New methods of fabrication and construction are changing the practice of architecture. The use of the computer as a design aide is rapidly being augmented by the capabilities of the computer as a COMPUTATION machine.
Amorphous Ornament is an introduction to the design and fabrication of complex parametric forms using the computer as the main design medium. The course will question how these new techniques of design fit into the greater concept of architecture, and how they also relate to the past.
Ornament once held a significant role in the creation of architecture. Its decline is often attributed to the arrival and incorporation of technology in the modernist approach to architecture. The possibilities being realized with computer controlled fabrication have the potential to efficiently reinvigorate the role of ornament within architecture.
The primary skills to be developed are parametric digital modeling and CNC manufacturing. The semester work will examine the possibilities of computer generated form, and its fabrication using CNC machines. The Diplomwahlfach arbiet topic of ornament allows us to work at the 1:1 scale for production, but will be treated as a metaphor to allow the learning to be applied to a greater understanding of architecture.