Firefly Experiments

"Firefly is a set of comprehensive software tools dedicated to bridging the gap between Grasshopper (a free plug-in for Rhino), the Arduino micro-controller, the internet and beyond. It allows near real-time data flow between the digital and physical worlds, and will read/write data to/from internet feeds, remote sensors and more. It also includes a Pachube reader."

A big THX to the Firefly Developers:
Andy Payne [LIFT Architects; Harvard GSD - Cambridge, MA]
Jason K Johnson [Future-Cities-Lab; CCA - San Francisco, CA]

Website Link

LAN ON SITE ROME – 15 to 20 NOVEMBER 2010

HOST// ISTITUTO NAZIONALE DI ARCHITETTURA
TUTORS// LaN DIRECTORS >> CarloMaria Ciampoli, Luis Fraguada & Monika Wittig
CNC SUPPORT// SOLIDO >> Filippo Moroni

PROGRAM// WALL^2:
The idea of Wall-Squared surfaces as a way of initiating explorations of complex surfaces. ITERATIVE design will be the emphasized design mode. Participants will be given a preliminary WALL and asked to design a second iteration through a controlled modification of a project parameters. Subsequent design iterations will seek to fully integrate insight gained from 1:1 scale fabrication explorations.

The workshop proposes the exploration of 'digital tectonics' whereby the emphasis is on total integration between digital modeling and fabrication at a 1:1 scale. Parametric design will be utilized in both methodology and modeling, where students will explore both associative and generative techniques that investigate variation in form and stress physical production design integration. The workshop will result in the production of full scale, digitally manufactured prototypes. Three main topics will be examined 1/ digital design theory, 2/ parametric design + modeling [RHINO, GRASSHOPPER] and 3/ digital fabrication [RHINOCAM] Each of the tutors hold different specializations within the stated aspects. The workshop will emphasize the importance of fusing the three topics, and the final outcome will consist of a fully integrated design- to-production prototypes through engagement with accessible CNC production means–3d printer, CNC routers & laser cutters.

Link to LaN
Link to Inarch

TEDx Lake Como 2010 - 6 Novembre

Segnalo questo appuntamento che , anche se non strettamente attinente alla ricerca digitale architettonica, ritengo valga la pena di evidenziare.

Link al sito

echomaterico

Fa sempre piacere parlare di realtà italiane emergenti e lo studio Echomaterico fondato da Berardo Matalucci, Fabiano Spano e Enrico Crobu è appunto una di queste.

"echomaterico was founded in 2007 as a system of competences oriented towards an architecture driven by the symbiosis of people and nature. Its main vocation has been to stimulate and reactivate natural and artificial ecosystems, integrating design, analytical and manufacturing attitudes. It's work has been recognized in different international competitions."

Link al sito
Link al blog

Master Universitario di II livello in Territorio e Architettura Sostenibili - TAS

"Il Master ha come obiettivo lo studio delle problematiche di natura ambientale e il progressivo affermarsi dei principi di eco-compatibilità, in relazione alla progettazione territoriale e architettonica, che pongono in primo piano la necessità di:

* un approccio progettuale ispirato ai principi di sviluppo sostenibile;
* una innovazione dei processi insediativi territoriali, urbani e architettonici;
* una stretta sinergia con le potenzialità dell'innovazione tecnologica;
* una maggiore competenza dei progettisti nei campi ecologico, strutturale ed energetico.

E' necessario acquisire competenze per le integrazioni fotovoltaiche nell'edilizia e di climatizzazione a basso consumo energetico, strettamente connesse a modi nuovi di progettare unità urbane e spazi architettonici eco-compatibili.
Il Corso di Master Universitario nasce per fornire ai progettisti, architetti e ingegneri, una formazione specifica e specialistica nel campo degli interventi eco-compatibili e bioclimatici sul territorio, in quelli dell'integrazione energetica degli spazi architettonici preesistenti e nuovi, oltre che nello studio delle problematiche sociali e degli adeguati ambiti spaziali. Il Corso è finalizzato a fornire ai progettisti di interventi territoriali e architettonici, la capacità di affrontare i complessi problemi della sostenibilità e della tutela e sviluppo delle risorse ambientali ed energetiche.

Il profilo professionale è quello di progettista specializzato nella soluzione di problemi ambientali, riferiti alla organizzazione del territorio e dello spazio architettonico. L'attenzione ai problemi della sostenibilità, che l'attuale società manifesta, fa prevedere una forte richiesta, all'interno della pubblica amministrazione e del mercato della libera professione, di una figura di progettista capace di dialogare con altre figure professionali della tecnologia impiantistica energetica e della produzione industriale edilizia coinvolte nel processo di progettazione e realizzazione di un ambiente ad alta sostenibilità e qualità abitativa."

Link al sito

ArchiBureau blog

"We are a multi-disciplinary conglomerate of architecture students from around the country, brought together through an appreciation for intelligent design. Our aim is to promote the knowledge and awareness of designs which are sustainable, contextually inherent, engaging and flexible – through the establishment of precedent and research; we hope to advance the contemporary ideals of present architectural theory, influence approaches to design and provide a knowledge base of design exemplar. Our drive to design is passionate; our work tests notions of the current, looks to the un-discovered (& un-tested) and strives to explore new questions of architectural design."

Link al blog
Link al post "Strand Research"

f(AA)shions | AA Visiting School Paris

The workshop is open to worldwide emerging designers -in architecture and fashion design, students, recent graduates and young professionals.

Our objective is the exploration of novel productions in fashion and architecture.

Fashion scene today has become an ensemble of socio-morphological forces connecting people, catalyzing experimental open design. Fashion per se, with its affinity for transformation, sets a terrain of becomings, architectural identities, scenery and performance.

Within the ever-changing realm of fashion, AA Paris School will foster integral dynamic qualities opening to surprising typologies intrinsic to temporal bodies, fluid matter(s), and singular proportions, morphed together onto large organic systems.

Tutors:
- Jorge Ayala, Director
[Architect, MA Architectural Association School, Founder of [Ay]A Studio]
- Alexandra Verschueren, Fashion Designer
[Master in Fashion Design, Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp]
- Marc Fornes, Architect, AA March
[March Architectural Asoociation School, Principal of THEVERYMANY]
- Marco Verde, Eng, March
[Assistant Professor, HYPERBODY, Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft]
and others

Period: 21-31 March 2011

Link to website

NEWS 052

Generative Design - Book Review: Programming Architecture
LMNts - Stage Lighting with LEDs, Arduino, & Firefly
GeometryGym - Three pin Truss
GeometryGym - Tessellation in Grasshopper (Beijing Watercube revisited)
Dima's blog - PROGRAM SOLVER
P&Alab - P&A LAB Video on VIMEO
P&Alab - Photographic_Form( Processing )
Studio Mode - Business of Aura… Install Tomorrow!
StudioMode - Material Intelligence Flickr Set
Space Symmetry Structure - Self-organizing structures
Space Symmetry Structure - Kangaroo for Generative Components
DesignPlayground - About the possibilities of 3d Printing
Digital Morphogenesis - Untangling Grasshopper – Part 2: Optimisation
volatile prototypes - eerkit release 2 and fvlib release 3
Cerver.org - Kangaroo Physics Engine for GC
Heumann Design/Tech - Iteration in Grasshopper (Without scripting)
improved.ro - Wetgrid
Generic Explorations - Swarm Resources
eat a bug - Parametric Paperstrip
Nervous System - cell cycle for ipad
Neoarchaic - Grasshopper Updates
Sketches of Topology - Tomography

SOFTlab

Segnalo l'interessantissimo blog dello studio newyorkese SOFTlab. Il loro ultimo lavoro CHROMAtex è apparso su numerosissimi siti di design e architettura. Segnalo inoltre che hanno dedicato un recente post alla spiegazione del processo progettuale e produttivo dell'installazione tramite grasshopper.
Link al sito
Link al blog "SOFTlab"
Link al post "CHROMAtex GH Definition"

Digital Crafting

"The research network investigates how new digital production methods are instigating profound changes in the design and building of architecture. Developing the term digital crafting, the network examines how the maturing of interfaces between the design space of the architect and the production space of the manufacturer is leading to the shaping of a new material practice in architecture."
Link al blog