2012SP_Pratt_Form Force Matter

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About 2012SP_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].
__ Spuybroek, Lars. "The Structure of Vagueness." Performative Architecture : Beyond Instrumentality. New York: Spon, 2005. 162.

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. With matter as our medium, we may move seamlessly between the analog and the virtual paradigms, developing intuition and agility in working with complex systems and establishing a rich research framework which is inherently instrumental for two reasons. First, the prototypical architectures produced will be effective in nature, achieving efficient distribution of forces while maintaining a direct proportionality between the physical and simulated configurations across scale. Second, in such a process, we will have immediate feedback through the hand and the eye which accelerates our capacity to gain intimate knowledge of such systems and the effects produced while maintaining precise control. 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 and virtual techniques of form-finding coupled with iterative prototype development via the computer numerically controlled 3-Axis Mill. Students in the course will begin their research by creating and rigorously analyzing an analog machine, with material experiments such as those of the Institute for Lightweight Structures as a precedent. The majority of the semester's research will be dedicated to developing, in parallel, simulation and composite prototypes that investigate form-active structures. These structures will be evaluated for their ability to produce novel spatial configurations, tectonic logics, and effects. 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 digital fabrication will enable continuous production of analog prototypes. 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. The seminar will culminate in a large group installation of a form-active structure and an exhibition cataloging the entirety of the semester’s work.