CONTEMPORARY PROCESSES IN ARCHITECTURE

Introduction
MODULE I

Contemporary Processes in Architecture

Presentation by Ar. Dhanya Shaji
 MODULE 1

Real Space and Virtual Space, Examples

Using virtual spaces in design
VR and AR, BIM
High Tech Architecture
Robert Venturi, Norman Foster, James Stirling
Technology and Architecture
Overview of Digital Architecture
Deconstructivism
Pioneers: Peter Eisenmann, Rem Koolhass, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Bernard Schumi, Daniel Libeskind
CONTEMPORARY
ARCHITECTURE
DIGITAL ARCHITECTURE
(Real Space and Virtual/ Cyber Space)
• Nowadays from the conception of an idea of a building through design, construction, management and
duration of the occupation of that building; digital technologies are widely used.
• Traditionally a building can be descried as “a usually roofed and walled structure built for permanent use” is
changing.
• Buildings instead of having just a roof and walls to protect us from environmental effects and give us
security and comfort, now need to accommodate HVAC systems, water supply and waste removal, electrical
power and other energy systems, mechanical circulation systems, a wide range of safety and security
systems etc.
• Information and communication technologies are affecting the way we design, build and use and re-use the
buildings.
• The following table will try to classify the digital technologies that can be used during the life-cycle of a
building:
• If architecture can be defined as “the art and science of designing structures and their surroundings in
keeping with aesthetic, functional or other criteria, [and]

• architecture is now understood as encompassing the totality of the designed environment, including
buildings, urban spaces and landscape” - one might assume that architecture is about real space.

• However, information and telecommunication technologies are pushing the boundaries of real-space
with digitally enhanced virtual space that is “accessible anywhere and located nowhere”.
• Spaces and forms in architecture have been continuously evolving.
• With the invention of Internet, new spaces have been created through computer.
• Three core elements of virtual spaces are:
• (i) movements (ii) interactions and (iii) acoustic effects

• Movements - Described human movements or watching object/ human figure movements on a

computer screen
• Interactions – Verbal interactions and verbally described physical interactions between participants in a
chat room, etc
• Acoustics – music or felt only through imagination

• Virtual spaces are not physically seen but spaces of mind – spaces of imagination or spaces of
uncertainty.
• But when you enter a chatroom, you feel like you’re entering a space – which feels real but shape is
vague.
• Real or physical space is the space where our bodies exist and move through.

• Virtual space has no spatial location, shape or boundaries. It is ambient- nowhere in particular but
everywhere at once. You do not go to it; you log in from wherever you physically happen to be.

• The “movement” in virtual/cyber space has a completely different meaning.

• “You get from place to place in cyberspace by following logical links rather than physical paths”.

• However, you are not physically moving, therefore you might be jumping from continent to continent
while you are surfing on the Net but actually, you are at your comfortable, warm, sheltered room
somewhere in the world.

• Accordingly, one can argue that without the comfort, warmth and shelter of a designed and physically
constructed place – a real place – your chance to be able to move in the virtual space is almost
impossible.
• Digital experience occurs in cyberspace.

• Cyberspace can be describes as a non-physical environment shaped by computer technology or an

“infinite artificial world where humans navigate in information based space”.

• Concisely, it can be said that virtual space is a place where some human activities can take place on
digital level rather than at the level of pure bodily experience.

• The "global network," which is used by visitors or users, in communication, education or entertainment
or work through a computer or any means of communication and in a way that uses physical
representation systems or virtual reality for representation and virtual simulation.

• It is a space that does not contain constituent borders but rather an imaginary space where the visitor
navigates and interacts. Its basic structure is data and information.
The CYBER space has several characteristics, which are:

1. A person feels it through a simulated process that the mind perceives in an imaginary image and can be used in
informational applications (such as reading, writing, observation).
2. This space is entered through a computer connected to the information network via wired or wireless lines of
communication. It is a space that combines the international information network (Internet) and contacts at one
time.
3. It enables its users to interact and communicate individually or collectively. This interaction uses sound, image,
and sometimes movement via a computer screen, mobile phone, or digital communication devices.
Virtual Space and Architecture

• In real world, architecture is shackled by concepts like culture, economics and even politics along with
restrictions on construction materials, construction methods, gravity, laws of physics etc.

• It pushes the architects to conform to a lot of compromises.

• In virtual space, all restrictions are removed and imagination can flourish.
• Laws of nature can be suspended, things can be changed at will, building costs are irrelevant,
construction methods are irrelevant. Hence, it acts a creative space for architects.
• Hence, physical and virtual worlds become important facets of the same coin as we move forward.
• Buildings defined specific usages in the olden ages; having a virtual twin for a building or a
function gives wider opportunities for that use.
• This allows us to do most of the things in an electronically fully equipped space with a click of a
mouse.

• Architecture or in general place-making activity is about space.

• Space, in the design-making sense, holds real space and virtual space together.
• Without having a protected, defined and designed “real space”, it is almost impossible to be in the
virtual space.

• The combination of real and virtual space should able to accommodate the ever-changing human
needs and activities, providing that the place makers will be adjusting, discovering and re-
discovering their creative ways.
In the past, blueprints and drawings were used to express information about a
particular building plan. This 2D approach made it very difficult to visualize dimensions
and requirements. Next came CAD (Computer Aided Design), which helped drafters see
the benefit of plans in a digital environment. Later on, CAD turned 3D, which brought
more realistic visuals to blueprints. Now, BIM (Building Information Modeling) is the
standard— but it is much more than just a 3D model.
BIM
BUILDING INFORMATION MODELING (BIM)

• BIM is an intelligent model-based process that provides insight to help you plan, design,
construct, and manage buildings and infrastructure.
• BIM creates a single platform for AEC - Architecture, Engineering and Construction.
• Highly collaborative process that allows architects, engineers, real estate developers, contractors,
manufacturers, and other construction professionals to plan, design, and construct a structure or
building within one 3D model.

According to the NBS National BIM Report 2015, the most popular drawing tools are:
• Nemetschek Vectorworks
• Autodesk Revit (Architecture/Structures/MEP)
• Autodesk AutoCAD
• Primevera
• Tetla
• Stadpro
• Robotstructure
• Ecoteln
• Clash detection
• Catia
• Naviswork
• Sketchup
• Design
Building Information Modeling (BIM) for
building design and engineering helps reduce
the risk of errors through integrated design,
engineering, and fabrication workflows.

• Construction
(BIM) on-site and in the office to help
streamline workflows, maintain more accurate
information, and keep BIM construction
projects moving forward more predictably.

• Infrastructure
(BIM) solutions help turn information into
insight to optimize designs and help accelerate
approvals, resulting in more effective and
resilient infrastructure.
Advantages of BIM:

• Reduces waste and rework,

• Manage greater project complexity,
• Work with compressed project
schedule,
• IPD – integrated project delivery

Levels of BIM:

The purpose of these levels is to gauge how

effectively, or how much information is being
shared and managed throughout the entire
process.
Level 0 BIM: Paper-based drawings + zero collaboration
Level 0 BIM refers to not operating collaboratively at all. Ex: CAD

Level 1 BIM: 2D construction drawings + some 3D modeling

Using 3D CAD for concept work, but 2D for drafting production information and other documentation, probably
means you're working Level 1 BIM.

Level 2 BIM: Teams work in their own 3D models

At level 2, all team members use 3D CAD models but sometimes not in the same model. Information about the
design of a built environment is shared through a common file format.

Level 3 BIM: Teams work with a shared 3D model

Instead of each team member working in their own 3D model, Level 3 means that everyone uses a single, shared
project model - exists in a ‘central’ environment and can be accessed and modified by everyone - called Open BIM.

Levels 4 BIM: Adding in scheduling, cost, & sustainability information

BIM level 4 brings a new element into the information model: time - scheduling data that helps outline how much
time each phase of the project will take or sequencing of various components.
Level 5 BIM:
Adds cost estimations, budget analysis, and budget tracking to the information model.
When working at this level of BIM, project owners can track and determine what costs will be incurred
during the length of the project.

Level 6 BIM:
Calculates the energy consumption of a building before it's built.
This ensures that designers take into account more than just the upfront costs of an asset.
Ensures accurate predictions of energy consumption requirements and empowers stakeholders to build
structures that are energy efficient and sustainable.
VIRTUAL REALITY IN
ARCHITECTURE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbG206mNEjo
• Virtual reality (VR) - VR is a technology that creates
virtual environments entirely generated by a computer,
replacing the user’s perception of the surrounding
environment with a virtual environment using HMD
(head-mounted display)s, glasses and multi-display
setups.

• The experience where users feel immersed in a

simulated world, via hardware (headsets) and
software.

• Designers create VR experiences like virtual museums -

transporting users to 3D environments where they
freely move and interact to perform predetermined
tasks and attain goals as learning.

• VR and AR —to a lesser degree— have been used by

built environment professionals to support the
visualization of design, construction and city
operations since around 1990s.
PAINTINGS

STEREOSCOPE
SENSORAMA

SWORD OF
DAMOCLES
VIRTUAL BAY

DACTYL
NIGHTMARE
OCULUS RIFT

ALTSPACE VR
• VR technically includes non-immersive artificial worlds, viewable through specialized headsets which allow a
user to turn their head to look around and to some extent - interact with the environment.

• The term “virtual reality” is problematic as it implies that “virtual reality” is not real. It is, in fact, a very real
thing, merely non-physical.

• The artificial world experienced by a user immersed in virtual reality may be artificial in the sense that it is
generated by a computer; nevertheless, the experience itself is genuine.

VR—Designing to Dupe the Senses - Three “genres” to reach users:

• Hyper-immersive or emotion-based designs (which can involve scents)

• Live-action-style POV (first-person point-of-view) documentaries (ex: exploring virtual rainforests)
• Games and gamified experiences.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heqD5X29tJs
 All VR/AR starts at the same place: a model in 3D.
VR and AR are both ways of experiencing that model—outside of a screen.

VR creates a virtual world. When you use a headset to roam around and interact with a modeled
environment, that’s VR.

Eric Johnson explains it: “When VR users look around—or, in more advanced headsets, walk around—their view of that
world adjusts the same way it would if they were looking or moving in real reality.”

Augmented reality is in a more experimental phase. AR superimposes digital objects/imagery onto our
physical world, through a smartphone, tablet or special AR viewer.

Pokémon Go, which lets smartphone users “capture” Pokémon that appear (through the lenses of their phone cameras) to
inhabit the real world around them.
VIRTUAL REALITY IN ARCHITECTURE:

• It has the potential to transform how architects design buildings and how clients experience and
review the proposed concepts.

• Architects have been designing virtual space since their medium shifted from the physical product
itself to drawings that describe the intended physical product.

• Recent advancements in technology have made it possible to visually simulate physical space to an
unprecedented degree.

• Where other mediums such as pictures and film require the viewer to imagine and extrapolate to
imagine a virtual space apart from their physical surroundings, the immersive computer generated
space of virtual reality that responds to a viewer looking around and interacting with it presents a
degree of simulation that approximates the visual effect of physical spatiality.

• VR’s advantages as a communication tool are obvious. It gives clients an immediate understanding of
a space. Dimensions become clear. Design intent becomes manifest.
 Incorporate features
(principally images and
sound) to envelop Make designs intuitive;
users entirely in 3D remove outside-world
environments. interference. While you’re
presenting brand-new
environments, how users
interact with these must
match what they’re used to
doing in the real world
Ensure users can freely
move about and By combining the above
discover the experience factors, you achieve the
offered. goal: inserting
users’ presences in your
design.

• To design VR experiences, you must understand human physiology and psychology—users’ needs, limitations—and what makes VR experiences enjoyable
versus unpleasant.

• In VR design, your goal is for users to experience an alternative existence through whichever senses your design can access.

• The more your design reaches your users through—particularly—sight, hearing and touch, the more immersed they will be in virtual reality.
Ennead Architects has been experimenting with VR to “make the invisible visible,” in the words of partner Don Weinreich. For the design of a
planetarium in Shanghai (below), the firm used VR to visualize light rays and the accumulation of light throughout the day.
For the reconstruction of a street in Duluth, Minn., LHB communicated the extent of underground utility work in VR (shown above),
as well as through conventional 2D drawings, which helped the client understand the project scope. LHB made the same model
available to the public through its website, where it can be viewed onscreen or through a Google Cardboard headset.
Augmented Reality (AR): Mixed reality (MR):

• AR is a technology that overlays information and • The users interact with digital elements which
computer-generated imagery on the real are anchored to the real world—come under the
environment to enhance or augment the umbrella term extended reality (XR).
contextual perception of the user’s surroundings.
• Here in MR, users have a more sophisticated
• Augmentations are visualised using a mobile experience where digital interplays with real-
device, tablet or a head-mounted display (HMD). world content.
• The users remain anchored in the real world but
experience computerized overlays. • Surgeons operating on patients via projected
• Users employ devices (ex. smartphones) to find ultrasound images.
parts of the real world (ex. a room) overlaid with
computer-generated input. • Combines real and digital objects in a hybrid
• Designers insert a range of digital elements such as environment, such as this MR solar calculation
graphics and GPS overlays which adjust to changes tool developed by Los Angeles–based CO
in the user’s environment (ex. movement) in real Architects.
time.

In VR, users’ real-world movements translate fully to preprogrammed environments,

letting them play along with convincing VR illusions. So, in VR design users deal with
near-total escapism.
HIGH TECH ARCHITECTURE
• High Tech was a development in modernist architecture from the late 1960-70s.

• This architectural style is the one that incorporates elements from new high-tech industries
and advanced construction techniques into building design.
• Also known as ‘late modernism’ or ‘structural expressionism’.

• High Tech was marked by a preference for lightweight materials and sheer surfaces, a
readiness to adopt new techniques from engineering and other technologies, and the
celebratory display of a building’s construction and services.

• High Tech buildings are characterized by (i) exposed structures (usually of steel and or other
metals), (ii) with services (pipes, air ducts, lifts etc.) often (iii) picked out in bright colors, (iv) a
smooth, impervious skin (often of glass) and (v) a flexibility to create internal service zones,
rather than rooms or sequences of rooms.

• Norman Foster and Richard Rogers were the key architects who brought about these changes
and implemented them from the 1970s.
Pompidou Center - By Rogers and Renzo Piano as a highly-flexible
container for art. Building has its structure and colourful mechanical
services visible on its exterior.
Hopkins House - The two - storey building has a lightweight
steel and glass structure that was designed with high-tech
engineer Anthony Hunt to be open and flexible with few
permanent internal divisions.
Renault Distribution Centre - Striking profile with 59
bright-yellow masts and arched steel-beams that
support the roof.
 High tech architecture is the integration between the
technical equipment and building structure to aesthetics.

Technological (heating, sanitary engineering, telephone

systems, public address systems)
Construction

Formal Independent Way of Expression

– Building Structure

Gaining Aesthetic
Quality
• This style evolved as a response to the monotonous standard structure that was
designed under the umbrella of modern architecture of that time.

• This style of architecture seen as the link between modernism and postmodernism.
• Inspired by technological progress, the aesthetic is also industrial style.
• It emphasizes transparency in the design of buildings.

• High tech architecture has a material palette that extensively uses aluminum, glass,
steel, and sometimes concrete.

• As with industrialization, these materials were available readily, in wider variety and
forms especially during the time high tech architecture was developing.

• It sought to integrate the technical equipment of the building into its structure,
combining functionality with its aesthetics.
Symbiosis of Technology: Preference for light weight materials
and sheer surfaces, adopting new techniques with a celebratory
display of building’s construction and services.

Materials:
Steel: Relativity high economic value, can be easily recycled into
new applications, light weight, cost effective, simplicity, and
easy construction.
Glass: Natural lighting, Visual connection between user from
inside with outside, Closer feeling to nature, Transparency
(Photochromic (darken)/ Thermochromic (color change))

1. Flexible Interiors: Complicated exterior to keep the internal

space as simple as possible, mostly spaces kept plain pierced
with a central atrium.

2. Exposed Structure: Ducts, lifts, stairs, mechanical services,

structure itself placed outside to maximize the space inside –
Greater volume inside.

3. Coloured pipework and services

4. Lightweight construction
ROBERT VENTURI (1925-2018)

Post Modernism
• A pioneer of postmodernism.
• Author: Complexity and
Contradiction in Architecture

• Encouraged architects to turn

away from the rigid "form
follows function" doctrines of
modernists like Walter
Gropius and Mies and to look
instead to the rich architecture
of the past—Michelangelo,
Hawksmoor, Soane, Lutyens,
Aalto; to ancient and medieval
buildings, and to architecture
that reflected local and popular
culture.
• To Mies' famous quote of "Less is
more, " Venturi countered "Less
is a bore”.

• Venturi was awarded the Pritzker

Prize in 1991.
In the 1960s, Venturi and his wife and business partner Denise Scott Brown
paved the way for postmodernism (also referred to as POMO), an
architecture philosophy that rejected the rigid austerity of the
International/ Modern Style propagated by Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van
der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, and their acolytes.
VENTURI HOUSE
Vanna Venturi House

• Venturi’s mom’s retirement home included

elements that reversed modernism’s rules.
• It was purposely asymmetrical and used historical
elements to break the house’s plain surface.
• The gable has a vertical opening in its center and is
located on the long rather than the short side of the
building, completely distorting its scale. There is also
no matching gable at the back – the element is
purely decorative. Archetypal suburban house as a contemporary architectural statement.

• The facade had mismatched windows.

• The house contained whimsical elements, too, like a
flight of stairs that led to a wall.
• The front and back of the house were also
completely different. To mess with rational
modernists, he added an arch that didn’t frame the
door.
• A square opening creates a sheltered doorway in
the center of the facade, yet the door itself
stands to one side. There is also an arch that serves
no purpose.
• Rooms are arranged around a combined hearth and staircase.
• The living room is at the center, with the dining space and
separate kitchen on one side, the master bedroom and utility
room on the other, and an attic bedroom located above -
references to the city planning ideologies, with the central
hearth becomes like a chapel.
• He also chose the house’s pale green color as a foil to Bauhaus-
trained designer Marcel Breuer‘s edict that one should never
paint a house green.
• It was pure defiance—Venturi says that the oversized chimney
was a middle finger to the establishment.
• Several scholars point to Vanna Venturi’s house as the first
postmodern structure in the US.
IRONIC COLUMN

• An ornamental element of the Allen Memorial Art

Museum.
• Postmodern TAKE on both classical and modernist
architecture.
• The column’s qualities, such as its comically large
and distinctly phallic capital, and the fact that it is
made out of wood — a very light material.
• The column is primarily decorative and has no real
structural purpose, which serves to further
subvert the architectural status quo.
• This lack of a structural need for the column also
serves to poke fun at modernist architecture, in
which every element of a structure has a
functional purpose.
• The playfulness of the column is set in direct
contrast to the cold functionality of modernism.
JAMES STIRLING (1926-1992)

Post Modernism
• A pioneer of postmodernism.

• Began his career subverting the compositional and theoretical ideas

behind the Modern Movement.
• Described as "nonconformist” consistently caused annoyance in
conventional circles.

• "I believe that the shapes of a building should indicate—perhaps

display—the usage and way of life of its occupants, and it is therefore
likely to be rich and varied in appearance, and its expression is
unlikely to be simple.”
• Started with International style (1950s) with
small scale houses and housing complexes all
built with traditional bricks and traditional
English forms of warehouses, factories, barns etc.
Stirling signature was:
• Modern-functional, no ornamentation and with
• mullioned glass, colored building materials
volumes defined by clean spaces and lines - were
(including green window frames, purple and
very humane in scale and style.
turquoise moldings and pink railings against
yellow stucco and Portland stone), and
• He was one of the earliest architects to use
• simple geometric forms and
technology and new materials in architecture,
• random fenestration punched and cut into the
but he always believed that the humanistic
building.
approach has to be given more importance.

• The use of color was a characteristic of Stirling,

who saw architecture as an expression of art, not
merely of social planning and engineering.
 Florey Building at Queen's College

• Best remembered as a rebel of the Modernist

movement - authentic ideologies around design
set him apart from conformists.

• Having disregarded the trends of his era, his work

was pivotal in the formulation of a new style: The
Post-Modernist Movement.

• His flamboyant designs included forms, colors and History Faculty, University of Cambridge

complex circulation patterns, openly against the

conventional norms like minimalism.

• Received the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 1981.

• The Royal Institute of British Architects' highest

award, the Stirling Prize, was named after him.
NEUE STAATSGALERIE
Neue Staatsgalerie

Location: Stuttgart, Germany

Typology: Art Museum
Year: 1984
• How?
A competition to design the Staatsgalerie – new
addition - a museum - that would revitalize the cultural
influence in Stuttgart, Germany.

• What?
The project was dedicated to restoring the Alte
Staatsgalerie (Old State Gallery) - a neoclassical
museum structure.

• Design?
Aimed for a building that would be both a monumental
civic structure and an informal one, reflecting the
evolving role of the Western museum as a place of
popular entertainment.
• It consists of a new gallery extension, chamber • The design of the building provoked a vivid debate
theater and music school. about postmodernism and German architecture.

• Interactive - A feature of the site is a pedestrian walk • Circulation - The network of stairs and ramps
diagonally across the property to be incorporated in indirectly lead to the circular atrium at the heart of
the plan without jeopardizing building security. the project.
• Each circulation space leading up to and into the
• Stirling’s design incorporated the sloping site as part central atrium provides a diverse experience that
of an architectural promenade that moved the public allows people to enjoy the building.
walkway through the museum that embodied the
transitions of the classical art of the Alte Staatsgalerie • It is a well-known fact that James Stirling looked up to
and the modern art of the Neue Staatsgalerie into one Le Corbusier. These circulation patterns are
seamless architectural response. reminiscent of Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye which used
both ramps and staircases to invoke different
• Stirling’s design stemmed from the idea to combine emotions.
the traditional design elements of Classical
19th Century museums with
modern, complimentary industrial materials that
would ultimately evoke the timeless, yet ever-evolving
essence of art and architecture.
• The museum is a series of integrations, both
contextual with the site and periods of art and
design.
• Stirling combines materials of the past -
travertine and sandstone with colored
industrial steel throughout the museum as a
way in which to pay respect to the art and
design of the 19th Century by developing a
relationship with modern materials resulting in
a uniquely Post Modern museum that is rooted
in the combination of historical elements with
a modern form.
• The site's slope was another issue that for
Stirling was more of an opportunity than an
imposition. The dramatically sloping site
offered an opportunity to filter people down
the site and through the museum connecting
the public with the cultural institution.
• The u-shape layout of the museum galleries repeats the framing exercise.

• From the exterior the two ends of the U-shape appear as two tall buildings at each side of the site, these
structures are stone clad and appear solid, a solidity reinforced by the reduced openings and the double,
oversized, concrete rainspouts at the top.

• Apart from these two somewhat conventional elevations the rest of the elevation appears as an abstract
reconstruction of a sloping landscape.

• Internal sculpture courtyard, a ruin-like rotunda with views into the lower part of the Museum.

https://www.e-architect.com/stuttgart/neue-staatsgalerie-stuttgart
 NORMAN FOSTER (1935-)

Modern/ High Tech

• Considered one of the most famous exponent of modern
architecture/ high tech.
• Works explored the idea of a technologically advanced “shed” - a
structure surrounded by a lightweight shell or envelope.
• Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts and Hong Kong and Shanghai
Banking Corporation
• Foster created a more fluid relationship between inside and
outside spaces and strove to impart a sense of humanity into an
otherwise futuristic office environment.
• Norman Foster was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in
1999.
• Believed that architecture comes from a synthesis of the
various elements that separately comprise a building.
I. The structure which holds a building together
II. The services that allow it to work
III. The ecology of the building
IV. The materials used
V. The character of the spaces

• Talked about the relationship of the building to its skyline, City Hall-2002-London, England
streetscape and surroundings.

• Process of reinvention such that he needs to feel to design

responsibly – whether it’s an airport or a door handle.

• Environmental awareness was one of the most important

aspects of his design in a way it can meet the challenges of the
next forty years.

• Concern about energy conservation and ecological impacts

through totally renewable sources of energy and with
dramatic reductions in CO2 emissions.

Hearst Tower-2006-New York, United States

https://youtu.be/lJ_S4kJ0DUs

CITY HALL
• City Hall is the headquarters of the
Greater London Authority (GLA) and serves as
the official office for the Mayor of London and
the London Assembly.
• “Democracy at Transparency”
• Located on the south bank of the River Thames.
• It has a distinctive bulbous design derived from a
modified sphere which means the building has no
• The Greater London Authority is located in an
conventional front or rear.
area needing the redevelopment and with such
a location, the government was able to claim
• Each level is slightly offset from the one below,
their part in the regenerative process -
making it hang over one side of the building.
the building is part of the
More London development that
• As such, it has been compared to a motorbike
encompasses retail, business and
helmet, "glass egg", a misshapen egg, and a
restaurant space on the south bank
woodlouse.
between London Bridge and Tower Bridge.
• Provides 12,000 sqm of accommodation on ten
levels - London’s Living Room.
 Year: 1998-2002
Type: Administrative Building
Location: London, United Kingdom
Height: 45m
Materials: Orientation:

• The building was constructed using 2,100 tonnes • For further improved shape and performance, this
of steel, 13,100 sq. m of concrete, and 7,300 sq. m building was skewed to more of an egg shape that
of triple-glazed, low-emissivity clear glass. leans south, blocking the direct sunlight with its
• Steel formwork for slab results in a reduction of costs own shape.
in construction waste. • The unusual shape was intended to achieve
• Also, promoting cost effectiveness, simplicity and optimum energy performance by maximizing
easy construction. shading and minimizing the surface area that
is exposed to direct sunlight.

Atrium: Shading:

• Running along the interior, stepped ramp - a 500 m • The egg shape is itself a strategy for passive design.
(1,640 ft) helical walkway spirals up to the • The south side of the building leans back so that
full height of the 10-storey building. floor plates are stepping out each other providing
shade for the naturally ventilated office spaces of
the building.
 • It was specifically designed to keep carbon
emissions as low as possible.
• In addition to the building's shape, cold ground
water from the Thames water table is brought up
Energy Concept: through bore holes where it flows through beams on
each floor to chill the office spaces, thereby
• Spherical form minimizes surface area reducing reducing electricity consumption from air conditioning
heat loss and heat gain - means it has around systems, and is then used to flush toilets.
25% less surface area than a cube building of • The building is also naturally ventilated, with user-
the same volume, and so operated vents beneath every window.
less heat escapes during winter and
the building avoids overheating during summer. • Solar photovoltaic panels installed in 2007.
• Voltage optimization technology was installed to
• However, critics have pointed out that the reduce the voltage used to the minimum required.
excess energy consumption caused by the • Changing from 75 watt bulbs to 16 watt LEDS where
exclusive use of glass far outweighs possible, with movement sensors on all floors.
any benefit of the shape. • Boiler optimization to ensure that no more heat is
generated than required.
• Smart meters that allow energy use to
be measured on a floor-by-floor basis.
https://youtu.be/5Yp7tIbz6D8
DECONSTRUCTIVISM
 Deconstructivism is, in fact, not a new architecture style, nor is it an avant-garde movement against
architecture or society. It does not follow “rules” or acquire specific aesthetics, nor is it a rebellion against
a social dilemma. It is the unleashing of infinite possibilities of playing around with forms and volumes.

https://www.archdaily.com/899645/what-is-deconstructivism
• The initial approach simply contradicted that of modern
architecture and as such broke away completely from history,
society, places and technological or technological traditions.

• The principle behind deconstructivism was to “invent the

impossible”.
• Set within the post-modern wave, it breaks with the structural
norms of classic buildings and deforms or moves away from
elementary architectural principles.

• By including non-linear design processed into the buildings and

favoring fragmentation, deconstructivism expresses a form of
controlled chaos.
• The buildings appear out-of-the-ordinary, draw the eye in
immediately and sometimes create a feeling of strangeness.

• In deconstructivism, distorted shapes and structure are not

reserved to the building’s outer façade - destabilized interior
elements too, favor minimalism and play on people’s perceptions
by injecting a futuristic touch.
Although the forerunners of deconstructivism refused to be
classified as an architectural movement, the buildings designed
with this approach the following features:
• opposing rationalism to modernism;
• fragmented volumes;
• rejection of symmetry and Euclidian geometry;
• lack of harmony, linearity and continuity;
• use of straight or flat lines and irregular, disproportionate
volumes that have been shattered or shredded;
• no right angles;
• use of noble and relatively light materials;
• ability to change the customary way in which we perceive
space.
Gehry, Hadid, Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman, Daniel Libeskind, Bernard Tschumi, and Coop Himmelb(l)au.
DECONSTRUCTIVISM
Architects’ Presentations
DIGITAL ARCHITECTURE
TECHNOLOGY AND ARCHITECTURE

• Architectural technology is the application of technology to the design of buildings.

• Architectural technology can be summarised as the "technical design and expertise used in the
application and integration of construction technologies in the building design process.“

• The invasion of digital technology into our daily lives in the age of modern technology, especially
computers, is an essential irresistible matter. (AI?!!!)

• The use of such technologies in the designing process adds a new dimension to the architectural
product, which enables us to materialize our ideas that are not fully expressed.

• However, the challenge is to hold on to our human identity and not allow the technology to distance
the architect from performing his/her original role.

• The ambition and creativity of the designer would not lead anywhere without the animation means
which is capable of expressing it in an efficient way. The animation means cannot be considered
separate from the content of the design; it rather greatly and directly affects it.
• When the architect uses the computer in the process of design and
representation, he connects to it creating a coupled cognitive system,
where the man and the machine exchange ideas and information.
• Thus, any change that occurs on the computer or the designer leads to a
change in the outcome of the design.
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY AND ARCHITECTURE

• The Information Age, like the Industrial Age before it, is challenging not
only how we design buildings, but also how we manufacture and
construct them - through digital fabrication.

• It was only within the last few years that the advances in
• computer-aided design (CAD) and
• computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) technologies have started to
have an impact on building design and construction practices.

Digital technology & digital architecture

• Digital architecture is to digital society what modern architecture was

to industrial society
• Digital technology has enabled:
• A more fluid, dynamic way to approach design
• Building form to constantly evolve through motion and transmutation
• Design in a truly constraint less environment
DIGITAL EXPRESSION OF BUILDING FORM

The digital expression of building form concerns ways in which methods of expression such as
conventional sketching and physical modelling can be transferred into digital environments.

Digital representation occurs whenever designers use the medium of computing environments to
produce objects such as drawings and models that can either be used for analysis or for
presentation.
DIGITAL ARCHITECTURE

• When digital media is used not as a representational tool for

visualization but as a generative tool for the derivation of form
and its transformation.

• Such approaches are referred to as digital architectures – the

computationally based processes of form origination and
transformations.

• Several digital architectures are identified based on the underlying

computational concepts such as:

• topological space (topological architectures),

• isomorphic surfaces (isomorphic architectures),
• motion kinematics and dynamics (animate architectures),
• keyshape animation (metamorphic architectures),
• parametric design (parametric architectures),
• and genetic algorithms (evolutionary architectures).