COMPONENT ARCOLOGIES, Advanced Research Design Studio,
Cornell University, AAP
Fall 2007, Department of Architecture
Studio Instructors: Dana Čupková, Kevin Pratt; Digital Support: Kyle Steinfeld
Contemporary building practice tends to describe architecture as objects situated in a spatial and cultural field. Historically, architecture has defined itself as an autonomous discipline that develops form through an internalized discourse responsive to both particular socio-political contexts and generalized trends in intellectual and popular culture. Ecology posits that entities that have thermodynamic relationships to other entities are bound together in complex systems of energy and information transfer: ecosystems. This studio attempted to develop a methodology that forces architectural discourse to respond and adapt to complex ecologies, understanding context as both complex system and formative force, rather then site condition rendered into culturally constructed understanding of a ground as an occupiable surface. The studio began with the development of a simple material component that responds to and modifies specific environmental conditions. This component was then studied in physical models and Generative Components - parametric CAD software, which allowed for rapid evolution of potential variations and evaluation of their environmental consequences. The initial component design phase ran concurrently with a preliminary investigation of environmental and urban conditions in Dubai, which culminated in a one week studio visit to the United Arab Emirates. The goal of the studio was to develop sequence of material component organizations – component arcologies - integrated into a synthetic system responsive to specific performative conditions. Programmatically the studio brief addressed the environmental problem of water desalination and its potential programmatic and cultural byproducts. We investigated the adaptive abilities of a parameterized form and its potential to become a responsive envelope. Staring from the scale of building component proposal this studio evolved into a final collective project with urban consequences, a componentized holistic system embedded into its localized ecology.
Fall 2007, Department of Architecture
Studio Instructors: Dana Čupková, Kevin Pratt; Digital Support: Kyle Steinfeld
Contemporary building practice tends to describe architecture as objects situated in a spatial and cultural field. Historically, architecture has defined itself as an autonomous discipline that develops form through an internalized discourse responsive to both particular socio-political contexts and generalized trends in intellectual and popular culture. Ecology posits that entities that have thermodynamic relationships to other entities are bound together in complex systems of energy and information transfer: ecosystems. This studio attempted to develop a methodology that forces architectural discourse to respond and adapt to complex ecologies, understanding context as both complex system and formative force, rather then site condition rendered into culturally constructed understanding of a ground as an occupiable surface. The studio began with the development of a simple material component that responds to and modifies specific environmental conditions. This component was then studied in physical models and Generative Components - parametric CAD software, which allowed for rapid evolution of potential variations and evaluation of their environmental consequences. The initial component design phase ran concurrently with a preliminary investigation of environmental and urban conditions in Dubai, which culminated in a one week studio visit to the United Arab Emirates. The goal of the studio was to develop sequence of material component organizations – component arcologies - integrated into a synthetic system responsive to specific performative conditions. Programmatically the studio brief addressed the environmental problem of water desalination and its potential programmatic and cultural byproducts. We investigated the adaptive abilities of a parameterized form and its potential to become a responsive envelope. Staring from the scale of building component proposal this studio evolved into a final collective project with urban consequences, a componentized holistic system embedded into its localized ecology.