RC1 – Research Cluster One
At the core of RC01 research is the premise that architecture excels in its ability to creatively synthesize myriad of agencies involved in the formation of design and beyond. Since non-trivial and simultaneously legible synthesis is in high demand in the age of large data and increased engagement with complexity, such special skill architecture possesses is opening the field towards applications beyond what is traditionally understood as a domain of design.
Potential for greater designability is explored via synthetic capacities of simulation through newly found resources of algorithmic profile of matter. Focus is on the accelerated convergence of matter and information, whereby computational physics as well as myriad of algorithmic protocols are being synthesized within design process. Expanding discoveries in material science are being incorporated through simulation into massive resolution design speculations across various scales, opening doors for weird syntheses and fissuring established preconceptions of what architecture could be. Architects can go beyond geometry to directly design the structure of matter itself.
“While acute developments in data visualization exposes the hidden beauty, intelligence, and complexity of observed systems, data materialization can produce such beauty and complexity within new synthetic fields. In order to develop such data materialization processes, it is necessary to descend to the finer grains of computational building blocks, where the design search is performed within constellations of billions of particles. The power of many small, decentralized agents within simulations and generative methods is enabling the capture of complexity and nontrivial synthesis within design systems, which are resistant to linear decomposition. Discretization in the domain of computational logics and algorithmic structure can now be extended to the domain of matter and newly accessible building blocks for synthetic material formations. The found physics of complex material processes, such as massive-scale erosion and sedimentation or ice melting, can now be encapsulated through computational physics and large data sets, embedded into simulations and, consequently, physical construction.”
(from LOG 25 _ Reclaim Resilience Resistance, Open Synthesis//Toward a Resilient Fabric of Architecture, Alisa Andrasek _http://www.anycorp.com/log/25)
Resultant architecture is drawing upon large data from the finer-grain physics of matter – matter as information enabled by computation. This not only expands technically enriched material formations, but also activates previously hidden material powers toward designs beyond our anticipation in both formal imagination and performance. Matter acquires active agency in the process of becoming instead of being treated as a passive design ingredient.
In the past, RC01 engaged research on particular modes of production, such as high resolution multi-material deposition in additive manufacturing(https://vimeo.com/51098508), computational physics of airflow as an active agency in construction of complex shell structures (https://vimeo.com/51098509), or re-designing construction site based on distributed robotic swarms. Natural physics of light or air were amplified, machines acquired designer behaviors, architectural fabrics with higher resolution were tested in myriad of speculative scenarios. By conceiving architecture of the whole design ecology _ including application of physics of matter at fine grain, constraints within production protocols, generative constructability behaviors and design intent, speculative pilot design proposals were derived.
Work of Research Cluster One – RC 1 _at the BARTLETT School of Architecture_University College London
Alisa ANDRASEK, Daghan CAM, Maj PLEMENITAS