PHOTO CI-DESSUS: La couverture de la cour Visconti, département des Arts de l’Islam, musée du Louvre.
© R. Ricciotti – M. Bellini / Musée du Louvre
© photo 2011 Musée du Louvre / Olivier Ouadah

Vous pouvez telecharger le dossier de presse officiel diffusé par le musée du Louvre en suivant ce lien.

Depuis l’agence HDA | Hugh Dutton Associés nous préparons un dossier de presse technique concernant les études de la verrière et des façades.

Le dossier est actuellement en phase de validation.
Il sera publié sur ce blog et disponible en téléchargement libre dans les prochains jours.

Nikolas Weinstein Studios is a glass sculpture studio in San Francisco with worldwide installations and a penchant for combining art and technology into site-specific glass installations.

found via Rhino Blog

We strongly envourage you to visit nikolas.net to discover their amazing works.
You can also follow them via their blog.

The video below is an amazing explanation of how they use Rhino and Grasshopper for their sculptures:
“We use Grasshopper in three fundamental ways: as a “try this” design tool; as a helper for complex, tedious, or repetitive drawing tasks; and as a tool to harvest, organize and manage data (dimensions, positions, etc.). Here’s a short video tour about Grasshopper and how we’ve been using it. Get your geek on…”

This video has been posted by Dave. Here is his a very original description of his profile:
Dave Johnson trained to be an engineer but has made his living in everything but, including movie special effects, juggling, modelmaking, writing and editing, computer programming, dog training, and electronic design. When he’s not figuring out how to fabricate, mount, and light difficult glass installations, he can be found watching the glassblowers. 

More posts by Dave at blog.nikolas.net
Thanks to Nikolas Weinstein Studios for sharing this great contents.

PHOTO ABOVE: Dynamic Solar Shading sketch model. Advances in Architectural Geometry 2010 / SOURCE : robofold.com

We often wrote in this blog about developability of complex surfaces.
In one of our post about geometries of bending I said:  developability is a key concept you have to understand if you are trying to construct very complex forms that are easy to draw but difficult to build.

But why? Because if you can develop a surface, then you can build it.
Now, robots from ROBOFOLD are saying something similar: if you can fold it, we can build it.

FOLDABLE = MAKABLE

This is the very clear slogan of curvedfolding.com, a social network created by ROBOFOLD where you can “work towards an open CAD standard, initially based on a quad-mesh geometry, for representing and modeling curved folding geometries…and show what we have crafted in paper, modelled in CAD and then fabricated.”

PHOTO ABOVE : RoboFold at 100% Design, October 2011. Their video interview with RoboFold / SOURCE: robofold.com

It’s very interesting to note that ROBOFOLD thinks about innovative production as something strictly related to the learning process. That’s why they develop a strong departement for learning with workshops and other events.
The structure of the workshop is clear as their slogan:

A 3 steps process: folding paper by hand all the way to folding metal with robots – with some simulation in software along the way. 

Watch the videlo below to see a robot in action.

PHOTOS AND VIDEOS ABOVE FROM robofold.com

A special thanks to Vanessa from McNeel to send me this information, in relation to a research for one of our project.

Nous publions aujourd’hui un article de Benoit Sallé, Ingénieur en Génie Civil et Urbain et “presque” architecte. Dans son blog, Benoit expose sa réflexion sur les conséquences et les enjeux des nouveaux usages numériques sur la conception de la ville.

Nous avons découvert l’activité de ce blog, qui fait partie du réseaux de médias numériques everydatalab, grâce à un de ses posts dont lequel notre paper sur l’architecture hybride est cité comme référence.

Dans ce même post, que je vous invite à retrouver ici, Benoit souligne un aspect du scénario des agences d’architectures que nous partageons amplement: “En effet, trop peu de cabinets d’architecture semblent exposer clairement les impacts des nouvelles technologies sur leur manière de concevoir et d’aborder le projet.”

« Le télétravail m’a tué » (signé) La ville

The first time I “met” Ion Cuervas-Mons was on twitter, when he still was in Shanghai to direct the construction of Madrid Pavilion for Shanghai Expo. The second time I’ve heard of him it was because he was working on relationships between parametric design and games and we started exchanging a lot of interesting ideas - here is an article in French .

Once Ion invited me to a meeting to discuss a project called OPENARCH.
He absolutely wanted to design and build a house to create a new model of living, strongly connected to the Internet and inspired by the open-source philosophy.

That idea has now turned into a real appartement, located next to Bilbao – map.
The project has been officially launched last friday 25th of November at openarch.cc

Do you want to visit this prototype ? Just ask Ion at info@thinkbig-factory.com

Openarch is a real prototype of a smart home.
The first home designed from scratch to incorporate a digital layer connecting the house and its elements to the Internet.
Its inhabitants lead a new digital and connected life. It is flexible and thanks to its ability to transform, it can adapt to any condition that the user requires.

The digital layer – which from now on we will call D. OS (domestic operating system) – includes a series of components that allow users to stay connected to anyone or any place; control the house’s components by the movement of the body; hold conferences from home; know the power consumption at any time; activate any electrical household appliance from work; share a live video of your cooking recipes with the rest of the world; create your own TV set in the lounge, and so on.

Openarch is a platform based on open software and hardware philosophy.
An inhabited playground where technologies can be tested. It is an open-living lab where other companies, artists or organizations can evaluate their products and services through the infrastructure and the participation of the house’s inhabitants.
D. OS updates and the incorporation of new technologies will be documented and registered under creative commons licenses and available to download as KITS.

It sounds like living inside the Internet…
What do you think?
Would you like it? 

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OPENARCH is the first project by Thinkbig Factory, an innovative architecture and design consultancy.
The project is directed by Ion Cuervas-Mons and it is distributed under a Creative Commons license.

web : openarch.cc
blog: thinkbig-lab.com

Quai de l’horloge – Installations (2)

Voici deux impressionantes series de photo de Alexandre Pachiaudi – OZ COLLECTIVE - qui racontent Paris depuis un point de vue extrêmement originale. Les sujets principales ne sont pas les monuments de la capitale mais les installations de chantier.

Œuvre et Ouvrage: une definition

Réalisée par un architecte, ces photos mettent en evidence le processus de construction de l’architecture, normalement délaissé dans une culture architecturale qui prime le resultat, l’objet fini et qui met l’Œuvre devant l’Ouvrage.

Quai aux fleurs – Installations (2)

Trinité – Installations (2)

Rue d’Alésia – Installations (2)

Opéra – Installations (2)

Rue de Fresnel – Installations (1)

Rue Beaujoin – Installations (1)

Installations (1) et Installations (2)
Photos par Alexandre Pachiaudi – OZ COLLECTIVE -

Alexandre et aussi créateur et redacteur du blog archiact.fr
HDA a récemment collaboré avec OZ COLLECTIVE pour le projet PEEPHOLE 

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Vous pensez quoi de ces photos? N’hésitez pas à donner votre avis!

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photo ci-dessus: modèlisation paramétrique pour le projet JIANG TAI WINTER GARDEN

Nous présentons aujourd’hui un article de Aurélie de Boissieu, une doctorante qui travaille sur la modélisation paramétrique.
Nous remercions énormément sa contribution à ce blog. Pour nous, le travail en réseaux avec des étudiants, des chercheurs et des différents professionnels est un point fondamentale de notre demarche.

“Travailler de façon ouverte avec nos lecteurs”, voici en quelques mots l’enthousiasmante – et réussie – intention du blog d’HDA complexitys.com dont je me réjouis d’ajouter “mon papier” à l’édifice. Doctorante à l’Ariam-Larea, j’ai été amenée, naturellement, à rencontrer HDA lors de mes recherches. En effet, les agences qui utilisent la modélisation paramétrique et/ou la programmation ne sont pas si nombreuses ; celles qui ouvrent leurs portes le sont encore moins. Je les remercie aujourd’hui de m’accueillir et espère pouvoir, à mon tour, travailler de façon ouverte.

J’approche les usages de la modélisation paramétrique, dans le cadre de ma thèse, d’un point de vue cognitif. Autrement dit, je m’interroge sur les opérations mentales mises en œuvre par un architecte lorsqu’il utilise des environnements de modélisation paramétrique. Ce sujet cherche à mettre en lumière les liens cognitifs entre modélisation paramétrique et conception architecturale, objets encore mal connus des architectes.

Pour avancer sur cette question, mon travail s’organise en deux axes :

1 – une analyse des modeleurs paramétriques Grasshopper, Generative Components et Digital Project ;
2- une analyse de cas d’usages de ces modeleurs pour des projets d’architecture.

L’étude de cas d’usages de la modélisation paramétrique en agence (axe 2) se révèle importante du point de vue cognitif, mais aussi du point de vue des stratégies professionnelles (stratégies de valorisation, répartition des tâches, etc). En effet, si l’aspect cognitif de ces activités m’intéresse, il ne peut être distingué du contexte social et professionnel dans lequel il évolue.

Pour ces études de cas, je procède suivant une méthodologie d’investigation grâce à laquelle je cherche à reconstruire les processus opérants. A partir de ces reconstructions, je peux émettre – pour certains cas – des hypothèses d’opérations cognitives. Dans mon travail, il est important de recouper les données: c’est pourquoi je travaille à la fois avec des observations en agence, des entretiens approfondis, des analyses de modèles et de scripts, etc.

Mon corpus se constitue d’agences aux identités fortes et qui adoptent en général une position radicale face à la technique.
- Gehry Partners et Foster+Partners, ainsi, utilisent et développent leurs propres outils (respectivement Digital Project et Generative Components, entre autres).
- Chez R&Sie et RVBA on trouve une véritable valorisation de la pratique expérimentale de l’architecture et de la programmation. Je pourrais encore citer le travail de HDA | Hugh Dutton Associés, mais ce n’est pas le lieu pour s’étendre davantage.

Alors, pourquoi HDA | Hugh Dutton Associés ?

Cette agence, de taille moyenne (moins de 10 personnes), regroupe différents profils dont l’une des particularités est d’être, comme le précise Hugh Dutton : “ni vraiment ingénieurs, ni vraiment architectes, mais un peu les deux”.
Les collaborateurs d’HDA ont trois sortes de formation : ingénieur, ingénieur-architecte et architecte. Nous observons que deux ingénieurs portent les missions de calcul des structures et de développement de programmes pour des problèmes spécifiques tandis qu’un ingénieur-architecte se charge plus spécialement du développement de Rhinoscripts pour la modélisation des projets. Le reste de l’équipe se charge de porter les projets.

DAZHONGLI skylight
Projet de verrière paramétrique.
Shanghai
+ infos et images

Malgré que chacun ait sa propre spécialisation, la taille de la structure de l’agence fait que tous collaborent sans heurts. Pour ce que j’ai pu observer sur le projet Dazhongli, le travail de conception est fait en collaboration, presque en hybridation entre toutes les compétences sollicitées (programmation, représentation, conception architecturale, évaluation structure).

À propos d’hybridation, vous pouvez lire notre essai
ARCHITECTURE HYBRIDE: POUR UNE MÉTHODOLOGIE DE LA COMPLEXITÉ

La notion d’hybridation est importante dans le fonctionnement de cette agence. Ce point n’est pas anodin, car dans d’autres pratiques c’est une spécialisation de l’architecte qui est revendiquée.
Par exemple, dans la cellule de modélisation de Foster+Partners, le Specialist Modeling Group fondé par Hugh Whitehead, les membres se décrivent eux-mêmes comme des architects+.
Un “architect+” s’affirme comme un expert, tandis qu’un “ni vraiment architecte, ni vraiment ingénieur” questionne le flou de ces nouvelles pratiques.
Cette hybridation resurgit dans certaines réalisations de l’agence, naviguant alors entre ouvrage d’art et projet d’architecture.

Le travail d’HDA est donc riche et certains projets inspirent ma réflexion à défaut d’en nourrir mes recherches :
Le projet de pylônes Terna a demandé la programmation d’outils spécifiques, pour l’évaluation mécanique (cela ne concerne donc pas directement la conception).
La passerelle de Turin est un projet intéressant mais trop ancien : les données nécessaires à l’analyse ne sont pas suffisantes.

DFS FASADE: la vidéo

D’autres projets m’interpellent, et certains points méritent d’être soulignés:
La passerelle de la Roche sur Yon pour laquelle il y a eu usage de l’évaluation structurelle comme “métaphore” formelle.
Le projet de façade pour Orchard Road pour lequel l’utilisation de “form finding” a permis d’affiner et de réaliser une idée existante.
Le projet de façade pour DFS GALLERIA pour lequel Grasshopper a été utilisé/exploré.

Pour l’instant, deux projets semblent pouvoir être analysés dans le cadre de mon étude :
- le projet de verrière pour Winter Garden (photo ci-dessus) pour lequel les scripts ont permis des allers-retours entre conception et évaluation
- le projet de verrière pour Dazhongli (photo ci-dessous), les scripts et la conception y sont menés de front, en aller-retour entre les intentions architecturales et les évaluations structurelles.

DAZHONGLI:la vidéo
How to build a freeform surface with single curved or flat panels using rhinoscript

Je vous ai présenté ici mes interrogations et mes recherches en cours… Mais à quand de véritables résultats?

Le temps de la recherche étant, pour moi, loin de celui de l’immédiateté, je laisse mon travail “infuser“ encore.
Mais peut-être aurais-je le plaisir de présenter de nouveau ici même de prochains résultats ?

Si vous travaillez dans une agence et reconnaissez ces pratiques, ou si vous bidouillez vous-même du script pour vos projets d’architecture, alors laissez un commentaire ou contactez-moi : ça m’intéresse !

Aurélie de Boissieu
aurelie.deboissieu AT ariam-larea.archi.fr

After several months of blood, sweat and tears, we are very happy to share with you a free download of our CAD Standards, the Electronic File Naming Convention and the Project Folder Organisation we will be using at HDA, with immediate effect.

We are a hybrid team of architects, designers and engineers. Even though we strongly believe in this interdisciplinary approach, we understand that it presents difficulties in achieving coherence and clarity in our management systems. The files we are sharing today with our readers are the first outcome of a thorough review and coordination process intended to make our different design tools and activities more coherent.

As noted elsewhere on this blog, at HDA we believe in an open culture, that sharing content can be useful, productive and not anti-economic, and therefore offer these free to download in the hope that they may be useful to others.
As noted earlier, HDA is a French company. Therefore the naming of folders, files, CAD layers, etc. were prepared originally in French. The document text however, was prepared in English (due to that being the author’s native language). For these downloads, all document text, file names, folder names, layer names and abbreviations have been put into English.

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Document 1/3 | HDA – CAD Standard
VIEW or DOWNLOAD CAD Standard (741)

Document 2/3 | HDA – Electronic File Naming Convention
VIEW or DOWNLOAD HDA - Electronic File Naming Convention (425)

Document 3/3 | HDA – Project Folder Organisation
VIEW or DOWNLOAD Project Folder Organisation (435)

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It is hoped that soon we will produce a full set of documents in French also. Each document is designed to be printed out A4 portrait, double-sided (duplex).

Here is a text by Phil Barrett, who has been mainly involved in this process and who produced these documents for HDA

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CAD Standard

The management of CAD standards is an area that is commonly neglected as small companies expand and grow.
This is due in part to it being an area of work that is not directly ‘chargeable’ (with companies preferring to concentrate their resources on fee-paying project work), and partly due to its importance and effect on company efficiency not being fully understood by those not directly involved in it.

Like many architectural/engineering/design companies HDA had a basic CAD standard in place at the company’s inception. As the company grew this standard was updated intermittently in line with the progressive releases of existing design software programs (primarily AutoCAD), the introduction of new software (particularly for HDA the introduction of Rhinoceros), and the natural rotation of company personnel.

Just as with the evolution of design as a whole, there arrives a point at which it is no longer viable to further revise and ‘patch up’ an outdated model. The introduction of a new CAD standard can be a disruptive and time-consuming process, but the risk for companies is that the longer they continue with an inefficient system, the more disruptive, time consuming, and ultimately costly it becomes to replace it when they later have more staff and project work attached to it.

With the securing of several new projects, and the consequent arrival of new personnel to HDA, the decision was taken earlier this year to conduct a review of our existing system, and to design from scratch a system to properly suit our current (and expected future) requirements.

It was accepted from the outset that there is no one perfect system that will suit all companies and all projects, and that there is no single, globally accepted standard. HDA is particular too in the sense that it is a French company, with a mixture of French, Italian and British/Irish staff, and working on projects worldwide in French, Italian and English. As part of the research undertaken for the design of our new standard, a variety of existing standards have been consulted, including ISO 13567, BS 1192, AIA, Uniclass and AEC (UK), and whilst we have incorporated ideas into our standard where applicable to aid the compatibility of standards as a whole, trying to fully implement any one of these standards wholesale would be impractical, and largely unworkable. HDA CAD files are worked on by architects, designers, drafters and engineers, and it is accepted that most architects, engineers and designers do not have the same skills as experienced drafters. Therefore our standard has been designed to be as minimal as possible in certain areas, to make it more accessible to less experienced users and to lessen the scope for errors and differences in presentation styles.

As noted earlier, HDA primarily uses AutoCAD and Rhino software at present. Our previous CAD standard was designed exclusively for AutoCAD, therefore when Rhino was introduced there was no particular standard to be adhered to. This resulted in a variety of organizational styles arising, and a lack of uniformity and coherence in our project files. While still focusing primarily on the preparation and presentation of drawings in AutoCAD, much of this standard is designed to be applied to both AutoCAD and Rhino (and possibly other design software programs which may be used), with the aim of increasing compatibility between the two.

Document 1/3 | HDA – CAD Standard
DOWNLOAD CAD Standard (741)
VIEW on SCRIBD

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File Naming Convention and Project Folder Organisation

In addition to a new CAD standard, HDA has also produced two further standards documents.
The design of a file naming convention, and the re-design our existing project folder structure both arose from the questions posed by the design of our new CAD standard. In order to implement an effective CAD standard, it was necessary to have a more logical and effective folder structure in which to put the CAD files, and likewise a systematic and logical file naming convention to enable them to be located and identified.

Document 2/3 | HDA – Electronic File Naming Convention
DOWNLOAD HDA - Electronic File Naming Convention (425)
VIEW on SCRIBD

Document 3/3 | HDA – Project Folder Organisation
DOWNLOAD Project Folder Organisation (435)
VIEW on SCRIBD

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Thanks

Thanks to Craig Miller, Alex Jones and the London CAD team at Heatherwick Studio for their assistance with the issues of compatibility between AutoCAD and Rhino, your input was much appreciated.
Thanks to Ecosistema Urbano for sending us their standard for reference, and to all the people and companies who have published their standards online which have aided us during our research.
Thanks also to the number of online CAD forums that we have searched through for answers (CADTutor.net, CADforum.cz, CADForums.net, themadcadder.blogs.com, 3Dcadforums.com, CADDManager.com, autocadeverything.com).

From Wednesday to Sunday we were in Turin to coordinate one of the group of international Smart Building Workshop.

In this post we share the proposal developed by the participants of our group: we have called the project RESPONSIVE PARAMETRIC INFRASTRUCTURE.

Thank you very much to the city of Turin for inviting HDA, and thanks also to the whole organization team for the great work of coordination. Thanks also to the partners of the event and, above all, thanks to Federico Borello, Grazia Carioscia, Aurelio David, Chiara Rizzi, Giuseppe Roccasalva, Antonio Spinelli, Edoardo Trossero for working so hard for the project.

RESPONSIVE PARAMETRIC INFRASTRUCTURE

Turin Smart Network - a proposal for Ambito Pollone

A sustainable city is one where all the citizens share a global and collective responsibility towards their environment. A Smart City needs to provide means of awareness of every individual of the community of what the impact of their own piece of the city has on the environment, in the way they live work and play. The citizens need to have their needs and desires addressed to create their own quality environment. It is a question of Information. Information of the performance of the environment and information of the citizens requirements.

A sense of community provides social cohesion and a feeling of belonging. Each individual cares about his own world and can share together to build a quality environment.

Smartphones and personal computers provide a means for every citizen to interact and record their needs and desires and to participate in democratic improvement of the environment.

Today’s ICT tools are developing to become more and more capable of collecting and processing the complex mass of information that is involved. Data on consumption and emissions can be collected. Parametric optimization processes are capable of planning urban systems such as transport, energy, communication and space management in response to specific local environmental constraints to design the future city in response to each citizen’s needs and desires.

The proposal involves the creation of a system of data collection and interactive parametric processing based on a series of community nodes. The specific environment of each community is recorded and communicated through information screens in a central agora.

- A complex model of the physical area is created.

- The built context and environment is simulated.

- Energy performance data is collected and communicated.

- citizens interact and participate in the development if their community, their quarter, their city..

Iconic presentation screens, and signals in each community tell the story of each one, creating awareness and showing the process of interactive communication.

Like plants with a rhizomatic interconnection of roots, each community node is interconnected at different levels, first in the local quarter, then the city, nationally and through Europe to create a smart interactive parametric network to form a sustainable future built environment.

PresentazioneSmart citiesDEF1_10

The working group has been directed by Hugh Dutton and co-directed by:
Gaetan Kohler | architect, co-founder of OZ collective
Sebastien Perrault | engineer and architect, sebastienperrault.com
Francesco Cingolani | freelance architect, collaborator of HDA and Ecosistema Urbano

The following references has been used for the workshop:

HDA | Hugh Dutton Associés portfolio

TOWARDS A PARAMETRIC ARCHITECTURE – a talk by HDA | Hugh Dutton Associés

URBAN APERTURE(S) >< POROSITY AS A NEW MODEL FOR HYBRID PUBLIC SPACE - Conference in Milan at Urban Hybridization – The paper is the result of a collaboration and it’s written by: Francesco Cingolani, Domenico Di Siena, Manu Fernandez, Paco Gonzalez, Cesar Reyes Najera and Ethel Baraona Pohl

SMART STREET PROCOMÚN , a urban operating system designed by Ecosistema Urbano

AIR TREE COMMONS, a design by Ecosistema Urbano

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The event has been also a great opportunity to discover a lot of interesting project around architecture and the city of  Turin.
Among them, Transmitting Architecture Organ is an interesting blog and we are going to collaborate with it.

A creative and technical team from HDA | Hugh Dutton Associés will be in Turin next week to direct and coordinate one of the group of international Smart Building Workshop in the context of Turin’s nomination for the European Smart Cities project.

The following key people from HDA are composing the team for the workshop:

Hugh Dutton | architect and designer, director of HDA | Hugh Dutton Associés
Gaetan Kohler | architect, co-founder of OZ collective
Sebastien Perrault | engineer and architect, sebastienperrault.com
Francesco Cingolani | architect, communication and urban strategy consultant, immaginoteca.com

The workshop will focus on contemporary key concepts such as smart buildings, new technologies, sustainability and new issues for public spaces. You can find more information (in italian) about the workshop at smartbuilding.oato.it

We will share as much as possible real-time information during the workshop. If you want to follow us, keep an eye on this blog and follow us on twitter at @HDA_Paris