modeLab Essential Reference | Firefly Primer v1.0
Excerpt:
The first edition of the Firefly Primer is out and it is a must read for those interested in making the connection between physical and virtual computing via Grasshopper and Arduino. Put together by Andy Payne (LIFT Architects) and Jason Kelley Johnson (Future Cities Lab) the primer is an excellent resource for both beginners, as well as seasoned veterans of parametric modeling.
The Firefly Primer (a 37 page manual) provides an in-depth look at each individual component and walks you through the entire process of using this powerful new tool-set (from installation to final output). It also includes some basic tutorials, links and references to get you up and running quickly.
Download: http://www.fireflyexperiments.com.
This entry was posted on Aug 30, 2010 and is filed under References and tagged with Actuator, Andy Payne, arduino, firefly, Future Cities Lab, Grasshopper, Interactive, Jason Kelly Johnson, LIFT Architects, Physical Computing, Processing, Processing.org, Rhino, Rhino3D, Rhinoceros3D.
modeLab Essential Reading | MAKE: Getting Started with Arduino
Excerpt:
This valuable little book offers a thorough introduction to the open-source electronics prototyping platform that’s taking the design and hobbyist world by storm. Getting Started with Arduino gives you lots of ideas for Arduino projects and helps you get going on them right away.
With inexpensive hardware and open-source software components that you can download free, getting started with Arduino is a snap. To use the introductory examples in this book, all you need is a USB Arduino, USB A-B cable, and an LED.
Join the tens of thousands of hobbyists who have discovered this incredible (and educational) platform. Written by the co-founder of the Arduino project, with illustrations by Elisa Canducci, Getting Started with Arduino gets you in on the fun! This 128-page book is a greatly expanded follow-up to the author’s original short PDF that’s available on the Arduino website.
Inside, you’ll learn about:
- Interaction design and physical computing
- The Arduino hardware and software development environment
- Basics of electricity and electronics
- Prototyping on a solderless breadboard
- Drawing a schematic diagram
Find it on Amazon.
This entry was posted on Aug 28, 2010 and is filed under References and tagged with Andy Payne, arduino, David Rutten, DIY, Electronics, firefly, Future Cities Lab, Grasshopper, ircuit Bending, Jason Johnson, Make, Massimo Banzi, Open-Source, Parametric Design, Processing, Prototyping, Rhino3D, Rhinoceros.
modeLab Essential Reading | MAKE: Electronics: Learning Through Discovery
Excerpt:
Want to learn the fundamentals of electronics in a fun, hands-on way? With Make: Electronics, you’ll start working on real projects as soon as you crack open the book. Explore all of the key components and essential principles through a series of fascinating experiments. You’ll build the circuits first, then learn the theory behind them!
Build working devices, from simple to complex You’ll start with the basics and then move on to more complicated projects. Go from switching circuits to integrated circuits, and from simple alarms to programmable microcontrollers. Step-by-step instructions and more than 500 full-color photographs and illustrations will help you use — and understand — electronics concepts and techniques.
- Discover by breaking things: experiment with components and learn from failure
- Set up a tricked-out project space: make a work area at home, equipped with the tools and parts you’ll need
- Learn about key electronic components and their functions within a circuit
- Create an intrusion alarm, holiday lights, wearable electronic jewelry, audio processors, a reflex tester, and a combination lock
- Build an autonomous robot cart that can sense its environment and avoid obstacles
- Get clear, easy-to-understand explanations of what you’re doing and why
Find it on Amazon.
This entry was posted on Aug 28, 2010 and is filed under References and tagged with Charles Platt, Circuit Bending, DIY, Electronics, Make, Prototyping.
modeLab Essential Reading | Emergent Technologies and Design: Towards a Biological Paradigm for Architecture
Excerpt:
Emergence – the process by which new and coherent structures, patterns and properties ‘emerge’ from within complex systems
Traditional architecture starts from the premise that architectural structures are singular and fixed, and however well integrated are separate from their environment and context. Emergence requires that the opposite is true – that those structures are complex energy and material systems that have a lifespan, exist as part of an environment of other active systems, and develop in an evolutionary way.
This book, based on the authors’ internationally renowned Emergent Technologies and Design course at the Architectural Association in London, introduces a new approach to the practice of architecture. The authors use essays and projects to demonstrate the interrelationship of concepts such as emergence and self-organisation with the latest technologies in design, manufacturing and construction.
With projects from their course, and critiques and commentary from some of the world’s leading design theorists and practitioners, the authors of Emergent Technologies and Design have introduced a radical new way of understanding the way in which architecture is conceived, designed and produced.
Find it on Amazon.
This entry was posted on Aug 28, 2010 and is filed under References and tagged with Achim Menges, AD, Essential Reading, Michael Hensel, Michael Weinstock, Routledge.
modeLab Essential Reference | Essential Mathematics for Computational Design
Excerpt :
Essential Mathematics uses Grasshopper to introduce design professionals to foundation mathematical concepts that are necessary for effective development of computational methods for 3D modeling and computer graphics.
The first edition of “Essential Mathematics for Computational Design” is now available with free download.
This entry was posted on Mar 24, 2010 and is filed under Featured, References and tagged with Computation, David Rutten, Essential Reference, Grasshopper, Parametric, Primer, Rajaa Issa, Rhino, Rhino 4.0 Labs, Rhino3D, Rhinoceros3D, Rhinoscript, Scripting.
modeLab Essential Reading | Space Reader: Heterogeneous Space in Architecture
Excerpt:
Edited by three leading figures in cutting-edge design, this reader brings space firmly back on to the agenda of contemporary architecture. Whereas space was one of the central tenets of 20th-century Modernism, in the last two decades the overriding preoccupation with digital technologies has shifted the focus to parametric geometries and complex surfaces. This emphasis on form and image has not been accompanied by similar advancements in the understandings of architectural space.
The Space Reader provides a highly pertinent and current understanding of space for a new generation of students and architects. It espouses an understanding of space that is heterogeneous, ordered through differential relationships between diverse systems leading to a multiplicity of atmospheres. As a generation of social geographers has argued, this type of complex space is characteristic of the metropolis, where multiple social and technological conditions are organically overlaid. The Space Reader attempts to lay the ground work for a similarly robust articulation of spatial complexity within architecture, and its relationship today’s built environment. With its emphasis on differentiation, heterogeneous space is pliant, flexible and highly relevant to the contemporary condition.
Find it on Amazon.
This entry was posted on Jul 22, 2009 and is filed under References and tagged with Achim Menges, AD, Christopher Hight, Essential Reading, John Wiley, Media House, Michael Hensel.
modeLab Essential Reading | Energeis: New Material Boundaries
Excerpt :
At present, material energies – that is thermal variation, air velocity, spectrums of light and electricity – remain a largely untapped source of innovation and inspiration for architects. Commonly relegated to the production of ambience – ‘moods’ or ‘effects’ – energies tend to be explored, in a design context, as little more than metaphor or poetics. Alternatively, they are regarded wholly as a resource for providing preconceived, rule-of-thumb interior comfort zones or as a set of measurables for determining ‘energy efficient’ buildings. Energies looks at ways of elevating these materials from their dependence on surfaces and services and in so doing, deploying them as building materials in themselves; thus redefining our physical boundaries through a wholly new means of spatial organisation.
Find it on Amazon.
This entry was posted on Jul 22, 2009 and is filed under References and tagged with AD, AMID (Cero9), An Te Liu, David Gissen, Essential Reading, John Wiley, Mathieu Lehanneur, Media House, Michelle Addington, Penelope Dean, Petra Blaisse, Philippe Rahm, Pierre Huyghe, Sean Lally, WEATHERS, Zbigniew Oksiuta.
modeLab Essential Reference | Rhinoscript 101 Primer
Excerpt :
RhinoScript101 is a project which aims to ease the transition from user to developer. Scripting is an extremely powerful yet relatively easy to learn way of automating Rhino. However, since it involves programming the mental threshold for beginners is rather high. RhinoScript101 offers a set of articles about the subject, starting at the very beginning.
Initially the RhinoScript101 Primer was released as a set of articles which could be downloaded from this webspace. Due to the size of the project it has been merged into a single PDF which makes it more maintainable.
This publication is still a work-in-progress.
This entry was posted on Jun 01, 2009 and is filed under References and tagged with David Rutten, Essential Reference, Primer, Rhino, Rhino 4.0 Labs, Rhino3D, Rhinoceros3D, Rhinoscript, Scripting.
modeLab Essential Reference | Grasshopper Primer v2.0
Excerpt:
The second edition of the Grasshopper Primer is out and it wouldn’t have been possible without the tremendous contribution from Rajaa Issa. Rajaa is a developer at Robert McNeel and Associates and is the author of several other Rhino plugins including ArchCut and the ever popular PanelingTools. This revision provides a much more comprehensive guide than the first edition, weighing in at almost 160 pages with over 70 new pages dedicated to creating your own customized scripting components.
This printing coincides with two events; the first being the new release of Grasshopper version 0.6.0007 which proves to be a giant upgrade to the already robust Grasshopper platform. Existing users will find subtle, and some not so subtle changes to how data is stored in the current version; making some previous definitions outdated or even unusable. It is the hope that this primer will help new and existing users navigate many of the changes to the software system. The second event that overlaps with this publication is the conference titled FLUX: Architecture in a Parametric Landscape that is being held at the California College of the Arts. The event explores contemporary architecture and design through its relationship with changes in design technologies such as parametric modeling, digital fabrication, and scripting. Among other things, the event will consist of an exhibition and a series of workshops dedicated to parametric software systems.
This entry was posted on Jun 01, 2009 and is filed under References and tagged with Andy Payne, Essential Reference, Grasshopper, LIFT Architects, Primer, Rajaa Isaa, Rhino, Rhino3D, Rhinoceros3D.
modeLab Essential Reading | Performative Architecture | Beyond Instrumentality
Excerpt :
This book addresses the emergence of a new kind of architecture, in which building performance is a guiding design principle, adopting new performance-based priorities for the design of cities, buildings, landscape and infrastructures. This emerging architecture places broadly defined performance above form making; it utilizes digital technologies of quantitative and qualitative performance-based simulation to offer a comprehensive approach to the design of the build environment. The emphasis on building performance is now redefining expectations of the building design, its process and practice.
By bringing together the leading architects, engineers and technologists, the book will explore current and future developments in performance-based design. It is aimed at both professional and academic audiences and will cover a wide range of themes.
Find it on Amazon.
This entry was posted on Jun 01, 2009 and is filed under References and tagged with Algorithmic, Branco Kolarevic, Computation, Performative, Routledge, simulation.
modeLab Essential Reading | Architecture in the Digital Age | Design and Manufacturing
Excerpt :
Architecture in the Digital Age addresses contemporary architectural practice in which digital technologies are radically changing how the buildings are conceived, designed and produced. It discusses the digitally-driven changes, their origins, and their effects by grounding them in actual practices already taking place, while simultaneously speculating about their wider implications for the future. The book offers a diverse set of ideas as to what is relevant today and what will be relevant tomorrow for emerging architectural practices of the digital age.
The contents of the book brings together some of the leading international practitioners with the aim of providing informed views of what is seen as a critical juncture in architecture’s evolving relationship to its wider cultural and technological context.
Find it on Amazon.
This entry was posted on Jun 01, 2009 and is filed under References and tagged with Algorithmic, BIM, Branco Kolarevic, Computation, Digital Fabrication, Taylor & Francis.
modeLab Essential Reading | Models
Excerpt:
Models are an essential component of the architect’s design process. As tools of translation, models assist the exploration of the possible and illustrate the actual. While models have traditionally served as representational and structural studies, they are increasingly being used to suggest and solve new spatial and structural configurations. Models, the eleventh number of the highly regarded journal 306090, explores the role of the architectural model today in relation to the idea, the diagram, the technique, and the material. Models includes contributions from engineers, scientists, poets, painters, photographers, historians, urbanists, and architects both young and experienced.
Find it on Amazon.
This entry was posted on Jun 01, 2009 and is filed under References and tagged with 306090, Emily Abruzzo, Eric Ellingsen, Essential Reading, Jonathan D. Solomon, Models.
modeLab Essential Reading | 4dSpace: Interactive Architecture
Excerpt :
In the next few years, emerging practices in interactive architecture are set to transform the built environment. Whereas ‘smart’ design was once regarded as the preserve of museum exhibits or Jumbotrom advertising screens, ‘multi-mediated’ interactive design has now entered every domain of public and private life. As a spatial medium, interactivity is revolutionising and reinventing our homes, as well as our work and leisure spaces. This title features essays and interviews by international commentators – Ole Bouman, Antonino Saggio, Stefano Mirti and Walter Aprile, and Mike Weinstock, as well as guest-editor Lucy Bullivant – on the cultural issues raised by the emergence of interactive architecture. These are complemented by features on acclaimed practitioners: Christian Moeller, Tobi Schneidler, Ron Arad and Jason Bruges. Benchmark interactive projects evolving new models of multidisciplinary teamwork include the Media House, led by Metapolis. The issue also features new work by KDa/Toshio Iwai, Tom Barker of SmartSlab, realities:united, Usman Haque, Adam Somlai-Fischer, Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen, Lars Spuybroek and the Institute of Neuroinformatics, ETH, Zurich.
Find it on Amazon.
This entry was posted on Jun 01, 2009 and is filed under References and tagged with AD, Architectural Design, Essential Reading, John Wiley, Lucy Bullivant, Media House.
modeLab Essential Reading | Programming Cultures: Architecture, Art and Science in the Age of Software Development
Excerpt :
An exploration of the relationship between software engineering and the various disciplines that benefit from new tools, Programming Cultures focuses on how designers are writing new codes to solve visualisation and data processing problems. Taking its cue from a symposium organised by Mike Silver at Pratt Institute in New York, it extends the potential of programming for architecture far beyond the scope of popular, appropriated systems such as Form-Z, Maya and 3D Studio Max. Here programming is advocated as a discipline central to the development of design and a key to unlocking new ways of working rather than as a mere service to generative design and construction. Scripting becomes the inspiration and driving force behind a new aesthetic and new wave of design. This title of Architectural Design features the work of seminal figures such as Gregg Lynn and Haresh Lalvani, while also presenting the important new work of designers like biothing, Evan Douglis and CEB Reas. It also encompasses the writing of architectural thinkers, such as Stephen Wolfram, Dennis R Shelden of Gehry Technologies and the veteran of architectural programming Malcolm McCullough.
Find it on Amazon.
This entry was posted on Jun 01, 2009 and is filed under References and tagged with AD, Architectural Design, Code, Essential Reading, John Wiley, Mike Silver, Programming, Programming Cultures.
modeLab Essential Reading | Tooling
Excerpt :
We all know that today’s architectural design has moved from the sketchpad to the screen-the era of the Mayline and the drafting board now seems downright Paleolithic-but techniques for using the computer not just as a tool for rendering but as a generative instrument remain woefully unexplored. In Tooling, the latest installment in our renowned Pamphlet Architecture series, the technologically progressive young firm Aranda/Lasch illustrates how advanced computational methods and algorithmic codes can be used to foster architectural design. Tooling explores patterns generated by computer codes that in turn create an organizational template assembling projects. By openly sharing these codes, the authors seek to foster further investigation into their methods, allowing other architects to model and evolve more critical and insightful geometries and patterns.
Find it on Amazon.
This entry was posted on Jun 01, 2009 and is filed under References and tagged with Algorithmic, Aranda Lasch, Ben Aranda, Cecil Balmond, Chris Lasch, Computation, Essential Reading, Pamphlet Architecture, Sanford Kwinter, Scripting, Tooling.
modeLab Essential Reading | Techniques and Technologies in Morphogenetic Design
Excerpt :
This issue of AD introduces a new approach to architectural practice based on the interrelationship of emergence and self-organization concepts. A sequence to the successful Emergence: Morphogenetic Design Strategies title by the same guest-editors, it advances on the previous publication by taking on board the latest developments for fully integrated design evolution, manufacturing and construction.
Emergence requires the recognition of architectural structures not as singular and fixed bodies, but as complex energy and material systems that have a lifespan, exist as part of the environment of other active systems, and as an iteration of a series that proceeds by evolutionary development. Thus the focal point of this issue will be the exploration of techniques and technologies that enable the implementation of such morphogenetic strategies, requiring a new set of intellectual and practical skills. Though the publication stands alone as an investigation and presentation of cutting-edge techniques and technologies within the design and construction field supported by examples from adjacent industries, it also introduces a new springboard for understanding and rethinking the radical changes in which architecture is now being conceived, designed and produced. While representing a timely exploration of the embedding of techniques and technology in an alternative design approach, it also presents wholly new strategies for tackling issues of sustainability.
Find it on Amazon.
This entry was posted on Jun 01, 2009 and is filed under References and tagged with Achim Menges, AD, Architectural Association, Architectural Design, Emergence, Emergent Technologies, Essential Reading, Michael Hensel, Michael Weinstock, Morphogenetic, Performative.
modeLab Essential Reading | Emergence: Morphogenetic Design Strategies
Excerpt :
Emergence, or evolutionary optimization, is an important new concept that in recent years has been applied to artificial intelligence, information theory, digital technology, economics, climate studies, material science and biometric engineering. In an architectural context it involves harnessing evolutionary processes for not only the design of buildings, but also the composition of new materials and structural design. In so doing, architecture is aspiring to a new level of complexity as it seeks to match the restless perfection of systems in the natural world. This title is compiled by Michael Hensel, Achim Menges and Michael Weinstock, the directors of the Emergence and Design Group and the new Emergent Technologies and Design masters programme at the Architectural Association (AA) in London. At the aa the group is leading an international research-based unit that is at the very forefront in the tectonic application of emergence. As well as featuring the group’ own work, this publication includes interviews with Frei Otto; Farshid Moussavi and Alejandro Zaera Polo of Foreign Office Architects (foa); and Charles Walker, leader of the Advanced Geometry Unit (agu) at Arup. It also features articles by Professor George Jeronimidis from the Centre for Biomimetics at Reading University, and Johann Sischka, managing director of Waagner Biro, the manufacturing contractor renowned for its complex geometry constructions.
Find it on Amazon.
This entry was posted on Jun 01, 2009 and is filed under References and tagged with Achim Menges, AD, Architectural Design, Emergence, Fitness, Form Finding, John Wiley, Michael Hensel, Michael Weinstock, Morphogenetic, Voxel.
modeLab Essential Reading | Versatility and Vicissitude: Performance in Morpho-Ecological Design
Excerpt :
This third AD by the guest-editors of the highly successful Emergence and Techniques and Technologies in Morphogenetic Design titles shifts the morpho-ecological design project into the realm of performance. Whereas the dictionary definition of performance – to ‘carry out an action’ or ‘to fulfill a task’ – invokes a tired utilitarian debate, Hensel and Menges inject the meaning of the word ‘performance’ with an entirely new life. In this context, form is redefined not as the shape of a material object alone, but as the multitude of effects, a milieu of conditions, modulations and microclimates that emanate from an object’s exchange with its specific environment; a dynamic relationship that is perceived and interacted with by a subject. A synergetic employment of performance and morpho-ecological techniques combine to create integral design solutions that will render an alternative model for sustainability. This issue presents historical precursors and precedents for this approach, as well as the current state of the art of morpho-ecological design. Key contributors include: Klaus Bollinger and Manfred Grohmann of Bollinger & Grohmann, Aleksandra Jaeschke, OCEAN, Professor Remo Pedreschi, Defne Sunguroglu, Peter Trummer and Michael Weinstock.
Find it on Amazon.
This entry was posted on Jun 01, 2009 and is filed under References and tagged with Achim Menges, AD, Architectural Design, Emergence, Essential Reading, John Wiley, Michael Hensel, Morphogenesis.
modeLab Essential Reading | 4dSocial: Interactive Design Environments
Excerpt :
A new breed of public interactive installations is taking root that overturns the traditional approach to artistic experience. Architects, artists and designers are now creating real-time interactive projects at very different scales and in many different guises. Some dominate public squares or transform a building’s façade – others are more intimate, like wearable computing. All, though, share in common the ability to draw in users to become active participants and co-creators of content, so that the audience becomes part of the project. Investigating further the paradoxes that arise from this new responsive media at a time when communication patterns are in flux, this title features the work of leading designers, such as Electroland, Usman Haque, Shona Kitchen and Ben Hooker, ONL, Realities United Scott Snibbe. While many works critique the narrow public uses of computing to control people and data, others raise questions about public versus private space in urban contexts; all attempt to offer a unique, technologically mediated form of ‘self-learning’ experience, but which are most effective concepts in practice?
Find it on Amazon.
This entry was posted on Jun 01, 2009 and is filed under References and tagged with 4dSocial, AD, Architectural Design, Essential Reading, John Wiley, Lucy Bullivant, Social Behavior, Social Mapping.
modeLab Essential Reference | Architectural Geometry
Excerpt :
Geometry lies at the core of the architectural design process. It is omnipresent, from the initial form-finding stages to the actual construction. Modern constructive geometry provides a variety of tools for the efficient design, analysis, and manufacture of complex shapes. This results in new challenges for architecture. However, the architectural application also poses new problems to geometry. Architectural geometry is therefore an entire research area, currently emerging at the border between applied geometry and architecture. This book has been written as a textbook for students of architecture or industrial design. It comprises material at all levels, from the basics of geometric modeling to the cutting edge of research. During the architectural journey through geometry, topics typically reserved for a mathematically well-trained audience are addressed in an easily understandable way. These include central concepts on freeform curves and surfaces, differential geometry, kinematic geometry, mesh processing, digital reconstruction, and optimization of shapes. This book is also intended as a geometry consultant for architects, construction engineers, and industrial designers and as a source of inspiration for scientists interested in applications of geometry processing in architecture and art.
Find it on Amazon.
This entry was posted on Jun 01, 2009 and is filed under References and tagged with Andreas Asperl, Architectrual Geometry, Axel Killian, Bentley, Daril Bentley, Essential Reference, Helmut Pottman, Michael Hofer.
modeLab Essential Reading | Collective Intelligence in Design
Excerpt :
Exploring how today’s most compelling design is emerging from new forms of collaborative practice and modes of collective intelligence, this title of AD engages two predominant phenomena: design’s relationship with new information and telecommunication technologies, and new economies of globalization. With the shift from the second machine age to the age of information, the network has replaced the assembly line as a pre-eminent model of organization. With this shift has come the assembly line as a pre-eminent model of organization. With this shift has come the introduction of numerous alternative modes of social, economic and political organization in the form of peer-to-peer networks and open-source communities. this has radically altered conventional models of collective invention, as well as challenging received notions of individual authorship and agency, questioning the way in which traditional disciplines organize themselves. This reorganization is apparent with in architectural practice, as well as within its participation in a greater cultural context of increasing interdisciplinarity. For the design disciplines, this includes the emergence of new forms of collective intelligence in a number of different fields including architecture, software and interaction design, gaming, motion typography and product design.
Collective Intelligence in Design takes in contributions from: AlUm Studio, CONTINUUM (working with the Smart Geometry Group and Bentley Systems), Servo, Hernan Diaz-Alonso and Benjamin Bratton, Open Source Architecture, MIT’s Media Lab and United Architects. Additionally, the issue features essays from a diverse pool of academics and designer,s including Alexander Galloway and Eugene Thacker, Michael Hensel, Therese Tierney, Pia Ednie-Brown and Brett Steele, as well as an extensive interview with Michael Hardt, an influential thinker on the subject of contemporary globalization.
Find it on Amazon.
This entry was posted on Jun 01, 2009 and is filed under References and tagged with AD, Architectural Design, Chris Perry, Christopher Hight, Cognition, Collective, Collective Cognition, Collective Intelligence, Design Intelligence, Essential Reading, John Wiley, Social Software.
