and components involved for particular functions. 6. Natural selection as an innovative engine Environmental forces that act on an organism and affect its fitness will direct the development of future organisms. 7. Material Recycling Create structures using materials that are non-toxic and can be fully recycled at the end of their life. 8. Ecosystems that Grow Food Systems created that have a net surplus of production without a corresponding drawdown of environmental resources. 9. Energy savvy movement and transport Locomotion and internal circulation systems have adapted to require a minimal investment of energy for their purpose.

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10. Resilience and Healing Living organisms have the ability to absorb and rebound from impacts and can repair themselves if damage is incurred. 11. Sensing and Responding A series of feedback systems within an organism allow it to sense a variety of environmental factors acting on it and to respond to these in a suitable manner. 12. Life creates conditions conducive to life The waste products and various byproducts of growth and sustenance create materials that are beneficial to the growth of other organisms. (Panchuk, 2006, pp. 8-9)

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2.7 BIO-DIGITAL: Biomimicry fused within parametric approach

Designers have applied biomimicry without even knowing it. (Royall, 2010, p. 5) The principle of biomimetics strives to learn how nature has learned and to not necessarily imitate but distill from nature the qualities and characteristics of natural form and systems that may be applicable to our interpretation of architecture. (Panchuk, 2006, p. 2) Biomimicry explores forms, shapes and connections.(Dollens, 2006, p. 146) What interests the architects are the behavioral traits which have been proven as more adaptive, more flexible and more successful in cultivating life than their professions practice in past. (Green, 2005, p. 4)Recognizing the fact that computers possess a potential of inheriting the logic of living things brings this approach within the technological realms. (Green, 2005, p. 4)Computer-simulated experiments and models open alternative perspectives onto so far unperceivable and incomprehensible realities such as atomic network, complex flow dynamics and unknown material structure (Rocker, 2002, p. 10)Imitating nature from biological precedents has led us to the discovery of new effects in even existing materials. Thus, this overarching driving force has led the contemporary digital architecture to efficient ways of form follows performance. Evolutionary forces maximize effect with minimum means, thereby harnessing the generative potential to maximum. (Klinger & Kolarevic, 2008, p. 10)

It reflects bottom-up self-regulation as a solution to complex adaptive systems. This leads to a pattern which doesnt freezes itself based on a single expression. It rather dynamically adapts based on interaction, information feedback loops, pattern recognition and indirect control. (Leach, Turnbull, & Williams, 2004, p. 72)Some software allow coding and computational to be viewed as matrices and relationship trees, thereby showcasing the actual

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evolution, unlike the ones which just direct the machines to cut, bend, and fold the physical shapes. The genetic history of the design can be traced, which can be an insight for further development of same or similar projects. (Klinger & Kolarevic, 2008, p. 30) Nature assembles with very simple instructions. In nature if we can build a type of cell, then building of the other cells requires really little information. This can be used as a model for 3D modeling, where large scale designs cant be resolved without computers of really high computing capacities.(Vogel, 1998, p. 27)Technologies now facilitate us to an extent that we can produce a three-dimensional object just by feeding a digital file into a machines computer. These advancements provide us with a never-before potential of mimicking, in form, natures complexities which were untouched by the traditional tectonics.(Dollens, 2006, p. 153) Xfrog-The software has the ability to produce forms based on botanic algorithms that impart to the digital, 3d design, the essence of a growing plant. Xfrogs growth parameters can also be experimented with manipulatedto grow new types of forms derived from biological algorithms applied to architectural geometries. Thus, biological growth that determines branching, leaf formation, flower orientation, etc., is, in a sense electronically hybridized, producing structures and/or mechanical systems that are digitally-grown for architecture with botanic properties.(Dollens, 2006, p. 147)

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Figure 1: STL eTree models. 2000-2003. Source: Dennis Dollens, Architect.

These four eTrees with equally proportioned trunks and branches were digitally simulated. Half of the branches were programmed to loop and intersect, thus reinforcing each of the four central trunks (detail, left), while the other branches were grown straight, intersecting at the corners of the building cage.

Figure 2: Digitally grown Tree-Truss, 14 7 7 inches (35 17 17 cm), 2008. Source: Dennis Dollens, Architect.

Stereolithography (STL) model of a trees branches, manipulated to grow and intersect themselves, creating self-supporting columns or trusses for experimental research. Natural forms and attributes are translated into software design files for rapid prototyping. Software: Xfrog and Rhino.

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2.8 NOT JUST THE SHAPE

As an emerging design specialization, biomimetics has many areas yet to explore. And, clearly there are various ways to study and understnd biomimetic approachesvisual, structural, mechanical, chemical, molecularall offer differing aspects and all part of the natural world. It seems to me that the least desirable outcome is for design to be fashioned to look like nature with conventional materials, methods, and attitudes. (Dollens, 2006, p. 148) Artists reproduce existing patterns in nature for an aesthetic effect. This is not Biomimicry, as the decorative nature of the work does not yield an energy-consuming product.(Royall, 2010, p. 2)But while Kelly envisions a future filled with mutating buildings and rooms stuffed with co-evolutionary furniture, Gehrys fish and Calatravas carcasses are indicative of an architectural avant-garde that largely fails to see beyond the traditional ana-logic of architecture, an association of buildings and natural phenomena where buildings are measuredby the body or formed and decorated after flora and fauna.(Green, 2005, p. 1)Using NURBS modeling to create forms resembling plants or animals is just like playing with shapes, leaving aside the innovations by biology, bio-engineering and their allied sciences altogether. (Aldersey Williams, 2004, p. 279)

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CHAPTER 3: CASE STUDIES

3.1 WATER CUBE, BEIJING, CHINA (THE NATIONAL AQUATICS CENTRE, 2008 OLYMPICS)

Figure 3: Ariel view animation. Source: http://asianlanka.wordpress.com/2008/07/28/water-cube-beijing/

Project Credits Architects: PTW Architects Client: Peoples Government of Beijing Municipality & Beijing State- Owned Assets Management Co. Ltd Partner: China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC)

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Measures 176m on each side; height of 31m; 6,000 permanent seats; had capacity for an additional 11,000 temporary seats for Olympic Games.

A variety of arrangements were considered from living cells to mineral crystals before implementing a structure resembling that of soap bubbles. It used the intersection of the bubbles and the exterior planes of the notional volume to generate a structure that gives entirely column-free interior spaces. The architects and engineers created this structure by generating an infinite array of digital foam and then subtracting from it the buildings volumes.

The geometry was developed by extensive scripting, using the Weaire and Phelan mathematics, with a further script required for a final analytical and geometrical correct3-D model.(Weinstock, 2006, p. 41)Scripting was also used to develop models for structural performance, analyze acoustics, smoke spread and pedestrian egress, and provide construction documentation in a fully automated 4D sequence.(Patrick X. W. Zou, 2010, p. 176)

Figure 4: After Construction. Source: nipic.com

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There is a total of 4000 bubbles in the Water Cube, the roof being made of only 7 variant types (of bubbles) and the walls of only 16 variations, which are repeated throughout.

Internal and external frames have 22,000 steel members connected at 12,000 nodes. The structural components are highly repetitive; there are three different nodes and four different members.

Over such a wide span of column-free space, the need to minimize the self-weightof the structure is paramount, as most of the structural workinvolves ensuring the roof can holditself up.(Weinstock, 2006, p. 41)

Figure 5: During Construction. Source: China Foto Press

Pillows made from ETFE (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene) film clad the entire exterior of the Water Cube whichis a fluorocarbon-based polymer. ETFE bubbles insulate and daylight the National Aquatics Centre. The materials nonstick qualities help highlyvisible and trafficked areas maintain clean surfaces.

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Externally, the building comprises of a steel space frame which is clad with over 100 000 square metres of lightweight transparent Teflon (ETFE) cushions. This makes it the largest ETFE-clad structure in the world now. (Wahab, 2006, p. 3)

Figure 6: Source: nipic.com

Figure 7: Inside of Water Cube. Source: Vector Foiltec.

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3.1.1 FINDINGS& ANALYSIS Water Cube is a resultant of architects creative abilities with automation imbibed in it. It demonstrates a successful implementation of a large-scale cellular structure in a project that is acclaimed for its visual impact as well as for its performance. The building is the result of integrating the technical requirements of all the relevant engineering disciplines, not the result of a single dominant one. The building harnesses the benefits of nature by combining the biomimicry of bubbles and the translation of theoretical physics into a bio-digital data guided by the fabrication process of a unique building. This big blue green building technically performs well in terms of heat, light, sound, structure and water. Function is not sacrificed in the name of art. Instead art is made from function which successfully performs.(Patrick X. W. Zou, 2010, p. 179) It also showcases the use of next generation high-tech materials for minimized energy consumption.
Figure 8: ETFE soars in vertical, light-filled spaces, like the Water Cubes lobby. Source: Vector Foiltec.

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After ETFE is heated up and extruded into a paper-thin film, it can be welded into large sheets that can themselves be used as building skin or can be woven together into cushions pumped with air. These sheets are transparent, like glass, but are one percent of the weight of glass, transmit more light than glass, and cost 24% to 70% less than glass to install. They are also chemically inert, so they dont degrade under UV rays. ETFE film is nonstick, so it keeps itself clean. It is recyclable. So, at the end of its useful lifethought to be at least 50, but possibly up to 200, yearsit can be melted down and reused. (Mccann, 2008, p. 17)

Use of ETFE also demanded for early collaboration in the project because with ETFE the usual design strategy of setting the structural grid and then identifying the cladding reverses itself. Here the grid is derived from the load analysis of the cladding, depending on the size of cushions.

The Water Cube project had no need for adaptability, but in other circumstances, the potential of its bubble-like structure to adapt to environmental conditions or other criteria can be beneficial. The cellular structures in nature are highly adaptable and, therefore, can suggest further development for their architectural counterparts.

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3.2 THE EMBRYOLOGICAL HOUSES (BY GREG LYNN)

Lynn describes the Embryological House as a strategy for the invention of domestic space that engages contemporary issues of variation, customisation and continuity, flexible manufacturing and assembly. A rigorous system of geometrical limits liberates an exfoliation of endless variations. (Rocker, 2006, p. 92)

Figure 9: Different prototypes of Embryological houses. Source: Greg Lynn, Architect.

Greg Lynns Embryological House (1997 2001) is a ground-breaking early work of digitally created theoretical architecture.The Embryological House is a seminal project within the history of mass customization.

Lynn developed the software program in about 1998 with his students at Columbia. It's a computer questionnaire where the criteria of a client like the area of the house, number of the bathrooms and bedrooms etc. are parameters. As the parameters get answered computer slowly and continuously evolves the form. Eventually, when the questionnaire is done, the form is calculated. (Xu, 2011, p. 2)

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Figure 10: Form being evolved with the parameters. Source: Greg Lynn, Architect.

So Lynn hasn't design any of the final forms. He designed the formula and a set of criteria. There is no ideal or original Embryologic Houses. Everyone is perfect in its mutations.

The minimum requirement for any site is a 30.5-metre (100-foot) diameter clear area of less than 30-degree slope for the house. Its surrounding gardens are designed by Jeff Kipnis. On Lynns website, people could make their own embryological house.

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Lynn first established the parameters for the Embryological House geometry (the primitive curves) using Microstation software. By experimenting with a series of twelve control points attached to this basic geometry he established prescribed limits, beyond which impractical designs would result. The resulting geometrical files were then imported to Maya, a software notable for its three-dimensional blending capabilities. Maya enabled Lynn to produce the kind of smoothly rendered surfaces that he admires in the automotive and aeronautic industries. (Xu, 2011, p. 5)

Figure 11: Working of 12 control point system. Source: Greg Lynn, Architect.

The system is built up with a sphere and 6 targets. Then each of the targets is blend with the sphere. There are 6 variants if the whole morph equals. As long as any one of them changes, the result would change. (Xu, 2011, p. 6)

Figure 12: morphology from sphere to the final form. Source: Greg Lynn, Architect.

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Historically, a modern house would be thought of as a kit-of-parts. Each part is distinct and discreet, and people customize the house through addition of parts from the kit. Lynns intention is to take a more biological approach, where there would be no discreet components. (Xu, 2011, p. 8)

Figure 13: Graphically comparing modern kit-of-house with Lynns biological approach. Source: Greg Lynn, Architect.

The structural concept of it comes from the auto and airplane industry. It's an integral shell and frame- a monocoque shell, which means that the structural members can be lighter and thinner and the shell, ties it all together, making it into a rigid skin. The Embryological House has a double skin. The first skin, which is the building enclosure, is built of aluminum and glass. The second skin, a shading skin, is a system of strips, almost like a Venetian blind, but in 3-D, wrapping around the contours of the house. (Xu, 2011, p. 8)

Figure 14 The double skin. Source: Greg Lynn, Architect.

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The landscape is intelligently managed by the embryologic morph. The site is constituted by the voltaics, skin, structure, columns and garden with blebs.

Figure 15: Exploded view of a typical type. Source: Greg Lynn, Architect.

Lynn conceived the building's fenestration system as a series of shredded and louvered openings that "respected the soft geometry of the curved envelopes". (Xu, 2011, p. 11)

Physical models for the Embryological House were produced using prototyping technology, l vacuum-formed models out of moulds, in order to test the designs compatibility with available manufacturing technology.
Figure 16: Fenestrations and their corresponding interiors. Source: Greg Lynn, Architect.

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3.2.1 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS In this experiment of Embryological Houses, Lynn has explored the possibilities to have individuality in a world of mass-production by switching to mass-customization along with a standardized series of parts, Thereby, a house can be assembled in whatever way one wants, thus creating the ability to create homes that are individual to their inhabitants, while still being made of parts that are available in a general arena. The Embryological House represents a new approach to fabrication and growth. Unlike before, now even a minor change in any component would be reflected in every other component within the system. The Embryological House is incorporated with calculus-based logics. This has leaded us into a whole new order of infinitesimal connectivities. Through this logic change in one coordinate point sends a ripple of change through the entire structure. The surface envelopes are also connected to the ground. So, any alteration in the object is automatically transmitted outward into the landscape. A homogenous mixture of both smooth and striated is achieved. It is not a search for an ideal house. All the houses in the collection are equivalent. This has opened gates to imagine the new capabilities of computer-aided design and computer-numerically-controlled (CNC) manufacturing to support this kind of design process. The role of the architect has been profoundly changed from master form maker. He has been projected as the controller of processes, who oversees the formation of architecture.

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The materiality of his models formed an important part of the creative process. For example, Lynn deliberately exposed the means of manufacture by allowing the computer-controlled tools to leave their marks on the models surfaces.

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3.2 SPIRAL PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE, FRENCH PYRENEES

Figure 17 Animated view of the bridge. Source: Dennis Dollens, Architect.

Designers: D. Dollens and Ignasi Prez Arnal Firm: A-plus, Barcelona Inspiration: Euplectella - a sponge that grows underwater around the Philippines and; flight pattern of a Tipiana tipu pod. In 2000, Dennis Dollens was invited by Ignasi Prez Arnal to teach with him in the newly created Genetic Architectures Program that Alberto T. Estvez had recently established at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya. Determined to define and then develop a future genetic architecture, Estvez encouraged their research into new digital visualization techniques and made it possible for them to become part of the first group of schools in Europe using rapid prototyping (usually found in industry) for directly fabricating architectural models from digital files and so, in a sense, directly fabricating visualizations.

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Shortly after, in 2004, Prez Arnal received a commission for a small pedestrianbridge in the French Pyrenees. He approached Dollens with the idea of applying to the proposed bridge the process of design-biomimetics and morphological research as they had been teaching it.

With a series of preliminary studies behind them, they decided that they could combine structural aspects of the sponge Euplectella and the spiral flight pattern created when a Tipiana tipu pod fell/flew to the ground, yielding a biologically based prototype. (Dollens, 2010, p. 112)

Euplectella is made up of microscopic silica spicules that have several different shapes. The variation of spicules can be documented as a kind of form lexicon and we incorporated those shapes for elements of our design along with its curves and lattice structure as information from the sponge. (Dollens, 2005, p. 15) It turned out that the spicules grown in a Euplectellas skeletal lattice are silica-based materials (purer than man-made fiber optics) whose individual elements, seen microscopically, could be re-visualized and scaled up as struts and deck supports for the bridge. (Dollens, 2010, p. 13)

Figure 18: Silica skeleton of the sponge, Euplectella. Source: http://www.uwlax.edu/biology/Zoo-Lab/Lab04/Hexactinellida.htm

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Figure 19: Euplectella spicules. Source: Towards Biomimetic architecture, Dennis Dollens, 2005.

Depending on wind and other environmental conditions, the Tipiana tipu pod spirals at different frequencies, and, as it comes down, helicopter-like, it describes information in the form of a spiral. The flight path of this seedpod is genetic-trace information determined by its DNA/RNA, which also determines aerodynamic seedpods shape. The end-weighted, single-blade wing makes the spiral aerodynamically possible, but ultimately plant genetics make the spiral. (Dollens, 2005, p. 16)

To visualize and understand the changing and shifting geometries of the variously different, intersecting, curving, and tapering spirals, they created study animations.

The bridge has a series of intersecting spirals for structural stability, and its rails and walkway provide further structural
Figure 20: Spiraling seedpod from a Tipuana tipu. Source: Towards Biomimetic architecture, Dennis Dollens, 2005.

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strength and rigidity, yet they are still related to the rectilinear lattice seen in the Euplectella.

Figure 21 Top: Animation sequences for the Bridge. Bottom: Rendering of the bridge on the site. Source: D. Dollens.

3.3.1 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

Research promoted in the design school laid the foundation for its conception. It prompted us to ask what kind of design, shape, from, and function is inherent in natural organisms and how can they be viewed biomimetically?

The design with a sort of spiraling truss forms a lightweight, environmentally sensitive bridge. Thereby, conveying the idea of a rope bridge, like those made in forests, jungles, and mountain passes, and receding into the landscape.

Its shinny metallic surface creates a kind of camouflage. The spirals reflect the colors of the trees, light, leaves, sky, and river so they will merge into the environment.

The animations used by the designers indicated that they were maintaining form and aesthetic relationships to their extracted trace-spirals from the wind-blown, flying leaf. It also gave them perspective for visualizing the spicule-like cross bars and spiral intersections, indicating that they would not be aesthetically off-key even with such a huge scaling-up of the microscopic spicule.

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The animations became their way of visualizing not only aesthetics, but also several pre-engineering processes determining the bridges relationship of parts, materials, and their scale, thereby integrating the multi-disciplinary professions.

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CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION
Architecture has lately adopted an approach in which separate isolated components come together to yield a sustainable building. But the sum total can be greater than the parts only if the systems are more homogenous with all the components interrelated more intricately. It is also now quite clear that the digital media can deal with innumerable and ever-increasing number of parameters simultaneously. So, a dialogue has emerged which is bridging the digital with the tectonics. Increasingly architects are using advanced modelers such as Rhino or Max to create whole building models. There is still a divide between those practicing environmental design and those experimenting with digital form-finding and generative designs. These two need to be brought together in a seamless practice by todays generation. The transformed role of the architect comes into play here as a collaborator with technology and digital media. He is the one who decides how inclusive the algorithm is. The form is not just a fancy skin, but as a storehouse encrypted with important information fed by the designer, reflecting the constraints. As we have already realized that there is no style or theory which can match natures standard in optimization and aesthetics. So bio-digital here stands for an attempt to pick up the biological principles from the palate of nature and using human intellect translating them into computer algorithms. These algorithms then synthesize architectural forms which are actually a metaphor of nature. Softwares like X-frog, which were designed with the biological logics for varied fields have almost solved the purpose with meager tweaking by using coding applications inbuilt in them. What we need next is more of such software specific for the purpose of architecture, with fabrication reality imbibed in them to bring them closer to practicality and budget involved in the construction business. All these progress has been leading towards a horizon, beyond which the natural and the manufactured will flow seamlessly among each other. With time these bio-digital building systems will turn semi-living beings guided by the computational intelligence. But all the fuss about the shape and the function of a structure are meaningless without rethinking the materials capacities. The more the knowledge of molecular nature, the more we are able to understand the complex interaction between form, material and structure in natural systems. This has eventually informed the industrial processes with extraction and reproduction of the rules of these systems, thereby generating high performance materials. Such cellular 47 | P a g e

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materials, especially metals and ceramics, offer an entirely new set of performance and material values. Designs coming out of the digital media have often been criticized a lot for their overpowering nature in the surrounding context. But the building systems imbibed with this bio-logic we are talking about automatically negate this criticism as deep down its functioning, order and aesthetics are based on the principles of the context around. One way of looking at these developments is to consider the similarities in the designing processes of architects and researchers using digital technology with a craft approach. Crafts are generally related with beauty and ornamentation, the two words which are considered to an extent as dirty in present day architectural scenario, highly influenced by modernism and minimalism. But we have always considered nature as beautiful. All its ornaments accentuate the design and are not just vestigial organs. So the bio-digital architecture will also have a similar approach towards ornamentation. When we enter the Indian context, the emphasis on process is not important just for the significance of design strategies. The economic factor and affordability of the process plays a significant role. Bio-digital strategies integrate form, structure and material into a single process, thereby reducing the data for manufacturing and even promoting multi-disciplinary partnerships. Imbibing the logic of fabrication is an integral part of it, as only that single process is being adopted from the nano-scale to right up to the design and construction of the complete building. Also with such a tremendous scope of the development of infrastructure in the country, the need is to take the most optimum and efficient path rather than just aping the west. Before bio-digital architecture can be publicly and professionally considered at such a large scale, there have to be examples or prototypes to consider, debate, and refine, so that residents and viewers can react to biologically designed living structures. Thereby achieving more responsive and safer buildings with long term benefits Although these bio-digital building systems are guided by sophisticated parametric tools, but they are not exactly the focus of the approach. The actual design agenda is to search for renewable building technologies, which can deal with dynamic cities and the consumerism globally. At such times any specific type of architecture cant really survive itself. Only the types which can be flexible enough to materialize the new visions of architecture by constantly reinforming and revitalizing itself with the merged media of environment and advanced visualization called bio-digital can stand the tests of time.

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The idea behind this research is to take design projects subjected to a biomimetic process and find an environmentally sound potential. Investigating these potentialities for design development by collaborating with scientists interested in materials will eventually lead to an efficiently optimum design and construction system, along with a new sense of aesthetic.

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MODI, A. N. (2011, september 4). biomimicry. Retrieved october 15, 2011, from scribd: http://www.scribd.com/doc/52663329/BIOMIMICRY Neil Leach, D. T. (2004). Digital Tectonics. Wiley Academy. Nonell, J. B. (2000). Antonio gaudi: Master architect, 1st edition. New York: NY: Abbeville Press. Panchuk, N. (2006). An Exploration into Biomimicry and its Application in Digital & Parametric [Architectural] Design. Waterloo: University of Waterloo. Patrick X. W. Zou, R. L.-C. (2010). Lessons Learned from Managing the Design of the Water Cube National Swimming Centre for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Architectural Engineering and Design Management, pp. 175-188. Pearson, D. (2001). New Organic Architecture: The Breaking Wave. University of California. Pearson, D. (2001). New Organic Architecture: The Breaking Wave. University of California Press. Reisin, Z. B. (2009, november). Technology Update_education. Retrieved september 15, 2011, from objet: http://www.objet.com/Portals/0/docs2/DM%20TechnologyUpdate_education.pdf Rocker, I. M. (2002, sepember/october). Versioning: Evolving Architectures - Dissolving Identities; Nothing is as Persistent as Change. Architectural Design, pp. 10-17. Rocker, I. M. (2006, august 10). Calculus-based form: an interview with Greg Lynn. Architectural Design, pp. 88-95. Rocker, I. M. (2010). Versioning: Architecture as series? Cambridge: Harvard University.

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Xu, L. (2011). Case Study: The Embryological House, Greg Lynn. EVDA.

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