steam bendingresearch through making

W 09 - present

In the mid-nineteenth century, while Michael Thonet was mass-producing his iconic Chair No. 14, Great Lakes craftsmen made use of regional lumber to build bent-wood furniture. Steam-bent furniture was lightweight, rigid, and compact, making it ideal for (unusually renewable and nontoxic) mass production. Contemporary digital practices provide an opportunity to reconsider this process at an architectural scale.

Steam bending foregrounds the line, both as a primary space-making device (linear descriptive geometry) and as a location for material resistance (the grain and imperfections along a length of pre-steamed wood). The recursive loop between digital modeling and full-scale prototyping ensures that complex assemblies are informed by the material constraints of various wood species.

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fo ld ingresearch

W 09 - present

The ancient practice of origami trains the hand in a set of operations that enable surfaces to become expressive, structural, and spatially compelling. But paper folding creates much more than a literal collection of miniature architectural artifacts; it engenders methods of modeling and diagramming that begin to interrogate new territories within contemporary design practice.

A recent research grant from the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) at the University of Michigan will enable further exploration of these territories through an investigation of ceramic origami. This work will primarily focus on laser-cutting thin sheets of paper clay and will continue throughout the winter semester of 2010.

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A series of conventional origami forms are investigated at three levels: the behavior of physical paper models; the generative potential of underlying folding diagrams; and the ability to parametrically couple flexible forms and generative diagrams in digital models.

Folding diagrams do not describe completed forms but rather communicate a series of actions that generate formal possibilities. Experienced folders work back and forth between folded object and diagram, envisioning the translation between hand and object.

Parametric modeling bridges the gap between desired form and abstract model, just as folding oscillates between paper and instructive diagram.

fat f latdesign, fabrication

W/S 09

Fat Flat explores tooling, detailing, and assembly in relief against CNC-flat-pack mania. Fat Flat can reconfigure a sheet of…almost anything. Fat Flat reads thick (a solid chunk of reprocessed wood) or thin (a tablecloth draped in midair). At times the use of a chamfering bit renders edge details nearly invisible (and allows for tightly packed cut sheets). At other times the inability of a circular end mill to cut a square hole accentuates the joining of horizontal and vertical surfaces in a two-way frame. Fat Flat furniture eschews fasteners, relying instead on the precision of interlocking parts. Fat Flat is “smart” on front-end design and fabrication; it’s “dumb” on back-end assembly (no tools, fasteners, clamps). A sheet of plywood + a roll of tape + a bottle of glue? Fat Flat.

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The aerial photographs of Ed Ruscha (Thirty-Four Parking Lots) and Alex Maclean (Taking Measures Across the American Landscape) offer compelling images of meta-patterns in American land use. But does the iconic bird’s-eye image encourage facile conclusions about problems of infrastructure, urban ecology, and sprawl? 3000 serial images are captured via remote-control servo, digital camera, and helium balloons. Rather than idealizing picturesque landscape patterns, Aerial Assault invites active construction of new metascapes.

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UG1DesignStudio Arch 312F08, F09Coordinated by A. Melissa Harris, Anca Trandafirescu

The first design studio for incoming undergraduates, UG1 is both material and immaterial, an investigation of space and a direct engagement with the physical world. In both cases students are encouraged to take risks, think via making, and realize that architecture might not always be where they expect to find it.

Flip jump-cuts from a short video to a flipbook-inspired diptych, pausing the filmic flow in a stacked three-dimensional model. Students negotiate translations among digital media, hand drawing, and physical modeling in order to develop design dexterity.

Your Sun Machine registers the passage of the sun from dawn to dusk via the unfolded tracing of five receptive surfaces. Students filter, reflect, and refract light as a space-shaping medium, but also develop a technical understanding of seasonal sun angles through the use of scaled study models and renderings.

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light panel to catch and distribute light

extended sill toreect light

louvers on windows andskylight to block and reect high angle light

di�use light from north

Media Lab is a space for the experimental production and experience of new media. It seeks both to engender research and to facilitate social interaction. Media Lab bridges the divide between institutions (both academic and commercial) and an increasingly curious, wired-in public. It is about what we see and how we see it, what we say and how we say it, what we know and how we come to know it.

3G3GraduateStudioArch 422W09, W10Coordinated by Glenn Wilcox

The last in a series of three intensive introductory studios for three-year graduate students, 3G3 investigates urban forms through physical modeling, analysis of historical types, and field work. The design of a contemporary art museum confronts students with the changing nature of public institutions and the need for new architectural responses.

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Double Negative invites students to employ a series of digital and physical models to figure the intersection of two primary void spaces in a solid rectangular volume. Multiple edits and careful formal manipulation draw out a third figure, tracing the intersection of solid and void along a palpable volumetric line.

MOCA situates the rich typological lineage of traditional museums within the pressures placed on public insitutions by new forms of contemporary art. Precedent studies enable students to intelligently shape new architectural forms for changing artistic practices.

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Dig ita l Drawing Arch 211F07, W08, F08, W09, F09, W10

Digital Drawing introduces pre-architecture students to the fundamentals of computer-aided design through weekly drawing exercises and lab sessions. Lectures construct a broad critical framework for situating contemporary digital practices and encouraging students to become conscientious makers and consumers of digital media.

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South Elevation

Eileen designed prioritizing human characteristics and personalities.

South Elevation

E 1027, Eileen Gray Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier

Arch itectura l Theory + Cr it ic ism Arch 572W08Coordinated by Amy Kulper

Architectural Theory grants pre-thesis students their bearings in the difficult terrain of architectural discourse. A visual glossary, based upon canonical texts, encourages connections among built precedent, theorists, and ideas. The project also helps students develop strategies for crafting incisive visual arguments.

Design Fundamenta ls Arch 416S08, S09Coordinated by Neal Robinson

Design Fundamentals immerses new three-year graduate students in the disciplinary logics of architectural and urban precedents. A laser-cut flipbook analysis of an iconic case-study house challenges students to transition from horizontal plan to vertical section in 75 strategic cuts.

Summer Inst itute forInternat iona l StudentsSIISS08, S09

Each August, new international graduate students converge in Ann Arbor for an immersive orientation to the vagaries of American architectural academia. Their schedule is punctuated by forays throughout the midwest, where they identify patterns, seek connections, and collect their findings in book form. It is a pleasure to be (re)introduced to the American midwest through their eyes.

Portfolio_DigitalTeaching_Digital_LTR