experimental modelling

BASIS FOR A MODELLING PROPOSAL

From my perspective, we live in a world of evolving possibilities with technological advancement as a vehicle that takes us there, on the otherhand it is also what drives and stimulates us to generate more and innovative ideas at an exponential rate.  These ideas are realised in many forms, in the way we live and the environment we create for ourselves.  My research will look into aspects of ideas formed (in particular aspects of design relating to surface architecture and/or topology); and factors that determine the choices made that relate to how our society is shaping our urban form.

The focus of this research will be on themes of sustainability and surface architecture.

Here are some books that are 'foods for thought' and influence how I form my views on these topics -

• "..Yet much of the debate about the sustainability of cities and urban forms has focused on increasing the density of development, ensuring a mix of uses, containing urban 'sprawl' and achieving social and economic diversity and vitality...It is for more compact, high-density and mixed use urban forms, and the belief is that they will be sustainable.  This book will take this type of urban form as its starting point and will test the claims made for it."   Jenks, M & Jones, C 2010, Dimensions of the Sustainable City 2, Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg, London, New York.

• "A response to the community's ideas for creating a better Sydney"  Sydney City Council 2009, Sustainable Sydney 2030: The Vision. City of Sydney, Sydney.

• "The economy needs to 'eat' resources, and eventually all this intake bcomes waste and has to leave the organism -the economy - again."   Wheeler, S & Beatley, T 2009 The Sustainable Urban Development, ed.2, Routledge, London, NewYork.

• "The strong regional presence in the city has given rise to often hostile relations between local and regional interests, chiefly between those of local residents and the State."South Sydney City Council 1995, Strategy for a Sustainable City of South Sydney, South Sydney City Council, Sydney.

• McManus 2005, P Vortex Cities to Sustainable Cities: Australia's Urban Challenge, UNSW Press, Sydney.

• Young, G 2008, Reshaping Planning With Culture, Ashgate, England.

• "Even though it has become common to interpret the alternative between industrial production and representation in stylistic terms, such an understanding can be misleading, since it assumes that architectural solutions to economic requirements have their own style, the modern style." Leatherbarrow, D & Mostafavi, M 2002, Surface Architecture, Mass Institute of Technology Press, US.

• Anderson, C & Koehler, K 2002, The Built Surface, Ashgate, London. 

• Bechthold, M 2008, Innovative Surface Structures: Technology and Applications, Taylor & Francis, England, NY. 

•  "A volume is enveloped by a surface, a surface that is divided according to the generators and the directing vectors of the volume, accentuating the individuality of this volume.  Architects today are afraid fo the geometric constituents of surfaces.  The great problems of modern construction will be solved with geometry.  Under strict obligation to an imperative program, engineers use the directing vectors and accentuators of forms.  They create limpid and impressive plastic facts."  Intro by Cohen, J, translation by Goodman, J 2008, Le Corbusier Toward an Architecture, Frances Lincoln Ltc, London.

From a basic perspective using 3d modelling as a tool, the following iterations represent how I conceptualise the essence of sustainability - the endpoints represent the factors to be incorporated to attain a sustainable result. they are set out in a grid as they are inter-related and make up the basic framework of the urban form. these endpoints are connected by arcs or lines originating from one main central point which represents the users or our society today. the arcs represent decisions and ideas; the pipes that run along these represent the resulting surface architecture - as a whole, this is the sustainable urban form.

here are some images of buildings as samples of the culmulation of ideas and decisions relating to sustainability and surface architecture. they contribute to the whole make up of our urban form:

                                                        Elbe Philharmonic Hall, Hamburg

STAY TUNED! - THIS EXPOSITION WILL BE SUPPORTED BY REVIEWS ON THE POINTS OUTLINED IN THE ABOVEMENTIONED BOOKS, THEIR RELEVANCE TO OUR URBAN LANDSCAPE AND HOW THEY CAN BE ADAPTED TO FIT THIS PURPOSE.