REFERENCES:

1. L. Convey et. al. Virtual Architecture, Batsford, 1995.

2. William J Mitchell, City of bits: Space, Place and the Infobahn. MIT Press, Cambridge,
1995.

Question bank for

Mh7201 - contemporary processes in architecture 11

Part a = answer all questions = 10nos x 2 marks = 20 marks

1. What do you understand by the term ‘human geography’?

Human geography is the branch of the social sciences that deals with the world, its people and their communities,
cultures, economies and interaction with the environment by emphasizing their relations with and across space
and place.[1] as an intellectual discipline, geography is divided into the sub-fields of physical geography and human
geography (also known as cultural geography), the latter concentrating upon the study of human activities, by the
application of qualitative and quantitative research methods.

2. What do you understand by the term ‘trans architecture’?

Transarchitecture, a term coined by markos novak,[1]

Is the branch of architectural design that embraces and explores: the bridging between virtual and material spaces,
computerized and robotic manufacturing and construction techniques, interactivity and communication through media
technologies, and computer based conceptualization and modeling processes. -david nelson rose.[2]

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Computers must be seen as both tools by which to investigate these spatial modalities and instantiators of a new
species of architectonic space. Ideas are the invisible scaffolds upon which the real is constructed. The history of
architecture is a history of the increasing elaboration of invisible scaffolds. Transarchitecture, architecture beyond
architecure, is an architecture of invisible scaffolds.

Marcos novak describes himself as a "trans-architect," due to his work with computer-generated architectural designs,
conceived specifically for the virtual domain, that do not exist in the physical world. His immersive, three-dimensional

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creations are responsive to the viewer, transformable though user interaction. Exploring the potential of abstract and
mathematically conceived forms, novak has invented a set of conceptual tools for thinking about and constructing
territories in cyberspace.

A conventional form given new life with the addition of an organic infusion, meant to allude to the relationship of
nature and man, technology and biology, industry and mother nature. A soothing balance has been created to produce
a structure with equally high levels of intuitive functionality and awe-inspiring aesthetic.

3. What is ‘meta- design’?

Greek word “meta- “change of place, order, or nature” ..

The idea of deep thinking about design, implied by the prefix “meta-” has been commonly translated in the application
field as the “design of a design process.” In graphic design and industrial design, in particular, metadesign has been
primarily connected to the idea of working with computational structures on a higher level of design. Because a
computational object has a discrete structure, parts of the object can be easily accessed, modified, and substituted by
other parts; it is not fixed, and it can be generated and manipulated without “directly” designing its form. In this
context, metadesign can be associated with the passage from traditional typography to interface design .

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4. What is the ‘guggenheim virtual museum’?

Guggenheim virtual museum’ - will be an official branch of the solomon r. Guggenheim museum, like those in new
york, berlin, venice, italy, and bilbao, spain. This museum will exist only on the web, as a morphing three-dimensional
palace for digital art and architecture.

As part of a three-year initiative, the museum will house special exhibits of digital art, an archive of digital architecture,
and three-dimensional spaces linking guggenheim branches around the world. Asymptote, the museum's trendy new
york architecture firm, will also build a real-time component at the soho guggenheim branch as part of a new art and
technology center.

5. Explain about liquid architecture.

Fluidic / liquid architecture

• interior and exterior space change based on outer environment or human information data.

• multi-dimensional space that is naturally evolving.

• topologically, it is organically flexible

• transformation of rigid architecture into continuous and seamlessly integrated form,

Digital architecture is the fluidic architecture, in which its interior and surrounding space changes according to the
factors of outer environments or human information data. Liquidity can be illustrated as: an attempt to express the
process of metamorphosis of self-inducting space and forms for dynamically organic buildings; the concept of

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 multidimensional space which is naturally evolving; the space for topological change that applies the state of organic
flexibility, etc.

Zaha hadid architects – azerbaijan cultural centre, baku:

6. Outline the concept of the embryological house.

Greg lynn’s embryological house (1997 – 2001) is a ground-breaking early work of digitally created theoretical
architecture. The dynamic forms of the house comprise flowing and vector-based surfaces, sometimes referred to as
“blob” architecture, made possible through animation software. The cca holds over 100 physical models produced in a
variety of materials and the complete digital record of the design development and presentation of the embryological
house.
Through the embryological house lynn re-thinks the notion of the manufactured house, moving from the modernist
idea of a form based on modules to a form based on potentially unlimited iterations derived from a basic form, or
“primitive.” His goal is to design and manufacture houses that exhibit variety based on shared regulating principals – a
“mass customisation” to allow the mass production of individually unique products. Lynn expects the new capabilities
of computer-aided design and computer-numerically-controlled (cnc) manufacturing to support this kind of design
process.

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 7. The work of which two personalities inspired the working philosophy of neil m denari?

Denari did his master's degree in architecture from harvard university. While at harvard, he studied the philosophy of
science and also art theory with the expatriate austrian artist paul rotterdam, whom denari has cited as his most influential
teacher.

After graduate studies, denari worked for five months as an intern in paris for aerospatiale – now airbus – one of europe’s
largest aviation contractors. In his book - gyroscopic horizons -architect neil denari sets his sights on the gyroscopic horizon,
a term based on the altitude device found in most aircraft. Just as a plane’s gyroscope creates an artificial horizon line for
the pilot, denari often eliminates the physical earth as datum or locus of experience, turning to cultural, economic, and
graphic forces as points of departure for his work.

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Neil M. Denari Architects, No Mass House,

8. Outline any two features of the water pavilion by nox.

The concept of the water pavilion is based on the idea of creating a communicating architectural environment. It's an
environment where the building, light, projected images, water and sound form one complete experience. The behavior of
the environment is based on literal processes and metaphors about water. The fluid structure of the inside of the building is
a shell for a continuously flowing and transforming world of water realized both with real water and virtual environments.

All the sounds are electronically produced. The speakers are placed in such a way that you experience a sounding building
instead of sound in a building. There are 60 speakers distributed over the whole building. Each individual sound has its own
character of movement and speed over the speakers.

The building exists of two interconnected pavilions: the freshwater pavilion and the saltwater pavilion. Each pavilion has its
own sound environment. The sound environment of the freshwater pavilion is based on metaphors of a river, a water
source and a darker underwater space. The saltwater pavilion is inspired by virtual sounding sky, the water surface of the
sea and a hydra traversing these. It's presenting metaphors of different weather conditions.

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 9. Why is reiser+ ummemto’s practice called an ‘innovative laboratory;’?

Jesse reiser and nanako umemoto started their internationally recognized firm,reiser + umemoto, rur architecture, in new
york in 1986. They established their firm as “an innovative laboratory in which significant social, cultural and structural
ideas are synthesized into a tangible, dynamic architecture.” Reiser and umemoto, like greg lynn and foa , give flows a
central position in the conception of their projects. But what is significant about their use of flows is the way they play on
the deformation of existing typologies. Their work is more about flux than flows as such. They not only take flows as
movement, but as a process of

Slow deformation of buildings in time. This emphasis on transformations in time relates new architectures of flows in many
ways to the work of lynn, but they translate this interest in much more physical, and sometimes quite ornamental
structures, usually taking the infrastructural context of the city as a starting point. Reiser and umemoto’s concern in
complex and self-evolving structures responds to the idea of making space capable of integrating the “unforeseeable”. In
their projects, space is either yet to be formed according to the given functions of the building, or formed as indeterminate.

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 Kaohsiung port terminal - reiser + umemoto, rur architecture,

10. Discuss the difference between the real and virtual space in architecture

Movement versus non-psychical movement

For the purpose of this article, the author is using an idea of physical space that is close to the commonsense idea of space,
i.e. Space which our bodies move through. Virtual space in this sense is different because our bodies do not move through
it. Mitchell (1995) points out that “the net is fundamentally and profoundly antispatial... You do not go to it; you log in from
wherever you physically happen to be.” Mitchell claims that we can not really get hold of virtual space in the same sense we
can real space.

The “movement” in virtual/cyber space has a completely different meaning. “you get from place to

Place in cyberspace by following logical links rather than physical paths” (mitchell, 1995). However,

You are not physically moving, therefore you might be jumping from continent to continent while you are

Surfing on the net but actually, you are at your comfortable, warm, sheltered room somewhere in the

World. Accordingly, one can argue that without the comfort, warmth and shelter of a designed and

Physically constructed place – a real place – your chance to be able to move in the virtual space is almost

Impossible.

–experience versus digital experience

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Digital experience occurs in cyberspace. Cyberspace can be describes as a non-physical environment

Shaped by computer technology or an “infinite artificial world where humans navigate in information based

Space”. Cyberspace as gu and maher (2007) explain “distinguishes itself from other networked technologies by having place
characteristics”. Concisely, it can be said that virtual space is a place where some human activates can take place on digital
level rather than at the level of pure bodily experience.

guggenheim virtual museum

Part b =answer the following questions= 5 nos x 6 marks = 30 marks

11. A.explain about blob architecture with an example

Blobs or meta balls, as isomorphic surfaces are sometimes called, are amorphous objects constructed as composite
assemblages of mutually inflecting parametric objects with internal forces of mass and attraction. They exercise fields or
regions of influence, which could be additive (positive) or subtractive (negative).

The geometry is constructed by computing a surface at which the composite field has the same intensity – hence the name
– isomorphic surfaces.

The surface boundary of the whole (the isomorphic surface) shifts or moves as fields of influence vary in their location and
intensity. In that way, objects begin to operate in a dynamic rather than a static geography (lynn 1999).

"isomorphic polysurfaces" in the special effects and animation industry is referred to as "meta-clay," "meta-ball" or "blob"
models.

“ blob “– means binary large object

Blobs have a centre, a surface and a mass area that is relative to other objects, and internal forces due to mass attraction

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The weight of one spline surface can affect those of another spline surface. These resulting structures are called blobs for
their ability to mutually inflect one another and form composite assemblages.

Disconnected primitives used to compose an isomorphic polysurface

• sphere symmetries are the index of a low level of interaction.

• blob has an index of a high degree of information in the form of differentiation of components in time.

• sphere can be identified as a blob without influence (attractive force)

Example: bmw pavillion is exclusively based on the computational concepts of isomorphic surfaces. Architect - bernhard
franken - 1999
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Or

11.b . Outline any four characteristics of heroz de mueron’s architecture.

HdeM's Inspiration:
HdeM's commitment of articulation through materiality is a common thread through all their projects. Their formal
gestures have generally progressed from the purist simplicity of rectangular forms to more complex and dynamic
geometries. The architects often cite Joseph Beuys as an enduring artistic inspiration and collaborate with different artists
on each architectural project. Their success can be attributed to their skills in revealing unfamiliar or unknown relationships
through the use of innovative materials. Swiss architectural firm’s creative process and sources of inspiration are everyday
materials, popular culture, high fashion, natural landscapes and contemporary art. They present architecture as an
encounter that actively engages its audience.

HdeM's Philosophy:
HdeM's early works were minimalist pieces of modernity that registered on the same level as the minimalist art of Donald
Judd, which shows a definite change in attitude. To Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, architecture is an opportunity to
illuminate the fullness of the spaces in which we live and work, to create an ‘experience’ that appeals to all the senses.
Consistent with this breadth of vision, the Swiss firm creates pragmatic designs that solve problems through radically
inventive means. Their buildings can be seen as exchanges between tradition and innovation, minimal geometry and
elaborate ornament, movement and stability, natural and industrial materials. Their designs carry the philosophy of ‘organic
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architecture,’ which means the building is designed to fit its natural surroundings. Even the form of the building is designed
to develop from its environment and the building seems to grow out of its natural surroundings. Assimilating its form to the
environment and drawing inspiration from an artist work is what makes a spectacular design at the end.

Herzog & de Meuron's school of government and public policy at the University of Oxford, England

12. A. Illustrate how the practice of hani rashid and anne courte is multi disciplinary and collaborative.
Rashid and Couture's work is intriguing because it draws inspiration from a wide range of sources not traditionally
associated with architecture - among them the design of airline interiors, sporting equipment, and organic systems
like seashells and honeycombs; and various means of communicating and disseminating information. Their
projects are concerned as much with light, speed, and traversing virtual boundaries as with "real-world"
geometries and building systems.

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 Abu Dhabi's Yas Viceroy hotel

ABU DHABI // The first thing people notice about the Yas Viceroy hotel is the most difficult to describe: the grid of more
than 5,000 glass panels that drapes around the building.

During the day it reflects the sky. At night thousands of LED lights play brilliant colours across its surface.

Some people say the grid is modelled after a fishing net. Others say it's a veil. It could be the skin of a snake, the facets of a
gem or ripples on water.

The same could be said of the entire structure, positioned over the Yas Marina Circuit racetrack. Since the 499-room hotel
opened in time for the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2009, the design has gathered accolades from around the world.
At home it has become a landmark, the grid glowing so brightly that it is visible from the mainland.

The hotel's design was conceived after Abu Dhabi put out a call for proposals in 2007, said Hani Rashid, co-founder of
Asymptote Architecture, the New York firm behind the project.

Mr Rashid chuckled at the thought that the grid was inspired by a fishing net. In reality it was influenced by several
concepts, including the speed of Formula One racers.

"We were inspired by the movement of the Formula One car - its beauty, its poetry," Mr Rashid said.

The design team also searched for regional inspiration.

"The local things we looked at were the notion of billowing tents and local dress, and the idea that the building could act as
a kind of mirage on the desert."

They based the grid's geometry on traditional Islamic architecture.

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"We looked for a modern equivalent to the mathematics that produced some of the most beautiful architecture in history,"
Mr Rashid said. "That's what gave us both the shape of the grid shell on the building and also the quality of the diamond
cuts that are all different sizes across it, that are based on a mathematical algorithm.

The 85,000 square metre hotel is a major feature on the racetrack. Two oblong buildings form a "T," linked by a bridge over
the track that offers a close view for fans.

Or
12.b. Explain about the any one of the projects of neil m. Denari

HL23

The Highline 23 Tower for example is mechanical machine and body of bones and skin with bulging muscle, plugged-in, and
almost ready to roll down the tracks. One feels that if it could, it would.

HL23 is a 14 floor condominium tower in New York's West Chelsea Arts district. Partially impacted by a spur from the
elevated tracks that make up the High Line superstructure, the site is 40' x 99' at the ground floor.

For the site, a supple geometry must be found to allow a larger building to stand in very close proximity to the elevated
park of the High Line. Together, the demands produced a building with one unit per floor and three distinct yet coherent
facades

Residents will enter the building through a lobby on West 23rd Street, in the shadow of the High Line’s muscular beams.

From the lobby space, designed as a transition from the street and the building’s expressive exterior, they will ascend to
the residences.

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 The client, the question was how to expand the possible built floor area of a restricted zoning envelope

the site, a supple geometry must be found to allow a larger building to stand in very close proximity to the elevated park
of the High Line

Consisting of one condominium per floor, the main living areas and views are oriented toward the south, while the east
facade facing the high line is formed as a sculptural surface with smaller windows allowing privacy and framed views across
Manhattan

A custom, spandrel-free curtain wall of glass and stainless steel mega-panels hang on a complex, cantilevered steel frame,
generating expression within systematic economy.

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 Since the building sits in the middle of the Chelsea Arts District, it attempts to deliver a commercially viable, highly crafted
object that can take its place among the art shown in the nearby galleries.

The Highline 23 tower morphed from rational frame to abstract tree to human – from the norm to exception.

As it rose, the building bent one way out over the Highline tracks and park

Denari has build a vertical trestle, a vertical crossroads between street on groub, tracks on trestle. and a vertical zig-zag
bridgingas its own dynamic XYZ intersection.

It is both an adventuresome work of structural engineering as well a work of architecture and rip of a charged urban
intersection – thus get a pinched, squeezed, crunched, and ripped totemic tower

Denari taut metallic skin stretched over and between frame expresses the shrill of engineering forms exuded by pressure,
the forces of mathematics calculating a quiet strength of what appears in the end as a flattened steel frame, and dynamical
physics of human anatomical operations pressing, bulging emphatically outwards showing power via firm, bio-mechanical
inner volume.

A connective field of waves of universal energy… Is Highline 23 the morphic locomotive of the tracks

13. A.explain about any one works of nox architect

SUPERMAKER DOCK MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM-CONCEPT

CEDRIC PRICE -FUN PALACE

The design o f DOCK is in the spirit of Cedric Price’s Fun Palace where the content of the building equals the construction of
it:

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Building=Making. In Supermaker the process of design and production areas important as the final product. Products are
never understood as pristine and perfect, but somewhere between a process of becoming and instate of needed repair.

The DOCK consists of a 600 sqm., green house with multiple pods attached to it. Each of these pods contains a programme
that can be transformed by connecting it to other pods or by changing the connection to the main DOCK.

•The central glass house is surrounded by expressive ‘pods’ that have wheels and can be moved with a small tractor.

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•Their use can be adapted through connecting them to each other or connecting them to the central building element in a
different way.

•Thus,a studio can be ,a kitchen in to a shop, and so on.Further more,new pods can be added. We consider this to be the
perfect translation of co-creation and growth in to the language of architecture

Or

13.b .write a short note on the ‘blur building’

The Blur Building is a media pavilion for Swiss EXPO 2002 at the base of Lake Neuchatel in Yverdon-les-Bains,
Switzerland.

From piles in the water, a tensegrity system of rectilinear struts and diagonal rods cantilevers out over the lake. Ramps and
walkways weave through the tensegrity system, some of them providing a counterweight for the structure. The form is
based on the work of Buckminster Fuller.

The pavilion is made of filtered lake water shot as a fine mist through 13,000 fog nozzles creating an artificial cloud that
measures 300 feet wide by 200 feet deep by 65 feet high. A built-in weather station controls fog output in response to
shifting climatic conditions such as temperature, humidity, wind direction, and wind speed

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The public can approach Blur via a ramped bridge. The 400 foot long ramp deposits visitors at the center of the fog mass
onto a large open-air platform where movement is unregulated. Visual and acoustical references are erased along the
journey toward the fog leaving only an optical "white-out" and the "white-noise" of pulsing water nozzles.

Prior to entering the cloud, each visitor responds to a questionnaire/character profile and receives a "braincoat" (smart
raincoat). The coat is used as protection from the wet environment and storage of the personality data for communication
with the cloud's computer network. Using tracking and location technologies, each visitor's position can be identified and
their character profiles compared to any other visitor. In the Glass Box, a space surrounded by glass on six sides, visitors
experience a "sense of physical suspension only heightened by an occasional opening in the fog." As visitors pass one
another, their coats compare profiles and change color indicating the degree of attraction or repulsion, much like an
involuntary blush - red for affinity, green for antipathy. The system allows interaction among 400 visitors at any time.
Visitors can climb another level to the Angel Bar at the summit. The final ascent resembles the sensation of flight as one
pierces through the cloud layer to the open sky. Here, visitors relax, take in the view, and choose from a large selection of
commercial waters, municipal waters from world capitals, and glacial waters. At night, the fog will function as a dynamic
and thick video screen.

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 14. A. Explain about any one of the works of DOMINIQUE PERRAULT
Architects:Dominique Perrault Architecture
Location: Vienna, Austria
Project Year:2014
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From the start the project offered a site with incredible potential: an open terrain, facing Imperial Vienna,
embedded in the geography of the Danube, lying on a plateau on the river’s eastern bank, like a bridgehead to two
Viennas. But the site was not virgin territory as several previous projects had been conceived for it. So there was a
conceptual “already there”, a thoroughly fascinating virtuality.
Very early on, what kindled viewers interest most in this site was the bridgehead with the rest of the Donau City
district, with the river banks but also the conditions for breathing life into a public space on an esplanade. We took
advantage of this commission to design a genuine entry gate to Donau City.

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The visual qualities of the folded façade create a new way to read the skyline of Donau City, its undulations
signaling the entry point of this new polarity. The folds contrast with the no-nonsense rigor of the other three
façades, creating a tension that electrifies the public space at the tower’s base.
The façade’s folds give the tower a liquid, immaterial character, a malleability constantly adapting to the light, a
reflection or an event. For interior spaces, on the other hand, with Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost, the associate designer,
we have tried to make the building very physical and present. The structure is not hidden, does not evade the eye.
The exposed concrete framework is touchable. Stone and metal used in lobbies and circulations contribute to the
tower’s generous and reassuring physicality.

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Or

14.b. Explain about any one of the works of greg lynn

greg lynn: korean presbyterian church, new York

the ‘korean presbyterian church’ located in queens, new york by californian-based architect greg lynn is a 1500
capacity sanctuary situated on the roof of a renovated laundry factory. the undulating skin is an addition
constructed out of wooden planks braced in a steel frame inviting the visitors of the congregation. the layering of
the sections allow an openness to the facade creating framed sight lines into the community. the interior space
features a canopy structure mimicking the exterior which produces an open air-like environment leading the
visitors eye to the central preaching area. the inner flaps are back lit to generate an intimate ambiance to the
sermon.
Founded in 1970, the Presbyterian Church of New York has a rapidly growing congregation whose members are
mostly of Korean descent. In addition to the religious services held in the sanctuary, the new building's largest
space, the church functions as a social and educational center for the Korean community. The new building, which
cost $10 million, contains 80 classrooms, a banquet hall-cafeteria with seating for 1,000, a wedding chapel, day
care center, library and medical clinic. As an expression of faith, parishioners fasted one day each week while their
church was in construction.

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This massive church is located in a strange area between the suburban, automobile landscape of Northern Boulevard and
the planned community of Sunnyside Gardens. The LIRR passes alongside the church and 37th Avenue, adding to the feeling
that the church doesn't really belong to any place, any neighborhood.

The plan is basically split into three areas: a large congregation space fronted by the large wall of translucent panels and the
church's entry, the art-deco front on 37th Avenue now containing classrooms and other small spaces , and a series of metal-
clad shells concealing the exit stairs required for the large, 2,500-seat sanctuary. All is surrounded by acres of parking, some
at the level of the entry, some one-story below grade on the building's north side.

It's the building's north side and its series of angular, metal scallops that gives the church its most striking feature, even
though this facade is the most removed from the entry, the road, and the railway. It's also ironic that so much effort was
expended on a feature that's rarely used, as these pieces cover the exit stairs from the sanctuary. But perhaps that's the
point; that the design needed some sort of POW or hidden surprise that couldn't find its way into the art deco piece or the
main sanctuary.

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 15. A.give one example for liquid architecture

ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS – AZERBAIJAN CULTURAL CENTRE, BAKU:

As part of the former Soviet Union, the urbanism and architecture of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan on the Western coast
of the Caspian Sea, was heavily influenced by the planning of that era. Since its independence in 1991, Azerbaijan has
invested heavily in modernising and developing Baku’s infrastructure and architecture, departing from its legacy of
normative Soviet Modernism. Zaha Hadid Architects was appointed as design architects of the Heydar Aliyev Center
following a competition in 2007. The Center, designed to become the primary building for the nation’s cultural programs,

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breaks from the rigid and often monumental Soviet architecture that is so prevalent in Baku, aspiring instead to express the
sensibilities of Azeri culture and the optimism of a nation that looks to the future.

Design concept

The design of the Heydar Aliyev Center establishes a continuous, fluid relationship between its surrounding plaza and the
building’s interior. The plaza, as the ground surface; accessible to all as part of Baku’s urban fabric, rises to envelop an
equally
public interior space and define a sequence of event spaces dedicated to the collective celebration of contemporary and
traditional Azeri culture. Elaborate formations such as undulations, bifurcations, folds, and inflections modify this plaza
surface into an architectural landscape that performs a multitude of functions: welcoming, embracing, and directing visitors
through different levels of the interior. With this gesture, the building blurs the conventional differentiation between
architectural object and urban landscape, building envelope and urban plaza, figure and ground, interior and exterior.

Fluidity in architecture is not new to this region. In historical Islamic architecture, rows, grids, or sequences of columns flow
to infinity like trees in a forest, establishing non-hierarchical space. Continuous calligraphic and ornamental patterns flow
from carpets to walls, walls to ceilings, ceilings to domes, establishing seamless relationships and blurring distinctions
between architectural elements and the ground they inhabit. Our intention was to relate to that historical understanding of
architecture, not through the use of mimicry or a limiting adherence to the iconography of the past, but rather by
developing a firmly contemporary interpretation, reflecting a more nuanced understanding. Responding to the topographic
sheer drop that formerly split the site in two, the project introduces a precisely terraced landscape that establishes
alternative connections and routes between public plaza, building, and underground parking. This solution avoids additional
excavation and landfill, and successfully converts an initial disadvantage of the site into a key design feature.

Geometry, structure, materiality

One of the most critical yet challenging elements of the project was the architectural development of the building’s skin.
Our ambition to achieve a surface so continuous that it appears homogenous, required a broad range of different functions,
construction logics and technical systems had to be brought together and integrated into the building’s envelope. Advanced
computing allowed for the continuous control and communication of these complexities among the numerous project
participants.

The Heydar Aliyev Center principally consists of two collaborating systems: a concrete structure combined with a space
frame system. In order to achieve large-scale column-free spaces that allow the visitor to experience the fluidity of the
interior, vertical structural elements are absorbed by the envelope and curtain wall system. The particular surface geometry
fosters unconventional structural solutions, such as the introduction of curved ‘boot columns’ to achieve the inverse peel of
the surface from the ground to the West of the building, and the ‘dovetail’ tapering of the cantilever beams that support
the building envelope to the East of the site.

The space frame system enabled the construction of a free-form structure and saved significant time throughout the
construction process, while the substructure was developed to incorporate a flexible relationship between the rigid grid of
the space frame and the free-formed exterior cladding seams. These seams were derived from a process of rationalizing the
complex geometry, usage, and aesthetics of the project. Glass Fibre Reinforced Concrete (GFRC) and Glass Fibre Reinforced
Polyester (GFRP) were chosen as ideal cladding materials, as they allow for the powerful plasticity of the building’s design
while responding to very different functional demands related to a variety of situations: plaza, transitional zones and
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envelope.

In this architectural composition, if the surface is the music, then the seams between the panels are the rhythm. Numerous
studies were carried out on the surface geometry to rationalize the panels while maintaining continuity throughout the
building and landscape. The seams promote a greater understanding of the project’s scale. They emphasize the continual
transformation and implied motion of its fluid geometry, offering a pragmatic solution to practical construction issues such
as manufacturing, handling, transportation and assembly; and answering technical concerns such as accommodating
movement due to deflection, external loads, temperature change, seismic activity and wind loading.

To emphasize the continuous relationship between the building’s exterior and interior, the lighting of the Heydar Aliyev
Center has been very carefully considered. The lighting design strategy differentiates the day and night reading of the
building. During the day, the building’s volume reflects light, constantly altering the Center’s appearance according to the
time of day and viewing perspective. The use of semi-reflective glass gives tantalizing glimpses within, arousing curiosity
without revealing the fluid trajectory of spaces inside. At night, this character is gradually transformed by means of lighting
that washes from the interior onto the exterior surfaces, unfolding the formal composition to reveal its content and
maintaining the fluidity between interior and exterior.

As with all of our work, the Heydar Aliyev Center’s design evolved from our investigations and research of the site’s
topography and the Center’s role within its broader cultural landscape. By employing these articulate relationships, the
design is embedded within this context; unfolding the future cultural possibilities for the nation.

Or

15.b. Explain how media plays a role in architecture

Media architecture has been promised to facilitate new patterns of use and socialization, by forming a relatively novel
medium for interaction in public spaces and the urban environment.

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The potential change of context over time, in terms of carrier, content, and environment; resulting in the question how
media architecture can adequately respond.

Media architecture is therefore often seen as a catalyst that positively influences the frequency and quality of social
activities in public space. In order to address specific issues in the practice of media
architecture, we argue that its contextual integration should be investigated from three different perspectives.. that what is
in front of, on and behind the public display device or, respectively,
1) the environment in which the media architecture is implemented,
2) the actual content that is being communicated, and
3) the carrier that supports the display medium.

The environment is the immediate vicinity, comprising of the physical reality (e.g. buildings and materiality) as well as the
people and their activities. Notably, this concept also uses less tangible parameters that describe the setting’s actual
condition, such as the socio-demographics, culture and overall atmosphere.

The content stands for the information that is shown, and includes any interpretation that might be generated from it. This
concept consists of both the messenger (the technical means that are required to broadcast the information in the public
realm: e.g. LED lights), and the message (the literal, visual representation and its implied meaning or interpretation).

The carrier includes those elements (e.g. a building, a square, a facade or ornament) that fulfill a supporting role in
sustaining the broadcast medium, be it for structural, functional, or aesthetic
reasons.

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Through the societal perception of its presence, a carrier has the potential to expand the expressiveness or even steer the
interpretation of the content it displays.

Figure 1. The potential change of context over time, in terms of carrier, content, and environment; resulting in the question
how media architecture can adequately respond.
Although the three contextual characteristics are closely intertwined, we claim that each plays an independent role in
understanding the context that surrounds a particular media
architecture installation. For instance, the same content (e.g. the number of passing bicycles) conveyed in the same
environment (e.g. city neighborhood), may be interpreted differently for a
different carrier (e.g. facade of an environmental organization’s headquarters vs. that of a hospital). Similarly, showing
identical content (e.g. luxury product advertising) on an identical carrier
(e.g. bus stop) will result in a different understanding for a different environment (e.g. situated in a shopping quarter vs. an
impoverished neighborhood).

In addition, many transformations of the urban environment over time are likely to impact the context of a media
architecture installation. For instance, an architectural adjustment of the carrier (e.g. providing more voids in a facade,
affecting the mounting possibilities for display devices) is likely to result in modified contents (e.g. displaying several
separate commercials instead of one large-scale advertisement). Likewise, a future change in displayed contents (e.g.
commercial content instead of relevant public messages) may result in altered perception towards the display’s carrier (e.g.
disinterest from nearby residents towards the building’s owners). This hints at media architecture’s intrinsic
dynamism, unlike the predominantly static nature of architecture

Part c =answer any 5= 5 nos x 10 marks = 50 marks

16. Explain any one work of diller scofidio with sketches

Blur, Swiss Expo, Lake Neuchâtel (2002) or

Eye beam museum of art and technology – museum, new York – 2004

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•The structure will be approximately 90,000 square feet, rising from a 15,000 square-foot site.
•The spatial logic of the proposed building is based on a simple premise: a pliable ribbon that locates production (atelier) to
one side and presentation (museum/theater) to the other.
•This ribbon undulates from side to side as it climbs vertically from the street.

•The Eyebeam facility in Chelsea will be the city's first institution dedicated exclusively to new media art and the largest
institution of its kind in the United States.
•Housing an exhibition space, artist-in-residence studios, an education center with multi-media classrooms, a state-of-the
art new media theater, a digital archive, a restaurant, and a bookstore. It will be dedicated to exploring - through the
vehicle of new technologies - the connection between science and art.

The floor becomes wall, turns into floor, turns into wall, etc.
•With each change of direction, the ribbon enfolds a production space or a presentation space, alternately.
•The combing of programs also combs together two diverse populations: the building's residents (students, artists, and
staff) and the building's visitors (museum and theatergoers).
•The alternating programs require each population to pass through the space of the other while moving between
successive levels.

•The adjacency of a brightly lit atelier space of experimentation and the theatrical ambience of a multi-media installation
may raise the question, which is the spectacle? Residents and visitors will observe one another as they move fluidly through
the building sometimes on parallel paths separated by a transparent prophylactic, sometimes crossing paths, sometimes
merging paths and sharing programs.
•The ribbon is two-ply with a technical space sandwiched between layers that houses the building's "nervous" system.

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•The smooth concrete ply facing the exhibition space has a real pattern of precast service jacks. The ply of modularized
panels facing the atelier permits easy access to the interstitial space for rewiring and servicing of exhibition needs at
specific locations below or above
•The interlaced production and the presentation programs each have distinct physical attributes: while the production
spaces require an even distribution of natural light and artificial light for day/night work, the exhibition spaces require a
high degree of light control and sound isolation.
 Between the structural "ribbons" is mechanical space (above) for support systems
•The relationships become more intricate when a loop of ribbon at one level is sheared in half and slipped into alignment
with a level above or below.
•The new alignment allows a production space to infiltrate a presentation level or vice versa.
• This controlled contamination juxtaposes technical processes with their effects, people at work with people at leisure, the
prosaic with the poetic

•The architects’ proposal for this building was that a museum dedicated to new media should not only present work, but
also produce that work.
•Furthermore, the relationship between production and presentation was constantly changing: interlaced, compared, and
contrasted throughout the building both a continuity of materials and a weaving of activity

17. Illustrate how decoi uses subtle digital form + sustainable timber + cnc millingin his project one main street.

One main street (Subtle Digital Form + Sustainable Timber + CNC Milling)
An office refurbishment that relentlessly deploys numeric command machining of sustainable plywood to evidence the
versatility and efficiency available via CAD-CAM design- build processes.
The project displaces the combinatorial logic of ready-made components typical of late-industrial process for a seamless
and non-standard protocol of customized fabrication.

A formal aesthetic emerges from these processes, imbuing the design with a curvilinear continuity at a detail and spatial
level.

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Ceiling Skin -Inflection and draft angle analysis Ceiling
MATERIAL
Using a sustainable and carbon-absorbing raw material, translated efficiently into refined and functional elements via
dexterous low-energy digital tooling.
The project essentially comprises two planes–Floor , Ceiling
Articulated as continuous surfaces inflected by function.
The curvi linearity expresses both the digital genesis and the seamless fabrication logic,.

Unitary Fabrication Logic

All visible elements of the design, except the glass,have been fabricated as stacked sectional elements cut from flat
plywood sheets by a single 3-axis numeric command milling machine.
The ceilings, walls, floors and static furniture have all been made asstriated plylaminated elements,with functional elements
such as ventilation grilles, light pockets, and door handles formed directly by milling the mass of wood. The surfaces of the
project deform to perform technically ,in the floor used to capture the glass,or the ventilation grilles that warp to the
curvature of the ceiling.
These functiona lattributes were developed as‗parametrically‘variable elements,applied so astolocally adapt to the base
surface conditions‗automatically‘(they self-generate to suit their host site).
Where the glass wall is longer, so the structural fold of the floor heightens to augment its grip,the entire series of bumps
then varied by asecond-order constraint.
Where airflow is increased locally,the vents elongate to baffle the flow proportionally,flaring the ribs of the ceiling wider.

Scripting / Machining Protocols

As architects, we handed over actual milling files for fabrication, Already nested on to plywood sheets to minimize waste,
which were the actual cutting instructions then issued digitally to the numeric command machine.

These highly abstract machine instructions displaced the usual representative precepts of architectural production, but in
fact we developed a machinic ghost of the final form, never modeling an accurate original! Well over one million linear feet
of cut we reissued, a shift in the base protocol of contracting logic, the architect now fully in control of every detail via
fabrication code.
Machine-age manufacturing logic shifts to digital fabrication processes.

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 18. What do you understand by ‘phylogenesis ’? How does foa use this binomial nomenclature to signify where
their structures fall into the map of evolutionary structure?
- phylogenesis means = the development or evolution of a particular group of organisms.
the evolutionary history of a group of organisms, especially as depicted in a family tree.
- The architectural competition for the terminal was famously intense, and winning it required the then-wife-and-husband
team of Farshid Moussavi and Alejandro Zaera-Polo to rethink the established template of terminal design. Located on an
important waterfront site in Japan’s second most populous city, the high-profile commission attracted 660 entries from
around the world, the country's largest international competition to date. [1] The enormous, 430 meter-long project took
eight years and a budget of £150 million to complete, and required FOA to temporarily relocate their studios

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 to Yokohama to supervise construction. The public opening of the terminal occurred in 2002, serendipitously coinciding
with the final game of the World Cup being held only a few miles from the shoreline.
- The striking appearance of the terminal was made possible only by tremendous advances in computer-aided design. It was
conceived primarily in section, with an incredibly complex series of surfaces that gently curve and fold into a navigable,
inhabitable architectural topography. Atop the observation deck, the material fabric of the floor rises and falls in wave-like
oscillations to create pathways and apertures into the vast, enclosed spaces below. These changes in elevation—sometimes
subtle, sometimes sharp—were the essence of the novel architectural language invented for the project.
- The building is organized in three vertical levels. Atop a first-floor parking garage, a spacious middle floor contains the
terminal’s administrative and operational areas, including ticketing, customs, immigration, restaurants, shopping, and
waiting areas. The steel beams that span the ceiling add a weighty feeling to the space that contrasts sharply with the feel
of the observation deck, which has the sensation of being made of a light, flexible, and easily malleable plane. Connecting
the three levels are a series of gently sloping ramps, which the architects decided were more effective than stairs at
maintaining a continuous and multi-dimensional flow of circulation.
- A unique structural system made of folded steel plates and concrete girders supports the building. The strength of the
materials minimizes the need for vertical supports and allows for a mostly open floor plan, while the height of the structure
allows for a spectacular variety of ceiling conditions in the interior spaces. According to the architects, the structural
scheme is especially adept at coping with the lateral forces of seismic movements, a necessary precondition of buildings of
its size in Japan. [2]
- Throughout the project, a deliberate dynamism pervades the tectonic and material languages of the building. The
abundance of non-orthogonal walls, floors, and ceilings creates a controlled sense of vertigo that is accentuated by similarly
off-kilter fixtures and details. The effect is magnified by material cues, such as the shifting grains of the wooden planks on
the observation deck that indicate the locations of creases, and the minimalist grey metal paneling that is revealingly worn
by the structures under it.
- While the contours of the building occasionally betray an element of randomness, they are in fact generated by a single
circulation scheme that dictates spatial organization. The circulation operates as a continuous looped diagram, directly
rejecting any notion of linearity and directionality. Visitors are taken through paths that meander vertically and horizontally
before arriving at any destination, and their sight lines through space are comparably tortuous and indirect. For all of the
chaotic complexity of the materials and formal gestures, the simplicity of this diagram offers a sense of clarity and reveals
the process from which the building emerged.
- The greatest conceptual strength of the project is perhaps its sensitive relationship with the urban waterfront. With the
observation deck doubling as a fully accessible public plaza, the terminal seamlessly emerges from the neighboring
Yamashita and Akaranega Parks to make one uninterrupted, universally accessible urban parkscape. Its height is calculated
to achieve continuity with the shore and to ensure that inland views of the waterfront remain unobstructed.

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-
-
19. Greg lynn’s work pushes for the un attempted’. Substantiate this statement and highlight with-one projects that
are best illustrative of this statement.

20. ‘the projects of un studio propose significant architecture as a merger of audacious forms and conceptual
precision.. Substantiate and highlight with any one examples best illustrative of this statement.
-
- Established by architect Ben van Berkel (b. 1957) and art historian/architect Caroline Bos (b. 1959) in 1988 as Van Berkel &
Bos Architects, the office was reorganized and renamed in 1998 as UNStudio, an abbreviation of United Network Studio.
UNStudioat work is a guaranty for significant architecture as a merger of audacious forms and conceptual precision. The
office is a weighty contributor to the global success of Dutch architecture since the late 1980s. With an emphasis on
architecture as a discipline requiring thoughtfulness, UNStudiois led by research and material innovation to remarkable
results whether their engaged in the design of buildings, furniture, exhibitions, infrastructure, or urban plans.
- UNStudio's architecture strives for congenial intersections between spatial configuration and functional
programs:
- It has allowed the office to propose topologically folded buildings in which spaces infiltrate, in helix shapes or
Möbius strips. This also results in the creation of new architectural typologies: Their Mercedes-Benz
Museumin Stuttgart redefines the concept of the exhibition building since simultaneously providing the
options of controlled and self-organized touring.

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-
- Sometimes through Sharp contrasting and twisted geometry.

- Their buildings feature modulations between dynamic movement and solid tranquillity. Such interchange is
emphasized by phenomenal ambiguity created by contrasting the spatially clearly defined, the boxy and
massive, with form-dissolving qualities such as light and colour.

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-
- by mediation and subtle morphing

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 -
- ASP-Architectural Sustainability Platform.
- IOP–Innovative organizations Platform.
- IMP–Intensive Material Platform.
- SPP–Smart Parameter Platform.

- UNStudio's designs reflect a strong belief that architecture should endorse human interaction on multifarious
levels. Configuring the flows of movement through their buildings or urban schemes is based on movement
research and way-finding studies, which support intuitive user orientation and communication. Hybridityis a
keyword in UNStudio's design philosophy, as expressed by van Berkel and Bos by pointing to the conceptual
figure of the manimal -the merger of man and animal, the logical and the sensuous.
VILLA MN

•This project is a family summerhouse situated in a hilly and woody area, two hours drive from NYC.
•The house is situated on a plot of 7,000 m2 with a 360º view of the forests and meadows.
•The sloping site is used as device for the programmatic and volumetric organization of the house.
Blob-Box Model plus the mobius strip.

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 A single box-like volume bifurcates into two separate volumes; one seamlessly
following the northern slope; the other lifted above the hill creating a covered parking and generating a split-level internal
organization. The kitchen and dining area on the ground floor are connected by a ramp to the living space above, the 1.5
meter (5 feet) height change allowing for a tremendous view over the valley. A similar ramp connects the living area to the
master and the children’s bedrooms on the second floor.
Rooms that require a higher level of privacy are partly closed of to the exterior. All other rooms are provided with large
glassed windows.

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 -

The volumetric transition is generated by a set of five parallel walls that rotate along a horizontal axis from vertical to
horizontal.
Standardizing and pre-fabricating of this structural element lowered the building costs without reducing the spatial quality
of the interior. The interior space also takes advantage of the split-level organization.
The walls become floor and vice versa. The ruled surface maintaining this transition is repeated five times in the building.

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The materialization of the design is a combination of concrete and glass with a light metal construction.
Technically speaking, the twist consists of fivetwistedsurfaces. The stairs from the ground floor to the mezzanine look like a
hollow road -the two walls twist towards each other. The stairs from the mezzanine to the first floor, on the other hand, are
diagonal with a wall twisting to create a floor on the one side and a ceiling twisting to become a wall on the other.

21. Norman foster’s work shows an uncompromising exploration of technological innovations and sensitivity to
environment’. Substantiate and illustrate with examples from his practice.

The Hearst Tower is a building with the addresses of 300 West 57th Street and 959 Eighth Avenue,[2] near Columbus Circle,
inMidtown Manhattan, New York City

Hearst Tower is the first "green" high-rise office building completed in New York City, with a number
of environmental considerations built into the plan. The floor of the atrium is paved with heat
conductive limestone. Polyethylene tubing is embedded under the floor and filled with circulating water for cooling in the
summer and heating in the winter. Rain collected on the roof is stored in a tank in the basement for use in the cooling
system, to irrigate plants and for the water sculpture in the main lobby. 85% of the building's structural steel contains
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recycled material. Overall, the building has been designed to use 26% less energy than the minimum requirements for the
city of New York, and earned a gold designation from the United States Green Building Council’s LEEDcertification program,
becoming New York City's first LEED Gold skyscraper.

The atrium features escalators which run through a 3-story water sculpture titled Icefall, a wide waterfall built with
thousands of glass panels, which cools and humidifies the lobby air. The water element is complemented by a 70-foot-tall
(21 m) fresco painting titledRiverlines by artist Richard Long.

Exterior honeycomb of steel keeping the interior work areas uncluttered by pillars & walls

Radically angled panels of glass that make Hearst Tower look like a faceted jewel

Innovative geodesic design called the “diagrid” (diagonal grid) – structural system that creates a series of four-story
triangles on the façade, Distinctive and modern look from the four-story frames of steel and glass – Featuring triangular
steel bracing from the 10th floor up • No vertical steel beams on the building’s exterior, around the perimeter, affording
corner views, not possible in typical buildings • Inherent lateral stiffness and strength of the diagrid provides a significant
advantage for the general stability requirement for the tower under gravity, wind, and seismic loading • Æ Highly efficient
structural system consuming 20% less steel material (approximately 2000 tons of steel) in comparison to conventional
moment frame structures • An innovative type of glass wraps around the exterior of the building. The glass has a special
“low-E” coating that allows for internal spaces to be flooded with natural light while keeping out the invisible solar radiation
that causes heat

"Y nodes" installed as The Hearst Tower project reaches an early milestone.

First stainless steel section installed on the southeast corner of the tenth floor

22. How can parametric modeling be used in a design studio as a collaborative tool to generate design? Illustrate
with works of architects you are familiar with.

The initial task is to develop an understanding of the design problem at hand and to express this in terms of parameters.
the basic starting process; the key parameters must be identified, initial legal values assigned and valid ranges established.
the identification of functions, constraints and requirements by using three formal categories. “function, structure and
behaviour” which together form a “design prototype”.
1. Function relates to the intention or goals of the artefact.
2. Structure concerns the parts or components that the artefact will comprise of.
3. Behaviour concerns that way in which the structure achieves the function.

the study undertaken here -illustrates the process of window design using these terms. Some of the functions of this problem
are to provide daylight,
control noise and provide views. The structure in this design problem comprises of glass
and frame. The structural components have variables such as frame dimensions and glass coatings which determine their
behaviour. Two of the behaviours of the structure are light
flux transmitted and sound reduction.

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Design prototypes are dependant on the constraints of knowledge of the object of the design study - consider
prototypes as design from which other designs originate.
Three ways that prototypes can be applied are proposed;
 refinement,
 adaptation and
 creation.
In the case of refinement, design is limited to the constraints of the knowledge and involves changes within the
design space that the knowledge defines.
Adaptation is concerned with slight changes to the design space by adding further knowledge to that which
exists. Lastly the creation of prototypes is where a new design emerges.

Externalising ideas, constructing a model

Four categories of design initiation methods can be identified in the literature;
 Informal ideas,
 formal descriptions,
 abstract computational constructs and
 partial solutions.

Informal ideas can indicate initial design directions. These can be found by drawing an analogy between the current
problem and previous solutions or ideas in the designers memory

Formal descriptions of problems have also been described as a means of establishing a design process. Design with
prototypes is initiated through retrieval of a previous prototype or by specifying an initial set of function, structure
and behaviour. This starting prototype is based on analysis of the client’s functional specifications which indicate a
suitable start point. The initial structure is based on an existing solution or a solution from a similar problem. The
retrieved prototype is then adapted to suit the new problem.

Abstract computational constructs are also described as ways of launching the design process. These may be selected
from formal libraries like the repository of design patterns. It consists of a series of alternative models built using a
commercial parametric modelling package. Each model is documented, including descriptions using four headings;
intent, when, why and how to use it. The intention of libraries like Design Patterns is to offer parametric starting
states that are then adapted by
the designer to suit specific problems.

two methods for selecting an initial design proposal. These can be regarded as designs that partially suit the current
problem description. The first method is described as case retrieval the second is called decomposition-solution
composition.

Case retrieval involves obtaining almost complete design proposals by searching the current one. This is equivalent
to prototype refinement or adaptation proposed .

The decomposition-solution-composition method generates design proposals through decomposing problems,

solving independent parts and then re-composing to form an initial solution.

Once an idea of the problem structure has been developed and some kind of starting point proposed these are then
be used to create a representation or parametric model.

The process of making the parametricmodel has been described as designing and constructing a control rig rather
than the geometry of the object itself

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