Post It.

I've been looking into some of the online communities that already exist for Architecture students. As an Autodesk aficionado, I started with their online community and ran a search for people at Newcastle University. I came up with 544 hits, of which only 1 student who had posted anything at all, back in 2009.

Talking about some of my ideas for my linked research project, a fellow student suggested that a repository of CAD hints and tips might be an idea. As a regular user of Autodesk's forums and a follower of several extremely good blogs, I wasn't sure this was necessary; it would seem to me that an abundance technical help already exists, and I am more interested in opening up issues more strictly related to architecture/design to a wider community.

The questions I find myself asking then is why did my peer, (who is by their own admission not the most computer focussed architect), think that such resources do not exist? And, why do people not use the existing communities in the way I envisage? What could I do to improve engagement with an online resource?

Can I develop my earlier ideas of integration with a students sketch book, or by building a window into an online world into studio or social spaces? As I would ultimately like to build new connections between anonymous students, there would seem to be a need to integrate any system I propose more completely into a students daily experience.

Drifting slightly, I came across this post for a cafe of the future, integrating a customers smart phone into the cafe table. Could something similar interfacing a sketch book be something I could consider for the KOFI Bar (sic) in the school?

Cardboard and Ping-Pong Balls = Rainstorm

I saw this post on Engadget and thought it was pretty interesting, and maybe even relevant to Hanna's project. Who knew that the sound generated by ping-pong balls on cardboard is really quite loud?!

Zimoun : 138 prepared dc-motors, cotton balls, cardboard boxes 40x40x40cm, 2011 from ZIMOUN VIDEO ARCHIVE on Vimeo.

Time Architecture: Representation

For the closing event of the Presidents Medal Exhibition, William Firebrace gave an interesting presentation on the use of video and animation as a method of representation for time based architecture as opposed to static drawings. Here he showed a variety of stop motion animations that document the changing of spaces. To close the talk he presented the video of one of his students projects entitled Creative Evolution: Silvertown Ship Breaking Yard.

Creative Evolution - Silvertown Ship Breaking Yard / Reconstructed Hybrid Community from Jonathan Schofield on Vimeo.

This video uses both 3d visualisation and stop frame animation to create an impressive representation.

This talk made me think about my linked research project and the time based nature of the ‘Google building’. If the ‘Google building’ is something that is constantly shifting then an outcome of the project could be a stop frame animation to demonstrate the interaction of the space over time as opposed to static drawings. This video could then feed into the beginning of my Thesis project.

Thoughts on the Google Building

This blog post is the result of some of my thoughts regarding Google as a built form whilst researching over the weekend.

If Google was going to be a building, it would be something that is in constant flux and always changing as people interact with it. As a user starts a new search, forms (architectural) would shift to reveal new pieces of information that would be constantly refining as the user changes key words in their search to narrow down what they are looking for. The building would constantly be changing and always in flux.

Google as a building would also make information flows tangible, providing a spatial experience. It would be able to represent current happenings in the news by creating atmospheres, connecting people with events across the world, taking influence from the work by Hiroshi Ishi and his early work. On another level, the Google building could create atmospheres like that of one of my previous posts, Projection Atmospheres where the room is painted white and as you enter the room, it quickly adapts to you. Your proximity to different content on the walls then makes the room shift again so that it matches your current state. As your actions change, so does that of the building.

Alternatively, the Google building would be about indexing, making information tangible through visualisations. After a big event such as the royal wedding, different peoples search results around the globe could be visualised showing who is searching what and where. Also trends could be visualised showing what or who is the most popular both at a regional basis and a word basis. In addition, as current news stories break out, the implementation of this could be visualised by showing the sudden break out of google searches that are being made.

Ultimately, both of the above lead to the creation of tangible user interfaces.

What do I need to do to find out more?

1. Research more on the inner workings of Google. If I am going to visualise it in an architectural form then I need to understand how it works.

2. What data am I going to visualise

The Google culture has left us all now as editors. Content is left for us to decide if it is good or bad. This can be dangerous if people don’t know how to be selective. Google is an un-edited place. What does this mean to the transfer of knowledge and information?

Mirror Mirror on the Wall…

Stealing a break from design work today I have had chance to think about my proposal. The outline of my project is how can you reflect the individual on the high street.

I came across this, although quite literal, amazing reflection installation. Mechanical Mirrors by Daniel Rozin creates mirrors from wood to weaving material.

The weave mirror is my favourite. The picture plane is made using laminated C shapes that are printed on. The C shapes are arranged in a way that texturally mimics a homespun basket. Each C shape works effectively like a pixel which can rotate individually to reconstitute the image that appears before them. A small video camera is sited in thee middle of each mirror which is linked to a computer which controls the individual pixels.

This technology creates a fabulous image for me, of someone walking up to a shop front window advertising something then slowly the exact window that attracts them, begins to reconfigure and reflects the individual right back! The shop front that projects the desire of the masses becomes a projection of ones self.

Discount Nothing

I've been considering the problem of the sketchbook in architectural education. Its a great resource for documenting your own thoughts, a sort of thinking out loud, but time again students get to a final crit. and under scrutiny find themselves referencing embryonic ideas who importance had been forgotten or gone unnoticed.

Having done little research, there is a mature trend for business using blogs as an informal way to share knowledge and expertise internally. Could a school of architecture use students propensity for social networking to circulate these ideas and seek feedback?

I would like to propose a system whereby posts would be selectively disseminated across the user group based on what students were working on at the time, seeking out common themes or problems irrelevant of stage or social background.

Cubelets

The video below interested me due to the modular and sensory nature of the cubes, which when connected together behave in different ways. It made me think of my desire to do a research project based on kinetic interaction which could help someone learn about maths or physics.

They seem to be a brilliant size and appear to be easy to use. Not so sure about the background music to the video though!

Cubelets Engineering Prototypes from eric schweikardt on Vimeo.

Abandoned Spaces

This blog post really caught my eye, as it combines two of my strong interests - Architecture and Photography. It's a clever way of re-using an abandonned space, combining physical installations with optical illusions to produce an interesting set of photographs.

Memories

Ideas Day Project Idea Two: Memories

This is the second of two project ideas that I developed during our ideas day on the 27^th April 2011, the first being Google.

Concepts:

Memories - Global footprint of the world

- Global memory cloth

- Tracing

Technologies:

1. Trace and recording

2. Geo tagging

Challenges:

1. What are the memory triggers?

2. Who is it for?

3. What modes of memory?

4. Why? – Identities, remembering things you need to remember

5. What scale? a. Personal b. Global

Research Questions:

1. How do you make the virtual memory physically visible?

2. Why is the idea of leaving traces interesting? – Even though we can’t think of one.

3. How can the trace be left? - Physical version of a digital thing?

Methods:

1. Make Stuff

2. Ethnographic Study – different artefacts in memory

Google As A Built Form

Ideas Day project idea one: Google as a built form

During our ideas day on the 27^th April 2011 I developed two project ideas, this being the first with the second (on a separate blog post) entitled memories. Out of both of the project ideas I feel that this is the strongest and consequently,is that topic that I am going to be focusing my research on.

Concept:

1. What would Google look like as a building?

Technologies:

1. Adaptive

2. Reconfigurable

3. Movable

4. Kinetic

5. Dynamic

6. Parametrics

Challenges:

1. Appropriate Mapping?

2. How do we do it?

3. What do we want to map in the first place?

4. How do we create an architecture in flux?

5. What data do we map?

Research Questions:

1. What is the design process for translating data structures into physical forms?

2. What constitutes a meaningful interaction between a person and a data structure at an architectural scale?

3. What do we do in the building? – Social Experience? Beacon? Research Space?

4. What is the meaningful data?

5. Who has control?

Methods:

1. Build Stuff – design as research

2. Wizard of Oz – observational

3. Prototype – Robot, Wearable Computer, Architectural computer

4. Design Studies

5. Literature – Ambient interfaces, information visualisation, philosophy of knowledge, adaptive architecture

Doing the ideas storming made me decide what I would like to get out of the linked Research project. I want to develop a strong, interesting and original project idea that I can take forward into my 6^th year Design Thesis. How can I do this? One thought has been to use the linked research project to generate a topic of which I will design a small part/component as the outcome, which can then be used as the starting point of taking the investigation further in my 6^th year design Thesis.