Instructors: Marjan Colletti, Peter Massin, Galo Moncayo
Design Studio 4 – Bachelor Foundations & Project – 3rd year
Responsive and the Ornament
One of the urgently important issues in contemporary architecture is the responsible use of resources during development, design, production and fabrication of buildings. In many cases the implementation is isolated from the design, as it is mainly driven by automatization and usage restrictions (e.g. try to open a window in the new faculty building). Therefore, not only the known approaches should be optimized and technically adapted, but new strategies must be developed to lead to relevant architectural solutions. Because, architecture is not only (next to fundamental protective tasks) about technical performance but also a societal and cultural expression. Despite the apparent decoupling of the task of responsibility and resource saving development, in terms of design, it is in particular the architect‘s task to propagate the idea that design is a fundamental part of the solution. In that sense the user is a soft factor and thus a variable with different levels of perception, complexity and behavior. This may allow for non-deterministic solutions, thus turning architecture again into a creative discipline.
To respond to uncertainties and variable conditions of use, buildings require the ability to constantly adapt. A classic technical example is the thermostat, which controls the heating system using simple temperature sensors. Among others but for instance through the work of Nicholas Negroponte in architecture a field of activity opened which describes itself ‘responsive architecture’. It examines how buildings with multiple influences evaluated by sensors, could react through actuators.
Responsive – Answering, replying or responding
The integration/application of responsive systems allows soft factors to remain soft. These systems can interface between humans and dynamic influences such as nature. Responsive buildings can compensate or actively generate energy. Until now, very few experimental buildings and art installations have been built. A traditional approach is the adaptability of the building as a whole, for instance how a building aligns with the sun position (Villa Girasol, Heliotrope House, D‘Angelo House, etc.). The recent trends show the manifold of possibilities that opened up with the new digital design tool and fabrication methods (Philip Beesley, Michael Fox, Theodore Spyropoulos, etc.), resulting in a higher interest towards smaller intelligent components. The responsive systems are thus in a scale in which they begin to acquire inherent ornamental qualities. The related complexity to treat and inform each item independently requires higher level of planning that can only be achieved by digital design strategies. Simulations can analyze and adapt complex systems. CAD and Scripting can adjust mutual dependencies of countless elements. New technologies such as 3D printing, laser cutting and CNC allow testing and evaluating through rapid prototyping.
Ornament – latin ornamentum: equipment, apparatus, furniture, trappings, adornment, embellishment”
The ornament has the ability to give back authority to the architect, that gets more and more lost. Decision-making-processes and easily accessible technology within planning processes has led to a loss of expertise. Loos argument that unnecessary ornament causes unnecessary work should not be negated, but underpinned by the rapid development of CAD/CAM technology, Meanwhile, architects searching for new markets to compete. The ornament is very specific and requires a high degree of design. It can be produced only by the advancement of this genre which is evidently in the métier of architects.
These two issues are no longer in the periphery of architecture – responsiveness and ornament are in the current discussion on the technically, design and theoretically. We want to put these two topics in tectonic, functional, technological and formal relationship.
We worked on the qualities of ornamental in an innocent, provocative way.
In terms of the main topic ‘Meeting Halfway Nature’ we wanted to develop architectures in a responsive conversation with nature.
