performative DESIGN_02

Bahrain, Jun 22-26, 2018

Introduction

Designing with environmental sensibility is evolving as a vital subject in architecture on both professional and academic level. We are at a critical moment wherein environmental considerations are becoming increasingly important in the design process. As the demand for green energy is increasing, buildings are expected to reduce their energy demand, as well as consumption. However, the current trend in education tends to separate architectural design courses from sustainable design. While the first treats architecture as a form of art that is devoid from any environmental responsibility, the second emphasizes the importance of the technical aspect as a separate specialized design layer. Blending the two layers, art and science, in a holistic integrated manner is a new challenge that is facing architecture on both educational as well as professional level.

 METHODOLOGY

Set in a studio environment, the workshop will introduce an integrated approach to design multi story buildings with environmental sensibility. It will provide participants with tools and techniques to integrate environmental data and site-specific issues early in the design process, and be able to respond to them in their design. It will also focus on teaching students how to deploy these principles as a design strategy for different types of projects.

The five-day workshop program will cover both the conceptual and the technical aspects of designing with environmental sensibility. Participant will be working to design a multi-story building on a selected site in Bahrain. They will be working in a feedback loop process, starting with collecting relevant environmental data, analyzing them, conceptualizing them to inform their design generation, testing their concept, then go back and reapply them again. This process entails a shift from the traditional linear process wherein designing a building and its environmental performance are treated as two separate layers within the design process. By integrating the environmental data early in the process, they will inform both form generation as well as skin treatments and articulations, thus creating a synthesis between geometry, skin, and performance.

Participants will also be introduced to 3d printing, and be able to 3d print their models or skins.

//  Tools and Techniques

On a design level, and working with Rhino and Grasshopper workflow, the workshop will introduce participants to parametric design techniques as a new platform for addressing environmental issues. After covering few exercises on the logic and the principles of this design medium, we will apply the learned techniques in a design exercise. We will be analyzing the forces affecting the selected site, developing data-sets for the forces field, and use these data to inform the generation of the building form. Systems differentiation (Design output) will be created as a result of negotiations between the applied environmental forces and students’ design sensibility.

On the technical level, and throughout the use of visual scripting with Grasshopper, participants will learn how to build and manage parametric data structures (from basic simple lists to complex data trees) and to develop data-driven responsive geometry and envelopes. Geometry and building skins will evolve in response to context-specific database that can be selected from a manifold of information such as environmental analysis, orientation, views, and others.

// Daily Program

-Day 1:
 - Introduction Lecture
- Software interface
- Components
-Basic parametric exercises

-Day 2:
- Lists & Data Tree: management, manipulation, visualization
- Geometry generation from data stream
- Exercises (Attractor field, Surface subdivision, Morphing)
-Data-reactive component – data-reactive tessellation on NURBS.
-Tower modeling and surface tessellation.

 - Day 3:
 - Mesh Techniques with Grasshopper
- Data-reactive component – data-reactive tessellation Mesh surfaces. Data coming from attractors or environmental analysis.
-3d printing of the developed towers geometries or skins.
- Lady Bug as a grasshopper environmental plug-in, concepts and application.

Day 4:
- Advanced exercise: Analysis of specific site environmental data to develop a data-set and generate an architectural envelop with responsive features driven by the data-set conditions.
-3d printing of the developed towers geometries or skins.
- Working with participants to develop their own concepts. 

Day 5:
- Working with participants to develop their own concepts. 
- Final Groups Presentation with slides and 3d prints, and Crit.

// pre-requisite Software & skills:

No pre-requite skills required. Knowledge is working with Rhino is preferable. Participants should bring their own laptop with pre-installed software (software download links will be given after subscription).

// Tutors:

Zayad Motlib -  d-NAT (Dubai Network for art, Architecture, and Technology)
شبكة دبي للفن والعمارة والتكنلوجيا

 // Venue:

The workshop will be held at:

Building 33-110, Isa Town Campus

// Calendar & Timetable:

The workshop will have the following timetable:

Jun 22- 9:30 -18:00 A lecture + Exercises

Jun 23- 9:30 -18:00 lesson + Exercises

Jun 24- 9:30 -18:00 lesson + Exercises

Jun 25- 9:30 -18:00 Lesson + selecting a project + concept development

Jun 26- 9:30 -18:00 Projects development, Presentation and Crit + Certificate ceremony

// Subscription fees:

The deadline for registration is 17 Jun, 2018 The workshop has a max of 18 seats.

// registration:

To register please email:

contact@d-nat.net

// Organized by:

This workshop is organized by d-NAT and sponsored by FabriTech (University of Bahrain digital fabrication Workshop ) .