Computer aided design techniques

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Computer Aided Design Techniques Birger Sev Birger evald aldson son Designer Member of OCEAN north Associate Professor Oslo School of Architecture Original published: Sevaldson, B. 2001. Computer Aided Design Techniques. Nordic Journal of Architectural Research, 55-68.   T he implementat implement ation ion of graphic computing comput ing in design pract p ract ice has tri t rigg ggered ered a ren renew ewed ed int interes erestt in t he desig desi gn pro p roce cess ss and a leap in t he in vention vent ion and develop developmen mentt of new design design methods meth ods,, strat st rat egies egies and techniques. Central in this endeavour stands the use of the computer as a generative design engine. This has consequently led to a temporal decline of the importance of traditional design skills and breads a 1 hese designer designerss are bas basing ing th their eir wo work rk on an generation of designers with no traditional education.  T hese int uit uit ive t rial rial and error way of applying th e comput comput er. Recent Recent ly t he tr adit aditiional desig design n skill skillss appear t o have a renaissance where these techniques are paralleled and combined with the computer driven t echniques echniques and where where t his re r esult sultss in a n ew synergy. synergy. 2  On the th e ot her hand we can ssee ee t he cont ours of an endeavour to discover and develop ways to surpass the trial and error stage in design computing and to reach towards more advanced strategies. In many of those cases the computer is used as a tool to apply generative material in the design process. Some computational modelling that takes advantage of the computers comput ers gener generat at ive power is used used t o p roduce a more mo re or o r less less abs abst ract underlay underlay for des desig ign. n. T hou ho ugh tthe he arguments for doing so are many and diverse, from a perspective of design methodology such generative mat erial is mean meantt t o produce produce an unanticipated unant icipated outpu out putt t hat would fertilise t he d desig esign n process. pr ocess. T he us usee of such generative material raises questions about the design process as a creative process and the position of the designer in this process. Creativity and the internalised elements of the creative process remains a puzzling and unexplored 3  phenomen  ph enomenon. on. Man y differ differeent exp la lanat nat or ory y models con contt ribut ribut e t o t he unders understt anding of creativ it ity. y.  T hese hese models span from pragmatic, psychometric, cognitive, social-personality models to confluence models t hat t ry t o embrace embrace creativity as a multip multip le comp onent phenomenon. phenomen on. Par allel allel to t he hese se mod models, els, w whi hich ch all stem fro m psychological sychological research, research, there exists exists among t he creat ive profess prof essiions an int uit itive ive and stil stilll unrecognised understanding of creativity. This perspective, based on first-hand experience rather than clinical research, research, might prove pr ove to be more m ore pro duct ctive ive for desig design n researc research h t han the psycholo psychologi gica call on es,  becaus  beca usee one o ne avoids avo ids ent ent ering erin g epist emology outside the realm r ealm of desi design and th thereby ereby ent angle in ext remely complicat ed iss issues ues which as ment men t ioned even within psych p sycholo olog gical rrese esearch arch are heav ily d debated ebated and still not fully fully understo understo od od.. T he de desig signer ner as pract it ioner has a first first hand experience th at pr provides ovides an understanding of how creative techniques work. From such a position we can investigate the creative  process  pr ocess mos mo st ly ffrom rom it s rresu esult ltss and only on ly when when strictly strict ly n ecessary we we need n eed t o deal w wit ith h it as an inter internalise nalised d

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 An example of high quality, which also contains links to other operators within this sub culture of wed design, is to www.ziggen.com.. This is the homepage of the Norwegian Siggurd Mannsåker who has the status of a guru  be fo found at www.ziggen.com in this milieu of partly very young enthusiasts, several of whom have become professionals. 2  This trend is found at the Institute of Industrial Design where advanced CAD, CAE, CAID, DTP, image processing and digital video skills are combined with traditional drawing techniques. 3  See "Handbook of Creativity" (Sternberg 1999)

 

 process  pr ocess.. W Wee rather rat her investiga nv estigatt e t he sympt ym pt oms (pro ducts) of creat ive pro ces cesses ses th an their t heir internal inter nal caus auses. es. I suggest this as a productive attitude for the design researcher towards the problem of creativity. T hough hough there t here are many diverse diverse int erpret at atiions of o f what what creat creative ive p prrocesses are, co mmon t o all exp lanat ions is the th e eemergence mergence of t he unanticip at ated ed.. Creation Creat ion implies implies the th e aarriv rriv al of somet hing new new,, something, which has not been imagined before. Computer t echno logy Computer logy has helped to simulate simulate and calcu calculate late things t hings that have been t o complex for hu human man imagination. The number crushing capability becomes a tool of investigation and exploration simply  becaus  beca usee of o f its incred in credible ible speed speed and storage capacit y. Numerous Numerous unimagined unimagined discov discov eries have been been dependent on computer technology, e.g. the discovery of chaos mechanisms in the seventies. Equipped with a graphic system the computer becomes an engine for qualitative research where spatial formations,  pat terns tern s and str structu uctures res are explor xp lored ed.. T houg ho ugh t he core t echnolo gy of t he computer comput er is d digital igital its graphic surface and interface turns it into an analogue machine able to store, manipulate and produce qualitative and visual visual mat material. erial. T his tu t urns the co mputer in intt o an “engine of th e unant unant icip icipat ated”. ed”. 4

But if designers behave like scientists and leave everything to simulations and computerised emergence   it would ould have at least least t wo n egativ e imp impact act s. T he designer designer is reduced t o a lles esss creat ive workh orse or se in t he desig desi gn process pr ocess.. But more serious, serious, t he results would would be be unprocessed unp rocessed for formalism malism w wit ith h no cultur cult ural al co nt ent or 5

meaning, mea ning, since since culture culture in hu human man interpret interpr etation ation has no meaning to t o machines. machines.   To d develop evelop t he po poten ten tial in computer aided design we need to:   • Visualise abstract bstr act st st ruct ures. ures. • Co Conn nnect ect cognitive cognit ive analy tical proc pro cesses t o visual comput om putiing • T ake advant advant age of of t he computers generative power power by exploiting t he “ engine of the una unant nt icipated icipated”. ”. The instrumental techniques suggested here indicate a slightly altered but not alien role for the designer t hrough hrough select selection, ion, int int erpretat ion, analyses analyses and and mod mo dification. ificatio n. T hese techn iques iques are bas based ed on t he implement impl ement at ion of the com co mputer as a visual t ool and t he desig designer’s ner’s interp retat et ation, ion, specu specula latt ion, codificat codi fication ion and manipula manipulatt ion of th e computer ge generat nerat ed output. outp ut. Diagrams

The interpretation of the visual output from the computer implies that it operates on a more or less abst ract level. abst level. Abst Abst raction act ion of visual visual represent represent at ation ion means exagg exaggera eratt ion of cert certain ain as aspect pect s on on t he costs of others. In this discussion I define the diagram as an abstraction that emphasises structural organisation, 6  pat terns tern s and relat ions on the co st of typ t ypology ology and semant ics.   The work presented in this essay spins off from the discourse on the diagrams role in architecture during the last decade. This discussion was triggered by Deleuse and Guataris notion of the diagram as an “abstract machine”. The diagrammatic was regarded as non-reductive and not representational but a “ layer” layer” o f rreeality t hat h ad pot ent ia iall t o be act actual ualise ised. d. T his essay essay is about about operatio nal t echniques echniques fo forr designers and intends to look at computer aided design techniques from the perspective of the 4

 Genetic algorithm, artificial design intelligence and expert systems.  Greg Lynn says that .. the failure of artificial intelligence suggest a need to develop a systematic human intuition about the connective medium rather than attempting to build criticality into the machine. (Lynn 1999) page 19 6  Structural in its literal sense as the organisation and layout of formal issues like framework, outline, distribution, 5

directio direc tion, n, den densit sity, y, bord border er conditions and similar simil ar features of offform in general. general.

 

 practit  pr actit ion ioner. er. It is still necessary necessary t o poin t t o th e import impor t ance of t his philosophical ph ilosophical movemen t as a source source fo forr sever al of t he described described iss issues ues.. The diagrams we are most concerned with are dealing with structural organisation in graphical material and spatial constructs. Normally diagrams operate on a descriptive level. They describe and help to analyse existing entities and situations, mostly quantitative relations or casual relations like in bubble diagrams. But descriptiv e diagrams But diagrams can c an also describe describe qualitat qualitat ive items it ems like h ow t hin hings gs are orga or ganised nised in space and how a space is composed as a whole. These are diagrams that depict formal aspects. As an example to 7 clarify clari fy t his level level of form, for m, I will will us usee Ucellos Ucellos painting paintin g “ Batt le of San Romano”.   The "Battle of San Romano" is a highly complex composition and in this example I will look at only few formal aspect aspect s. The paintin g is import mpo rt ant no t only becaus becausee of it s int introd roduction uction of th e pers perspect pect ive int o open lands landscape cape scenes scenes but but also becaus becausee of it s virt virtual ual represent represent at ion of ttime. ime. Th e painting p ainting appears almost as a snapshot of the most dramatic moment in the story, the moment of victory and defeat. This feeling of a frozen moment stems not from the singular figurative elements (horses and soldiers) being drawn in a stiff and almost almost st ylistic and statue-like manner. T he dynamic pow power er of tthe he pict pict ure comes mostly from its structural and diagrammatic order. T he picture pict ure appear s as open ended en ded bot h geomet geometrica rically lly an and d t ime-wise ime-wise.. W e can imagine imagine t hat there is a llot ot more going on outside the frames of the canvas, and we know that there has been much drama before the captured moment moment , and that t here will be more more t o ffol ollow low.. T he main movement in the image image goes from from the left to the right, the winning army moving in form the left and the loosing party fleeing into the  background  back ground and out o ut to t he ri right ght.. T he lances cont rib ribute ute t o fform orm t his movement mo vement . T he mov moveemen mentt is readable on a figurative level from the direction of the figures, the soldiers and especially the horses. But  behind  behi nd this t his figurat figurative ive level we we can perceive this t his t emporalit empora lity y from fro m th thee diagramm diagrammat atiic struct st ructu ure o f t he  pict ure as a s well. T he lances form a virtual virt ual direction direct ion and movement move ment t ot ally independent independent from t he figurative connotation of the painting. If we draw a simplified diagram of the lances they form a group of lines, which depicts an accelerating movement towards the right. (Fig 1) Other elements, like the lines in t he almost almost scenograph scenographic ic arrangement arrangement of t he ba backg ckground round emphas emph asise ise tthis his movem movement ent . T he di diagram agram depicts one of many possible descriptive diagrams of this complex composition.

 Fig 1: Simple diagram of the la l ance ncess i n U Uce cellos llos pa painting inting “Battle of San Rom Romano” ano”

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 Paolo Ucello 1397-1475.

 

The diagram of the lances shows their spatial relations, direction, density, distribution, clustering and fragmentation. The appearance of the lines moving from the left to the right comes from these feat ures. T hese are generic generic diag diagrammatic rammatic cat eg egories ories t hat ex ist independ independent ent of tthe he represent represent ational. Even if we remove and forget the figurative and narrative, the spatial organisation of the lines implies movement, which can be developed in a speculation. (Fig. 2) This refers to the non-reductive of the di diagr agrammat ammat ic. T he painting paint ing catches cat ches a focus fo cus point poin t in time from which which t here are many po pott ent ially

 Fig 2: Specula Speculative tive unfo unfolding lding of the inher inherent ent moveme ment nt indicated indicated by the diagram. 

While developing such spatial diagrams into increasing detail we will cross a blurred border when the diagram becomes model (model as arepresentat spatial image In this spat is no di disti stinct nct ion betw et ween abstract abstract spatial ion of andthe formal fo represented). rmal model. model. Decois scase pat ial iathere l co constr nstr uctsharp “Et “Ether/I” her/I” is directly derived from the movement of a dancer. It appears more as a descriptive though abstracted model mod el of t he movement t han a diagrammatic diagrammatic repres r epresent ent at atio ion n of its sspat pat ial qual qualities ities.. (Fig. 3)

 Fig 3: Spatial structure directly directly derived derived f rom the mov movem ements ents of a dancer. (Dec (Decoi, oi, Ether/I)  8

By comparison, OCEAN norths  compet  competitio ition n entry ent ry for t he finish emb embassy assy in Canbe Canberra rra o perates on a clearly diagrammatic level. The initial diagram is a space dealing with formal aspects, indicating purely structural organisation principles. In the design process it is applied as a generative diagram. The development of the final design demonstrates a process that derives the design form the structural

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 OCEAN north is a group of designers from diverse disciplines, led by Tuuli Sotamaa, Kivi Sotamaa, Birger Sevaldson and Michael Hensel. The Helsinki-based group undertakes experimental design with the aim to develop an approach to design that engages [with] the dynamics of the natural and built environment.

 

qualities of the diagram, rather than design directly from it, which is visible from the difference between 9 t he diagrammatic iagrammatic space and t he final implement implement at atio ion n  (Fig. 4)

 Fig 4: Generi Genericc structural diagram used to i nform the design design of a ccompe ompetiti titi on entry for the Finish embassy embassy in Canberra. (OCEAN Oslo Helsinki, 1997) 

Ge nerative Diag Diag rams rams

Wh ile descript Whi descript ive diagrams diagrams describe describe existing exist ing ent it itie ies, s, generative generat ive diagrams diagrams are are used used to gene generate rate gene generic ric structural spaces that are used to influence the design, just as very early hand made design sketches some times are dealing with spatial and systemic organisation rather than the object it self. Generative diagrams move our initial attention away from problem solving or the imagining of formal solutions towards structural organisation. For many designers and architects this is not an entirely alien way of working. Often we start the process with mapping abstract and intuitive sketches of how things could be organised in space and how they relate to each other. Such sketches could simply represent spatial structure or activities and programs as in the traditional bubble diagram. This type of diagramming often oscillates between the descriptive and generative since they intend both to describe existing an d imagined situation s but but also aid t o expl exp lore and deve develop lop ne new w ssolu olutt ions. ion s. Bu Butt unl unlike ike t hese hese traditional techniques the generative diagram implies a separation of the diagrammatic and structural aspects from intention and typology. Graphical computing is intriguing and confusing because it some times by error produces “wild” and unexpected output, that obviously should have a potential to be used. The output of trial and error based approaches is difficult to instumentalise without a good strategy. The question is how to pair the emergent eme rgent ou outt -of-co ntrol-p roductivit roductivity y of t he computer with with t he desired desired con contt rol by th thee human human designer. The generative diagram delivers one approach that negotiates computer emergence with human int erpret ation at ion and desig design n cont ro rol. l. It cont co nt rols t he wild wild compu com putt er and sab sabot ot ages t he human need for fo r control. Like formal descriptive diagrams (e.g. lance diagram), generative diagrams might operate on the  borderlin  bord erlinee bet bet ween abst bst ract and figu figurat rat ive representat ion. ion . Generat Generat ive d diagrams iagrams anim animaat e us to v view iew 9

 Canberra credits: OCEAN Helsinki Oslo 1997, Johan Bettum, Markus Homstén, Niina Kettunen, Marianne Pulli,

Bonsak Schjeldrop, Kivi Sotamaa, Lasse Wager

 

graphical information and computational processes in an abstract and structural way. Diagrammatic t hinking in this sense sense o opens pens th e pos p ossib sibility ility t o free compute omp uterr generated material and comput comput er sof softw tware are from fro m its determined determined cont ext. T he material mater ial can t herefore be reint erpret erpret ed, redefine redefined, d, re-mapped and recoded to instrumentalise it in a design process. All this is done in a qualitative and visual manner based on  playful and int int uitive uitiv e manipulat manipulation ion of graphical rep resent ed infor inf ormatio mation. n. The t ech echniq nique ue gi gives ves a creativ creativee  boostt and he  boos h elps t o break established established design design schem schemata. ata. The appli appli ance of the ge ne rative rative techni ques ques .

Computer aided generative techniques can be used in various ways: Used to articulate the Cartesian void. The generative diagram can be used as a spatial organiser that sabotages the rectangular dogma of the Cartesian space. T he rreeading of space in three th ree dimen dimensio sions, ns, orga or ganised nised al alon ong g t hree axes (X,Y,Z (X,Y,Z)) is cent central ral in weste western rn spat spatial ial thinking t hinking but but it als also o pro p rovid vides es a ment ment al mould mould in which our spat ial t hinking hin king is is formed. It mightt show crucial migh crucial to de develop velop strat st rat egi gies es to t o tempo t empora rarily rily escape escape t his his type t ype of spatial spat ial backb backbone one str struc uctt ure and to develop different ones. One strategy explored in several cases during our work is to apply 2D and 10 3D information sets as spatial organisers. One example is the installation Chamberworks  at the galler gallery y

RAM in Oslo 1998, where a 3D particle animation was used to fill the gallery space which an initial str struc uctt ure of varied v aried gener generic ic intensit int ensitie ies. s. (Fig. 5) Area Ar eass were were t he part par t icles icles dis distt ribu ibutt ion would would be be dense wher wheree read as areas of higher intensity. This 3D intensity map was used to inform were the metal structures of t he installatio n where where allow allowed ed to go. go.

 Fig 5: Chamberworks. Chamberworks. To the left left initi al particle animation. T To o the right final insta inst allati on. (OCEAN Cologne Cologne,,  Helsinki,  Helsi nki, Osl o 1998) 

Used to introduce uncontrolled structures to a design. T he aim of t he mentioned mention ed st st rat eg egy y of Chambe Chamberw rworks orks was was twofo twofo ld. ld. Not only was was it meant t o art icu iculate late what was an empty rectangular gallery space (Cartesian void) but also to resist and disturb our mental 10

 Cha  C hamberwork mberworkss credits: Johan J ohan Bettum Michael Hensel, Hensel, Markus Holmstén olms tén,, Helsinki Helsinki,, Kim Baumann Baumann Larsen, Larsen, Birg Bi rger er Sevaldson, Dan Sevaldson, Kivi Sotamaa, Helsinki Other credits: Soundscape: Audun Strype from Strype Audio., Video: Øyvind Andreassen FFI

 

images of what t he gallery images gallery space could be be. By establishing establishing unco uncontr ntrolled olled and ““un un-desig -designed” ned” init initial ial spatial str struc uctt ures which which where where us used ed as scaffolds for t he desi design, t he design design of t he gallery gallery was allowe allowed d to t o be b bot ot h designed and emerge from the uncontrolled, computer generated material. Scaffolds, unlike templates are 11 hey operate of differen differentt geomet ry t han t he final desig design n and are not recognisab recognisable le in t he final design. ign.  T hey on a purely diagram diagrammat mat ic level. level. T he part ic icle le animation animat ion scaffold was applied t o t he d desig esign n thr ough a  ph  phas asee of o f on p hysica hy sicall model mo delling, ling, where where t he part iclesections animat ion was used mapped map ped wit ith h p rintan s of evenwire distribu distribut t ed sections transparent overhead sheets. These where to negotiate initial model with the intensity space of the particle animation. (Fig. 6) In the end the influence of the particle animation on the final installation in Chamberworks was minor, since many other strategies where applied through through out the t he desi design proces pr ocess. s. But But t he principle demon demonstrated strated here is important import ant . Th e p arad aradig igm m of a fu fully lly cont rolled d desig esign n process, process, based based on th e assumpt assumpt ion t hat eac each h pro blem h as one correct solu solutt ion, contradicts bot bot h o ur cont empor emporary ary conception of deconstr econst ructed meaning meaning aand nd th e ada adapt pt ati at ion of environments over time. A paradigm where design control is negotiated towards uncontrolled information informat ion (abstract, (abstract, simulat simulated ed or real) seems seems to t o have t he ability ability to inject an inherent capab capability ility tto o cope with uncontrolled futures. It resists the idea of the perfect (static) and emphasises the unfinished, t he develop developaable ble and the imperfect.

 Fig 6: Chamberworks. Chamberworks. The map mapping ping of the partic particle le anima animation tion was implemented in th thee design through a st age of of  physical modelli  physical modelling. ng. (OCEAN Cologne, H Helsinki, elsinki, Oslo 1998) 

Used to break design schemata . Along these paths we also meet the problem of typologies and schemata. While typologies are essential in our perception of the world they can appear to be obstacles when we want to reach new solutions and/or design for changing environments. In such situations we need in periods to escape from our spatial vocabulary to invent new ways of organising space and finally to reach for new types. But our design schemata reach beyond the conception of types. They also influence our immediate ways of organising space. We design according to a learned scheme of territories and distribution, where the aim is to avoid overlapping and conflicts and to strive for clarity. This as well can appear as a straight-jacket and hinder the arrival of new potentially powerful solutions.

Ambient Amplifie Ambient Amplifiers rs is a design design an d research study study aimi aim ing t o explore explor e how dig digital ital spe specu culat lative ive modelling modelling can cont ribut e t o t he formation of generic generic concepts, (like programmabil programmability ity of bu buil iltt form form)) applied t o a real life life scenario. scenario. T he project project , located to t o a park area area in t he east east of Os Oslo, lo, t reat eatss a series series of element elementss and 12 sites within the area and indicates several interventions mostly developed to a sketch level.   In the 11

 Stan Allan refers to certain structures serve as scaffolds for events unanticipated by the architect. (Allen 1999) page 54  A more extensive analysis is to be found in the proceedings of the Conference on Architectural Research and

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Information Technology, Aarhus 2001.

 

 project  pr oject Ambient Ambient Amplif Amplifier ier th e cen tral area ar ea of t he Tøy en Park in Os Oslo lo was redesig redesigned ned w wit ith h th e aim tto o reinforce t he exist exist ing ing complex complex p at attern tern o f activit ies. The T he main element element s in in t his st strat rat egy were a se sett of variou var iouss generic generic islands islands,, ((constr constr ucts that th at could could appea app earr in various stages stages of unun-fin finis ishedness hedness,, fro f rom mg gro round und articulation to pavilion) a system of surfaces operating between path and leisure-ground and the redesign of the street system in the area. (Fig. 7) The islands where distributed on the ground of an uncontrolled input inpu t tw o as t hestopped layout. part icle lewanimation t hat awas wdist as tgenerat grib enerat edinfrom sfiel informat ion and ab st ract site fo forces rces stoppe d at aA t apartic po int here her e it showed dis ributio ution n the t he site fite ield dinformation th that at pot potent ent ial ially ly abs would woul d prov pred ovid idee the needed density and distribution to serve as an underlay for the layout of the islands. This layout  prod  pr oduced uced a series series of o f conflicts, conf licts, both bot h wit with h t he existing exist ing str street eet system syst em and the t he fencing of the t he nearby  botaanical garden.  bot garden. T he carefu caref ul negotiat ne gotiation ion of these t hese conflict conf lictss init iat iateed th e n neew solutions of the  prog  pr ogram rammab mable le street st reet and programmable fence, bot h ent it itie iess that t hat where her e ada adapt pt able toward towardss the changing c hanging events eve nts taking t aking place on t he sit site. e. T he prog p rogram ramm mable st st reet and an d pro program grammable mable fe fence nce became new typologies in the project.

 Fig 7: Ambient Ambient Amplif Ampli fiers: Overview Overview of the system system,, Path syste system, m, Programm Programmable able stree str eet and fence fence,, Islands Islands iin n ffou ourr states s tates of unfinishedness: footprint, foundation, frame and core. (Ocean north 2000)

Used to instrumentalise adaptability.   The idea of the uncontrolled and unfinished as a strategy for temporal adaptation could be developed further. If we assume that adaptability is a structural or even geometric feature we could try to design adaptt ability adap ability int o const const ructs on a str st ruct ctural ural and and geomet geometrical rical level rather t han making constru construct ctss that t hat are either mechanical flexible or easy to alter by rebuilding. Generic articulated geometries have in some casess a bett er ability to ho case host st an d even t rigg rigger er unexpect unexpect ed event s t han an open plan soluti solution on with n no o geometric geometr ic art art iculation. T his ability to adapt adapt t hroug hr ough h art iculat iculation ion was was used used in tthe he d desig esign n of th e ““isl islands” ands” 13 in t he project Ambient Ambient Amplifiers. Amplifiers.  (Fig. 8)

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 OCEAN north. Birger Sevaldson, Phu Duong 2000.  

 

   Fig 8: Ambient Ambient Amplif Ampli fiers: The T he “Island” “Island” constructs in f our differents stages o off “unfi ni nishedne shedness”: ss”: footprint,  foundation,  found ation, frame frame and core. core. ( Ocean cean north 2000) 

The i mple mentation of gen e rativ rative diagrams diagrams

T he generative generative diag diagram ram appears in many forms, from part par t icle animation t o colour underlay underlay.. T he ways it is implemented into design are as various:  Direct form  Direct fo rm gen eration eration The generative diagram can operate as a structural diagram of form in the same way as the descriptive diagram we have drawn from Ucellos painting. A_drift is an entry to an invited competition for a time 14 capsule for the next millennium.   A ser series ies of nin ninee capsules whe here re suggeste suggested d to be dropp dropped ed in t he

Antarctic ice in positions that would reliece the capsules into the ocean after calculated time of one thousand years. The capsules had two voids to contain objects. The voids were produced with a skeleton animation in Alias|Wavefront Studio. (Fig. 9)

 Fig 9: a_drift: Four frames frames of the com compu pute-ranim te-ranimation ation used used for the the design of the inne innerr voids. Skeleton animation with multy clustering of control points. Software: Alias|Wavefront Studio. (OCEAN Helsinki, Cologne, Oslo 1999)  

This multy-clustered animation had a feedback effect so that every run would produce a new deformation of t wo sph erical forms. Certain f rames were were select select ed to ope op erat e as form dia diagrams. grams. Th Thee sele select ction ion was done from formal design criteria, the two voids should not intersect, and the forms should be complex  butt st ill dist  bu dist inguishab nguishable. le. T he shapes wher wheree refined in the t he CAD CAD soft ware, where all sel self-in f-in t ersect ersect ions of the surfaces where eliminated so that they actually where possible to produce, but with the intention to bring 14

 OCEAN north was invited by the New York Times by Herbert Muchamp together with 50 architecture and design  practice  pra cticess world world wide wide.. T he entry by OCEAN OCEAN north ma made de it to the final final 10 and was exhibited exhibited at the American American Museum. Museum. Winner of the competition was Calatrava. A_drift credits: Johan Bettum, Michael Hensel, Birger Sevaldson, Kivi Sotamaa, Tuuli Sotamaa, Helsinki. CONSULTANT:Tero Kolhinen

 

as much much as possible possible of t he wild and unun-des desig igned ned qua qualit lities ies of the t he animation animat ionss furt further her int o t he des design. ign. Th Thee outer hull started as a cylinder that was negotiated towards the inner voids via several additional layers of material surfaces. (Fig. 10)

 Fig 10: a_drift: a_drift: From Fr om the left: Computer rende rendering ring of cap capsule sule mod model el wit h partly transparent outer shell shell (Birge (Bi rgerr Sevaldson). Clay model of inner core (Tuuli Sotamaa). Rapid Prototyping model of capsule. (Birger Sevaldson) (OCEAN Cologne, Helsinki, Oslo 1999)

Spa tial organisation , colour space. Generative diagrams can be used as spatial organisers as mentioned earlier, to operate as alternatives to a Cartesian Cartesi an organisation organisation of space. space. W e cannot en entt irely escape escape t he Cartesian Cartesian space, espe especially cially in tthe he con text of comput om puteer -aided -aided design, design, wher wheree bot bot h 2 D and 3D 3 D soft ware is base based d on Ca Cart rt esian coordina coor dinatt e systems. But we can within the global Cartesian space establish customised local coordinate systems that diverge from the straight global system. Also we could integrate other descriptions of depth than the mat hematical hematical on es, like t he visual visual perceptio percept ion n of space space in colour compositi composit ions. In tthe he following following example

the visual depth of graphical images are mapped to various local coordinate systems. VORB ORB is a series series of wor workshops kshops that t hat where conduct conduct ed at t he Oslo Oslo S Scchool ho ol o off Arch Archit iteecture ct ure from 19 1997 97 to Virtulle tulle Objekter Rom og Bevegelser  Bevegelser  and 2000. 20 00. VOR VORB B sta stands nds for Vir  an d t ran ranslates slates tto o “ Virt ual ual Objects S Spac paces es and Movements”. Movement s”. In the t he workshops init init ially the potent poten t ial of t he virt virt ual co computer mputer generated spaces spaces was was explored but they developed to investigate the virtual on a more general bases. In t he wor works ksho hop p of 1999 19 99 t he st st udents udents where where asked t o find a graphical graphical image image of certain cert ain q qualities. ualities. Th Thee image should be non-figurative, it should have a certain complexity and it should render areas with varied intensity and with variation in the sharpness and quality of the borders between its graphical shapes. 15 T hese images were used as seeds seeds for fo r inform info rmiing 3D spa pace. ce.  

15

 This technique was initiated by Jeffrey Kipnis who named the implementation of imagery in such a way for colour

graft.

 

  A colour image can be read as a dat a array where her e t he numbers numbers of o f ea e ach pixel pix el could be recoded r ecoded fro m colour 16 int ensity ensity t o e.g e.g.. z dept dept h. T hi hiss approach appr oach was was applied in t he first ex ample.  (Fig. 11) The initial image was filtrated in Photoshop to produce a series of images, each of them operating as descriptive diagrams of the initial image, emphasising some aspects on the cost of others. For each diagrammatic image a separatee rule separat r ule fo forr spatial spat ial mapping ma pping was was applied. This Th is result resulted ed in a rich space whe where re several su surfa rfacces intersect, all derived from one image. Each surface indicates a local coordinate system since the z-depth 17 is modulated into a new topologically formed position.  T  The he surfa surfaces ces in NURB NURBS S soft softw ware h ave t he heir ir own ow n inherent co ordinat ordinat e syst syst em, pos p ositio itio ning t he surface surface location s according according to t he anat anatomy omy of t he isoparms. These coordinates are normally called U and V where the surface normal corresponds to Z. Similar techniques are easy to conduct with the bump-mapping or displacement tools in many 3D visualisatio visua lisatio n programs pr ograms..

 Fig 11: VORB3: VORB3: From the left: Initial image, image, Filtered and manipu manipulated lated ima i mage ge sample. sample. Spat Spatia iall constru constr uct derive derived d through displacement (bump-) mapping and additional techniques. (Oslo School of Architecture IFID 1998.) 

In the next example a similar approach is applied to displace the surface in three dimensions. But here the depth information was simplified to appear as a limited number of columns (data reduction). A cylindrical polar polar co-or co- ordin dinat atee syst syst em was was us used ed to map t he spac spacee inst instead ead of of a no rmal X,Y,Z system, which which 18 resulted in a space organised around a cylindrical backbone rather than a rectangular.  (Fig 12) The  pola  po larr syst em is desc described ribed b by y sweep angel, angel, ra r adius dius and height . Combinin Combinin g the t wo appro app roac aches hes wou would ld pro produ duce nested local coor dinate dinate systems systems for fo r a mo re advanced advanced treat ment of spat spatial ial iiss ssues ues.. Thoug T hough h t hes hesee approaches st st ill operate with in t he Cartesian Cartesian gl globa oball system t hey help help t o resis resistt t he C Cart art esia esian n parad paradig igm m and point po int t o the th e fact t hat t he way we bas basically ically describe describe spac spacee has a d deep eep impac impactt on our d desig esigns. ns.

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 VORB3 Oslo Scool of Architecture IFID 1998. Ina Nicolic, Anette Martinsen, Rene Safin, Gergely Agoston.  Local coordinate systems are often used in CAD systems, especially for architecture. E.g. a part of the building that stands in an angel to the rest of the building could easily be constructed along its own local co-ordinate system, standing in the correct angel to the global co-ordinate system.

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 Kristina Ruf

18

 

   Fig 12: VORB3: VORB3: Initial image sample. sample. Phy Physical sical mode modell of polar (cylindrical) (cylindrical) space. space. Digit Digital al model model of po polar lar space, space, looking down the centre axes. (Oslo School of Architecture IFID 1998.)  

 An atomyy of  Anatom o f m ovement ovem ent Later VORB workshops investigated the possibilities to produce geometries that where derived from captured motion forms with the assumption that such geometries would be suitable for inhabitation by

similar related motions, a form of advanced This wasmanipulation done in the scale of the bodyofand in the scale of the interior. The first examplebody-reflection. was based on graphical and processing 19  both  bot h video and still images of of st aged movement mo vement .  (Fig  (Fig.. 13) 1 3) Li Line ne geometries geometrie s wher heree der derived ived t hrough hrough graphical filtering and manual tracing of construction lines. This approach stems from the studies of movement first initiated by Etienne-Ju Etienn e-Jules les Marrey.

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 Conseptual Design , Oslo School of Architecture IFID 2000. Bergem Anne Lise, Heidi Devik Ekstrøm, Hanne Marte

Holmøy, Heidi Susanne Leren

 

   Fig 13: Conceptual Conceptual De Design sign 2000: 2000: Staged video video use used d as To left, fram frames es from video, video, actor with t extile “ body body cursor”.  Below left, left, Physical Physical m model odel directly directly from the vide video o frame frames. s. Top right, physic physical al models models derived from sev s everal series series of  graphically  grap hically m manipulate anipulated d video frame frames. s. Below ri ght: sketch of spatial divider / resting wall de designed signed with tthe he prec preceding eding models as input and templates. (Oslo School of Architecture IFID 2000.) 

In the second example, a waiting lounge for a ferry company in Oslo, a particle animation simulating the main trajectory tr ajectory of the t raffic throu th rough gh the t he space, space, was was u used sed to art icu iculate late t he lounge lounge int o v arious arious zon zones es of 20 int ensity ensity from long term waitin iting g to last minut minut e arri arr ival.  (Fig. 14) Areas of highest particle intensity where read as shortest-term use, like the route directly towards the ferry entrance. Lowest intensity areas where her e coded for for longe lon gest st t erm wait waiting ing like for f or people peo ple who who want t o t ake a nap while while w wait aiting ing for for hours ho urs,, similar as what often happens on airports. The space was organised in levels where the highest level was for longest term wai wait ing, creat creating ing a “ valley” valley” fo r t he f astest t rack leading leading d direc irectt ly t o the fer ferry ry d depart epart ure. The particle animation helped forming the level edges in a generic but articulated way assumable  providing  pr oviding co condit nditions ions for fo formatio rmatio n of t emporal empora l tterrito errito ries t hrough hr ough inh inhabitatio abitation. n.

 VORB3 Oslo Scool of Architecture IFID 1998. Kristina Ruf.

20

 

 

 Fig 14: Conceptual Conceptual De Design sign 2000: 2000: Left, Plan view of digi tal model with particle particle anim animation ation an and d derived initi al sketch sketch of the waiting lounge. Since only one frame of particle animation is shown, the relation between the animation and the resulting form is not obvious on a still image. Right: Plan view of physical model with lighting beneath steps. (Oslo School of Architecture IFID 2000.) 

 Em ergent rgen t Spaces Space s 21

Resent Rese nt wtime ork by OCEAN OCEAN nappliance orth  co ntribut ntribu t es t o how t he generat generative ivegenerative comp ompute uterr diagram genera generatt ed dia diag gram cantime embody through thenorth of animation techniques. The unfolds over 22 Diag ram m.   t hr hrou ough gh animatio n processes. processes. This T his we call the  Dynam ic Generative Diagra T he unfolding of t im ime-base e-based d sequen sequences ces is inheren t in pr progr ogram am and hence in arch archit iteecture. ct ure. S Such uch sequ sequenc ences es operate in fields of parallelism (time), mutual influences complex relations. It is one of the most challenging tasks of the designers and architects to include these real life events into planning. One approach is based on prediction: simulations or qualified speculations and scenarios of real life events. But the weakness of this approach is that predictions frequently fail: the simulations and or speculations  become  beco me t oo specific specif ic and th e real life future can t urn out t o develo develo p in a differen differentt and unexpect ed di direct rect ion. ion. T he predictive predictive approach, de dealing aling wi wit h a com co mplex system system and t he t uning of it s parameters, is only relevant if t he system system and its it s p parameters arameters really really succeed succeed with with it s predict predict ion. To cope with an open ended future where the parameters in the system could be exchanged or even the whole system could be replaced with anot an ot her, leaving leaving t he paramet ric simul simulat ation ion or specula speculatt ion as irrelevant, one has t o develop equally open-ended strategies. One possibility is to move to a level above specific programming, where one on e only on ly o operat perates es on on generi gener ic con t ent and wher wheree form is the t he framewor framework k for f or a long series of possib possiblle futures. Then one could test the systems ability to survive through series of parameter driven scenarios. T hese hese scenarios scenarios are not meant meant t o predict predict any possible possible future, but but on ly to t est th thee systems abi abillity t o absorb unexpected futures. Therefore extreme and unlikely scenarios are as useful as the more realistic ones. (e.g. worst case and best case scenarios) Generative techniques are inductive and explorative techniques. But frequently we see that they are mixeed up mix up wi witt h at a t t empts empt s to t o apply dedu deduct ctive ive logics. This is bound bound to t o end up up w wit ith h confus c onfusion ion.. Instead Inste ad of forcing generative processes into logics of parametric programs one could design on a structural level and only indicate a framework (repertoire) for program. This approach was suggested in the project Ambient  Extra a Terrain Terrain  and Amplifier. Similar approa pp roaches ches have earlier been t est est ed in smaller scale scale with  Extr 21

 http://www.ocean-north.net  The use of animation in such a way has been suggested earlier.(Lynn 1998; Rakatansky 1998; Lynn 1999)

22

 

23

 Intencities  In tencities.  (Fig  (Fig.. 1 5) T hese hese are ar e desig designs ns wit with h a clear imagined imagined “ t heme” o f use use bu butt n no o defi defined ned p pro rog gram as such. Program is replaced with a repertoire of possible events, which will have their own programs but which will will be defined first when t hese hese events ev ents t ake place or are in t heir planning plannin g phase. phase. Detailed  prog  pr ogram rammi ming ng is a real time t ime activity act ivity left t o th e user. user. T hese themes th emes or repert r epertoir oires es are framing a limited limite d numb num ber o f normally related relat ed activit act ivitie ies. s. When t hese themes and repertoires are defined defined one can use t hem

as a framework framework fo r generat ive comput comput er modelling modelling.. This T his app roach avoi av oids ds the specific and parametric details and leaves more to synthesising design intuition. The results are tested and negotiated towards detailed scenarios. The approach also allows for generative diagramming since there is no other logic forcced into the for t he diagrams diagrams than t han th e formal comp compositional ositional and geomet geometric/stru ric/struct ctural ural and and th e relat relation ion to t he initial loosely defined repertoire of possible events.

 Fig 15: To th thee left: Intencities, Intencities, urban installati on that prov provided ided a long range of possible inha inhabitati bitation onss w here surfaces ambulate between on different vaguely indicated programmatic possibilities, e.g. transportation routes transformed into spectator stands. (OCEAN north 2000) To the right: Extra Terrain. A “furniture piece” consisting of a  programmatically  prog rammatically a and nd typologically typologically de decode coded d surface surface.. A de devic vicee ffor or rrestin esting g the body, body, but wh which ich has no indica indi cation tion of typical use. (OCEAN Helsinki 1996) 

T he generative generative material can be applied applied to the diagr diagrammat ic field field o off forces f orces to artic art icu ulate it qual ualitat itat ively in a similar way as landscape articulates travelling. But since form also is able to trigger program (to host, embed, emb ed, "dock" "dock" and spin spin off even t s) the qu qual alitat itat ive art iculated iculated treatment treatmen t of form for m ge generat nerat es a seaml seamless ess int er errelat relation ion betwee between n form for m and program. program. The generic generic mat erial erial int rod roduces uces qua qualitat litat ive articulation t o the  prog  pr ogram ram.. It gives form t o t he force for cess and introduces intr oduces t herefore her efore implicatio im plications ns to t he very core c ore of des desiign (giving (givi ng form for m) an d hence hence desig design n creat creat ivity. ivit y. From t ha hatt positi posit ion t he generat ive ive mat erial can be u used sed for suggestive purposes, to modulate spatial "gestures" or potential events (actualities), to rehears triggering conditio cond itions, ns, ad adapt apt ability ability t o unexp ected events or un uncont cont rolled rolled scenarios. scenarios. Computer animat Computer animation ion is th e ultimat ultimat e too l t o produce produce large large arrays of poss po ssib ible le solu solutt ions in an "out of fo focu cus", s", disint disint erest ed and uncont ro rolle lled d way. way. Since Since such such arr arrays ays are sequent sequential ial they th ey can can be remappe remapped d aand nd recoded in syst syst ems wher wheree t he linearity of t ime is manipulated th rou ro ugh superimpo superimpo sing, sing, rev ersal, scratching, merging, collapse, and the separation of sequence from time and duration. 23

 Extra Terrain credits: OCEAN Helsinki 1996 Markus Homstén, Kivi Sotamaa. Intencities @ Artgenda 2000 credits: OCEAN north Architecture. Juha Fiilin Multimedia Design. Katastro.fi Multimedia Design. Janne Räisänen Fine Arts. Klaus Haapaniemi Graphic Design. Gruppen Fyra Choreography & Dance. Placebo Effects Oslo Rendering and Animations. Helsinki International Production Office.

 

  Summary  Generative Diagramming contributes to produce complex geometries derived form site information and deformed by site-specific forces or introduced information. These geometries when negotiated towards

real life situa sit uatt ions ion s produce produce space spaces, s, which which are adapta adapt able, flexible flexible and an d programmable, pr ogrammable, yet art iculated culate d and rich. T his t ype of flexibi flexibillity comes from the th e richness of t hese spaces. spaces. Since the computer (in such a process) is an engine for the production of the unanticipated the designer's att at t ention is moved mov ed from from production production t o preparation preparat ion and po st produ pro ducct ion, which means means decodi decoding ng and coding codi ng (pro jection). ect ion). T o use t he co mputer t hi hiss way way implies an int intim imat atee hum human-machine an-machine relation sin since ce t he resullt is only unant resu unant icipat icipat ed in cont cont ext . The human's human's role role is to be th e "u "un-an n-antt icipat icipat or". The generative diagram, which initially only deals with generic structural information, is implemented through interpretation regarding the specific context. Human sense (meaning, culture, program) is 24 t hereby hereby pr oject ojected ed to the th e mat mat erial, which inj in jects ect s cont cont ent t o generative generative fform. orm.   T hough hough projection is is increasingly important compared to a "traditional" (internal self-centric) design process, the designer is  by no means me ans removed from fro m produ pro duction ction.. But But t he product production ion process pr ocess is alte alt ered and an d in st ages ages separated separate d from projection. The designer is in phases obliged into a state of disinterest and detachment, operating 25 t he parameters of t he processes processes rather t han being being the p rocess rocess engine engine him or her self. self.   The diagrams role in the creative process is to give resistance to the obvious. Eisenmann described this ...separate form from from as overcoming overcoming the t he mot ivate ivat ed where where the t he diagram diagram is t o act as a resist resistant ant agen agentt t o "...separate  funcction,  fun tion , for fo rm from m ean ing an d architect from the process of des de sign." ign ." (Eise (Eisenman nman)) p. 214

Allen, S. (1999). Points + Lines. New York, Princeton Architectural Press. Arnheim, R. (1969). Visual Thinking. Berkley, University of California Press. Eisenm Eise nman, an, P. ( 1999) 19 99) . Diagram Diagram Diaries. Diaries. New New York, York , UNIVE UNIVERSE. RSE. Lynn, G. (1 (1998). 998). Fold, Fold, bodies & blobs. blobs. Collect Collect ed essays. essays. Lynn, G. (1999). Animat Animatee Form. New New York, Princeton P rinceton Archit Archit ectura ect urall P ress ress.. Massumi, B. (1998). Line Parable for the Virtual (On the Superiority of the Analog). Beckmann Beckm ann J. T he Virt Virtual ual Dimension Dimension Pr in incet ceton on Archit ect ect ural P ress ess.. Rakatansky, M. (1998). “Motivations of Animation.” Any 23: 50-57. St ernberg, ernberg, R R.. J., Ed. (199 (1 999) 9).. Handboo Handbook k of Creat ivit y. Cambrid Cambridge, ge, Cambri Cambridg dgee Un Uniiversity ver sity P ress.

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 Though meaning is already present since the designer introduces a priory and intention-driven selection through the choice of technology, design of process and selection of parameters. 25  Disinterest and personal detachment to the process of creativity connects on one side to ethics of science (CUDOS) on the other to certain movements in art. See also Eisenmann: My use of the diagramproposed a different rationale, one that could be both more logical and more involved with a process of architecture somewhat distant from the design  process of the tradit ional ional aut ho horr -architect architect.. (Eisenman 1999) page 49 

 

 

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