2011SP_Pratt_Form Force Matter

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About 2011SP_Pratt_Form Force Matter

Simulation simply means to inform a virtual system, which, during the processing of that information, takes on an actual structure that is a registering of [its inputs]. -Lars Spuybroek

Course Description
Form, Force, Matter will investigate the conceptual and technical terrain of simulation within architectural design. As a design strategy and a mechanism for analyzing and synthesizing the performative characteristics of the real, simulation is capable of finding stable configurations within complex systems that include temporal, physical, and material pressures. The spatial and organizational effects of this methodology can be traced through the work of Antonio Gaudi, Heinz Isler, and Frei Otto, as well as a multitude of contemporary practitioners. Implemented through a framework of analog computing, digital simulation, and virtual prototypes, such an approach is inherently instrumental because of the direct proportionality to the physical and the capacity to augment the pressures influencing synthetically generated forms. Thus simulation is tangible, to-scale, and non-representational, allowing us to design operatively on the world and effectively for the contingences inherent to thinking and making in architecture.

Course Methodology
This course will engage the topic of simulation through a series of lectures and technical workshops focusing on analog, digital, and virtual techniques of form-finding. Students in the course will begin their research by creating and rigorously analyzing an analog machine, such as the wool threads or membrane system experiments of the Institute for Lightweight Structures. The majority of the semester's research will be dedicated to developing virtual prototypes that investigate spatial configurations and new forms of representation. Students will work within the associative environment Grasshopper and physics engine Kangaroo. Time-based representation will serve as the means for visualizing data-rich simulations and demonstrating potential design applications. The delivered theoretical and technical content is intended to instigate a continuous dialog throughout the semester. Students will be encouraged to contribute to an online forum thereby extending the discourse to a larger audience and increasing the visibility of the collective research.