Smartgeometry is pleased to announce that sg2013 will be at The Bartlett in London from 15-20 April 2013. The four day Workshop (15-18 April) and two day conference (19-20 April) will follow the format of the highly successful preceding events sg2010 at IaaC in Barcelona, sg2011 at CITA in Copenhagen and 2012 at RPI in Troy.

One of the workshops from SG2012 held in Troy, New York

Design and construction, increasingly more information-centric, must also address issues of computational ambiguity. We are limited by the fact that only a subset of the relevant factors in design can be represented in standard CAD systems. As users, we must drive computational systems to assume new roles and subsume more domains to meet the needs before us. We must consider issues of time and permanence within a cultural and technological landscape of constant change – our most grand gestures will define our environment physically, culturally and economically for generations. As designers, we must deal with realities and future uncertainties of context, material and immaterial, and their manifestations in scale from spaces to buildings to cities.

In designing for the built environment, sg2013 will exploit digital technologies to help us move beyond traditional dichotomies and find new paths. How can we explore computational techniques such as optimization beyond the limits of quantifiable phenomenon to the qualities of an uncertain future? What is the role of efficiency in a dynamic environment? How will we resolve the gaps between the certainty of digitally calibrated fabrication and the roughness of existing conditions, construction tolerances, and the uncertainty of future occupant behavior?

UCL's Quadrangle, the site of SG2013 10th Anniversary Party

Where historic responses to uncertainty constructed a simplistic environment with basic mechanisms for aggregation and subdivision, we augment these with smart, dynamic and interactive systems. Where modeling capacity has been limited, we now take advantage of vast amounts of data collected by sensing and scanning devices, processed by cluster or grid computing, filtered by machine learning algorithms into patterns, and communicated by ubiquitous devices. Our past data trajectories can guide us in discovering robust and tolerant design systems to meet the demands of a malleable present and uncertain future.

Find out more about the workshops that will be running here.

Organised by the Professorship for Architecture and Digital Fabrication of ETH Zurich in collaboration with the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, FABRICATE 2014 will bring together researchers and practitioners in design and making within architecture, construction, engineering, design, manufacturing, material and software design.

Photos from FABRICATE 2011 Publication – Edited by Ruairi Glynn & Bob Sheil, Published by Riverside Architectural Press

Reviewed by an international panel of experts, projects presented at the conference will be selected through a call for work. An international publication and exposition will complement the conference. FABRICATE 2014 will disseminate selected work alongside a series of thematic essays by world leading architects and engineers. Submissions of all scales and stages of realisation are welcome.

Announced Keynotes

Neil Gershenfeld

Prof. Neil Gershenfeld is the Director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms. His unique laboratory is breaking down boundaries between the digital and physical worlds, from creating molecular quantum computers to virtuosic musical instruments. Technology from his lab has been seen and used in settings including New York’s Museum of Modern Art and rural Indian villages, the White House and the World Economic Forum, inner-city community centers and automobile safety systems, Las Vegas shows and Sami herds.

Mario Carpo

Vincent Scully Visiting Professor of Architectural History, Yale University; and Ecole d’Architecture de Paris-La Villette (currently on leave). After studying architecture and history in Italy, Mr. Carpo was an Assistant Professor at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, and has been a tenured Associate Professor in France since 1993. Mr. Carpo’s research and publications focus on the relationship among architectural theory, cultural history, and the history of media and information technology.

Well I’ve finally found the time to edit the footage and pick out some images for my far to infrequent posts to this blog. The good news is that a complete overhaul is in progress with a whole new website coming soon. More on that later. For now here are a few photos and a film of Fearful Symmetry in action.

Fearful Symmetry – Tate Modern 2012 from Ruairi Glynn on Vimeo.

Special thanks to my great team.
Robotics – Vahid Aminzadeh (KCL) & Alex Zivanovic (Middx Uni)
Computer Vision – Paul Ferragut & George Profenza (UCL)
Mechanical Engineering – Neil (Spike) Melton (Middx Uni)
Sound Design – Emmett Glynn & Sam Conran
Light Engineering – Lianka Papakammenou (UCL)
Photography – Simon Kennedy
Puppetry Consultant – Ronnie Le Drew
Graphic Design – Amy Lewis
Filming – Ronan Glynn
Communication – Ollie Palmer (UCL) & Diony Kypraiou (UCL)
Fabrication Assistant – Djorn Fevrier

Built with the Support of…
Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
Centre for Robotics Research, KCL
Product Design Engineering, Middlesex University

One short with the lights on and me very tired indeed

Lighting Sponsored by Lumitec AG
lumitec.ch/e/

Tomorrow I go into the Tate Modern to install my new interactive work that has been a year in the making. That among other things is the reason this blog has been so quiet in recent times but I thought I’d post something for those who are still subscribed to this blog. Its certainly time to bring it back to life and thats the plan following the Tate. For now the focus however is on assembling the worlds largest Delta Robot as part of what I hope will be a dramatic 2 days within the newsly commission Tanks space at Tate Modern in London.

As you might imagine things are little hectic for me right now so to save time I’ve just pasted the press release below along with photos from the final days of preparation.

Within the subterranean bowels of The Tanks, something primitive animates the darkness of Tate Modern’s dramatic new gallery space. A glowing tetrahedron glides through the air, suspended above peoples heads from a 21-metre motorised rail holding the world’s largest delta robot. As the only light source in the room, the tetrahedron acts as entertainer and guide to the space, dancing with the audience, and playfully encouraging them to become an active part of the performance. Through the interplay of luminous form and motion, ambiguity in visual perception is explored and manipulated in an unfolding interactive performance between the public and a kinetic installation.

“This work is a direct reaction to The Tanks space itself,” says Glynn. “We will fill the space with the sounds of this living machine, mixed live by our team of sound artists. The movements have been choreographed by master puppeteers with a lifetimes’ experience breathing life into inanimate objects. The entire installation will be constantly creating a different environment from one moment to the next, and is completely reactive to the audience in the space.”

The work builds on Glynn’s earlier pieces, Motive Colloquies (2011, Pompidou Centre Paris) and Performative Ecologies (2008, National Art Museum Beijing). Both of these examined the way in which audiences react to differing roboticised dances – but this is his most ambitious project to date. Taking its title from William Blake’s “The Tyger”, the installation returns visitors to a primal state of hyper-awareness through advanced computer vision, robotics and interactive choreography, the sum of which creates an intense, visceral and primal way to experience the Tate’s Tanks.

Motive Colloquies - Centra Pompidou Paris 2011

The work is part of the Tate’s Undercurrent programme directed at young audiences through a series of events, installations and interventions by audio, visual and performance artists. Glynn describes how “the installation engages with a treasure of a youthful mind, the ability to wilfully suspend disbelief, often a faculty lost slowly and imperceptibly with age. Young audiences of my installations care little for the technology that animates the work. So ever-present in their lives, they take it for granted, focusing instead much more on experience. They, in this respect, are my greatest critics. Equally, they are my greatest allies in their wilful suspension of disbelief at the perceptual boundaries between analog and digital, creature and machine, life and death.” Release yourself from civilized thought, suspend your disbelief and play, perform and explore the Tanks with Fearful Symmetry.

FABRICATE Conference is coming up and the schedule if finalised. Here are all the keynotes, chair and speaker. I excited to say I think its going to be a great event. If you’re in London in April please do try and make it.
http://www.fabricate2011.org/

Keynotes Mark Burry, Neri Oxman, Matthias Kohler, Philip Beesley
Chairs Hanif Kara, Mette Ramsgard Thomsen, Michael Stacey, Robert Aish

Speakers
* Tim Lucas (Price and Myers)
* Asbjørn Søndergaard & Per Dombernowsky (Aarhus School of Architecture)
* Al Fisher & Benjamin S. Koren (Buro Happold & 1:One Computational Geometry)
* Marco Verde, MarkDavid Hosale & Jelle Feringa (TU Delft)
* Achim Menges, Simon Schleicher & Moritz Fleischmann (Institute for Computational Design, Stuttgart University)
* Skylar Tibbits (MIT)
* Hanno Stehling (Design to Production)
* Ho-Yin Ng (AL_A)
* Marta Malé-Alemany (AA – IaaC)
* Wes McGee (Taubman College)
* Cristiano Ceccato (Zaha Hadid Architects)
* Xavier De Kestelier (Foster + Partners)
* Nat Chard (University of Manitoba)
* Phil Ayres (CITA)
* Enric Ruiz Geli (Cloud9)
* Chiara Tuffanelli (Arup)

FABRICATE is an International Peer Reviewed Conference with supporting publication and exhibition to be held at The Bartlett School of Architecture in London from 15-16 April 2011. Discussing the progressive integration of digital design with manufacturing processes, FABRICATE will bring together pioneers in design and making within architecture, construction, engineering, manufacturing, materials technology and computation. Discussion on key themes will include: how digital fabrication technologies are enabling new creative and construction opportunities, the difficult gap that exists between digital modeling and its realization, material performance and manipulation, off-site and on-site construction, interdisciplinary education, economic and sustainable contexts.

Cloud 9 Architects – Enric Ruiz-Geli speaking on Day 2 of Fabricate

FABRICATE has emerged as the first in a series of focused events from the highly successful ‘Digital Architecture London’ Conference and ‘Digital Hinterlands’ Exhibition in September 2009. Organised by The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, FABRICATE frames discussion around the presentation of built or partially built works by individuals/collaborators in research, practice and industry selected through our Call for Works (Now Closed). From more than 240 submissions our international panel of experts have independently blind reviewed and selected an innovative range of projects to feature in FABRICATE’s conference, exhibition and publication.

Conference Website

THEMES AND SPEAKERS

Sensory: Sound and Light
Jason Bruges > Jason Bruges Studios
Michael Spencer > Sound Strategies
Usman Haque > Haque Design and Research
Alexandros Tsolakis > UnitedVisualArtists

Metaphysical: Materials/Structures, skins, information systems and the internet of things
Armand Terrulli > Vector Foiltec
Duncan Wilson > Arup Foresight
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino > Tinker London

Art and Play: community and interaction
Ghislaine Boddington > B>D>S
Eva Rucki > Troika
Scott Burnham> Urban Play

Experiential and Experimental Architecture
Alex Haw > Atmos
Mike Stubbs > FACT
Various Plenary Speakers

‘Constructing Realities’ is the summer exhibition at Arup’s Phase 2 Gallery presenting some of the best of London’s young graduate architecture students work. It follows last years Digital Hinterlands exhibition which brought together masters student work from across London’s four leading architecture schools, the AA, the Bartlett, Westminster and RCA.

Justin Goodyre – A Prototype for an Adaptive Bloom

This years exhibition focuses on the best work from the new Postgraduate Certificate Course in Advanced Architectural Research, set up at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, to give students with Masters degrees the opportunity to take their work to a further stage development. The exhibition shows how some of the best Masters portfolios and theses contain the seeds of serious design research proposals, and how these might be taken forward to create new types of place, novel interactive building elements and new façade and structural systems.

Tetsuo Nagata – Monomyths

Architecture and engineering have a history where research and practice go hand in hand, where many great practices have grown as a result of fundamental research and where many research projects arise from groundbreaking design. This is especially true during periods of economic inactivity when recent modes of working are called into question and new modes (sometimes based on rediscovered historical precedent) are established. This can lead to the formation of innovative practices and to the start of academic careers in research and teaching.

Matt Shaw – Subverting the LiDAR landscape

Constructing Realities only shows the tip of the research iceberg these students have gone through turning dozens of drawings, experiments, physical and software prototypes into standalone pieces. Work presented includes a prototype responsive screen proposed as a speculative stage set, site specific responsive installations investigating themes of digital participatory storytelling, virtual environments exploring maze and labyrinths as apposing models for spatial navigation, and laser scanning drawings exploiting the potential for error, mistruth, mistake and subversion within their production.

Vlad Tenu – Minimal Surfaces as Architectural Prototypes

The exhibition runs until the 1st October 2010

website

FABRICATE is an International Peer Reviewed Conference with supporting publication and exhibition to be held at The Building Centre in London from 15-16 April 2011. Discussing the progressive integration of digital design with manufacturing processes, and its impact on design and making in the 21st century, FABRICATE will bring together pioneers in design and making within architecture, construction, engineering, manufacturing, materials technology and computation. Discussion on key themes will include: how digital fabrication technologies are enabling new creative and construction opportunities, the difficult gap that exists between digital modeling and its realization, material performance and manipulation, off-site and on-site construction, interdisciplinary education, economic and sustainable contexts.

Keynote Speakers (clockwise): Mark Burry, Matthias Kohler, Philip Beesley and Neri Oxman.

FABRICATE has emerged as the first in a series of focused events from the highly successful ‘Digital Architecture London’ Conference and ‘Digital Hinterlands’ Exhibition in September 2009. Organised by The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London in collaboration with The Building Centre London, this conference intends to frame discussion around the presentation of built or partially built works by individuals or collaborators in research, practice and industry selected from submissions through our Call for Works (deadline 10 September 2010).

Gramazio & Kohler’s R-O-B. Brick fabrication robot which will be exhibited alongside the conference

Representing the broad disciplinary spectrum from design to production, the presentation of built work will contribute alongside leading invited speakers from Australia, Europe, North America, and Asia. A significant and supportive context for the event will be provided by London’s extensive network of global creative consultancies, many no more than a short stroll away from the venue.

We welcome original, innovative and pioneering projects for the Call for Works and we would also encouraged works in progress to enter too. Submission requirements emphasize strong and informative visual material with succinct analytical text and project synopsis. Selected conference submissions together with articles from keynote speakers will be featured in ‘FABRICATE: Making Digital Architecture’ published by Riverside Architectural Press and launched at the conference.

Dezeen are running a competition to win copies of my recent book Digital Architecture: Passages Through Hinterlands.

http://www.dezeen.com/2010/06/10/competition-five-copies-of-digital-architecture-to-be-won

Homesense is an open research project collaboration between Tinker London and EDF R&D. Bringing open collaboration methods of online communities to physical infrastructures in the home selected households will create their own smart homes and live with the technologies that they have developed themselves without any prior technical expertise.

Over the autumn of 2010, 6 households across Europe will be selected to take part in Homesense and as a result, have access to the latest in open source hardware and software tools. Homes in the UK, France and Italy will decide what they want to do with the tools in their own context, and share the results with the world. Each household will receive support from their own local expert, also selected from the DIY electronics community, who will help them design tools, tackle problems as they emerge and help share the experience of living with smart things in the home.

More information can be found here