Edy the skier: A wooden sculpture at the upcoming World Ski Championships 2017 - St. Moritz (Switzerland)

  

For the World Ski Championships 2017, a 19 meter high, walkable skier has been built in the center of the host town of St. Moritz.

The wooden sculpture, designed by Aroma from Zurich, will be used as an event space during the medal ceremonies. Projections, dance and climbing shows—as well as TV presentations—will be taking place in and on the skier. The skin is composed of more than 600 CNC cut timber panels. A wooden tower with stairs supports the structure and provides access to the three platforms inside.

Design-to-Production created a digital 3D model in production quality and delivered data for CNC fabrication of all 637 individual panels and their nearly 1000 connections just seven weeks after the first project meeting in October 2016.

Due to the tight schedule, the main focus was to quickly develop parametric details, in close collaboration with the engineers. They needed to be precisely prefabricated and easy to assemble. By generating assembly instructions directly from the 3D model and attaching them to every single panel, it was ensured that the skier could be erected in just three weeks.

“Everything was done in Rhino, down to fabrication data for the 5-axis cutting on a Homag machine (we created MPR-data directly from the model)” (Fabian Scheurer from Design-to-Production)



Location: St.Moritz (CH)
Opening: February 2017
Client: Aroma Productions AG, Zurich (CH)
Consulting: Création Holz, Hermann Blumer
Timber Construction: A.Freund Holzbau, Samedan (CH)
Structural Engineering: sblumer ZT, Graz (AT) Detail Engineering IHT Rafz (CH)
CNC-Fabrication: Bearbeitungs- & Zuschnittzentrum AG, Leibstadt (CH) Digital Planning Design-to-Production, Zurich (CH)

More info...

Evolute Workshop - March 15-17, Vienna (Austria)

Evolute Workshop
Freeform facades, from design to production
March 15-17, 2017
Evolute GmbH office
Schwindgasse 4/10, 1040
Vienna (Austria)

Evolute GmbH invites you to attend their upcoming Evolute Workshop. Gain insights into the workflow of a typical freeform facade design project at Evolute.

From an architect's design, participants will convert a freeform facade to the production data and drawing output needed by manufacturers for production of panels.

The workshop will touch upon the following steps:

• Optimization and refinement of the panelisation pattern
• Manufacturing techniques
• Curved panel simplification
• Clustering
• Production drawings and data

Evolute will also provide an introduction to their software suite and show how to use it in the context of a real-life project. A complimentary one-year license for EvoluteTools PRO, D.LOFT, T.MAP will be offered to all the participants.

More info and registration...

The Morpheus Hotel: From Design to Production Webinar

Webinar: The Morpheus Hotel - From Design to Production

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

3:00 PM-4:30 PM PST

Register here.

Join us for a collaborative presentation from the project team of The Morpheus Hotel and Tower in Macau. 

Project leads from Zaha Hadid Architects and Front Inc, a façade production consultant, will discuss the role of advanced computational technology from the design to the analysis, and fabrication, as well as the construction of this remarkable project, due to open in 2018. 

This event is for anyone interested in the challenges of building one of the world’s most complex buildings and façade systems. 

The panel of presenters are:

• Viviana Muscettola, Zaha Hadid Architects 
• Michele Salvi, Zaha Hadid Architects 
• Miron Mutyaba, Zaha Hadid Architects 
• Ramon van der Heijden, Front Inc. 
• Alan Tai, Front Inc. 
• Evan Levelle, Front Inc. 

Presenters will join the webinar from London, Hong Kong, and Seattle. Space is limited. Register early to reserve your place. 

Sign up today!

A presentation including Q&A will take approximately 90 minutes. Questions will be addressed at the end. 

Note: If you're unable to attend, a video of the webinar will be available here on Friday, February 10, 2017. 

Media Sponsor

AutoGraph: New add-in for Grasshopper

AutoGraph is a suite of tools to help you organize the objects on your Grasshopper canvas. The main feature is a visual graph layout algorithm editor that will automatically arrange the objects on your canvas based on a set of parameters.

Also, it offers functionality to insert generic description parameters in between components, in order to neatly route the wires in your definition.

More info and download...

Opossum wins the COIN-OR Cup 2016

Opossum (OPtimizatiOn System with SUrrogate Models), a new optimization plugin for Grasshopper available on food4rhino, and RBFOpt, a model-based, black-box optimization library, have jointly won the COIN-OR Cup 2016!

Computational Infrastructure for Operations Research (COIN) is an international initiative to spur the development of open-source software for the operations research community. The award committee recognized the use of state-of-the-art mathematical optimization tools in a context that is historically skeptical about them, the effort to increase awareness of the potential of mathematical optimization within the architecture community and its easy-to-use interface for non-experts.

Opossum is the first model-based optimization tool for Grasshopper. It is based on the RBFOpt library and has a GUI similar to Galapagos. Opossum uses advanced machine learning techniques to find good solutions with a small number of evaluations. Its specialty is finding close to optimal solutions in 100-300 evaluations, while other types of algorithms typically need many more steps.

This paper presents benchmark results comparing an early version of Opossum, Galapagos, and Goat.

Hidden Geometry Sculpture Show at ZINC Art & Object

New Works by Tim Celeski at ZINC Art + Object

From January 18th through February 10th, ZINC Art + Object in Edmonds, Washington will feature new sculptural works by Tim Celeski. Hidden Geometry contrasts geometric and organic forms with the unique natural beauty of wood.

A Rhino and Grasshopper user, Tim is best known for his extensive line of custom furniture. His creative work continues to evolve and he is now creating and showing new sculptural wood pieces. Using reclaimed and cast-off wood, Tim looks for material that is unique in its form and imperfections – often spalted or filled with worm holes with grain and patterns determined by the life of the tree. The results are panels, vessels, and free standing sculpture sized from 10 inches to over 10 feet. Like the trees the wood comes from each piece is unique, tactile with a sensuous surface that’s meant to be touched.

PanelFlow release - A Unified Workflow For Panel Producers

Evolute GmbH is pleased to announce the release of PanelFlow, a family of plugins for Rhino, addressed to panel manufacturers. 

"After years of working with world-class panel producers for the building industry, we are happy to launch PanelFlow, a software solution that we built up from our experience in the whole workflow of panel production. PanelFlow allows you to handle simple and complex jobs with ease in a unified system. PanelFlow is based on a family of plugins for Rhino, making use of the great versatility offered by Rhino".

More info...

Parametric Winter School (second edition) - February 25 - March 3, Zakopane (Poland)

Parametric Winter School

Rhinoceros + Grasshopper

Virtual Reality and Generative Bending

February 25 - March 3, 2017

Zakopane (Poland)

Architektura Parametryczna (a digital design educational platform) invites you to the second edition of Parametric Winter School, a week of coding and fun that will take place from February 25 to March 3 in Zakopane (Poland).

Tutors:

Kacper Radziszewski (Architektura Parametryczna)

"Virtual Reality helps us to explore and understand architecture from other aspects, combined with parametric tools is a powerful design method. The aim of the workshop is to understand and learn how to employ this technique in architectural projects".

Maria Smigielska (ETHZ)

"The workshop aims to explore varied digital methodologies of spatial frame structure generation as well as its following fabrication. Students will work with generic element as metal rod in the process of its bending, as well as look at different ways of its connecting and assembly. Each group of students will end up building spatial structure of their own patterns".

Seats: 21

Enrollment: wintercamp@archistarter.pl

Early Bird (till January 18) 1400 PLN (350 EUR)
Regular (till February 15) 1600PLN (420 EUR)
Late Bird 1800PLN (480 EUR)

More info ...



Available soon: View Optimization Using Galapagos for Grasshopper

ThinkParametric added a new online tutorial to their Foundation Training Courses: Views Optimization Using Galapagos for Grasshopper. This course will focus on creating your own optimization tools inside Grasshopper using Galapagos, optimizing building shapes according to their views.

This course is a continuation of the Galapagos 101 course and a more hands-on case study.

Galapagos uses an evolutionary-based algorithmic solver. A population of candidate solutions is maintained, and new candidate solutions are generated randomly by mutating or recombining variants in the existing population. By applying a selection criterion the population is pruned. The best candidates survive into the next generation. Iterated over many generations, the quality of the solutions in the candidate pool gradually increases.

By mastering Galapagos and understanding the power of an evolutionary solver, you can make smarter and better-informed decisions early in the design process.

More info on the course ....

Digital Wood - Master's Thesis Research Project at Chalmers University of Technology

Digital Wood - Design & fabrication of a full-scale exhibition structure in plywood
Team: Viktoria Henriksson, Emil Poulsen and Oscar Gillkvist

Viktoria Henriksson has been kind enough to share with us her Master's Thesis research project, which she did together with Emil Poulsen and Oskar Gillkvist, for which Rhino and Grasshopper were used as the primary design tools.

"Plywood has many times before been used for temporary structures in architecture, mainly because of the relatively low cost and availability. Plywood is often seen as a perfectly flat sheet material, free from otherwise common properties of timber such as imperfections and grain direction. However, plywood is actually a diverse material with inherent dynamic properties associated with the tree it once came from. This is something that is rarely seen in contemporary plywood design but could be emphasized and more accessible through computational design and digital fabrication.

The research project “Digital Wood” investigates and utilizes the bending properties and dynamics of plywood through the use of computational design and digital fabrication. Through a design-by-research approach using full-scale experiments and digital tools, this project seeks to explore new perspectives of programming timber in the field of architecture and design.

In collaboration with industrial partners, a temporary structure was designed and built for the Wood and Technology exhibition in Gothenburg, Sweden to function as a gathering place and visual label for visitors, while exploring new unexpected ways of implementing wood.

3D-modelling in Rhinoceros and Grasshopper played a major role both in the design process and the realization of the pavilion. Custom tools and scripts were developed and used for everything from generation of cutting patterns to automating the production of CNC files. With the use of modern technology and new treatment methods, “Digital Wood” pushes the boundaries for how conventional material can be used to unleash new creative potentials".

Link to the flip book on Issuu...

Rhino Visual Tips 5 - New free chapters!

Start practicing Rhino with the first five chapters from Rhino Visual Tips 5 that are online for free! These are the first 5 from the 18 chapters that Rhino Visual Tips 5 has to offer. To start practicing register at www.Rhino3D.tv and visit this link.

We would like to take this opportunity to offer you a 25% additional discount on the purchase of Rhino Visual Tips 5 from our web page. The coupon code is 25VT.

If you need help or have any questions, please contact Lucia N. Miguel. 

*Note: Rhino Visual Tips 5 is a Download Only product (a USB drive is no longer available). Once your Rhino Visual Tips 5 order is processed you will receive an email with a link via WeTransfer so that you can download it. 

This offer will be valid only until April 28, 2017.

Kine[SIS]tem International Conference + Summer School - June 19-30, Lisbon (Portugal)

Kine[SIS]tem International Conference + Summer School

June 19-30, 2017

Lisbon (Portugal)

Kine[SIS]tem International Conference + Summer School is an international event formed by two interrelated moments: Kine[SIS]tem - From Nature to Architectural Matter, International Conference and Kine[SIS]tem - Shading Systems Summer School.

Kine[SIS]tem - From Nature to Architectural Matter, International Conference

June 19-20, 2017

Kine[SiS]tem – From Kinesis + System. Kinesis is a non-linear movement or activity of an organism in response to a stimulus. A system is a set of interacting and interdependent agents forming a complex whole, delineated by its spatial and temporal boundaries, influenced by its environment.

How can architectural systems moderate the external environment to enhance comfort conditions in a simple, sustainable and smart way? This is the starting question for the Kine[SiS]tem’17 – From Nature to Architectural Matter International Conference.

For decades, architectural design developed despite (and not with) the climate, based on mechanical heating and cooling. Today, the argument for net-zero energy buildings needs effective strategies to reduce energy requirements. The challenge ahead requires design processes that are built upon consolidated knowledge, make use of advanced technologies and are inspired by nature.


Confirmed Keynote Speakers:

Manuel Kretzer - Dr. Sc. ETH Zürich Architect and Advanced Materials Specialist. Visiting professor in Digital Crafting at the Braunschweig University of Art. Partner at responsive design studio, Cologne, Germany.
Bob Sheil - Architect, Director of The Bartlett School of Architecture, Professor in Architecture and Design through Production, and the School’s Director of Technology.
Alex Haw - Director of the award-winning UK art/architecture practice atmos.

We invite you to submit and present an original contribution for Kine[SIS]tem'17. All submissions are peer-reviewed and considered for selection by the Scientific Committee. All accepted full papers will be published.  Please observe the submission types and deadlines on the website.

Areas of Interest

• Nature fundamentals and geometry
• Biomimicry and biodigital architecture
• Parametric design, computational modeling, and simulation
• Performance-based sustainable design
• Performative and responsive systems
• Digital fabrication

Submission
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=kinesistem17

Kine[SIS]tem - Shading Systems Summer School
June 19-30, 2017

The Kine[SiS]tem’17 – Shading Systems Summer School will integrate master classes, design studios, and prototyping workshops.

The master classes will cover four themes: Sustainability, climate and solar radiation; Nature-based parametric patterns; Performance-based design; Digital fabrication.

The Design Studios will explore using Grasshopper, Ladybug, and Diva as creative and technical tools, from simulation to prototyping 3D responsive architectural solutions.

The summer school is intended for students and professionals from different areas of knowledge – architecture, design, fine arts, engineering, and programming  – who are interested in the design process: from ideation to prototyping.

Important Dates

Call for extended abstracts closure: February 6, 2017
Abstract Acceptance Notification: March 6, 2017
Full paper deadline: May 2, 2017
Conferences: June 19-20, 2017
Summer School: June 19-30, 2017

Contact
kinesistem17@gmail.com 

More information...

Interior Architecture Program Project - Internatomy

Alphonso Peluso is the Director of Design Communication and Studio Associate Professor of Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology and Adjunct Professor at Columbia College Chicago. His students, Alice Leong, Marianne Batocabe, Lorein Martinez have designed a project inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's human anatomy drawings using Rhino and RhinoCAM.

Project participants: Antwan Anderson, Emily Anderson, Marianne Batocabe, Angela Campos, Taylor Dillon, Bianca Guardiola, Angelica Hayman, Marya Kontogiannis, Alice Leong, Lorein Martinez, Thomas Monforti, Sergio Munozgonzalez Dina Partipilo, Margaret Plass, Tim Puccetti, Jill Reedy, Esbeidi Zavala, and Wenhan Zhang.

Check out the video of their fabrication process:

For more information please contact Alphonso Peluso. 

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.

Now available: Orca3D Marine Simulation

DRS Technologies and their Orca3D marine design software have now partnered with Simerics, a leading supplier of CFD simulation software to several vertical industries.

Orca3D now links to CFD analysis software. This one solution enables Orca3D users to simulate the performance of marine vehicles using CFD.

By using CFD software, Orca3D can improve hull design, propeller design, and study phenomena such as the porpoising of planing hulls. Orca3D Marine Simulation provides accurate CFD simulations of a vessel's performance. There's no need to become a specialized CFD analyst to take advantage of Orca3D Marine Simulation. The time and the cost to perform CFD simulation for marine vehicle performance prediction and analysis is significantly reduced.

"Our collaboration with Orca3D has enabled the delivery of comprehensive and validated CFD functionality to end users at half the price of today's Marine CFD software," says Rich Moore, Vice President Business Development, Simerics, Inc. "With Orca3D we are bringing an entirely streamlined work flow to Marine CFD using templates with both marine domain and CFD domain in one affordable solution."

"We have added an easy-to-use interface function in Orca3D to prepare the model for analysis in Simerics' CFD application. This, combined with their powerful templates, provides a simple, yet powerful tool to address difficult marine CFD design questions," says Bruce Hays, Director of Orca3D development.

Request a demo ...

DIVA Day 2017 - Mark your calendar

DIVA Day 2017! 

Mark your calendar for October 27-28, 2017, University of California Berkeley.

DIVA Day is an annual symposium to discuss the use of environmental analysis tools in design practice, research, and architectural education. The event will include a series of presentations and discussions focused on how DIVA and associated tools can be used in design and performance-evaluation work flow.

This year the Center for the Built Environment at the University of California Berkeley hosts this event. The event is on Friday, October 27th, plus training on October 28th.

DIVA Day web site ....

New tool from Proving Ground

Introducing the new Trello tools for builders...

Nate Miller of Proving Ground now has a simple and helpful application to keep your digital work organized. This first version is now available as Conductor 1.0.

Conductor 1.0 is a plugin for Rhino 5 for architects, engineers, and builders. The premise of Conductor is simple: bring Trello's Kanban-style management system to where you work, inside the model. You can view your Trello boards, create cards, and manage project requirements from start to finish within the modeling environment.

And to kick off the New Year, Proving Ground has priced a single-user license of Conductor at $10 USD.

Video tutorials ...

To buy ...

RhinoCAM 2017 released

MecSoft has released RhinoCAM 2017, the newest version of their integrated CAM solution for Rhino 5 for Windows.

RhinoCAM is a Computer Aided Machining (CAM) plugin for CNC that runs completely inside of Rhino 5. This plugin is a general purpose machining program, combining Rhino's freeform modeling with the machining capabilities of VisualCAM.

Some of the new features of RhinoCAM 2017 are:

• 2½-axis feature-based milling and detection. Machining features such as 3-axis pockets, prismatic pockets, slots, planar faces, and bosses can now be detected on surfaces and meshes in solid models and toolpath methods applied to these features. This significantly simplifies and speeds up part programming in many prismatic parts.
• 4-axis drive surface milling for true 4-axis milling. All three linear and one rotary axis can change simultaneously in this method (only in EXP configuration and above).
• New 2½-axis slot milling operation for both single line cutting and trochoidal machining of slots.
• The toolpath editor can now adjust feed rate slowdown in corners (only in the PRO configuration and above).

More information...

Correlated Intricacies V1.0 workshop - February 25-March 2, Sofia (Bulgaria)

Correlated Intricacies V1.0 workshop

February 25-March 2 from 10:00 to 18:00

Union of the Architects, Krakra 11 str.

Sofia (Bulgaria)

The international workshop Correlated Intricacies V1.0 focuses on the development of complex architectural detailing with a large variety of components comprising the whole process--from concept through developed design and analysis to digital fabrication and preparation of working drawings. Details will be evaluated down to the point of screws, nails, joints, slots, weatherstripping, etc.

Correlated Intricacies V1.0 begins with expanding the knowledge of existing examples of node-based architectural systems and details currently used in architecture. Participants will be guided to develop skills of algorithmic design and computational strategies applicable for custom-designed node intersection systems in the detailing of point and line connections.

The participants will learn how to model and modify different details of a system parametrically, depending on the shape and purpose of the structure. Participants will choose an existing detail system to study its components and assembly. Each team will develop their own system of details, based on the systems they have studied, using parametric tools and analysis. This detail will be built parametrically so that elements of the assembly can be modified variably while informing the other parts of the detail on how to adjust to these changes.

What you will learn

• Introduction to Grasshopper and algorithmic geometry
• Parametric modeling of complex geometries in Grasshopper and Rhinoceros 5
• Deconstruction and evaluation of detail components
• Modeling of parametrically linked systems
• How to set up a part to part relationships with variables
• Detail and system documentation methods

Tutors
Georgi Kunchev / Bulgaria

Martin Georgiev / Bulgaria  

Required software
Each participant should provide their own computer with the following software installed:

• Rhinoceros and its plugin BoltGen
• Grasshopper (plugins: Kangaroo Physics, Karamba 3D, Weaverbird, Mesh Edit, Mesh Tools)
• KeyShot
• Adobe Suite

Late registration until January 25, 2017.

More info...

Registration...

Facebook event...