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Arthur Mamou-Mani

“The Water Cathedral is a large, horizontal urban nave for public use, discreetly exposed so that enigmatic and semi-dark atmospheres can be made out through its topographic lines of floor and ceiling. Both topographies are surface systems shaped by numerous slender, vertical components, which hang or rise like stalactites and stalagmites in a cave, varying their heights and concentrations. A physical organization with regimes of proliferation and differentiation; a series of columns, platforms, arches, curtains, domes and caverns emerge, qualifying the project spatially and atmospherically.Water embedding / Dripping, duration, delay by integrating water within its spatial and material logics, the project promotes a form of architecture that systematizes dripping pulses and speeds, consistently exacerbating the water drop as primal atmospheric matter.”

“This is accomplished through the hanging components of the roof topography, constituted geometrically and materially like textile prisms placed upside-down with a partial granular substratum filling. They are fed by a hydraulic network that continuously irrigates using measured doses. When filled with small amounts of water, these elements act as regulators or atmospheric interfaces, experiencing a phenomenon of absorption and release where, through capillarity, water drops gradually flow against gravity along the prism edges, slowing down the time of concentration and fall. This delay process that consequently produces multiple dripping rhythms over the ground topography, formally demonstrates management of duration. It materializes an architectural form in which water can be particularized in a system that has extensive effects over an area. The delay principle, established through mediation by the prisms, is translated into the possibility to define the layout and use the water as it drops.Form Principles as an abstraction and geometrical transposition of the stalactite, a three-dimensional spatial component, is developed. A three-phase prism with an equilateral base that varies in height and area. These elements proliferate in a grid system, forming curves of different lengths and intensities. This variation capacity component, allows to effectively producing diversity of spaces, textures, patterns and interactions with environmental dynamics based in a principle of material abundance.Geometrical studies from two dimensional curve variation and three dimensional arrangements constrained to equilateral modules. These forms of proliferation deliver rich arch formations, defining interiorities, structural points and modular connectivity.”

WATER CATHEDRAL | GUN Architects

WATER CATHEDRAL | GUN Architects

WATER CATHEDRAL | GUN Architects

via WATER CATHEDRAL | GUN Architects.

Below is an inspiring documentary on the Cradle to Cradle design concept of the chemist Michael Braungart and the architect William McDonough:

 

Summary of the C2C approach:

“Rather than seeing materials as a waste management problem, as in the cradle-to-grave system, cradle-to-cradle design is based on the closed-loop nutrient cycles of nature, in which there is no waste. Just like nature, the cradle-to-cradle design seeks, from the start, to create buildings, communities and systems that generate wholly positive effects on human and environmental health. Not less waste and fewer negative effects, but more positive effects of regeneration, seed, growth, plant, product, “upcycle” and/or seed, growth, plant, product etc etc. One organism’s waste is food for another, and nutrients and energy flow perpetually in closed-loop cycles of growth, decay and rebirth. Waste equals food.

This is not just wishful thinking or “concept” design. The cradle-to-cradle philosophy is driving a growing movement devoted to developing safe materials, products, supply chains and manufacturing processes throughout architecture and industry. It is being adopted by some of the world’s most influential corporations, including Ford Motor Group, Nike and Herman Miller Furniture. Even densely populated China is looking at development and the impact of the rapidly growing population on housing development.”

via designindustry

Above: Nike Considered Design, made respecting the C2C protocol

Above: Herman Miller Mira Chair based on the C2C protocol

Above: The Ford Model U and its compostable body parts. Made respecting the C2C protocol

Above: Ford Motor Company River Rouge production plant (Michigan, USA)

Above:  Ferrer Research & Development Center, Barcelona; a.k.a. “The Butterfly Building” by William McDonough + Partners

Above Cradle to Cradle certification

Above: William McDonough (Architect) and Michael Braungart (Chemist)

More on Cradle to Cradle:
-Link to the book: Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
-Wikipedia article
-Cradle to Cradle Community
-Cradle to Cradle Facebook Page
-Interview of McDonough

For more documentaries, go to http://documentaryheaven.com/
via Rory O’Grady from A Beautiful Planet

Reblogged from FuturesPlus:

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Today we are coming at you with another fabrication studio that has allowed students and professors to delve into the trending world or architectural fabrication.  Over past couple years using and understanding the dynamics that tools and the modeling programs can bring to the world of architecture is increasingly important.  Digital Fabrication actually in itself has become a craft, as professor Santiago Perez and his students at University of Arkansas, Fay Jones School of Architecture know all too well. 

Read more… 217 more words

Inspiring blog post on srpLAB – Santiago R. Perez by futuresplus.wordpress.com

“The Windshape pavilion by nARCHITECTS stretched across the limestone walls of Lacoste, France like a luminous billowing spider’s web. The temporary pavilion was commissioned by the Savannah College of Art and Design for their Provence Campus. The net-like structures were used by students and townspeople alike as a cultural center and meeting space.

Perched at the top of Lacoste on the castle of the Marquis de Sade, the Windshape pavilion was composed of thread-like walls made from a simple assortment of materials – including white plastic pipes, aluminum braces, and threaded string. Woven from gauzy nets, the pavilion was designed to move and morph in the local wind, creating a spectacular art installation for the locals to enjoy. The surfaces of the pavilion would ripple, move, and even make noise, depending on the speed of the winds that blew through it.

Over the course of five weeks, SCAD students worked closely with nARCHITECTS to install Windshape. The netted arcs took shape through bending and tension, and they were held in place by steel structural collars that ensured the structure’s sturdiness. The strings were woven to provide enclosed spaces as well as more open areas to vary the usage of the different parts of the temporary pavilion.

The resulting pavilion was a translucent web embellishing the Medieval architecture of the historic town. Taking advantage of these new meeting points, the town used the space was used to host concerts, exhibitions and ceremonies. At night, Windshape was illuminated and visible to neighboring towns miles away.”

via ArchDaily

 

“ Pohl Architects have designed the Cocoon_FS for PlanktonTech, a German research institution that studies plankton. The form was inspired by a type of phytoplankton called diatoms, and is made of fibre-reinforced polymer panels. PlanktonTech will travel around the world and use Cocoon_FS to promote their work.”

“The Cocoon_FS pavilion was constructed from leaf-like panels of fiber-reinforced polymer. Fifteen original base modules were designed and a total of 220 modules were manufactured. Each panel fastens to the next to form a super strong, self-supporting dome. Its translucent shell admits light during the day and illuminates its surroundings at night.

The temporary featherweight structure weighs in at just 1650 pounds and measures under ten feet tall. Both exterior and interior walls carry the same variety of pores, ribs, minute spines, marginal ridges and elevations that characterize the silica cell wall of the slimy brown surface algae that inspired it. Researchers at PlanktonTech used microtechnology to transfer the richly patterned shells of the plankton to a 3D model. Those models were then analyzed and optimized using various computations to unlock biomechanical qualities and re purpose them for architectural design.

Algae is growing in popularity among biofuel enthusiasts, food developers, and entrepreneurs, but as far as we know, the Cocoon_FS is the first prefab to take its design cues from phytoplankton. The plankton-inspired building made its debut in Germany and will be erected at sites around the world in an effort to draw support, awe, and admiration for PlanktonTech’s ongoing investigation of plankton-based solutions.”

Via Inhabitat and Contemporist

 

 

 

Adrian Bowyer, creator of RepRap, Bath University:

RepRap is a free desktop 3D printer capable of printing plastic objects. Since many parts of RepRap are made from plastic and RepRap can print those parts, RepRap is a self-replicating machine - one that anyone can build given time and materials. It also means that – if you’ve got a RepRap – you can print lots of useful stuff, and you can print another RepRap for a friend

RepRap is about making self-replicating machines, and making them freely available for the benefit of everyone. We are using 3D printing to do this, but if you have other technologies that can copy themselves and that can be made freely available to all, then this is the place for you too.

Reprap.org is a community project, which means you are welcome to edit most pages on this site, or better yet, create new pages of your own. Our community portal and New Development pages have more information on how to get involved. Use the links below and on the left to explore the site contents. You’ll find some content translated into other languages.

RepRap was the first of the low-cost 3D printers, and the RepRap Project started the open-source 3D printer revolution. It is described in the video below”

 

Above: The original Mendel RepRap machine

Above: Adrian Bowyer showing a RepRap Mandel machine assembled with printed elements from another RepRap !

Daniel Hambleton  is a mathematician working in the AEC industry (Architecture Engineering and Construction): a role he hopes will continue to push the boundaries of current design practice. In 2009 he helped start the Studio for Progressive Modelling (SPM), a service provided by Halcrow Yolles that combines expertise in structural engineering, mathematics, and computation, to solve complex problems in architecture.

Since the official launch of the SPM, Daniel has worked on projects both locally and abroad, collaborated with established and emerging architects, organized an interdisciplinary discussion series, lectured at the University of Toronto, presented at international conferences, written technical papers, and generally been incorrigibly interested in the interaction between mathematics, engineering, and architecture.”

Daniel and Chris Walsh have developped a plugin for Grasshopper called SPM Vector Components which you can download on Food4Rhino. It provide some utilities that deal with vector fields, emitters, particules and motion. Below are some examples of the plugin being used:

 

Above: SPM VC Dynamic Emtters

 

Above: SPM VC Sprites

 

Above: SPM VC General demonstration

“In North-East India, the giant cliffs, lead up to a hidden word: Meghalayas. Nearly 2km high and buffeted by mansoon clouds this is possibly the wettest place on earth. Once 25 meters of rain fell here in a year, the world record. Living here poses an unusual problem and it is not just keeping dry. Nearly all the rain falls during the summer mansoon. River flows from gentle stream to raging torrent. They become wild and unpredictable and almost impossible to cross. Harli and his niece Giuliana are busy cultivating a cunning solution: 30 years ago, Harli planted this strangler fig on the river’s edge and today he is teaching Giuliana how to care for it…”

David Attenborough in the BBC Documentary How the world made us below (from the PermacultureForest Youtube Channel)  narrates the beautiful story of the live bridges of Meghalayas which is a network of living fig tree bridges, sometimes several century old, used to cross the torrents in the Mansoon season.

Above: The “double decker” bridge, in Travel the Unknown blog  

Above: Close up Photo of a fig tree bridge by Neeraj2608 

Above: Even Handrails were made with the roots, article from Inhabitat      

 Above: view of one of the bridges from dpreview

 

 

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