Animate Architecture

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Animate Architecture
ANIMATE ARCHITECTURE
Animate design is defined by the co-presence of
motion and force at the moment of formal
conception. Force is an initial condition, the
cause of both motion and the particular
inflections of a form
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Urban Scheme
Animation techniques present the opportunity to
engage with both the complexity and urban
dynamics of the city.  Architects and designers
have long been aware of the fact that urban
organizations and fabric evolve both in space and
time. They view cities as catalysts of metabolic
processes of organized material flows from a
productive region to the city and back. By
extension, urban fabric is understood as a
temporary storage of materials affected by those
flows catalyzed by the city. Since 1997, the
OCEAN NORTH groups have formulated an approach to
urban design that focuses on the development and
deployment of digital methods in analyzing and
designing with urban dynamics.  The approach is
based on an understanding of the urban fabric as
an evolving matrix subjected its own tendencies
and resistances to change and, on the other hand,
to the dynamics of design interventions. The
design processes aim at subjecting projects to
the influx of information over time, reflecting
the changing conditions with which any project
would be faced during the period of its
production, implementation and maintenance.
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Synthetic Landscape research project in central
Oslo (1995-9)   Given the urban matrix as a
gradient field, across which transformations
continuously take place, an open set of urban
parameters or variables was systematically
formulated. Six generic Channelling Systems (CS)
categories were defined bionomic, economic,
geographic, urbanistic, sociological and locally
specific parameters.   The six CS categories
were initially linked to the site with reference
to a set of color displacement mappings that
included site-specific topographic data. The maps
depict the development of the specified
parameters as 3D field intensities and
distributions. The sectional lines given by the
respective displacement mappings and the
topography were chosen as the gradient or
trajectory of development for the corresponding
CS category. These trajectories were also taken
as the paths for a subsequent animation process.
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The animations consist of cursors that move along
the paths constituted by the tendential
development of each CS category over time. The
cursors emit particles that are attracted or
repelled by specific programmatic or formal
locations on site or particle streams emitted by
the cursors of the other CS categories. The
subsequent analysis of the emergent patterns of
attraction and their distribution can serve to
indicate strategic locations on site for a first
design intervention, the results of which can
eventually be fed back into the animation process
and reanalyzed in terms of new configurations of
attraction and distribution.
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The Chamberworks Installation project (1998) at
the RAM Gallery in Oslo
Diagrams describing the organizational structure
of the installation, visitor movement, area of
affection and the resulting composite diagram.
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ARCHITECTURAL PROJECT
HOUSE PROTOTYPE IN LONG ISLAND
The initial approach is to assign various
elements of the existing site forces of
attraction and repulsion. The forces were allowed
to act in free space and interact with one
another in a gradient fashion, as they emanate a
field of influence without any distinct contour
or boundary.
After capturing the particle trails as spline
elements, an accordion-like surface is
constructed and placed within the field of
forces. The pleated surface varies elasticity at
its vertices and intersections of polygons.
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Next, a three dimensional volume is introduced to
the analysis. The clients request for an H
plan organization suggested a main living space
with two pairs of rooms at each end of the house
a bedroom and office at one end and two bedrooms
for the young children at the other.
In order to internally constrain the influences
of the external site forces, a skeleton with
variable limits of rotation and variable tension
at each of the joints is constructed and is
connected with the animated forces on the site.
The skeleton is the armature that translates the
forces from the site onto the surfaces.
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The simple rectilinear volume of the first
prototype is supplemented by a lightweight tent
structure on both the first and back of the
house. These tensile structures also extend the
sheltered area of the house into exterior space,
acting as transitional space between the interior
and exterior.
The second prototype is broken down into a main
living space with two flanking volumes at each
end of the house. There are two tensile
structures running along the front and back of
the house to integrate the interior space with
the landscape.
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In the fourth and final prototype, the skeleton
is simplified into a linear structure so that the
influence of the site could be read more clearly.
The skeleton was organized along a stiff line of
joints with progressive softness at the
extremities.
Similar to the skeleton, its surfaces are linear
in their organization. The tensile elements are
connected to the tips of the skeleton so that
their deformation is greater than that of the
main living space which is connected to the
stiffer set of joints which tie the house
together.
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BMW Group The International Automobile
Exhibition in Frankfurt (IAA 2001)
One disadvantage common to all automobile
presentations is that the cars are always
displayed at a standstill, although their entire
purpose is motion. For this reason the architects
wanted to accelerate the space around the cars to
such a degree as to produce the sensation of
driving. To achieve this goal they chose to
utilize the tool of the Doppler effect. The
classic example is the frequency shift of a
passing racecar, whose high scream we hear while
it is approaching, replaced by a low sound once
it has passed. Another example is the perception
of foreshortened space when driving on an
Autobahn at great speed in our peripheral
vision, space is speeding by and behind us it
stretches out. The architects wanted to translate
this curvature of space into a building
structure.
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In one early trial arrangement they coupled a
force field with a BMW 7-series model and let it
drive through a matrix of parallel lines. The
lines were stirred up and distorted by the force
field. This was followed by a long phase of
experiments in which they allowed the Doppler
effect to act upon a variety of trial bodies in
order to create volumes. The launch of the new
BMW 7-series at the IAA 2001 marks a shift in BMW
design philosophy from line-oriented design to
volume-oriented design. After many attempts, a
multistory spatial matrix proved most likely to
achieve the goal. To this volume matrix we could
then allocate trial volumes, which were distorted
analog to the grid. The scheme of translating
the dynamic experience of driving as is shown in
interior perspectives. The progression of the
deformations is turned into CAD execution
drawings by the structural engineers and
calculated.
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Physical models built from the data files with
detailed structures butwithout skin show the
dimensions of the BMW Group's more than one
hundredmeter long pavilion in front of the
gigantic new Fair Hall 3 by Grimshaw on the Forum
of the Frankfurt Fair ground. The models were so
convincing that it was decided to seek a method
of translating this mill cut into a large scale.