thank you for your thoughts

Final Video

we made it

phew

Model Photos

to do

1. powder model - fix and spray

2. powder model - foam core base

3. powder model - card-cut (?) surrounding built form

4. fabric model - laser cut perspex box and room cut-outs

5. fabric model - stitch and pull

5. 30 second 'fly-through'

6. 30 second maya animation

7. section

8. text.

9. interior render - library

10. interior render - studio

11. interior render - workshop

11. interior/exterior render - catwalk?

12. exterior render - aerial

13. exterior render - cafe

to do list (updated 31 oct 1800hrs)

1. 1:200 Plan interior F1

2. 1:200 Plan Lower ground floor (services, lower theatre)

3. 1:200 Roof plan

4. 1:500 Site Plan (incl landscaping, car park, road paths) S1

5. Program plan (5 pages, each page with close up crop plan of one space)

6. Form diagram Roof -animation screencap F

7. Form diagram Floor -animation screencap F

8. Form diagram site strategy C

9. Landscape diagram ANALYSIS F & C3

10. Landscape diagram EXECUTION F & C

11. Building Section C

12. Building detail section C2

13. Site analysis (diagram of open spaces - establish along yarra banks, the open and closed spaces) C1

14. Thesis on Demolition - Fed Square (Gas and Fuel Building)

15. Thesis on Demolition - High wat on flinders st

16. Thesis on Demolition - ?? S2

17. REDO Programmatic Diagram F2

18. REDO Programmatic Logic

19. RENDER Aerial

20. RENDER Street view from Batman Park

21. RENDER from bridge (intersection)

22. RENDER from under bridge

23. RENDER Interior Studios

24. RENDER of Cafe

25. RENDER of Library

26. design elevation of parti wall with existing openings indicated

27. flow chart

agenda.

Relating “new diagrammatic techniques for handling programmes and spatial adjacencies” and “resonance with a material system” in a design for a new fashion school along Northbank. Drawing from our previous research and experimental work, we were drawing on ideas of Fever, Fashion and Tension Membranes.

In terms of applying Tension Membrane as an architectural design element, the question is what can we do with it? Is it only purely structural? Or is it only purely formal? Or is it confined to neither but is rather a culmination or synthesis of both applications? What can we use it for? How, as a building element, will it enhance the architecture, design and usage of the building as a fashion school?

How can we look for these answers? Is it in the further testing of what the system can do for us – in physical model testing as well as digital model animation? What is special and unique about the tension membrane system? What can it do for the architecture that other conventional building systems cannot do?

So far we have struggled to push for what else Tension Membranes can be. Maybe it is about time we just let the material system be as it is and choose to expand on what it is as it is. And from there, we take what it is onboard to develop and enhance our programmatic analysis and understanding of a fashion school.

Perhaps our final outcome may be a series of fabric tension membranes that frames and separates activities and functions throughout the building. It might be that we choose instead to simulate the carved spaces of the tension membranes with thin concrete instead. Whatever we end up with, the step to first take is to allow the system to be as it is and not be too ambitious in having it look like something never seen before. In doing that, (hopefully) we will end up with an architecture that has never been seen before.

Post-war one

We will have this breakthrough of translating

1. Kinetic Model,

2. Static Model,

3. Energy Data Diagram and;

4. Human Ergonomic Diagram

into one unified, and justified language in 7 weeks. Perhaps Tokyo is a proper break without a break for us? Time to refresh, re-strategize and rework.

I must admit, this is my best experience in architecture so far and I am glad you guys are on board.

Special thanks goes out to Julie Eizenberg from Koning Eizenberg Architecture, Stanislav Roudavski, Tom Kvan, Justyna Karakiewicz, Eugene Cheah and Steve Hatzellis for participating in our crit. I've recorded the one hour conversation for reference without you guys knowing. ; )

the interim post-mortem

What I emptied out from my brain post-crit while I was still reeling with adrenaline:

"What can you do with Maya that you can't do with the physical model?" - Julie Eizenberg

For starters, we can first try simulating the deformation without the stitching of the cloth to a boundary.

One of the constraints that was problematic for us in the making of the physical model was that we felt the need to stitch it's edges to a frame. We were striving to break away from a conventional minimal surface model, and yet we ended up settling for and conforming with the "traditional" set-up.

Now that we can use Maya to further our investigations, perhaps it would be worthwhile to explore the possibilities of a tension net structure:-

1) with or without a perimeter framing
2) types of frames; and,
3) comparing the results regardless of whether we get to an eventual result that we can predict will be useful to us or not.

Better to have a tested experiment that has failed us than a neglected unexperimented hypothesis, no matter what it is still will be a worthy outcome.

DON'T PANIC

We will "ving-it" fellas!

interim and beyond

Everything that has happened is as we predicted. We knew what we were getting into as a group. This is boring. When was the last time surprises in design were in fashion? (no pun intended ha)

When the concern for the final outcome overshadows the concern of the self, magic happens. I want magic and I want it with fire. And I want the crits to leave without their jaws. Time to push.

manipulated cloth

one pinch point and three circular incisions
were made on a rectangular cloth
we then animate it with gravity
and apply three sets of deformations
it needs more control
especially in terms of the validity of the 'emergence'
and function, of course
but it gives an idea of what we can achieve

WAA

Branding – we aim to tickle human’s innate ability to appreciate ingenious creativity (not necessarily beautifully designed products) through verbal expression. WAA is the pun of a common expression used to express a strong reaction (as alarm or astonishment)[1] such as: “WHOA!”, “WAH!” and “WOW!”. This expression is just as common and as intuitive as the word “papa” or “mama”.[2]

---

[1] Taken from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whoa

[2] “papa” and “mama” are global words: they exist in almost all countries and cultures and carry the exact same meaning – best of all, they can be understood without explanation.

parellels

Draw parellels between fashion and architecture?

The act of putting on clothes, different clothes for every season is fundamentally to adapt and to anticipate the changing conditions of our environment. We change clothes every day, and the types of clothes differ every season.

However, we can't build a new house, a new school or a new office tower every season. So instead we make buildings adaptable all year round. Through "component proliferation" or "local manipulation of a larger global system" Menges in "Morpho-ecologies: Approaching Complex Environments" (whatever that means) we make buildings that transform instead of a static computer iteration of a building form that is a compromise or a balance of a few important criteria.

Now, a building like that will make itself so-last-season, over and over again. What an oxymoron.

Where does this lead to?

c

one.

From tehrani's video today, it got me thinking about many things. In order for this project to be a success, we have to keep our minds on the issue of fever. I think in the process of being rigourous about our process we may lose the view of the bigger picture..and get stuck in the technicality of things. I think we need to address the issue o fashion every week in our presentation. We will always need to mention from where we're coming from (departure point: the kawakubo dress) we are addressing the issues, but not making it obvious enough with every presentation - pleats were incorporated into the 'pinching' of the tension model that we made. We should start writing, too. I really want this to be something that melbourne uni hasn't seen for a long while, I want this project to be a whore. (In a good way, of course)
That kinetic model that we made already has the possibility of informing the program - level of activity will determine total energy, and determines form, which we then decide what form's most suited for what. And like steve mentioned, we do have to make clear our process and methodology. And writing things down even as daily jottings will help in direction.

I'm just so pumped by that presentation speech now. We'll do a sparse first slide and capture the attention towards the issue of fever- that by answering the brief (clothes are for comfort, thermal control, looking good, giving an identity etc, and architecture is parellel in terms of its intent) and answering the theme. That's what this semester's is all about. I'd really want to make a stand during the presentation to jury for the student prize award, it'll give other established academician-taught students a bloody run for their money.

-chern.