Surface Grammar Course Synopsis

DIA Dessau Institute of Architecture
Advanced Architecture Studio

Prof. Matias del Campo & Sandra Manninger

Surface Grammar
- the intricate relationship between surface articulation structure and affect.

The Park Guell Greenhouse.

Synopsis

Surface Grammar explores the opportunities present in the morphologies of surface articulation as point of departure for the design of architectural conditions. Inherent qualities such as spatial subdivision, components, organization, structure and circulation form the ground for a variety of speculations on architectural conditions. The sensorial and spatial experiences co-notated with the manifold qualities of contemporary, algorithm driven intricacy, starting with their topological qualities to the distribution of components and patterns forming the structural body, are scrutinized for their architectural qualities and incorporated in a project.

The speculations are casted in a project that serves as proof of concept. To get to this point the course relies heavily on computational design tools. The application of topological mesh modeling softwares as well as Algorithm driven, scripting techniques will result in a manifold of projects based on the same set of rules. Finally the projects are presented with a set of, common ground, architectural representation media.
The project will be a Greenhouse for the Park Guell in Barcelona.
A site will be provided for the design.



Studio Outline:

The studio comprises of three elements:

1: Discoursive Research
2: Speculations on opportunities in the outline
3: Design Elaboration

It is encouraged that the students visit the Advanced Technology Electives in order to elaborate an expertise in advanced design tools, and techniques, which will be applied in the Studio, such as Maya Fundamentals and digital fabrication techniques (Lasercutting, 3D printing, CNC milling etc.)



Design Process:

1: Finding an external and internal logic for the establishing of the Surfaces geometry
2: Subdividing and/or populating the surface
(Part to whole, whole to part relationship)
Aspect of Geometry and design sensibility
3: Establishing a material and manufacturing logic
Laser Cutting, Milling, Vacuum Forming
Research aspects, understanding and evaluating advanced forms
of architectural articulation
Evaluation of geometries is relation to varying manufacturing
Processes.
Material aspects (Manuel de Landa, Gilles Delueze)
4: Reevaluating the Initial design
5: Manufacturing of a part of the surface in specific scale
(scaled artifacts) depending on availability in the DIA.

Lunch Talks:
The studio will include a series of lunch talks. Lunch talks are brief introductions into specific issues of the studios culture such as Design Rigor, A Brief History of Digital Design, introduction into Biomimicry, Advanced Fabrication Techniques, Vagueness and Spatial Conditions, Critical Design Culture, Topological Spaces in Architecture….

Blog:

Part of the studio culture is the application of ubiquitous communication techniques. The studio Blog serves as hub for information on the design task. Interesting sources on discoursive issues as well as technical questions concerning the design tools are also available on the Blog. It is highly encouraged that the students participate in the blog in order to create a basis
for the speculations present in the studios environment. The Blog also serves as communication tool with Prof. Matias del Campo.

Digital Design Techniques

Throughout the history of computational design techniques we can perceive the presence of one specific desire: the desire to create seamless continuous bodies as well as sleek and unarticulated surfaces. In this course we are going to tackle this problem with a different approach, opposing the before mentioned desires, and embarking on an exploration of the surface grammar. This explorations of the countless variations; of possible, in depth articulations of the surface, offer novel insights into possibilities of spatial differentiation, structure and form. This three components, differentiation, structure and form, can be read as archetypes of architectural conditions, simultaneously unfolding in novel spatial experiences trough the use of advanced computational design techniques that enable us to explore other geometries.1

The Greenhouse

Royal Greenhouse Laeken - Brussels 1874
The main task of the course will be the creation of a Green House on the premises of the Park Guell in Barcelona, Spain. More precisely, the studio will focus on one specific type of greenhouse: The Exotic Butterfly House. This example of greenhouse can be found on the premises of the Hofburg in Vienna, or the Faust Park in St Lois. This task serves as a launching pad for a multitude of ideas on issue such as surface geometry, internal logic and subsequent form. The systematic investigation of a series of geometric conditions contributes to the array of opportunities within the surface grammar.

What we perceive, or understand as a surface grammar, can be described as the means to generate all the valid strings of a specific surface language; it can also be used as the basis for a recognizer that determines for any given string whether it is grammatical (i.e. belongs to the language). To describe such recognizers, formal language theory uses separate formalisms, known as automata.
A grammar can also be used to analyze the strings of a language – i.e. to describe their internal structure. In computer science, this process is known as parsing. Most languages have very compositional semantics, i.e. the meaning of their utterances is structured according to their syntax; therefore, the first step to describing the meaning of an utterance in language is to analyze it and look at its analyzed form (known as its parse tree in computer science, and as its deep structure in generative grammar).

In this sense we are using geometry as the basic grammar of the surface explorations. To rigorously investigate this condition the course relies on a contained set of geometrical rules, or strings of information. This container is formed by specific tessellations. In general a tessellation refers to a system of
Repetitive plane figures that can fill the plane without creating overlaps or intersections, they can do that also in higher dimensions. In this course we will
apply techniques of delamination to achieve the three dimensional expansion of the tessellation. This two conditions form the rules of the surface grammar:
Tessellation & Delamination. These two conditions alone can create a thriving array of variation.

Which brings us to the second set of the Syntax. In a second cycle the students will explore how surface populations can be formed. The created components that comprise elements of the Greenhouse can be read in varying systems. On the one side they can follow the rules of aggregation created by the chosen tessellation system rigorously, repeating the conventions of the mathematical rules. On the other hand they can also explore what can be described as geometrical artifacts. Errors in the tessellation systems that can result in spontaneous, surprising geometric conditions unfolding in novel formations. The characteristics of these novel conditions are expressed in subtle variations within the matrix of connections between the components. These subtle, open-ended, variations of the angular vocabulary of the projects result in differentiated, continuously expanding spatial articulations. Despite the fact that the project is of small scale,
the scale of a Greenhouse, the appropriated rules can be translated to any given scale, providing the students with a set of planes of thinking that enables them analyze and tackle architectural problems from any given perspective.


An interesting example of delamination technique, the delamintion process is applied both as structural system as well as spatial articulation. (Cast Iron Bridge, Central Park NY)

Population thinking

Another aspect of surface populations can be the theoretical implications present in the idea of Population thinking, as formulated by Gilles Deleuze2 and propagated by Manuel de Landa3, the Mexican Material Philosopher. As the task asks for a specific population of components, the planes of population thinking can be applied. This plane of thinking will be valid in this semesters approach in a twofold way: On the one side we have the before mentioned geometrical constraints of the project, consisting of Tessellation and Delamination.
This set of rules generates a high variety of possible populations in any student’s projects. Nonetheless this population of varying project Originators, are under evolutionary pressure, so every one of these possible projects needs to pass this pressures. This can start from performative issues (does it fulfill the goal of the conditioning a space for specific botanic specimens, how does it perform as an as architectural space?) to geometric pressures (is the geometry clean, is it possible to get fabricated?) The second part of this population thinking is observed in the response of the singular component to the allover population, or number, of elements. i.E. How does the aggregation of components, forming a population, act as a whole.4 Aspects of the whole to part
And part to whole relationships form a layer of discussion within the conversations on population thinking.

An interesting example of Part to Whole relationship, comprised of highly articulated, intricate components. The individual components for the seaweed like appearance of this wrought Iron Gate at the Palau Guell in Barcelona, Spain. Architect: Antonio Gaudi

Sensibilities,

The Surface Grammar includes a specific aspect that offers the challenge of contemporary sensibilities. Part quantifiable special effect, partially non-quantifiable affect; the topic of sensibilities can be plotted on the charts of contemporary atmospheres. These atmospheres, comprised of intensive forces that form the ground for the design, find their main trajectory on the grounds of proportions, chromatic effects, transparency, opalescence and the qualities of curvilinear bodies. Entering uncharted grounds, it is difficult, if not impossible, to predict the results of these explorations into the realms of sensualities generated by digital environments and computer controlled machineries.
In a way Sensibilities refer to an acute perceptions of or responsiveness toward something, such as the emotions of another. This concept emerged in eighteenth-century Britain, and was closely associated with studies of sense perception as the means through which knowledge is gathered. In this extent it can be considered as a plane of thought on the multitude of opportunities present in computational design to conceive emotionally responsive conditions generated by form and surface condition. In the Surface Grammar, the aspect of sensibility performs as a nonlinear way of perceiving intensive forces, and it will be interesting to add these conditions to the syntax.

This cast iron Balconies of the Hotel Guimard in Paris demonstrates an exquisite example of specific curvilinear sensibilities. Design: Hector Guimard.





1: The implications of this plane of thinking can be read in the essay Other Geometries by John Rajchman. John Rajchman, Constructions, The MIT press 1998, P. 91 – P .108

2: Gilles Deleuze, Difference and Repetition, translated by Paul Patton (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994)

3: Manuel de Landa, The use of genetic Algorithms in Architecture, 2001

4: See also: Manuel de Landa: Virtual Environments and the Emergence of Synthetic Reason, Manuel de Landa in Virtual Futures, Cyberotics, Technology and Posthuman Pragmatism edited by Joan Broadhurst Dixon / Eric Cassidy, Routledge 1998