Digital Detailing: Fall 2008
Class Wiki Resources
Readings
Workshops
- Radiance in Ecotect
- Computational Fluid Dynamics
- Workshop 01: Modeling in Rhino
- Raycasting in Ecotect
- Modeling in Ecotect
- Geometry Conversion
- Intro to Grasshopper
- Basics of SolidWorks
- Finite Element Analysis
- Parametric Modeling in SolidWorks
- Sheet Metal in SolidWorks
Project Resources
Sign-Up List
Syllabus
Instructors: Mark Collins / Toru Hasegawa
The seminar operates within a series of digital and physical migrations: between different software/geometric platforms and between extensive properties (weight, size, form) and intensive performances (solar, acoustic, airflow and structural). The focus is to develop a framework for robust prototyping, using a plurality of software to encourage students’ proposals through multiple stages of design, prototyping, simulation and validation. Projects are encouraged to move towards a multi-modal operation; pluralism is seen as a framework in which a manifold of software, materials, and manufacturing processes can be brought into a productive nexus.
Under an umbrella of 'digital detailing' this semesters work will focus on testing and analysis - using software tools and field testing to interrogate the viability of material assemblage. Structural analysis, through FEA and a larger discussion of bio-mimetic and organic structural narratives, will be approached through class discussions and software demonstrations. We will also be working with SquareOne ECOTECT, software employed to simulate solar exposure, thermal gains, acoustic ray tracing, fluid flow, air flow and other environmental performance scenarios. Lastly, through access to the Avery FabCon lab, material prototyping will be utilized to validate geometric inquiries and test structural hypotheses. Through these means, we will be looking to seamlessly work through issues of design, performance and sustainability.
The seminar will look to produce examples of highly performative architecture - structures that finds correspondences and efficiencies in its formal articulation and the manifold conditions of its environment. Fundamentals of geometry, rationalization techniques, time-based simulations and a plurality of performance indexes are implicit in this process - all will be presented in the context of a conceptual approach as well as software demonstrations. We hope to develop a critical stance within each project towards the potential exchanges between virtualized environments and physical performance, as well as an understanding of the limits of current technology, software and hardware.