Benjamin Samuel Koren was born in Frankfurt/Main and grew up in Miami, Florida. He studied architecture, film and music at the University of Miami and the Architectural Association in London, at which he was awarded a Bronze Medal commendation, an SOM fellowship and the iGuzzini Award at the 2005 RIBA President’s medals for his project entitled “Harmonic Proportion in Amorphic Form”. Continue reading
Posted in Guest lectures
The second module in the CAAD introduces a pragmatic approach to architectural design, bringing into play materiality, computation and fabrication. The day started with three lectures by Manuel Kretzer, Mathias Bernhard and Tom Pawlofsky, who gave the fundamental concepts and the main guidelines for the following four weeks. The design competition was handed over and a preliminary index of concepts was promptly composed on the floor. Basic introduction to McNeel Rhino, Rhinoscript and Grasshopper will take place the following days to provide the necessary technical background in the design process.
The emergence of rapid prototyping and CNC fabrication techniques in the fields of design and architecture has erased the limits of physical construction and manufacturing. Nowadays forms and structures of so far unimaginable complexity cannot only be designed but also physically produced within the digital chain – and it’s not too utopian to predict that soon complete buildings can be digitally fabricated. This approach has led to an overflow of geometrical experiments and free form structures and may soon reach its aesthetic limits.
M2 design and production is looking for new strategies for the design of complex architectural forms. The module is focused on the relationship between design, various methods of (generative) computer modeling, the importance of materiality in the digital age and the physical representation of information using CAD/CAM devices.
M1_final video_trailer from MASCAAD1112 on Vimeo.
Posted in M1 Theory and Information
The conclusion of the first module brought about a map of concepts, based on the text of Deleuze&Gattari “The Geology of Morals”. The outcome is meant to have a contribution on the next modules, serving as an index, available for individual configurations.
Posted in M1 Theory and Information
In 1854 George Boole developed an algebra that reflects logical thought (An Investigation of the Laws of Thought). Computers follow this type of algebra and externalise precisely what we call logical thinking (Turing, 1936; von Neumann, 1945). We may call it Turing Computing. Using computers, we are able, as creative people, to explore this logical ‘think space’. We can discover phenomena never seen before. Multitudes of new images, geometries and artefacts become concrete constructions from a logical world. It’s so simple: procedures, iterations, recursions, objects, rules, constraints, agents, text, drawing, imagery, video, morphing, topology, grammar, cellular automata, parametric geometry, simulation, generation, evolutionary algorithms, neural networks… all easily accessible and online.
This module offers practical exercises in logical order systems and delivers an introduction to corresponding thought. Technologies: processing, Java, Eclipse.
With all these manifold availabilities, we, with our problems, tend to get in our own way. We can’t see the wood for the trees. In view of all the analysis and statistics, we are blind to the causes. We don’t see what next steps are adequate. (We don’t want to keep talking about ‘solutions’ any more, seeing that we want to go beyond thinking in terms of ‘problems’.) Yet we could create approaches to issues such as urbanity, sophistication, modes of living, friendliness, inspiration, openness, concentration, creativity, liveliness, differentiation, narratives, styles and fashions, beyond individual parameters. A new way of looking at things in a new environment of information makes these creative potentials available to us. We are calling this ‘Non-Turing- Computing’.
This module offers practical exercises in meta- logical order systems and gives an introduction to the corresponding thought processes. Self- organising maps, reaction diffusion diagrams, JAVA, Eclipse.
Informed city light
Urban Light is about to change from a technology to brighten the night into a medium of communication and interaction. Recent developments can be compared with the 19-century introduction of light in public spaces. As it was accompanied by the advent of advertisement, a new kind of media content to be exposed, it led to a socio-technological revolution accompanied by the development of the icon of the modern city Continue reading
Posted in Guest lectures
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