Analytical Matrix

These are different views of my first Matrix analysis.
The first image is a screen shot from Maya, of the transformation process in a sort of "plan" view. I did not necessarily have a specific formula that I followed in this transformation. I was hoping that by applying one specific action to an isoparm, just once on each piece that I could possibly discover a connection with in my end results. Upon first observation, I did not necessarily see consistencies in the geometries, especially in this image.













I began to rotate my model and started to notice that although there is not an exact perscription of a transformation piece to piece, there is connection between the pieces in the actual image. This screen shot shows that the pieces starting in the upper left corner are appearing to almost fall or be sucked into the lower left corner model, like there is a magnetic pull. This is not necessarily the result I was looking for in a matrical analysis, but it was an interesting connection that I found. By using exactly the same geometry and manipulating only one factor in each case there will still be evidence of the original geometry allowing connection to the other manipulated objects as well as the original piece.

This was my first attempt at creating a matrix of forms. The process begins at the bottom with the shape of the hood being rotated and then each line following has a point pulled deformation/transformation.

Furthering the model of the Hood

The original car model consisted of just the front left side panel. There were several small inconsistencies in the model so I attempted to go back and smooth out the piece. I rebuilt the surface and tried to be more controlled in my sculpting of the piece, as well as continue in building the car hood. Although the side panel and hood are not technically two pieces I thought i could possibly build them as one, then split the shape so they would technically fit together with a seam like that of a car. I am not sure how to split the shape in Maya so I will probably attempt it in FormZ.

Roller Coaster Construction

The way in which a roller coaster is constructed is based on site.  The main idea is created and generated by the engineer, but the site in which the roller coaster is to be placed becomes a major generating factor for the response of the structure.  This is what Alejandro Zaera-Polo of Foreign Office Architects explains is a process of their firms architectural practice.  The concept that building geometries are only related to the manufacturing and construction systems, but modification to these geometries can occur at any time in the architectural process.  He explains that architectural form and creative process is being stifled by the way in which standard architectural technique is being implemented in design.  The rigid techniques of the past are hindering the creative process, and affecting the final structural product. 

 

From the perspective of student that is only working purely in the design process it is always in my mind attempt to create the most compelling design, pushing my limits, while still fulfilling the goals of my project.  This is the goal of the architect, or at least one would hope so. To always create the most compelling structure possible that still fulfills the needs of the client. But architecture is a creative process that is surrounded by a rigid business, which ultimately results in stifled creativity and projects suffer. The article states that, sometimes “experienced architects no longer feel the need to learn.” Perhaps this is at the heart of the issue.  Not necessarily that experienced architects believe they are above learning, but they have discovered their process and don’t see the need to seek outside the world of their comfort zone. A seasoned professional knows what works for him and will do just that…what works.  But the amateur is still learning and changing his process, he has no concept of his limitations and will push to better himself usually surpassing his boundaries ultimately resulting in an unprecedented end product. 

The world is always changing and it is the responsibility for the architect to change with it.   FOA recognizes the importance of flexibility in design for the betterment of the project and the design process.  “Processes are far less constraining then ideas which are linked.”  Rigid ideas and set concepts will ultimately hinder the end result.  Allowing flexibility in the production of the building allows it to take form in a more organic way.  Rather then sticking to the old way of thinking it will allow construction to occur like that of a roller coaster responding to site, context, and changing terrain, just like a roller coaster.  This flexibility will allow a new discipline and process to emerge.

“(FOA) demonstrates how to effectively exploit the potential offered by contemporary architectural techniques in order to initiate dynamic process which produce new effects of contemporary conditions that are temporal and qualitative.”  

Vidler: Warping and Death Cube K

Death Cube "K" is the creation of William Gibson in his Novel Idoru.   A building described as self healing  and bio-active.  Gibson describes as postapocolyptic world in which "Death Cube K" is  used in the judgement of humans.  The picture that is painted for the reader is one of a nightmare, "a world beyond hope" and a creation of places no one would want to be:  a Metamorphosis bar constructed of "acid etchecd metal...(and) roach lighting," or a room in which a machine that is "suggestive of antiqued dental equipment" engraves the sentence of guilt on the condemned victim's body.  

This is referred to as a Franz Kafka themed bar.  Franz Kafka was a novelist whose work is characterized by  its portrayal of an enigmatic and nightmarish reality where the individual is perceived as lonely, perplexed and threatened.   It is following this description that a connection is made to Morphosis' architecture and the fact that there may be a relationship to be made between Kafka's architectural and spatial descriptions and the recent urban and institutional projects of Morphosis.

It was not until halfway through this article when I reached the section on Tipping the Wall and The Burrow, that I began to grasp what I believe is the connection being made between "Death Cube K", Kafka, Morphosis, and spatial warping.  The intent of this article revolves around the concept of spatial warping, Vidler suggests that there are two types, one that is psychological and one that is artistic.  Psychological warping is a result of the human experience and proposes that space is not actually empty but is in fact full of disturbing objects and forms, and exists as a projection of the subject.  Morphosis is not necessarily creating architecture that mimics the nightmarish realm of Death Cube K or Kafka, but it is striving to create spaces in which visual laws are tested, limits are pushed, floors are horizontal walls, and gravity is questioned.   

In The Burrow, Morphosis digs into the ground implying no limit to height or depth.  It is here that Morphosis pulls away from the nightmares and disturbia of the Death Cube concepts of warped space.  A burrow once thought to be a space created by fear, a dungeon, in the world of Morphosis "celebrates the underground as another dimension of gravity free space, moving at will around ground zero without recognizing the transition."  An otherwise paranoid burrow becomes a sanctuary.    Morphosis appears to address the warping of space, and the psychological affect it has, but it does not surrender to the idea that warped space results in horror when left to the imagination of the individual.

Project 1 a

Pieces

Greg Lynn Probable Geometries and Blobs

The idea of human order, architectural order and the relationship of the human body to architectural space is one in which every architectural student is aware.  Architecture typical has a clear connection to proportion, pure form, and geometry, Greg Lynn's Probable Geometries: The Architecture of Writing in Bodies states the rejection of Bataille and Hollier to static proportion of the complete pure forms of exact geometries in architecture "in favor of a transgressive practice of writing against form."  

 

According to Bataille and Hollier architecture is eidetic: reducible, static, exact, fixed, proportional, and identically reproducible.  In accordance to their definition of writing, architecture and writing are quite opposite.  If writing "does not arrest matter in fixed proportions; it respects and maintains incompleteness, undecidability, amorphousness and other vague characteristics" then it is indeed anti-architecture by definition.

 

It was about this point in the article that I found myself lost, trying to define “writing” and more clearly understand why exactly it is not architectural.  But after reading the article in its several times, I think I may have begun to understand exactly what Lynn was arguing. Writing is something that we use to explain concepts and ideas, but concepts, ideas, words, and meaning are ever changing.  They are not concrete, words can be vague; two people can say the exact same thing yet the context can result in completely separate meanings.  Architecture, when referring to a physical building is concrete, static, its there, built and physically cannot change on its own, by the definition given by Bataille and Hollier.  So by default using writing to explain and define architecture one is actually creating a contraction, using something that is ever changing and vague, to explain something that is static and defined. 

 

I also found the discussion of exact, inexact, and anexact quite compelling, although initially difficult to grasp because I have never encountered the concept of anexact, the idea is quite clear, and it actually makes sense for the three to exist.  The concept of anexact, something that is rigorous and precise that still lacks unity and completion allows for flexibility in concepts and a greater range of thinking about form. 

 

Blob Tectonics, or why tectonics is square and topology is groovy seems to directly tie into these concepts.  The concept that a form can exist in exact definition but be capable of change because of its surroundings and the environment in which it is placed.  It is an anexact form in theory.  It also allows an understanding of the blob, an once thought of goo like substance the is nothing more then that which is depicted in horror movies, is actually a complex form.  

Car Choice Audi TT