AA_Aarhus Visiting School

AA_Aarhus Visiting School

Rethinking Patterns: Exploring Heterogenic Structures

21-30 August 2015

The first AA_Aarhus Visiting School is taking place in what UNESCO has dubbed the International Year of Light, raising global awareness of the importance of light and light-based technologies. As a part of this global initiative, the AA_Aarhus Visiting School will investigate the use of light in design and how it can be controlled and modulated through physical patterns using computational techniques.

The AA_Aarhus Visiting School will recognize, through the use of associative systems, how variation can be used to generate geometries that take internal and external stimuli into account. Stimuli such as climactic, fabrication constraints, or structural forces, will result in a new pattern language specific to the design scheme. The intention of these investigations is to reinvent pattern/ornament in a move towards heterogeneity, informed by the local ecology. We will teach participants how to use digital fabricating tools such as laser cutting and CNC milling machines, as well as modeling techniques that generate these forms for digital fabrication. Participants will fabricate their final design in 3D, based on their desired scale of fabrication.

The workshop will take place over a 10-day period from Friday 21st of August until Sunday 31^st of August, 2015. Space is limited. To get more information and to sign up, please visit: aarhus.aaschool.ac.uk. 

Global Summer School at IaaC

The Institute for Advanced Architecture is proud to announce the 2015 edition of the Global Summer School- Urban Protocols. 

This year, one outstanding participant will be awarded a full scholarship to the Masters of Advanced Architecture at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia.

The Global Summer School (GSS) is a platform defined by ambitious, multiscalar investigation into the implications of emergent techniques on our planned environments.  Each year, international teams located in key cities around the globe explore a common agenda with projects that are deeply embedded in diverse local conditions.  Because of this, participants have an international laboratory to test their design hypothesis, understanding how design conclusions derived locally can be tested and evolved globally in different cities where other teams reside.  This intensive two-week course connects each participant to ongoing research agendas in robotics, simulation, physical computing, parametric design, digital fabrication, and other relevant emerging design methodologies.  Specific emphasis is placed on understanding the multiscalar implications of design conclusions, thus creating critical research advanced on the application of new technologies in design.

The 2015 ‘Urban Protocols’ global agenda seeks specific strategies for constructing our future cities.  The agenda questions the urban planning methodologies of the 20th century and proposes a series of new priorities to consider when growing the next phase of our urban and suburban territories.  How can we consider the recolonization of urban spaces which are now the result of antiquated priorities and at the same time negotiate the current forces driving the growth or decay of cities?  This question will be asked in a variety of urban case studies with the desire to generate a series of proposals which are contextually, temporally, economically, and culturally relevant.  From another scale, we have to recognize the urgent necessity to radically rethink the manner in which we fabricate our habitat at an architectural level.  Spatially we have to reconsider materiality, tectonic logics, and temporality if we are to change the relationship between environmental decay and architecture.

Online application: http://apply.iaac.net/applications/view.php?id=24040

dECOi architects winner in Architizer A+ Awards

Architizer has announced its A+Awards. In its third year, the awards are a global architectural award program with multiple categories and judges.

One Main in Boston is the Popular Choice Winner in the Architecture +Materials category. Designed by dECOi architects, One Main is the penthouse offices of an investment group.

The focus was on green building and clean energy technologies. The interior elements were milled from sustainably forested spruce plywood using numeric command machines. As much as possible, the typical industrial components were replaced with articulate milled timber. For example, the door handles were customized carvings, but still less expensive than the standard stainless steel D-handles. This method also provided a radically streamlined delivery of a highly crafted interior.

The entire project was nested onto 1200 4x12 ft plywood sheets and milled using a small 3-axis CNC router. dECOi provided the actual tooling paths without plans or sections. Only 3D instructional files were provided for over 1 million linear feet of cut.

Raphael Crespin commented, "This project would not have been possible without Rhino."

The Architizer winners ....

Biz Eyes, 3D printed interlocking rings, by Nasim Sehat

A fun and unique way to make a bold statement with everyday eyewear.

Using its revolutionary 3D printed interlocking rings, Biz Eyes is also a great platform for costumers and designers to create costume rings by submitting their own 3D models!

Each Biz Eye style, unlike traditional eyewear, can be changed to suit mood, much like earrings or bracelets.

Software: Rhino and Grasshopper

Nasim Sehat is an architect and freelance designer. She was born and raised in Tehran, Iran. Currently she lives in Shanghai, China.

Link to her artworks: 

www.be.net/nasimsehat

March.Nasim Sehat

Phone: +86 132 6291 5237

Email: nasim.sehat@gmail.com

Do not forget to join Generative Jewelry Design and post  your designs, www.GJD3D.com

Polyhedron, a new sculpture by Rinus Roelofs

If you have an interest in art, or in mathematics, since last April 10th you can find a piece of inspiration at the front door of the Centrum Handlowym Ogrody in Elblag, Poland.

"The sculpture is an example of the new uniform polyhedra that I discovered two years ago. I was able to explore this new group of mathematical shapes with Rhino and Grasshopper. The Polish town Elblag commissioned me to make this sculpture in steel, height about 3.20 meters", says Rinus Roelofs, the artist of this sculpture, who is also a Rhino teacher, user, and value-added reseller.

More details about Rinus Roelofs...

More details about the Polyhedron sculpture (in Polish)...

Rose Pavilion Exhibition at ETH Zurich

Rose Pavilion Exhibition

ETH Zurich

From April 28 to May 7

The Rose Pavilion is a revolutionary restructuring of a public space, as it seeks to connect space, music and media art through the use of an aesthetically appealing and artistically oriented structure. The intention is to bring society, music and media art together under one pavilion.

BTPZ Building Technology Park, Brandstrasse 33, CH-8952, ZÜRICH-Schlieren

AA Visiting School - Riau Island

AA Visiting School Riau Island

Inner Paradise - Ongoing research on Mud and Digital- Site Phase

Saturday 9 – Tuesday 19 January 2016

A feeling of being at the other end of the world, on a paradise island.
Almost nothing, almost no one around.
Nevertheless, a comfortable familiarity is provided.
The resort creator of this island will be our client for a short while.
This is a new location of our Mud and Digital Lab about applying digital technologies to earth construction. In collaboration with local artists, the Lab will challenge the use of local natural materials found on-site for the fabrication of permanent structures in the Telunas resort:

Luxurious tropics along some tidal sea and a very strong local Indonesian community. A thousand different gradients of gold and sand. Thousands of hermits find all kinds of shells to build up their mini architectures.

We will be taking advantage of this very local richness.

With the culture before anything else, we'll work with local craftsmen to reach new strategies in marrying mud techniques and digital technologies.

Stressing the very traditional with the very contemporary, we'll define new realities.

We’ll bring our transportable digital fabrication equipment to this remote island—although only 3 hours from Singapore for those who know how to navigate its waters on the long wooden boats. We’ll fabricate screens, walls, roofs, pergolas, and other types of furniture for the Telunas resort. This unusual client will choose from our built work, pieces, and fragments of architecture that will remain in the hotel permanently.

With key parametric specialists from SUTD and FCL and the constant influence from CRATerre for earth architecture knowledge, we will start writing a new chapter in the history of using transportable machines synchronized with local materials to create new matters and new structures.

Complete details and registration... 

AA Visiting School Lyon

AA Visiting School Lyon

Chocolate and Other Powders. Earth and Digital Ongoing Research

Thursday June 25 – Saturday July 4, 2015

"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, there is a rapture on the lonely shore, there is society, where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but Nature more." George Gordon, Lord Byron

For the 3rd edition of our Mud & Digital AA Visiting School, we will continue to cut our way through the pathless woods and work together as an experimental lab, to define new structures that never were before.
We will embark on experiments using our body, letting our inner child go free and get dirty, and our natural tendency to enjoy touching the material when it is paste, when it is powder, when it is sprayed, when it is stretched. We’ll define new verbs together.

We’ll continue our quest for the Holy Grail to lead on using the CNC machine as a giant 3D printer for earth. 
We will use Elvis the small robot to pour and spray mixes of earth, fibres, sand, olive oil, washing liquid. 
We’ll define new ingredients to improve the taste of our recipe together.
We will use fabric as a formwork to establish thin earthen shells of different geometries and morphologies to reach new paradigms for us. 
We’ll maintain the intensity and develop this field.

Finally, using earth to fabricate prefabs is a domain that has been rarely investigated. We’re proud of continuing the 1m earthen tiles we started last year to reach manufacturing perfection and patents potential.
Our energy will be deployed to reinvent new social realities, and to explore new alternatives in sustainable housing.

Complete details and registration... 

Design to Production Workshops in Turkey

Design to Production Workshop Series with Rhino

Istanbul - April 22

Eskisehir - April 25-26

The workshop series will be held by RhinoTürkiye in İstanbul University (April 22) and Anadolu University (April 25-26). These will cover modeling with Rhino, several plugins for different industries, and repair tools for 3D Printing. A brief 3D Printing seminar will follow the workshop which will be given by our partner Formhane.

More info and registration...

Food4Rhino news

With 188 apps available and 41,000 downloads in the last month, food4Rhino is the first Rhino plugin and Grasshopper add-on site on the web. 

These are just a few of the new and updated apps from last week:

• LastElf, ImagineElf and Butterfly: complete suite for shoe design and manufacturing
• 3D Hubs Printing: Directly export a 3D model from Rhino to 3D Hubs
• Urban Network Analysis toolbox: Create and analyze locations characteristics over 2D and 3D networks
• Iris: A WebGL Exporter for your Rhino models 
• Kangaroo Physics: Live Physics engine for interactive simulation, form-finding, optimization, and constraint solving
• Robots.IO: 1-click robotic milling
• D.LOFT: Push-button developable lofting

Naval Architect Toolbox: Hull analysis and hull balance
SmartSpaceAnalyser: Spatial analysis on a building or urban scale

Much more on food4Rhino!

Computational Couture workshop at Beyond Building Barcelona

Computational Couture workshop

Beyond Building Construmat, Barcelona

19-23 May 2015

Clothes, the first form of mediators between body, space, and events... With their aesthetics, they condense and relate not only the evolution of the body's physical functions (movement, protection, temperature regulation) but also the evolution of cultural expression. This exceeds the purely indexical performative relations, designing not only for the needs but for the desires.

Computational Couture looks at the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing (typical of haute couture) through the lens of a systemic approach. It extends sartorial techniques with 3D modeling and computation-based approaches developed in Rhino and the visual programming environment Grasshopper. The workshop's aim is to exert, infuse, and expand the sartorial sensibilities to body proportions and dress-making. This is achieved with an algorithmic approach that loops through design and fabrication by laser cutting and 3D printing for the design and production of a garment.

Participants will be divided into teams focusing on specific aspects of the garment related to the production technique (laser cutting or 3D printing).

Fee for participants
Early bird (until 4 May): 250 €
Full fee (from 5 May until 15 May): 350 €
The fee includes materials and fabrication. Plane tickets and accommodation are not included in the fee.

Registration (until 15 May 2015)
For registration please contact beyond@iaac.net

Complete info... 

Primo, generative custom coffee tables

Photo by Simplexio

Madalin Gheorghe from Studio Simplexio has created Primo, a series of custom coffee tables that combine generative design principles with flexible computer-aided manufacturing systems. Its intricate geometry is derived from a space-partitioning algorithm called Voronoi, which deals with matter aggregation at cellular levels in nature. The different parameters constitute a complete design from which the coffee table emerges. Based on the varied parameters an infinite number of coffee table iterations are generated. At the same time, it is all part of a unified aesthetic.

Design by Hamid Nicola Katrib. Photo by Alex Melente Photography.

The purpose of the research was to design and fabricate a furniture piece that can adapt to any room, dimension, or body anatomy. The Grasshopper plugin is a great tool because it is a powerful visual programming language, easy to use, and can deal with complex approaches. Without it, the complex shapes wouldn't be possible to draw or fabricate.

By combining the low unit cost of digital fabrication with the flexibility of customization, we've created modules that function both together and separately. More...

Join us at  Generative Furniture Design, www.GFD3D.com  or www.RhinoFabStudio.com too.

Young Japanese designers at Milan Design Week

Title: Experimental Creations

• Material Experiments
• Digital Experiments

Date: Tuesday-Saturday, April 14–18, 10:00-20:00
Sunday, April 19, 10:00-18:00
Opening reception: Wednesday, April 15, 20:00-22:00
Venue: Salone del Mobile 2015 AT Ventura Lambrate / Ventura 14

A platform that presents design capabilities in innovative ways

The project “Experimental Creations” focuses on material experimentation and creative processes. In creating objects, it is important to contemplate extra values such as colors and touch, with the design of physical aesthetics and functionality. 

The presentation of Experimental Creations in Milan this spring is going to be a joint exhibition. “Material Experiments” is for the works generated from the handicraft processes. “Digital Experiments” is the fruit of additive manufacturing where digital fabrication and fabrication technologies meet. Together, they will showcase the promising works by eight young Japanese designers who explored the maximum possibilities of materials and their use.

AppliCraft helped teach Rhino and Grasshopper to those designers.

Details...

Rhino for Mac webinar: Creating Surfaces

SimplyRhino UK has organized a series of free webinars featuring Rhino 5 for Mac. 

The next one takes place on Wednesday April 15 at 11 am: 

Creating surfaces:

• Creating initial surfaces 
• Adjusting proportions 
• Using History in Rhino 
• Fillets and transition surfaces

Register for this webinar... 

AA Summer DLAB 2015 - London and Hooke Park

AA Summer DLAB 2015

RED - London and Hooke Park

Monday–Friday, July 27-August 14, 2015

Summer DLAB experiments with the integration of algorithmic/generative design methodologies and large-scale digital fabrication tools. Continuing its color-based agenda, Summer DLAB immerses in ‘RED’ for its 2015 cycle. RED is the starting point to investigate principles of natural formation processes and interpret them as innovative architectonic spaces. These concepts are carefully interwoven with spatial, performance-based, and structural criteria to create full-scale working prototypes.

Summer DLAB RED will explore the phenomenon of decay in nature. By investigating the process of decay across various scales in natural organisms, we will formulate rules of generating decomposition as our design research area. These rules will then evolve into design strategies for the creation and fabrication of a large-scale prototype. The design and fabrication process will be aided by robotic fabrication techniques in AA’s Hooke Park premises.

The three-week-long program is a two-phase process. During the two-week initial phase, participants benefit from the unique atmosphere and facilities of AA’s London home. The second phase, lasting for a week, shifts to AA’s woodland site in Hooke Park. It will revolve around the fabrication and assembly of a full-scale architectural intervention that unifies the design goals of Summer DLAB.

For more information, please visit:

http://summerdlab.aaschool.ac.uk/

http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/STUDY/VISITING/summerdlab

The latest OctaneRender for Rhino

OctaneRender, the fast GPU-accelerated and physically correct renderer, has announced new features and additions for Octane for Rhino:

• Render Rhino fly-thrus in OctaneRender for Rhino with camera motion blur
• Export Bongo animations for rendering in Octane Standalone with camera and object/vertex motion blur

• Additional Render Passes (38 total!)
• Beauty passes, including Diffuse, Reflections, Refraction, Transmission, Subsurface Scattering
• Info passes, including Normals, Position, Z-Depth, Material ID, UV Coordinates, Tangents, Wireframe
• Object ID and Environment
• Geometry Layer passes
• Shadow passes
• Light passes
• Ability to access the Octane Standalone local material library
• Support for Rhino parallel projection cameras
• Many tweaks and performance improvements in the Octane render engine

Future features of Octane 3 were also announced. These include:

• OpenCL support
• Volumetric Rendering
• OpenSL (Open Shader Language)
• Deep Pixel rendering and texture baking

More details ....

The Digital Bench Event 2015 in London - last chance to register

The Digital Bench Event 2015
London, UK
April 14, 2015

Simply Rhino and The Goldsmiths' Centre invite you to ‘The Digital Bench’ on Tuesday, April 14th.

Register to come along and experience the first UK live demonstration of RhinoGold 5.0.

This significant new version of the popular Rhino plug-in has many exciting new features and the developers, TDM Solutions, will be on hand to show you them.

Also presenting will be Wax-Masters, residents at the Goldsmiths’ Centre. Wax-Masters will demonstrate how they use CAD and CAM in their goldsmithing, silversmithing, smallworking, jewelry and horological work.

Details and free registration...

Rhino job at Joseph Walsh Studio

Joseph Walsh is an internationally acclaimed designer maker, whose work can be found in significant museum and private collections worldwide. Based in Cork, Ireland, his studio employs an international team who continue to develop skills and challenge existing practice to achieve his ambitious pieces. As Joseph Walsh Studio embarks on a program of significant events over the coming 3-5 years, they are now recruiting an experienced CAD Technician to join the team.

The successful candidate, a highly motivated individual, will work closely with both the studio’s Design and Workshop Team. They must be experienced and highly proficient in 3D modeling programs, in particular Rhino, and have the ability to produce detailed drawings for the studio’s international projects in Europe, North American, and Asia. They must have a sympathetic understanding and appreciation of the studio’s design language and process some model making and prototyping skills. Strong hand drawing and sketching skills are also desirable but not essential.

Essential attributes

• The ability to work successfully as part of a team
• The ability to meet the technical challenges presented by complex projects
• The ability to manage a busy workload and meet exacting deadlines
• Good communication skills in both written and spoken English

Software skills

• 3D modeling programs, in particular Rhino and AutoCAD (essential)
• InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator (desirable)

Personal qualities

The successful candidate will be confident, friendly and professional, possess strong problem solving skills, have the ability to adapt, the desire to learn, be productive and be willing to assist other members of the team when required.

To apply for this role

Please send the following to: francesmmcdonald@gmail.com 
CV, PDF Portfolio of work (including a sample of your drawing skills) and a short letter outlining why you would like to join Joseph Walsh Studio.

www.josephwalshstudio.com

Take flight with X-Jet

Get ready to fly. This is something previously only imagined on a movie set. X-Jets are producing flying Jetblades and Jetpacks.

For about 8 months X-Jets Hydro Flight Systems has been shipping the Jetblade. The Jetblade attaches to a jet ski. The jet ski's water thrust supplies the force to fly.

All development work has been done in Rhino. Some of the shape work on the Jetblade was refined with scripted Grasshopper.

The earlier designed X-Jetpack was also designed in Rhino.

Photos, videos, and production details ...

Patterns in bus stops

When the town of Meilen, which is close to Zurich, Switzerland, needed a few new bus stops, ROK (Rippmann Oesterle Knauss) developed a series based on the rich cultural and historic background of Meilen.

Using Rhino, ROK designed and selected an abstract panel image for each of the five bus stops, emphasizing the distinctiveness of each location. For example, one stop shows a stylized image of vineyards, referring to the local wine-growing culture.

The abstract hole patterns punched in the steel back wall panels are similar to halftone printing. Up to 20,000 holes are punched in various sizes in the galvanized and powder-coated rear panels. Using digital images as input, ROK controlled the hole arrangement and limited their diameters to only three sizes. Besides being beautiful, the perforations let light through, increasing the transparency and lightness of the covered part of the bus stop.

To reduce running costs and expensive electrical installations, all stops are solar-powered. Each stop has an independent power supply with solar panels.

AECCafe article on Meilen Bus Stops ....

Introduction to PanelingTools Online Course

Introduction to PanelingTools for Rhino 5 

Online Course

May 4-7, 2015
9:00 am-1:00 pm (Pacific Time)
US$125 per person

Seats are limited; sign up today.

Join instructor Rajaa Issa as she explores the concepts of paneling and surface rationalization in Rhino 5 using the PanelingTools add-on. The class will be comprehensive and will cover material from concept generation, detailed design for fabrication, and parametric paneling. More...

This course is for design students and professionals who are looking to efficiently learn PanelingTools and exploit its many features in an instructor-led online environment. This course requires that you have access to Rhino 5 for Windows.

Details and registration...

2015 Interior Design Emerging Symposium

Studio D: 
Design and Fabrication Lab / Department of Interior Design / FSU
An authorized RhinoFabStudio

Studio D is a prototyping workspace within the Department of Interior Design at Florida State University. This 3000 square foot facility is home to the department’s traditional woodshop tools, digital fabrication equipment, and undergraduate and graduate furniture design classroom space. The studio is staffed by Marlo Ransdell, PhD and David Wray, MFA in Tallahassee, FL. 

Visit Studio D: and like their new page

Studio D invites you to the second bi-annual Interior Design Emerging symposium “Blurred Lines”. 

The theme, “Blurred Lines”, refers to those narrow and vacillating borders between the designs of interior spaces and the objects, forms, and technologies that interact in and out of those spaces. “Blurred Lines” investigates the ever-evolving role of the Interior Architect or Interior Designer as one that creatively touches every part of the built landscape.

More information...

List of presenters

Place:  Miami Beach, Florida
Date:   Friday, 10 April 2015
Time:   9 am - 6 pm
Registration Fee (Click here to register)

For more information, please contact Marlo Ransdell.

What is a RhinoFabStudio? A RhinoFabStudio™ (fabrication studio) is a small-scale digital workshop, certified by McNeel, with an array of Rhino and Rhino compatible software and computer controlled tools and training. These tools cover the various leading-edge industrial methods and materials needed to design, analyze, and fabricate almost anything.

Online Level 1 Rhino Class, April 10-22

Level 1 Rhino 5 for Windows - Online Class
April 10-22, 2015
US$200

In this online class you'll learn to create and edit accurate free-form 3D NURBS models. This fast-moving class covers most of Rhino's functionality, including the most advanced surfacing commands. Our detailed class outline is available here.

Dates: 

• Orientation: April 10, 9:00 am-10:30 am (PST)
• Training: April 13, 14, 15 and April 20, 21, 22, 9:00 am-1:00 pm (PST)
  Calculate your time zone.

Sign up today! 

More...

The class will be conducted in English using the GoToTraining software. You will need Rhino 5 for Windows software installed. Note, the Rhino for OS X WIP is not acceptable software for this class. You will need a stable and fast Internet connection. You will need a headset/microphone combo. You will need a hard copy of the Rhino Level 1 Training Manual. You may download it from here. 

AA Athens Visiting School 2015

AA Athens Visiting School 2015

Symmetry Sentience  

Wednesday–Friday, June 3-12, 2015

In 2015, in collaboration with AKTO, the AA Athens Visiting School initiates its agenda to challenge the phenomenon of perceptual constancy through the design of architectural prototypical families. 

In line with the basics of the Gestalt principles, models in a diversity of shapes and sizes will be designed through digital computation. Various morphologies will be derived through a bottom-up approach via various coding techniques. To bridge the gap between the digital and physical aspect of the design iterations, AA Athens uses digital fabricating machines to produce its architectural prototypes. The school adds mechanics to amplify their communicative characteristics. A complete 1:1 scale structure will be constructed, enabling interaction via sight, hearing and touch as a result of a series of initial testing models. These proposals will be formulated through combining various design software.

Complete info and registration...

AA Istanbul Visiting School 2015

AA Istanbul Visiting School

Cellular Re-Visions

Monday–Wednesday, June 15-24, 2015

AA Istanbul Visiting School is beginning an exciting collaboration with Istanbul Bilgi University in 2015. 

Continuing its expertise in generative design methodologies and large-scale prototyping techniques, the program will investigate patterns of emergence, differentiation, and complexity in natural formation processes. These will be transformed into digital simulation platforms for design. 

In contemporary architectural processes, a significant diversion from linear parametric tools towards generative design simulations is taking place. The design and analysis processes will reflect this shift by focusing on simulations. Attention will be kept on the process of design generation, as opposed to the final form itself. 

The design agenda of the program will revolve around the design and fabrication of a one-to-one scale pavilion.

Complete info and registration...