Adaptive Ecologies 1; Composite Materialities Extended Research Brief
Introduction
Informed by developments in parametric design, new material research, new modes of fabrication and production as well as, evolving concepts of space, Dip16 will look for the production ecologies of the near future, in which more intelligent, sustainable and adaptable composite materials will make up the components of innovative building taxonomies. In Adaptive Ecologies 1; Composite Materialities, the notion of the composite will be applied to material research, digital methodology, programmatic organization architectural performance and formal as well as spatial quality, as students explore intricately and/or reciprocally associated information and phenomena in both a parallel and iterative manner by exploiting the opportunities afforded by parametric modelling techniques.
Unit context
Dip16 continues its exploratory research into the affects and emerging ecologies of Extreme Environments. Some of the largest world cities are exposed to serious natural hazards which are increasing as temperatures are predicted to rise 1-6 degrees by 2100 [1]. Greenland’s collapsing ice sheets will raise sea levels by 6-7m, flooding coasts and creating 100 million refugees. The melt water’s lower salinity could alter the Gulf Stream, triggering dramatic Northern European cooling [2]. Mass migration is the inevitable consequence leading to a plethora of side effects that will cause further human vulnerability and suffering. A UN resolution, A/RES/58/214, seeks reduced vulnerabilities to natural disasters and climatic change within the built environment [3] and challenges architects to propose designs as active agents within vulnerable physical, economic, social, and political contexts. These situational affects are most applicable in or around some of the largest cities where changing climatic hazards most certainly will cause mass migration. In a reciprocal methodology we explore architecture situated within these impending environments, we are interested in how these shifting contexts impact proposals and in turn how the co-evolution of environments and architecture might affect social, economic and political situations.
The work developed during the first three years of the unit was in immediate response to the consequences of overpopulation such as a clime change and resource depletion and the resulting vulnerability to natural disasters. With a focus on the navigation of these evolutionary parameters rather than the causes of the changes themselves, Dip16 continues searching for organizations and agencies that are part of the emerging networks responding to these issues inside and outside of the discipline of architecture. DIP16 has intended to instrumentalize the deployment of parametric design as an integral part of the overall design process as well as the project outcome. Although strategically positioned to address potent environmental issues, we strongly encourage design based research projects where the architects’ role surpasses political and strategic policy and engages spatial, temporal and organisation potentials. Although dealing with negatively charged content we aim to promote the optimism energy and creativity that arise from working on design in a speculative and projective architectural discourse.
Design research
Dip16 is a unit primarily concerned with design based research sited within a complex context and parameter set. The research seeks innovation in computational technique, formal repertoire, tectonics or architectonics and organisations capable of coping with the contingencies of climatic change. It searches for a innovative meta-systemic thinking which is capable of performing within a multiplicity of given contexts and situations. Our design research consists of investigations into formative and evolutionary design techniques which in exploiting parametric techniques develop rule-based meta-systemic conditions between architecture and the external and internal parameter sets that inform it. The unit research prompts: Lamarckian formal, environmental, cultural and economic evolution of design, simulations of temporal ‘aging’ in buildings and their ‘growth’ within their environments, and semi-predictive calculations of future contingencies. The investigation of contingencies further promotes designs capable of coping with a multiplicity of future conditions, rendering singular performances and components obsolete. In contrast to primitives we seek the investigation of indeterminate composites with the potential of co-possible organisations and behaviours. The unit’s ultimate intention is to understand the built environment within the complexity of temporal projections and how the shifting cultural perspective impacts the spaces we currently design. We do this by investigating the capacity of a series of computational methods and digital design and fabrication techniques, encouraging a contextualized appropriation of tools and techniques. In simple words we base the selection of tools and techniques on the premise that one selects an appropriate tool depending on the purpose. We strive to formulate the Architectural response and proposition as series of reciprocal relationships where all variables and parameters has knock on effects on all others i.e. form cannot be separated from context, content, structure, manufacturing and production process forming the overall ecology of building.
Adaptive architectural ecologies
As with the material interaction at different scales designed in composite material engineering, we are looking for an articulation of the composite aspects of architectural elements; when structure infiltrates membranes and partitions, but remains legible to a certain extent, or when ventilation systems become responsive not only in regards to its technical performance, but also to its spatial effect. This formal approach is paralleled by the programmatic approach; we are looking for temporal and spatial interfaced programs, in analogy to composite materials being located in the intersection of other material families. This could mean the design of the interface between a research program and the public domain (research facility and exhibition space), a local context connected to global networks, or a temporary agency sharing space with long term users (disaster mitigation activities gradually changing to permanent commercial functions over time). In all cases, the shared area, as a programmatic intersection or interface between interests, should be carefully designed considering the influencing agendas.
We believe that an adaptive architecture not necessarily should be based on the generic, the traditional answer to flexible use, nor does its dynamic capacity crave that it can actually move, or be re-adjusted. Architectural spaces can be made more sustainable and adaptive through the conscious design of spatial effects and qualities, an articulation of form and organization, and an adaptive strategy in the design process. Our aim is to pursue architecture of intense experiences through formal variation, and material innovation, and contextual specificity. The challenge is to develop strategies for responding to the multiple agendas of extreme climates, new cultural complexity, material innovation and the adaptation of industry standards.
A re-reading of historical and contemporary ecologies of production is therefore encouraged, with an understanding of their success or failure. Examples may come from very different contexts, inside and outside of the field of architecture, and the factors to be taken into account will be a combination of design refinement and social, cultural and economical performance. The Californian case study program meant to transform American post war industry to affordable housing, but resulted in a number of architecturally innovative but exclusive housing units in the LA area. The prefabricated housing developments around the world in the 60s have been considered being of less than acceptable quality, but is now being refurbished and turned into condominiums.
The projects developed should be deployable through the means of the technologies that we are investigating, but should acquire a unique identity that makes them useful for strategic communication, as prototypes in a new discourse between the different interests and phenomena we are approaching. The notion of the composite should also be present in the architectural organization of spaces, structures and partitions. This suggests a differentiation of architectural elements rather than a self-similar approach in which all are variations of the same. In analogy with composite materials, different architectural elements will bring different qualities and support each other.
Composite Digital Technique
The digital revolution within architecture and the building industry can be seen to follow at least two distinct directions.
The past 15 years has seen an interest in formal experimentation, often referred to as having experiential and performative effects, or even affects. The tools of choice have ranged from special effects animation software, to NURBS modelling tools and high-end parametric systems. The primary drivers have been the capacity for conceptualizing, formally design, and physically fabricate innovative architectural solutions. In recent years this has been implemented in exceptional architectural achievements across the world, often with close collaboration between architects and structural engineers.
The other line of development has followed a path of optimization, searching for more rational methods to manage all processes that are part of architectural production. A favourite concept has been the Building Information Model (BIM), a concept that covers geometry, spatial relationships, geographic information, quantities and properties as well as logistical information of all parts of a building project. More recent developments in this trajectory is also linked to industrial development, in which systems that regulate the architectural design and production processes are formed, often featuring a version of the BIM principle, but also deploying organizational system such as Project Data Management (PDM), technical systems that manages and maintains project related data and tracks business processes.
We will spring from the past years’ open exploration of parametric and computational techniques in the search for a more contextual and integrated mode of design, in which the rationality sought for in the industry, can meet formal, analytical and procedural experimentation across a range of seamlessly integrated scales managed via a building information model (BIM).
Composite Formal Repertoire
Dip16 introduces the idea of composite design systems. The integration of different platforms of design development environments is in no way new, but frequently the ambition has been to find one overarching system that can encompass everything, or neutral information formats for exchange between multitudes of systems. The notion of composite design systems suggests the conceptual integration of two or more systems in a very specific way. The exchanges between the systems may very well require to be designed specifically for the project being developed.
An example of current composite design systems is the bi-directional principle of relaxation used in structural form finding processes. An initial geometrical set-up is explored in a analytical structural package, in which step by step minute changes are performed and each iteration is tested for structural capacity. The data given is an input for the changes of the next cycle, and optimal solutions can be found. Frequently, an initial formal model as a result from the architects must be converted to the structural analytical package, and continuous exchanges between the design environment and the structural optimization environment is scarce. An analogue equivalent of structural form finding is the catenary system, the hanging flexible chain used to find structural optimum by Gaudi, Frei Otto and others. While this system is based on geometry and physics, as the form of the chain is affected by gravity, more complex systems of interacting chains need a designed configuration.
In a similar way Dip16 is looking for the design of composite systems. As part of the overall project development, students are encouraged to establish formal links between different development platforms. This may be between parametric design software and analytical tools, such as recent experiments with parametric modeller Generative Components and analytical package Ansys, but could also be other less formal connections such as between a design tool, and specific modes of manufacture. We believe that the opportunities for iterative and recursive development, through feedback between these environments, is crucial and must be considered carefully. As a model for operation in more complex situations, when the composite systems include different organizations, and many individual interests, the agendas and intentions must also be part of this exchange. The all too familiar dichotomy of form and material expression vs. cost reduction and optimization should finally be laid to rest.
Composite Tectonic/Architectonic Systemic
Dip 16 will revisit traditional building concepts such as blocks, slabs, post and beams, shells, frames, tents and fibres as well as ecologies of fabrication and production through history. In the search for composite conditions we will investigate basic building taxonomy through means of fabrication such as milling, folding, laminating, sewing, stacking, interlocking, hanging, injection moulding, compositing, extrusion, weaving, bundling etc. Spatially and programmatically this will entail various degrees of articulation from the standardized low tech component to the highly articulated formal element, avoiding self similar repetition in favour for the diversity of the composite.
Composite material configuration
Traditionally, composite materials are engineered and made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties and which remain separate. In fact, composite materials can be seen as existing in the intersection of all other material families. In these forms of composites there are normally two categories of materials: matrix and reinforcement. The matrix material surrounds and supports the reinforcement materials by maintaining their relative positions. In its application, the composite normally require to be formed to a mould during the process of production. These composite materials are typically orthotropic, in the sense that their structural performance is different depending on the direction of the applied force. In building applications the most common variant would be reinforced concrete in all its instances. Other common variants include carbon fibre reinforced plastic and wood-plastic composites. Nanomaterials and biomimetic materials, engineered at a nano scale, are currently being developed, and many are actually composites by definition.
Architectural component have been seen as consisting of a single material and performing a single function, the classical example being the brick. Aggregates of components may have allowed variation through different assembly, or through the agglomeration of different standard parts. The logical division of the component has in this sense been seen as the smallest part of manufacture. The act of modularization within industry involved finding new logics of compartmentalization of not only building parts, but also processes and systems.
Dipl16 is looking for expansions of the concept of compositing in regards to materials, either towards a nano scale, in which material research may become an important reference in the search for new more intelligent material compounds, or towards an assembly scale, in which materials of performative capacities other than the matrix or reinforcement variants are deployed. This approach will employ not only material research, but also innovation in modes of production, and the design of processes and fabrication tools. In parallel, we are asking for a more intelligent approach to material performance, design and fabrication. This could be exemplified by phase change materials, material configuration such as the resin and polymer products developed by 3Form of Panelite, or the fabrication of re-combinable moulds for carbon-fibre casting.
A new component may consist of multiple parts, be spatial, or systemic in the sense of an electrical power systems or electronic infrastructure. Dip16 is interested in composite material configurations that establish new logics and can incorporate structural members, spatial elements or digital systems into comprehensible and customized units. If repetition of form was the crucial mode of production before, today the conditions shaping components involve capacities for formal variation, production customization, logistics and long term performance. The actual mechanisms used to produces composite components need to be planned as part of the design task of Dip16. They may operate on a micro or nano level, as in composite materials and alloys, at a scale of partitions or panels, or at a spatial scale as in volumetric elements. These mechanisms of production will also depend on organizational principles, and become part of new production ecologies that resonates with important historical programs such as the case study program in California, or the mass housing projects of the 70s. In this sense they face new conditions such as climate changes and new business models emerging as a response to this.
Research into:
- Materials (science) >> new solutions
- Production (industry) >> new processes
- Organization (non –profit organization) >> new venues
Environmental context
Overpopulation and its consequences of resource depletion, pollution, climate change, armed conflict and migration are putting the ecology of our planet under unprecedented pressure. Simultaneously the act of building however, is one of our planet’s largest polluting agents. A mere return to old habits, older technologies and vernacular techniques of building and conceiving space will not suffice in the face of the adversarial affects of over population and our increased vulnerability to our natural environment. Innovation in new materials, technology, fabrication and production techniques as well as ways of conceiving space offer novel ways of reducing waste, the carbon footprint and our dependency on fossil fuels. When building industries in industrial countries are preparing for the future, the primary concerns are based on market shares and increased costs, and environmental impact is considered primarily as a necessity directed by legislation or a way to achieve goodwill and market value. The industry is hereby responding to near-future predictions that do not take into account environmental changes nor new opportunities from material research, primarily due to risk management (in this case complete avoidance of risk taking), and choose to continue on well proven courses of business management.
Dip16 also looks at the ongoing debate in regards to the National Centre for Policy Analysis and their 278 – Living with Global Warming document. Looking at alternative or perhaps supplementary actions to the Kyoto Protocol’s approach of CO2 mitigation dip16 adopts the alternative approach of adaptation. It is our interest to not only help reduce society’s vulnerability to the consequences of climatic change, but to help heighten architectural qualities of living within these new environments.
Architecture is already well situated within predictive futures; designs often take just under a decade to be fully realised, once built the architecture then spans several decades, if not centuries. We are constantly designing and building for both current situations and future contingencies. Our research agenda is merely focusing this agenda in an area where the science of predictive forecasting is not only possible but currently being computed. It is quite possible that the scenarios within the unit will be the scenarios you, as a student, are actually dealing with once you establish your own practices probably within the next decade or so. It’s our responsibility as architects to ensure that our architecture and building ecology adapts to these impending environmental conditions.
Environmental Research framework
Dip 16 continues setting out its research agenda in relation to the United Nations resolution, 58/214. RES/58/214’s main goal is to emphasize strategies of reduced vulnerability to natural disasters and their importance to sustainable development(s) in the face of climatic change. The places most immediately vulnerable to the consequences of natural disasters are often developing countries. It is in these places where scientific and technical knowledge must work to reduce vulnerabilities to natural disasters. However, as our world continues to change developed countries will also become increasingly vulnerable. Some of the places predicted to be impacted the most are in or around large dense populations where incoming or outgoing mass migrations will occur.
1. UN, Living With Risk: A Global Review Of Disaster Reduction Initiatives 2004, United Nations Publication, (February 28, 2005)
2. Mark Lynas, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, Fourth Estate (19 Mar 2007)
3. UN Second Committee, Resolution A/RES/58/214 International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, Fifty-eighth session, Agenda item 94(e) (27 February 2004)
AE.I advances its exploration by aligning its agenda to the activities of global networks and organizations such as UN Habitat and Architects for Humanity and approaches a building industry transforming in response to immediate economical changes through a renewed interest in industrial production in response, but follows an alternate route in which architectural innovation is a primary driver. The aim is to develop benchmark projects that can suggest long term architectural solutions with adaptable qualities that can become references to all parties above.
Economic Research framework
Within software development open source principles is not only a way to share code for idealistic reasons, it is also turning into a proven business model.[1] The number of international Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), frequently associated with humanitarian issues, developmental aid and sustainable development, is estimated at 40,000 and they are increasingly recognizing the need for refined project management finding alternate routes to influence governments and corporate powers.[2] Microcredit enabling impoverished people in developing countries to engage in self-employment projects is increasingly gaining credibility in the mainstream finance industry, the borrowers categorized as pre-bankable.[3]
Material production must respond and adapt to the new conditions faced in the near future, but the organization and deployment of architecture is also active in the production of new lifestyles and cultural ecologies. The next decades will inevitably be a time of transition, forced through the economical control mechanisms devised by governments or trade organizations as well as being the result of emergent new cultures of multiplicities, introduced through mass migration, new habits in travel and new kinds of economies.
Research consultancy
Numerous old and new agencies are responding to actual effects of climate changes around the globe, often with short term solutions based on currently available resources and technologies. While these agencies are often able to respond quickly to new needs, they may not have the capacity to include innovation and long term sustainability in their projects. The work of dip16 is aimed at supporting these agencies, and potential new ones, with an innovative approach that provides an agile and adaptive framework for operation. The purpose is here to allow new constellations of actors to emerge, and a new long term resistant and sustainable yet dynamic and responsive architecture to be deployed.
Dip16 will continue its pursuit of architecture as an intense group activity. We will be seeking consultancies from all across the field that will form an integral part of the formulation of the architectural output. The architect’s role as lead designer of a design team is unique due to the fact that we operate as a generalist who must attempt to synthesise large amounts of information and attempting to have an overview of the overall process of design. This, we find, is very interesting because it allows us to be both speculative and projective without the burden of knowing anything in too much detail from the onset of a design project. It’s actually this level of ignorance that we attempt to hone in on us as the opportunity for unexpected solutions and proposals as the base for innovation. Every project will need experts both from within the building industry but also from other disciplines that can cross fertilize the rather conservative discourse of building.
In relation to the UN’s documentation the unit has built up an extensive outline of adaptive responses to extreme phenomenon & vulnerable environments. Many of our projects from the past three years are situated somewhere within this outline. Below is a reduced excerpt from that outline which has been reworked and directed towards this year’s brief and the consequential effects and adaptations within potential climatic changes.
· coastal redefinitions/rising sea levels
§ floods
§ defensive barriers
§ dams/water containment
§ erosion & sedimentation
§ typological/morphological modifications
§ artificial land formations/reclamations
§ floating structures
§ migrating cities
· local climate changes/weather belt drift
§ desertification
§ vivarium/artifical climates
§ water collectors
§ dams/water containment
§ hydrological recycling
§ meltwater harvesters
§ cooling/jetstream alterations
§ greenhouses
§ geothermal tanks
§ snow collectors
§ climate optimisation/increased productivity
§ distribution centres
§ agricultural densifications
· extreme weather conditions
§ tsunamis
§ morphological modifications
§ topographic channelling
§ defensive barriers
§ hurricanes
§ morphological modifications
§ defensive strategies/consequential mitigations
§ seasonal flooding/drying
· resource redistribution/scarcity
§ crop evolutions/weather migrations
§ depleting resources
§ mass migrations
§ housing/density
§ temporary shelters
§ healthcare facilities
§ distributed/non-distributed power generation
§ scarcity of fresh water
§ desalinisation plants
· global consequences
§ sea acidification/salinisation
§ artificial fisheries
§ lost biodiversity/ecosystems & resources
§ increased malaria
§ hyperactive hydrological cycles
§ increased temperature stresses