Architecture in a Parametric Landscape is an exhibition that focuses on the emerging field of advanced digital design. In the last two decades of architectural practice, new digital technologies have evolved from being simply representational tools invested in the depiction of existing models of architectural space to becoming significant performative machines that have transformed the ways in which we both conceive and configure space and material. These tools for design, simulation, and fabrication, have enabled the emergence of new digital diagrams and parametric landscapes—often emulating genetic and iterative dynamic evolutionary processes—that are not only radically changing the ways in which we integrate disparate types of information into the design process, but are also significantly altering the methodological strategies that we use for design, fabrication and construction.
After the early digital explosion of the 1990’s, new forms of rigor and production have entered into the field of architecture, supporting the emergence of parametric and building information modeling and the enhanced use of computational geometry and scripting that together represent the second critical wave of digital design practices. That our current models of space are far more continuous, variant and complex, is specifically a result of the tools we are using to produce them, an inevitable byproduct of the ever-expanding capacities of digital computation and related fabrication technologies as these intersect with theoretical trajectories that long ago dismantled the social, functional and technological truths of the early part of this century.
The FLUX installation explores the possibilities of parametric modeling and digital fabrication through the production of the exhibition armature. Produced using CCA’s CNC router and advanced parametric modeling techniques, the undulating structure expands and contracts as its volume extends down the center of the long nave space. Through the use of parametric modeling and a series of custom designed scripts, the installation design can be quickly updated to address new design criteria. From the thickness of the ribs to the overall twisting geometry and perforated skins, the spatial form of the armature is controlled through a complex set of relationships defined by its formal, performative, and fabrication constraints.
The exhibition was divided into 8 categories and included work from over 30 offices. Each category contained four to eight projects that represent a particular design approach. The surface of the installation adjacent to each category of work is perforated using a technique related to one of the projects from that category.
Each component of the final design was rebuilt in grasshopper as a parametric model. This method allowed us to make real time adjustments to the form that would be automatically updated and ready for fabrication. We were constantly making changes to the design as the content of the show was finalized, sometimes only a few hours before the file was sent to the CNC mill.
The installation, which is over 100 feet long, was built in 2 weeks. Every section of the installation is unique and numbered in sequence, allowing the installation to be easily assembled and disassembled in less than 3 hours.
