trabajamos para ella !

AA Visiting School / ZHA Code in bangalore

We are happy to announce the second iteration of the AA Visiting School in Bangalore : 02 -11 September 2011

please visit :
http://zha-code-education.org/
for detailed info : content, tutors etc.

Seats are limited and open to students of all nationalities.

There is not a pre-requisite to know any of the software that will be used during the course. The workshop is open to current architecture and design students, recent graduates, young professionals, and design teachers looking to augment their digital skills from India and elsewhere. The workshop will benefit students looking to pursue post graduate studies / research in architecture as also architectural firms looking to train their staff.

ideaStudio

Research : Credits and Thanks

ZHA
ZHA_CODE , Patrik Schumacher , Nils Fischer .

Autodesk
Kimberly Whinna, Jason-Medal-Katz, Robert Aish, Brian Pene , Gonzala Martinez, Carl Bass , Phil Bernstein.

Hypothetical Design exercise:
ZHA_CODE , John Klein.

Special thanks to Laura Klein, fellow resident.

sketches : shells and NURBS representations

sketches towards understanding Shells , form-finding and geometric representations, et al .

ZHA | CODE @ Autodesk , TED

Many thanks to Brian Pene , Autodesk & Drew trujillo ( aka Dr.Woohoo )

Hyperthreads | India and China

credits :
Chikara Inamura , Mustafa El Sayed , John Klein , Abishek Bij
Alicia Nahmad

AA
Brett Steele , Christopher Pierce , Sandra Sanna

ZHA
Patrik Schumacher , Nils Fischer , Cristiano Ceccato

AUTODESK
Stephen Stott , Deepankar Bhattacharrya , Kimberly Whinna
Debra Pothier , Jena Shore , Ninad Gawde

BMSCE
BS Bhooshan Madhu Chand K R , Dr. Mamatha Raj , Jaisim K

Student Volunteers
Vivek M.C ,Rollson Lasrado ,Vamsi ,Akshatha V , Navdita Aggarwal

HUNAN Uuniveristy
Yu Du , Horsen Hu

Hyperthreads | Komorebi

credits :
Chikara Inamura , Mustafa El Sayed , John Klein ,Alicia Nahmad

ZHA
Patrik Schumacher , Nils Fischer , Cristiano Ceccato

AUTODESK
Stephen Stott , Deepankar Bhattacharrya , Kimberly Whinna
Debra Pothier , Jena Shore , Ninad Gawde

Hunan University
Yu Du , Horsen Hu

AA visiting school bangalore

Essential routines

Autodesk gallery , san fransisco

Working in the physical space of the Autodesk gallery , and in close proximity to Autodesk labs at San Fransisco , has been truly inspirational . The gallery hosts lots of geeky exhibits showcasing cutting edge technology including the Texai robot , perceptive pixel , Augmented reality installations among others .

Autodesk idea studio residency , san fransisco

Currently pursuing a 8-week residency called Idea Studio at the Autodesk offices in San Fransisco. Idea studio is run by Kimberly Whinna , senior brand manager at Autodesk and is "a residency program for designers, engineers, artists, and scholars who are pursuing innovative projects that push design technology to its limits to solve real-life problems."

ZHA | CODE and Autodesk have had various on-going conversations on research agendas related to contemporary architectural design, software technology and production pipelines. Hopefully this residency will cement the relationship further.

My experience thus far into the residency has been a real pleasure. I have to thank Kimberly Whinna and Brian Pene ( Research strategist , CTO group) , for their assistance, and advise in setting up the scope and prospects of the research thus far . It has been exciting to be advised by pioneering figures such as Jos Stam , Duncan Brinsmead , and Robert Aish and interact with experienced researchers including Eddy Kuo and Sualp Ozel .

The abstract of the proposal is presented below. Work in progress will be posted soon .

Solution Spaces.
Physically based simulations & form finding and geometric approximation for procedural architectural modelling.
This short term research proposal posits itself within the argument for parametric design research to focus its efforts on design methods that enable an operative pathway from design intent to its manifestation. The intention is to investigate the use of physically-based parameters as effective constraints in design development. Central to this proposal is the belief that design technologies should enable real-time interaction between designer and the computational model.

Images from visit to nervi's ( not candela as previously mentioned, thanks franco for correction) chruch in san fransisco , showing yet another articulation of the hyperbolic paraboloid .

AA Summer School & ZHA | CDRG School Goes To India !

Hyper-threads
A 10 day workshop and 1 day symposium conducted by AA School of architecture, London and BMS College of Engineering , Bangalore.

This August the AA School of Architecture, London, Zaha Hadid Architects Computation and Research group (ZHACDRG), Autodesk Inc and Department of Architecture, BMS College of Engineering , Bangalore will bring a unique architectural workshop and 1 day symposium to Bangalore. The workshop as represented by the diversity of the collaborators, will explore the relations between contemporary software technology, design techniques, creative expression and its manifestation within India�s emergent economy and ancient built traditions. The intention is to look beyond Computer Aided Design (CAD ) as simple design automation to CAD as enabling architectural creativity whilst still responding to complex spatial and material performance constraints of our times.

more info here :http://bangalore.aaschool.ac.uk/

CO | DE internships starting summer 2010

ZHA_CDRG is pleased to offer up to 4 internship positions to work specifically with the research group.

Period:
2-3 months , starting summer 2010, potentially leading to long term employment

Applicant requisites :
General proficiency in Maya and / or Rhino and / or Catia / Digital Projects.
Scripting proficiency in any of the following languages :
MEL , python , rhinoScript , java / processing , C# , C++ ( preferred not expected).
Keen contemporary design sensibilities and ability to adapt to new technology , platforms

Opportunities:
Accepted applicants in their tenure can expect :
Continued assistance by ZHACDRG and ZHA Employees to develop research.
Access to prior work / source code.
Exposure design research methods developed over last 3 years including development of custom design applications / plug-ins.
Access to ZHA / ZHA_CDRG resources including potential opportunities� offered by our academic affiliations with institutions like the Architectural Association, and professional links to consultants etc.

Expectations.
Accepted applicants are expected in their tenure to :
Develop short-term design research in specific topics .
e.g. towers, art works, auditorium acoustics , facades etc.
Topics will be assigned in accordance to office requirements and applicant areas of interest.
Develop full documentation of the process and results of the research, as per office standards.
Templates / Samples will be provided.
Potentially work on relevant competitions in the capacity of developing / applying customised design technology

Apply
Please apply with CV, sample of works and references ( if possible) to :
email : shajay.bhooshan@zaha-hadid.com

anything to add to fantastic mr.gaudi ?

Technology , techniques , styles and rest of the jazz

Random thoughts o design , algorithms , technology , techniques

_sequence of actions vs sequence of snapshots.

"one of the first important paradigm shifts that programmers struggle to make is from viewing an algorithm as a sequence of actions to viewing it as a sequence of snapshots of the state of the computer." jeff edmonds , How to think about algorithms

Personally I think the latter is particularly useful in "design computing" , when the result desired is not known in exactitude . Once the snapshots are somewhat outlined, we can proceed to flesh out the design algorithm with operations to get from one state to another....

This inclination betrays a huge persnoal reliance on being able to use modelling techniques to "think-through" an algorithm .. i.e get from one state to another..

(to be continued..)

aa dlab_09

UNIT | TUTORS
Chikara Inamura and Shajay Bhooshan : ZHA Architects, london.

Primary software used : Catia and Maya.

UNIT | PARTICIPANTS
( some surnames to be corrected soon!)
Amorph
LorenzoPoli _PeyLingWeng _MariaEugeniaVillafane _IoannaSymeonidou
1+4
DenisLacej _PanizPeivandi _GeorgiosManousis _YijunHuangor _ RevanosAtria
Scuba
ManmitJandu _ThomasLegleu _MengTang _KnutBrunier _ Mohamed
Soda
JadalLeon _RicardoSosa _AliNahmad _Jheny _Fernando

UNIT | AGENDA
This unit focuses on scripting in the process of interoperability through various stages of architectural design from concept sketches to downstream production. The intention is to initiate participants into a compressed version of design-production pipeline in contemporary architectural practices.
...with conceptual design exercises featuring the use physics solvers, systematic study of parameters and results, establishing numerical methods to evaluate design goals etc.
...then focus on materialization through feasibility tests using finite element analysis and assembly modeling, where conceptual design parameters are transferred into material property, such as thickness, gauges, transparency, color, etc.

blade !

code maquette

original video at 18-45 fps.

_ reference source code : locomotion / kinematics
levFlagellum: by Jared Tarbell / Roberrt Hodgin (flight404).

_Individual creatures follow a assigned 'target' using simple Lerp.
_ Individuals also query a vector from a 'field' - simple-hash: - to alter their trajectory.
A percentage factor decides at each time-step whether individuals follow their targets or the vector field.
This percentage is a function of 'similarity of attributes' between targets and individuals.

Initial attempts involved generating the 'vector-field' from images as in these reference images from mantissa.
Later switched to using Maya-fluid field since Maya fluids are multi-threaded and sooo much faster than any code I can cobble together.

_ stipple lines represent iso-contours through changing scalar field
.i.e the attributes of the individuals - speed, similarity to each other etc - enabling a simplistic visualisation of clustering.

_ completely botched the visuals..hence the greyscale vdo!

more OF - maya attempts : Webcams , blob detection , sprites , billBoarding

videois real-time

(edit :)This looks like a much better idea!
wiimote + maya camera.

webcam,blob detection

_classes
OF: web-cam, blob detection classes (ofxOpenCV), video classes.
Maya : camera, quaternion & Euler rotation, vector and matrix, image classes.

_Maya-OF communication .

method 1.
Thanks to Dr. Woohoo and Keith Pasko for tip / how-to, including tweaks to ofxTCPClient.cpp

use ofxTCPClient to call MEL commands/procedures externally.

method 2.
Maya external browser setup registers a Maya COM object with default web browser, and all calls to URLS prefixed with mel:// are routed to the Maya script editor.

Uses ofUrlLaunch to call URLs (MEL commands / procedures).

This method fails under specific combinations of OS, browser and Maya version (e.g: Windows 7 + Maya08 + firefox3). This is because, the version of the COM browser plug-in fails to register.

_attempt was to use only the bounding box of the 'blob' of the hand. Tried very simple gestures like rotation of wrist, left-right & up-down motion of hand to track / zoom a Maya camera.
For various reasons, least of which is the amateur nature of code-writing, the interaction wasn't smooth / controllable.

bill-boarding

Although in-built Maya particle engine supports sprites / true billboarding , there is minimal API access to this. The custom node uses Maya quaternion and matrix classes to reconstruct this functionality. Also enables control over 'amount of bill-boarding' / scaling using 'fall-off' curves. Custom node uses Maya image class and OF video classes to load and display images / video respectively.

Springs and Particles : initiation to a home-brew Solver

Its a bit dissappointing that the Nucleus solver (nCloth / nParticles) in Maya09 has very limited API access and thus I have trying to learn the anatomy of a solver - particles , springs, methods of integration et al - and these are very good references with source code:

memo : uses verlet integration
Traer : Runge kutte and Euler integration
toxi: verlet
Zach lieberman: Introduction to basic principles and hardware connections.

Many thanks to the good people who have give out source code!