Archives for category: Uncategorized
Metal Foam
Structures of 17–4 PH foams. Left: Good structure with clean, smooth ligaments. Right: Poor structure with broken, knobby ligaments.
6-D Phase Space
The physical features of natural tissues express the distribution and magnitude of the forces that have brought them about. These forces embody the complex relations between physical matter in its given environment and denote its multi-dimensional force field. The work explores the notion of material organization as it is informed by structural load and environmental conditions. Natural micro-structural 2-D tissues are visualized, analyzed and reconstructed into 3-D macro-scale prototypes by computing hypothetical physical responses. An object-oriented finite element application is used to determine material behavior according to assigned properties and performance such as stress, strain, heat flow, stored energy and deformation due to applied loads and temperature differences. The interaction between the directional morphology of the specimen and the tensor direction produce physical effects that emphasize the tissue’s spatial texture in different ways. The resulting model is six dimensional and includes 2-D information (X, Y), out of plane deformation (Y), elastic stress (S), strain (S) and temperature flux (T). The tissue is then reconstructed using a CNC mill and metal/steel and wood composites. Anisotropic in nature, grain directionality and layering are informed by the analysis resulting in laminated structural composites which respond to given ranges of energy and loading conditions. Beyond promoting a new sensibility to material formation, tissue engineering in construction scales may facilitate theemergence of new a new materialism in architecture and design.
Exhititing and Collecting Ideas: A Montreal Perspective
Exhibition as Atmosphere
Showing Work
In the Exhibiting and Collecting Ideas article, Zardini states that curating, which “[places objects] in a new context” will “inevitably contaminate [them] with a new discourse.” Despite the negative vocabulary, he goes on to express that this is not only a positive contamination, but one that pushes the boundaries of various fields outside their comfort zones into new intriguing territories—that it is not simply about putting some disparate objects in the same room and calling it a day, its about creating a unique story that expresses relationships in a previously unseen way. The Urbach articleExhibition as Atmosphere goes one step further by suggesting that a curated collection isn’t just about creating a story, its also about manufacturing an atmosphere or mood to force the understanding of the collection in a certain way. He uses San Francisco’s notorious fog as the agent of change for how we view and experience the city. The actual city itself remains unchanged, but the fog has literally wrapped it in a doubt that makes us question and reinterpret what we previously understood to be the forms, lights, distances, scale, and objects that constitute the collection that is San Francisco. The Lavin article, Showing Work, questioned the use of the word “work” when applied to all things architecture. Maybe I didn’t read it carefully enough, but she seems to be very personally offended by the changing of her own field, as evidenced by her needless complaints about curators creating work out of the work of others, which she even admits “adds new players and possibilities to the field.” Although I find her bitterness very distracting (I struggle to sympathize with her enough to stick around for the point she’s trying to make), I feel like her argument is hinged on one very narrow and specific definition of one word. “Work” is an all-encompassing term to describe the stuff that we do every day to earn a living. It doesn’t matter whether that stuff is plumbing or painting or curating—its all work. So for her to fixate on whether Venturi’s legitimate work was his architecture or his theory, for example, makes me completely uninterested in what this woman has to say. I’m doing many overlapping things right now – thinking about the article, typing this response, posting it to a blog that I’ve spent time formatting—for a class that involves a bunch of other different assignments—to get a professional degree from a school—to get a job drawing handrail details or something for the next 5 years—to spend enough hours to earn me the right to take a series of tests—to pass those tests to earn a professional designation that will finally allow me to “work” in my profession. Where is the work in all that? I think Lavin would argue that I’m not actually doing anything right now, nor have I been for the past two years, nor will I until I earn that $160,00o stamp. I think she would grant me the caveat that I am following the “protocols of connoisseurship” outlined by my profession, but that’s about it. In response, I would tell her that work is effort with the promise of payment (monetary or otherwise) and that she shouldn’t try to cheapen my efforts with her inability to adjust.
Natural Growth 