Digital Architecture Lab

2011-08-11T23:43:00.000-07:00

BUSAN OPERA HOUSE

The proposal consists of an organic building-scape which allows for a  variety of recreational and educational activities while creating a cultural icon for Busan. The  building is organized around three principal wavelengths generated  parametrically based on the pre-existing local tensions: a stunning  ocean view to the west, a bustling city to the east, and a thriving  cultural district to the south. From this parametric interaction the  building emerges as the non-linear product of three analogical volumes.  Each component can function independently yet is part of the same  overall structure, inter-connected through the control point-responsive  use of smooth spatial transitions.

 These three volumes comprise: an opera house with a capacity of 2000 people, a multi-purpose theater with a capacity of 1500, and an art  exposition room for exhibits and rehearsals. The central plaza functions  as an articulatory component serving as a meeting point and public  space for social activities and includes a multi-use amphitheater. The  use of roof gardens allows for the important application of   green energy technology, effectively integrating the lush regional environment with the city Opera. 

Project Design: Arch. Diana Q. de Saul + Arch. Alejandro Munevar

Renders: Arch. Carlos Escobar

DESIGN PROCESS

2011-06-20T17:11:00.000-07:00

2011-05-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

PUSHINSKY CINEMA COMPETITION

This project deals with, on the one hand, preservation of the ¨snow clad¨ character of the “White City”, and on the other, the complex dynamics that the new material gives expression to.

In bringing back the Pushkinsky cinema to the city, this proposal establishes a continuation of the “White City”; analogically, of the material and its curvature in the new cinema, emulating the elegance of what the "palace" of the Moscow International Film Festival represented fifty years ago. One of the most remarkable characteristics of the structure is its ability to continually change in appearance; the building envelope´s lighting system allows for shifts in intensity and frequency, and energy flow emanating from the activities inside of the building as well as without is optimized, ultimately leading to the site´s attraction as an icon of the city.

One of the façade materials used is DuPont Corian external Cladding which allows for carved effects on roof and wall surfaces to achieve different ” levels of light transition”.
 

2011-02-02T07:06:00.000-08:00

Experimental surfaces
The surfaces above were generated using parametric curves as profiles in Grasshoper and then edited in GC through the application of external forces.

2010-08-23T13:48:00.000-07:00

This is the group work that we developed at the Material intelligence workshop. The goal of the project was to explore different parametric features in a system made of differentiated components, as well as including the potential material for design innovation. Through iterative work flows with an emphasis placed on material prototyping, an installation was designed integrating digital parametric design and fabrication. The equipment used included an industrial CNC 3-axis Mill and CNC High-Force Cutter, The primary CAD platform used was Grasshopper for Rhino3D, supported by a suite of associated programs including Rhino Cam, RhinoNest, and Brazil Render.

2010-04-09T18:22:00.000-07:00

SMART GEOMETRY CONFERENCE 2010
WORKING PROTOTYPES

The goal of the workshop was to design a constructive system composed out of uniquely formed building blocks. The architectural potential of the developed system was tested through applying it on the design and fabrication of a prototypical building structure. The blocks were fabricated out of Styrofoam using a robot in combination with a hot wire cutting machine and dry joined. Stability of the building element was achieved through friction and the interlocking of the individual blocks.

2010-03-05T07:17:00.000-08:00

2010-01-14T19:53:00.000-08:00

This is a concept for a house that I designed at Tony Owen Partners. The house was generated using a system which consists of the use of control points in responsive manners according to local tensions; the sub-location of the control points allows for manipulation of the overall form which is on a spline surface built within a force- field. In this case as well as in the Elizabeth st. building the initial geometry was generated with GC and then developed in Maya.

2010-01-13T23:45:00.000-08:00

This residential building was generated from the system designed in Smart Geometry in SF last year. It consists of the integration of a growth algorithm with different variables and the application of external forces as driving factors in the generation of the overall form. The initial geometry of this project was generated in Generative Components and then developed in Maya at Tony Owen Partners.

2009-08-16T06:36:00.001-07:00

Possible Morphological outcomes

The diagram show some of the performances of the system related to the building skin and structure.

2009-04-07T20:43:00.000-07:00

SYSTEM FOR A TALL BUILDING
"From the simple to the complex"

This is the system for a tall building that I designed in the Smart Geometry 2009 workshop in San Francisco. The project was selected to be presented on the conference day at the Intercontinental Hotel. Ben Doherty in his lecture entitled "Notion Parallax" exhibited the principal features of this project; the design process and its systematic approach which is based mainly on the growth algorithm. He subscribed the system as something that goes from "the simple to the complicated".
In this project two independent growth algorithm sequences and replications with angle variations were used as a strategy for control on one hand the structure and on the other the enclosure. As well as in my previous project, three variables were applied and external forces were used as driving factors in the generation of the overall form.

+Arch. Diana Q de Saul.

+SmartGeometry San Francisco 2009

2009-02-28T03:42:00.000-08:00

System 02

2009-02-28T01:10:00.000-08:00

INSTALLATION FOR EDAW_Design, Planning and Environments Worldwide_Sydney
RAPID PROTOTYPES

This is an independent installation for EDAW in which we were applying some of the membrane system techniques that we developed with Michael Hensel and Defne Sunguroglu (Ocean North / Architectural Association.) in the master class 2007 at UTS.
In the first stage of the project different prototypes were made in order to examine the performance of the material as well as their responsiveness to solar radiation. Next a 6m x 4 m installation was placed in site at EDWA offices in Sydney

++Arch. Ben Woollen and Diana Q. de Saul
+Sydney 2009

2009-01-08T21:29:00.000-08:00

INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT INTO PARAMETRIC ORGANISATIONS

 If the relationship between architecture and the environment today could be explained as Parasitism, where the buildings are the superimposed Parasoits that consume valuable natural resources, the next relationship could be described as Mutualism where both of the entities architecture and environment would coexist as a Mutual,  supportive, non competitive networking. In order to reach that point,  an investigation of the fundamental processes in Living systems as  Morphogenetic processes as well as the interaction of living components  in architecture is relevant in helping minimizing environmental problems  in addition to maximizing building performance. This research   interrogates the process of hybridization of natural and artificial  systems in Architecture in helping to generating responsive structures.  The project is focus first of all on the process of form-generation  through the articulation of living systems with the physical  environment in a digital substrate (parametric studies), and secondly on  fabrication; from digitally fabricated components to living ones.

Morphogenesis and Epigenesis in  Bilogical Systems

“The  fashionable ideology of ultra-Darwinism, which reduces organisms to  little more than machines for the replication of DNA, is gradually being  replaced by a more holistic trajectory in which life is considered to  depend upon complex interactions that occur within cells, organisms, and  with their micro- and macro-environment through time and space”.

Jenny E. Sabin, Peter Lloyd Jones (Acadia 2008)

In  the Darwinist theory of natural selection, Morphogenetic changes in an  organism come from the evolution of favourable phenotypes which are the  ones which prevail as a result of their successful adaptation through  generations. (this is a long term process where generally strength is  what prevails to develop the proper skills to survive). In Epigenesis  (Change in gene expression) there are two different aspects related to  Morphogenetic changes; in the traditional point of view it refers to  something that is considered being formed or organized from the  beginning, here, Morphological changes occur according to established  genetic information. More recently, it has been theorized that  organization and form evolve over time through exchanges and  conditionings, and although DNA itself does not change its structure,  environmental factors affect the behaviour of the genes which “behave (or express themselves differently)”. 

Morphogenesis and Epigegesis in computational enviroment

By focusing on the processes of interaction between cells and external factors rather that on the pure gene, a different perspective on the construction and dynamics of Morphogenetic architecture is beginning to emerge. The system that I developed in Parametric studies for the design of a responsive surface system (figure 01, 02) integrates a growth algorithm which in this case corresponds to the Tree System (which is the parametric function where the first line is taken as input in order to create the two following lines as branches from the first end point with a specified direction) with different variables such as increment, segment length, angle, and the application of external forces which themselves are the parametric relations between component distances, control points, tree root systems and their directions. Differentiation is achieved through manipulation of control point sublocations (Figure 02), reflecting enviromental factors, as well as through change in generations (time variable).
Once the parametric settings were established, The system was placed on site. in this stage the system interacts with the environment by responsiveness to the local pedestrian tensions. in order to reach this balance, three different force fields were introduced based on the independent directions. As a result, the Control point acts in a flexible manner towards pedestrian tensions generating a particular morphology as shown in the figures 1,2 and 3. Variations in density was achieved by changes in the recursion depth variable (stage of growth) of the tree system. Next the fourth stage of growth was selected as a base structure for a pavilion.

Part of the performance of the system consists of adaptation according to the density the program requires; for instance as seen on the next figure the pavilion does not require a complex structure this is why the 7th (fig.2) and 10th (fig.3)stages of growth where discarded.
The images show some of the possibilities for the pavilion’s scaffold.
In this picture,a BSpline surface was created by Sweeping a circle along the 3d Voronoy path. Smoothness was archived by using subdivisions in Maya.

Offset points were exported to excel and random combination of numbers (point coordinates) were tested as possible routes for a Spline Curve which performs as the structure of the Pavilion and 2 additional control points were introduced in order to achieve control of the enclosure (which responds to environmental factors).

UTS_University of technology of Sydney 2008
+Tutor: Anthony Burke
+Students: Arch. Diana Q. de Saul

2008-10-09T00:43:00.001-07:00

PARAMETRIC STUDIES FOR A RESPONSIVE SURFACE SYSTEM 2

+ Change in angle generates different spatial distributions. Digital form- finding processes are used to investigate possible structures and spacial distributions. 2D Delaunay triangulation, Voronoi and networking diagrams help to understand relations between components in their eighth stage of growth.
The figures make evident the symmetrical condition of a system which has not been affected by external forces. Yet.
+ the voronoi diagrams inform as to gradual morphological changes; from figure 1 to 3, geometrical symmetry has been broken. Differentiation is achieved through variations in the distance between intersections (points) and the applied force.

2008-10-08T22:52:00.000-07:00

PRELIMINARY STUDIES FOR A RESPONSIVE SURFACE SYSTEM 1

“In short, emergent articulations within surfaces will aim at introducing an emergent form of aggregation, as Greg Lynn has defined it in Intricacy, “a non-modular construction where almost each and every part is unique in shape and dimension”. “Variations are not random but are derived from the overall composition of a whole. Aggregations are instances where modular components are complexly connected to produce a mass or form that is not simply reducible to a single modular logic of assembly.”
On Forms and Tectonics of Cellular Aggregation
MARCELO SPINA & PETER TESTA & TOM WISCOMBE

UTS_University of technology of Sydney 2008
+Tutor: Anthony Burke
+Students: Diana Quintero

2008-09-16T04:31:00.000-07:00

SURFACE-TO-STRAND MORPHOLOGIES

+UTS_University of technology of Sydney 2008
+Tutor: Tom Wiscombe, David Burns
+Students: Sylvie Milosevi and Diana Quintero

2008-09-16T03:27:00.000-07:00

COMPUTATIONAL MATERIAL STUDY
Surface Component

UTS_University of technology of Sydney 2008
+Tutor: Anthony Burke, David Burns
+Students: Diana Quintero

2008-09-14T22:05:00.000-07:00

VERTICAL ECOLOGIES I

The goal of the project was to bring a new level of
performative organizational systems to the consideration
of tall buildings. Through hybridization and performance
oriented design the system presents diverse possibilities
for high-risers with a diffferent set of intelligent and
conscientious realizations.

+UTS_University of technology of Sydney 2008
+Tutor: Anthony Burke, David Burns
+Students: Ravi Adusumilli and Diana Quintero

VERTICAL ECOLOGIES II

UTS_University of technology of Sydney 2008
+Tutor: Anthony Burke, David Burns
+Students: Ben coorey and Diana Quintero

2008-09-14T07:50:00.000-07:00

PERFORMATIVE MEMBRANE SPACES

“The intensive studio experimented with form-finding procedures for lightweight membrane and cable-net structures. Single membrane patches and membrane assemblies were analysed with regards to their environmental performance, considering their geometry and orientation towards environmental input within a specific context. Light (luminous flow, illuminance, shading and
self-shading) and airflow studies informed the design of specific membrane arrangements. Physical modelling was complemented by the production of digital models of work in progress. The end result of the masterclass was a series of membrane and cable-net pavilion prototype designs at a scale of 1/10”
http://www.dab.uts.edu.au/student-work/architecture-detail.htm

+UTS_University of technology of Sydney 2007 +Tutor: Michael Hensel and Defne Sunguroglu (Ocean North / Architectural Association.)
+Students:Sam kashuk, Mads Brath, Nicholas Jacobsson and Diana Quintero.