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Conferences_log
2008-04-15 08:15:00
While the future is uncertain (?) here are some events that I will certainly be participating this spring/summer:Critical Digital Conference: What Matter(s)?This coming weekend I will be in Boston for the Critical Digital Conference at the gsd. I will be presenting together with Katerina Tryfonidou. The title of the presentation is ?What comes first: the chicken or the egg? Pattern Formation Models in Biology, Music and Design?. More information here.EAAE/ARCC 2008 Research Conference.25 - 28 June 2008 in Copenhagen. I will be presenting with Katerina Tryfonidou and Magdalena Pantazi. The title of the presentation: ?Pattern Formation Models?.More information here.XXIII UIA World Congress of Architecture. Torino 2008.June 29 ? July 3 in Torino. Presenting with Katerina Tryfonidou and Magdalena Pantazi: ?Digital Cartographies: mapping the global and local networks?. More information here.

Pattern Formation Models
2008-02-19 03:55:00
Here is a link to the blog of the class that I am teaching this semester at Washington University. The class is looking at several different pattern formation models, deriving mainly from biology or mathematics, and how they can organized through the concepts of pre-formation and self-organization.
More About: Models , Pattern

What if NYC... competition. Honorable mention.
2008-02-11 01:11:00
This the entry for the "What if new york city..." competition, that got a honorable mention. The idea is a development of the "inflateit" project. Here the focus is on the implementation of the project while inflateit was more about the development of a protocol. Also the inflatable units are following a different pattern in this version. More information for the project here. The competition website with all the entries here.
More About: Competition

InflateIt
2008-02-11 01:00:00
InflateIt is an idea for the development of a protocol for the production of modular housing units. The units are developed in a hexagonal pattern, while the walls are inflatable. The elevation pattern is defined through a light study. The production of more units results in the expansion of the database with the lighting solutions. More information here.

Shifting Lines final review and exhibition (12/10/07)
2008-02-08 22:33:00
Photographs from the review and the exhibition for the Shifting lines to surfaces/Virtual to empirical class. The exhibition was up at Givens Hall from 12/09/07 to 01/05/08.Guest reviewers were Heather Woofter, Dr. Mitchell Joachim and Sung Ho Kim.
More About: Review , Final , Exhibition , Lines

interactive wall
2008-01-10 22:15:00
A study for an interactive wall, developed together with Fotis Vasilakis. The idea was that a tiled surface will react to the presence of people close to it, which will cause the tiles to rotate around their vertical axis, locally. Obviously an idea like this has to be based on sensors in order to operate, however is still in a very primitive stage.This study was implemented using expressions and wire parameters in 3dstudio max.
More About: Interactive , Wall , Interact

axi:ome.net
2007-11-30 16:55:00
Axi:Ome's website is up and running! It took us some time to finish, but it is finally done...

Shifting Lines mid review
2007-11-19 03:40:00
Some photographs from the mid review for Shifting Lines to Surfaces, the class I am teaching at Washington University. The reviewers were Heather Woofter, Katerina Tryfonidou and Jen Maigret.
More About: Review

Algorithmic body... reactions.
2007-11-12 16:36:00
It is amazing how fast information can travel today, and it is even more important that this can promote dialogue and exchange of opinions, in a way that would have been impossible using just the traditional ?printed? means. This was the first thought that occurred to me when I was browsing archiblog today and I came across the article entitled ?Of Buildings, Computers and Telescopes? published originally on the HAD blog, by Rafael, a computer science student in the University of Sussex (unfortunately no further information is available). Subject of this article is to justify how one of my projects, Algorithmic Body , is using ?invalid?, ?grossly-erroneous reasoning methods? and totally fails to meet its aims by ?contradicting its architectural intentions?. The above comments of the author are used in order to justify the thesis of the article which more or less is that: ?it is possible for a computer scientist to acquire the knowledge necessary to produce software that automatica...
More About: Reaction

Algorithmic Body on Surface magazine
2007-11-09 18:18:00
Algorithmic body has been published on the November issue of new york's design magazine Surface (is*68). The publication is part of the annual avant guardian project: "In our annual Guide to outstanding undergraduate and graduate design, we salute this year's crop of students-laureates, who focus on smart and economical flat-pack solutions for everything from products to architecture, and explore the user-as-catalyst approach that's turning design into a participatory process..."
More About: Magazine , Body

MAP: 5th SUS aluminum competition. Honorable mention.
2007-11-05 04:46:00
A project for a modular aluminum kiosk developed in collaboration with Claudia Barahona for the 5th SUS aluminum competition, where we won an honorable mention. Visit the competition site for all the entries. More information for the project here.
More About: Competition , Aluminum , Lumi

Widmann exhibition; May 2007
2007-09-30 21:11:00
This post is a little bit outdated, but actually all the previous ones were :-) The layout and some photographs from the widmann exhibition that took place on May 2007 in Washington University in St. Louis. My participation had the title design/research and included most of my work from September 2005 to April 2007. In other words... old staff... A good way, I suppose, to summarize and move forward...
More About: Exhibition , Exhibit

Fractals
2007-09-02 08:43:00
Some experiments with fractals, using chaoscope and gaston. Both applications can generate fractal formations in 3d. However, the models are made out of (millions of) points, so I suppose that it would be impossible to export in any standard 3d format...
More About: Fractal

Walk through
2007-09-02 01:58:00
A small walk through of the project published at the previous post.
More About: Walk

Voronoi Study, part_03: algorithmic body
2007-08-28 00:54:00
In my previous post concerning voronoi diagrams I presented an example where I used program requirements in order to define the initial set of points that will be used in order to create the final voronoi diagram (the problem of deciding on the initial set of points is, I think, one of the most interesting in relation to voronoi diagrams). However, as I wrote before, I find far more intriguing the idea of using an algorithm that can simulate a process of growth for that scope (lets call it a 'growing algorithm'). Therefore I continued my research in that direction by employing a cellular automaton script (same one I used on the space_sound project). So I developed a process, or 'recipe' that can be described by the following steps:a. a 2d cellular automaton script is executed, with a random or pre-defined initial configuration of cells.b. every generation of the ca is stacked on top of the previous ones creating this way a 'progression' of active cells.c. the centers of the ac...
More About: Body , Study

Space_Sound
2007-08-24 05:12:00
Space_Sound is a study on the work of composer and architect Iannis Xenakis. The study took the form of an interactive web site (which can be seen here. However there are still some problems with the page so it might not display correctly).Iannis Xenakis used extensively computation and mathematics in order to create music. The initiative for this project was that while Iannis Xenakis is widely acclaimed and studied as an innovator in avant guard music, his work is not extensively examined in relation to architecture, and when that is done the focus is always on his architectural designs and mostly on the Philips Pavilion. However, Xenakis in his writings was always underlining that his methods in composition are not only applicable to music, but also to the visual arts and most notably to architecture.Xenakis? musical scores are composed in such a way that they have an underlying spatial dimension. His scores and diagrams for his compositions share very little resemblance to conven...

Voronoi Study, part_02
2007-08-24 04:38:00
This is a first attempt to use the voronoi diagrams for a specific design. The initial set of points is defined by the program requirements. The edges of the voronoi cells become the structure, while a first idea for enclosed space was to use again the voronoi cells (in a 'smoothed' version) as clusters of space in a configuration that resembles the relation of bones to organs. This project though was not developed further...
More About: Study

Voronoi Study, part_01
2007-03-02 01:26:00
A voronoi diagram is a way of decomposition or subdivision of space based on an initial set of objects or points (for more information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voronoi). Voronoi diagrams have countless applications from statistics to biology and urban planning. Lately they are becoming ?popular? also in architectural design. There is indeed a number of reasons making voronoi diagrams useful in architectural design:a. Their structural properties, both in 2d and 3d.b. As a way to subdivide/organize space, based on proximity/closest neighbor.c. The fact that they can describe many natural formations, like soap bubbles, sponges or bone cells.There are two problems arising though. The first is a method to construct them. It looks that the most reliable solution until know is Qhull (http://www.qhull.org/) , in relation to rhino or generative components. Rhino script could be another option. What is more interesting though is the problem of defining the initial set of points. Of course...
More About: Study

Design for a new school of architecture, ku campus
2007-02-09 11:34:00
A studio project, for a new school of architecture for the KU.The idea begun from Frei Otto's studies of lattice structures with rigid joins, and became a study of how a structural system can 'overcome' its main property (that of being structurally efficient) and became a system that is at the same time an 'ornamental' element and the element that defines spaces (and of course the structural system as well). Also an attempt to see how this complexity can be fitted inside (and used in order to define) a volume as simple as that of a box.At any case Frei Otto?s work is still an endless field of inspiration.
More About: Design , Architecture , Campus , School , Architect

Project for a Garden.
2007-02-08 23:59:00
Technological developments have multiple results in relation to architecture. The ability to observe at the micro level surely falls into those developments. Cells and microbiological structures are offering a whole new world that can help as develop new spatial relationships, understand space in a different way. And that goes well beyond mere formal explorations. Cells of course are displaying unique forms that could be transferred to architecture, but are also displaying ways of organization, ecological strategies and extremely efficient structural systems, all of which can inform architecture in different levels. This project begun from a cell: xylem vessels. Through detailed 3d modeling, animation and study of its properties it finally led to a design for a garden. More specifically to a system of rain collectors that could be installed in a garden. Xylem vessels are plant cells used in order to transfer water from the ground to the higher parts of the plant. That cell structur...
More About: Garden , Project , Arden , Garde

Para*site. St Louis Follies Competition. 2nd price.
2007-02-04 22:05:00
A rather 'fast' project, for the st louis follies competition (http://www.stlfollies.com/index.html) developed with Katerina Tryfonidou.The competition was a call for installations (for downtown St. Louis ) that were supposed to host art exhibitions. Our proposal had to do with the idea of a growing organism that takes over city spaces. Close to the idea of the follies, since there is no specific need for the creation of the organism, the idea of a parasite that uses existing city structures in order to be developed is by no means new to architecture (urbican fever is a very interesting illustration of that ?architect?s dream?). What makes that idea rather important today though, is that trough scripting we are becoming able to create self-referential organisms that are actually following growth patterns (the L-systems are a good example). In urbican fever the architect is finding that cubic device, he brings it to the city, and then the device starts growing according to its own l...
More About: Competition , Site , Price , Para

Spiral City
2007-02-04 08:33:00
Exploring the possibilities of a vertical megastructure, and how a single rule (in that case the 'spiral') can be used in order to define every aspect of the composition, from the distribution of the spaces to the structure and the skin.This project was not so much an attempt to design a 'specific' building but rather a study of the properties of the spiral, therefore the diagrams are much more important than the renderings, which are illustrating just an example...
More About: City

Suburban house / Land manipulations
2007-02-04 08:20:00
An exploration on the ways that land can be manipulated in order to create space. The topography of different lots within the site is superimposed on one lot and through several transformations and manipulations the form of the house is derived.
More About: House , Land , Suburban , Manipulation , Pula

Rethinking the box
2007-02-02 09:14:00
A two week studio exersise. The aim was to rethink what a suburban retail store could be. The idea is rather simple: The store is 'pushed' partly underground, the parking is coming above the store, and in the back side are housing units, divided from the retail with a 'garden' lower than the level of the street. At the same time several smaller 'gardens' are dispersed inside the parking area (always at a lower lever) along with vertical translucent surfaces dividing the parking spaces.The aim was to 'create' different ways in which you can perceive the same object as you move on the street, in the parking lot and inside the store (the object being the trees, the cars, the store itself). Infuenced in a way by Deleuze's description of the point of view as what is taking the place of the missing center...In this project the 'point of view' is becoming literal. As a general idea though is much more interesting, since it implies that the importance is displaced from the object...