an inspirational blog about all things architecture
FLYING ROBOT CONSTRUCTION
Yesterday I had the pleasure to see the LIVE STREAM of the TED conference in Long Beach and I must admit there were some really amazing talks all heading and proving ideas that we develop with FutureCityLab. So it´s great to see we are not alone out there ;)
The next days I will write some more posts about the impressions of the talks. Also TED was really fast in publishing some talks only. The first videos are available on youtube already today. So I would like to start with one of the talks that made it online already: Vijay Kumar: Robots that fly … and cooperate
Vijay and his team at MIT are developing little quadro-copters that act autonomously. They can remember and detect obstacles. The little robots can fly swarm formations and play music ;)
Amazingly they can also autonomously construct structures which reminds me of the Gramazio & Kohler installation “Flight Assembled Architecture”.
Watching both the videos I leave it up to your imagination how our buildings and difficult structures will be assembled in future. Probably construction will become faster and cheaper. Maybe even taller?
In his third part of his video manifesto he explains that ideas happen at the same time in different places and that they are inavitable and part of a common intelligence. Maybe we could even call it a swarm intelligence that we have as a society. Of course nowadays this links become just much more obvious and we can trace it much better.
Another amazing project of Vijay Kumar´s project is the outdoor version of the flying robots. Equipped with a laser scanner and a Microsoft Kinect the quadrocopter can scan and memorize unknown buildings and environments! Imagine GOOGLE buying some of this robots in future and scanning all public buildings worldwide ;)
Matthias will present the role of climate engineering in the building process by exhibiting real world examples of the built environment, demonstrating how the recognition of outdoor as well as indoor climates can effectively inform design decisions. Understanding the interdependence of the built and natural environment, the impact of design decisions on qualities such as daylight, natural ventilation, air quality, thermal comfort as well as on environmental impact is essential.
Daniel Dendra (anOtherArchitect) | OccupyBerlin : When will cities we know be transformed by the net moment?
Daniel Dendra is discussing in a public lecture how social media and other technologies will change the face of our cities and will allow for more sustainable and social environments.
Monday, 5. Februar 2012, 19.00h DAZ, Köpenickerstr. 48, Berlin
Are you interested in urban farming and worried about the future food supply? Then you should definitely listen to this 6min interview with Prof. Dr. Mark Gorgolewski. Mark is not only concerned about how in future we will be able to meet demands in food of a 9Billion population in 2050 but he is also interested in giving somepossible answers in his “Carrot City” initiative.
We are happy that Mark is a supporting member of the FutureCityLab family and is willing to share his knowledge with all of you.
If you liked his short introduction please let us also know what is your vision for a sustainable future vision. Think the un-thinkable. Think 2050.
Without any doubt design thinking is one of the most hyped phenomena in the past years. It spread through the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) of Design (d.school) at Stanford out into the world. In 2007 the d.school was also founded at the HPI in Potsdam and now attracting around 120 students every year.
Yesterday we had the pleasure to be invited to a one-day workshop at the d.school leaded by Ulrich Weinberg and I must admit that for an architect or designer many of the principles and theories seem very familiar. Intuitively we already practiced some parts of the methodology but it is great to see it in a more structured environment. So the the workshop was rather and eye opener and led to an a-HA moment.
The most important parts that I take with me into my ideas bottle and will start implementing in my own work are the following:
1. Center your work more on the user
2. Be more specific with your case study
3. Not not judge anything in the brainstorming phase
4. Always watch the time: be strict with your time planning. Put yourself under pressure. Use a stop watch
5. Prototype more even with silly materials. Architects have to forget more about the beauty aspect of working models
6. Be more visual and use your walls more effective
Of course the above points do not cover the whole theory of design thinking. This is just a list on the main aspects that need more focus in my own work. Share your resources on design thinking or any other inspiring methodology - there is a lot we can change in our everyday design practice as architects ;)
At the beginning of the year I was writing about my experience as a guest critic at the UDK in Berlin. Students had the task to develop an intractable video for creating the human rights logo.
I just found another video of the final student work. Above you see Anne-Kristin Müller´s video on how to exactly construct the logo with several circles and lines. The almost overcomplicated instructions contrasts very well with the use of household materials as templates for drawing. Great work!
Also for architects it is becoming more and more important to explain complex projects and work with the help of video. It´s a medium that is spread viral and quickly on the net but not many architects and designer know how to use it. In this sense it is great if such courses find their ways into design schools now.
Calling all graphic designers, illustrators, artists, writers, singers, cooks, actors, musicians, mathematicians, thinkers, painters etc. Join us for a new collaboration on the next beta of imaginary spaces.
“Imaginary Spaces” is an ongoing series of interpretations of aA´s non realized architectural projects by other artists or creatives.
Architecture is made to serve people and allow them to express themselves and/ or be re-interpreted by the user in a non conventional way. Thus if a building is not realized an important part is missing. “Imaginary Spaces” is asking for people to express their understanding of an architectural tectonic in their own way.Imaginary Space Beta 1.0 is an experimental collaboration between an architect, ballet dancer and filmmaker. The starting point was a 2008 architectural project called XX(L)andScapeMuseum by anOtherArchitect : Daniel Dendra.
Sarah Grether is ”morphing into this building as a feminine creature and creating movements according to its geometry as well as its emotional physicality. Using very minimal but slow and precise movements to execute the heavy, grounded feeling this building has and at the same time highlighting the spider like lightness that its esthetics reinforce as it spreads its web over a vast area and penetrates the soil of our earth.”
This first project in the series of imaginary spaces was realized for the ArchMoscow 2011 NEXT exhibition of anOtherArchitect. The exhibition won the prize for the best international exhibition at ArchMoscow.
It´s been couple of years already that a strict ban of smoking cigarettes in bars, restaurants, clubs and offices has been passed in Europe. The USA and other countries banned smoking in public spaces already before.
While is the south of Europe this ban does not mean such a big problem since you can easily go outside for smoking it created a big problem in northern Europe and in high security areas such as airports. If is is raining or really cold you simply can not just smoke on the streets. This means that architects and interior designers could have gotten creative with inventing new typologies of smoking rooms and areas. Also it could become a great job of upgrading existing buildings such as airports.
But it seems that there is a missed opportunity. Until today I haven’t seen a successfully designed smoking room or lounge. Why this glass boxes that I usually know look like spaces that you do not really want to be in - it rather looks like a punishment smoking a camel at Zürich airport lounge.
Dear Cigarette companies: you should become much more creative with your approaches to solving this problem or maybe you are just waiting until everyone is smoking e-cigarettes which are currently allowed to be consumed everywhere. What happened to the glamour that velvet covered smoking rooms of the early 19th century had?
By the way: I am a non-smoker ;) and in case you know some interesting examples of smoking rooms please share it.
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There are this days when suddenly some links become very obvious and new information seem to fit each other like a puzzle. The same happened today when researching for OpenSimSim and watching the theories of Kirby Ferguson.
By showing references from the music industries and Hollywood bluckbusters Kirby is arguing that the act of “copy, transform and combine” is inherent in our social evolution. Just think about the internet - it could only develop so quickly because of the possibility to see the source code of a page and start using the most intelligent bits and pieces. Funny enough I was starting a similar argument during a lecture in Wroclaw using the example of “WALK THIS WAY” by RUN DMC.
In contemporary architectural theory and education we believe in a different truth. Real architecture needs to be unique. Remixing is considered to be an act of un-creativity. At least this applies for the western architectural philosophy. Famous architects start to abuse in public other architects of plagiarism. In 2007 Rem Koolhaas announced in public that Sir Norman Foster was copying his ideas of RAK Gateway in the urban design of Masdar City.
But maybe it´s time to adopt to the Chinese philosophy of mastering ones profession by copying the “master”? Only by starting to share information and knowledge more openly we can reach our challenging goal to built CO2 neutral cities and buildings by 2050.
But maybe we are on the right way already? Funny enough today some architectural blogs published the “red ball project” and diller scofidio + renfro hirshhorn museum bubble.
aerial view of the balloon expansion at the hirshhorn museum image courtesy of diller scofidio + renfro
I guess no one would really deny that this could be considered as a remix of Rem Koolhaas´ 2006 Serpentine Pavillon (see image on top).
Or maybe it´s just a remix of Leonidov´s 1927 Lenin Institute?
What do you think about the Kirby´s theory of REMIX in regards to architecture? Do you know any other buildings that use an inflatable in a similar manner?
anOtherArchitect is an internationally operating architecture and urban design studio based in Berlin. We are focusing on sustainable design solutions with a strong emphasis on human centered design and digital fabrication methods. visit our website at: www.anOtherArchitect.com
