Architecture in Progress

Project: LTN_Summer Houses in Tinos Island

Team: J.Leontopoulos, G.Voudouri

Stage: In Progress

Designing a house near the sea, is pretty much about creating different kinds of “in between” open air spaces, always respecting the natural environment. Here are the first sketches of a summer house in Tinos. The spaces are articulated in a longitudinal pattern between two of the stone retaining walls that already existed in the mountain. Instead of a bigger volume, the spaces are divided into two, so that between them a patio protected from the strong wind provides an extra living space which could easily be used during the whole day.  Another, smaller patio in the East, provides a different, more cosy  atmosphere for different moods.

Parametric Dome_Design + 1:1 Fabrication

“A dome is a common structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere”

This project was developed during the third term of the MAA_IaaC 2007-2008, by a group of 20 students, under the tutorship of Marta Male-Alemany and with the assistance of Shane Salisbury.

The objective of the project was to design a dome-shaped pavilion and fabricate it 1:1 using the facilities of the FAB-LAB Barcelona, and to prepare an exhibition about the whole process.

The modeling was done in TopSolid – parametric and associative design software, which links entirely the design with the fabrication process, as every change in the model gives new updated fabrication files. The fabrication was done with a laser cutting machine (Spirit GE 100W). The materials used were 3mm corrugated cardboard and plastic zip ties for the connections. The final pavilion is about 3.5m (radius) by 2m (h), and consists of about 1000 different triangles, needing 5 days and 20 people working in shifts all 24 hours to cut and assemble. The pavilion has integrated motion sensors and leds that light up according to the amount of people around it. A really interesting project that put us all the way into the world of digital fabrication.

The process was very demanding from the very first moment, since each decision made would affect and be affected by time and materiality issues. The decision about the final size of the dome, the number of the components, were directly linked with the strength and the price of the material, the time it would need to cut and assemble, the people needed to attend and carry out all that. One very important and frustrating at moments fact was that the final design was mostly developed taking into consideration the capabilities of the lasercutting machine we would use ( the bed is 450x900mm and it cannot cut metal). But even that, was one of the greatest lessons about CAM fabrication!

The final presentation was articulated in three parts, consisting of a:the process of design and fabrication, b:the detailed presentation of the final product and c:the process of work in terms of team work and organization. All that of course were completed by all the initial models produced during the design and fabrication research, and a video demonstrating the soul of the project.

Check out the whole process of the project: The Dome @ IaaCblog

INFO®NATION_IaaC MAA_THESIS PROJECT

A question to be answered always before starting to design is setting one’s parameters. Especially when using Parametric Design Techniques and when dealing with an existing context, the translation of qualities a space may have or of notions and feelings experienced there is a very important step that ensures the final solution will be sufficiently based on reality and not in form finding quests.
The above question being the base of it, this project is aiming to create a series of spaces integrated in the urban fabric of Barcelona (Ciutat Vella). Their most important feature is that they introduce spatial qualities stemming from the life of immigrants in Barcelona. They are made for the inhabitants of Barcelona to use and they integrate information from immigrant’s countries in different media.

“>Why deal with the theme of immigration?Although Barcelona seems to be an example of multicultural city, one can still notice that immigrant populations are not as integrated in the life of the city and of course we don’t avoid seeing discriminative and racist behaviours.The only obvious way to bring the two sides closer is – upon their requests in relevant researches – communication. Letting the ones know the other’s background and points of view might allow them to understand each other and interact better. And since there is enough information around about Catalans and their life, what is missing is information and connection with the countries of the immigrants.Of course, if we wanted to put the use of the proposed spaces in a more pragmatic level, they could include helpful databases or information on current job offer around the city, or a service-connection point between the citizen and the municipality.

The first step in this research process was to have an overview of the immigrants’ lives and from that extract feelings and notions that would then be translated into spatial qualities.

The same procedure was repeated for the urban spaces, where the structures were to be put. The outcome was a whole range of spatial parameters that would define the form, use and performative aspect of each space and that would form the base on which the parametric model was created.

PARAMETRIC MODEL

In sequence, that model was used to make some case studies in nodal points of the old city (Las Ramblas, Born, Ciutadella, Placa Catalunya), the places having the common base of multinational use and at the same time maintaining individual qualities that allow for space variations to appear. The spaces created have different forms and uses responding to each places urban characteristics and contain various forms and media of information.

Master Thesis Tutor: Olaf Gipser

Thesis Project MAA 2007-08

My intension for the Thesis Project was to combine the knowledge I have gained during the Master’s Program on the definition and realization of a parametric design project with a broader initial research on the urban fabric and social aspects of it which would serve as the source of my parameters. I tried in my first Thesis Proposal (below) to think on a network of small scale spaces that would reactivate the link of the citizens to the public space. One of the problems of this -too vast still- proposal was that since the public space of Barcelona where I intended to work on is beyond doubt very well used, the function proposal I would make should be a very strongly justified one. I had therefore to think more on the specifics of my proposal, keeping the general scale and design direction framework.

Live®city Habitat
Facing the disconnection of users with the public space in the context of an ever-growing time based urbanity, it would be interesting to reconsider the appropriation of public space by the citizens. One way to do that could be through the creation of a system of urban prototypes that discuss upon the whole range of uses between the borders of public and private. A means of infrastructure interfering with the urban fabric that starts from particular points and spreads out following its own growth rules but always mutated by the city and infecting the city itself.
As an initial intention of location the design could focus on transition parts of the urban fabric or even observe simultaneously the reaction caused by the placement of those “prototypes” in totally different points of the city. Are they working or not? How do people use the interior and the space around them? Is there any significant change in the fabric around them caused because of their existence?
In terms of methodology, a first step should be a research on performances and their associations, in order to develop the vocabulary of qualities that will then evolve into spatial parameters. Some examples of such associations and parameters could be: Open-air/ Sheltered, Enclosed/Communicative, Permeable/ Solid, Big/ small, Horizontal/ Vertical, Border/ Union, Space/ Element.
In this research parametric associative design can be the appropriate tool to translate social, spatial, location and time contexts into form and structure. This would certainly give the opportunity to deal in a more precise and efficient way with the complexity of notions forming today’s urban cityscape. As far as the scale of the design project proposed is concerned, since the design tools that will be used give the opportunity to move from an urban scale to fabrication methodology and detail, one focus scale will be decided according to the direction of research that will be taken up.