Message from the 2nd Symposium of Experimental Architecture in Prague

Anastasios Tellios: I have always been here

manifest: "I have always been here" challenges the world of design, its advances and experiments; it advocates for the renewal of missing connections with nature, place, history, culture, human needs, rights, and customs.

Tellios (School of Architecture, AUTH, Greece) presented the agenda of his studio, which mainly focuses on the research of new spatial concepts. In its five-year history, the studio has explored projects ranging from Domina, dealing with new tectonics, to Buterfly, which analyzes macroscopic biology and subsequently applies it to various architectural themes from façades and interiors to clothing. The projects examine the interaction of real places and objects. Tellios concludes the samples of his experimental studio and transitions to a theoretical summary of the research agenda. Sharing culture, new integration with the natural environment, intercultural framework, and liquid modernity are the main theses, where rather than being "modern," modernity means to modernize, and rather than being alone, it is represented by the capacity to be involved in the intact synergy of a community (Zygmunt Bauman : Liquid modernity)
The subsequent discussion aims at the materialization and fabrication of projects. To this question, Tellios responds that their small school does not own any robots, nor a proper workshop or fablab, and thus focuses on concepts of new spatial solutions, assemblage, and biomorphology, as well as coded architecture and transcription of various behavioral patterns. He perceives his agenda as the beginning of speculative thinking in architecture and as a pre-program for further development and research.

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SOMA

manifest: Planning will mean creating forecasts about the internal and external dynamics of the building. Architecture will not have a fixed appearance but will rather constantly respond to individual needs and preferences.

Stefan Rutzinger - SOMA architecture, Vienna, focused his lecture instead on realizations. As a young architectural studio, they won an international competition for the Theme pavilion EXPO Yeosu, South Korea. According to him, none of them expected to win and rather thought it would be a good project for their portfolio; to everyone's surprise, they defeated renowned studios and got the chance to realize their project. The Pavilion's object is meant to be an iconic building integrating the EXPO idea of "Living Ocean and Coast". Soma Architecture works with parametric distribution of light into exhibition spaces using differentiated triangular perforations. The kinetic façade utilizes the flexibility and elasticity of the slats.

The second project has already traveled to numerous cultural events and symposia and has been successfully published. The performance pavilion made of small-diameter aluminum tubes of the same element length of about 2 meters was designed in cooperation with the world construction office Boolingher & Co. The practical use of genetic algorithms combined with KARAMBA static analysis is applied in conjunction to find the ideal form. The form of the pavilion is optimized by testing thousands of options, where comparing key parameters such as deflection and weight of the structure, only the best result reaches an imaginary peak and is evaluated as the best genotype. The aesthetically expressive mass is then based on the simple principle of the same diversity, meaning the same element used in different positions. Through the transformation of the element, a more stable form arises, where each "joint" is unique. The elements are processed using CNC, and each element has its exact place.
The competition design for a bridge in London utilizes a complex assignment and conditions, optimizing the profile of the bridge’s deflection through horizontal rotation, thus creating a space for social interaction in the middle of the bridge. The form of the flow of forces is then interpreted in the cladding of the bridge with metal slats, which transition into elements of railing, lighting, and so on. This idea has recently been widely spread throughout the parametric world from Patrik Schumacher to the Karamba workshop in Bratislava. Fascinating visualizations of the evolution of stress in structures are sexy.
The third realization is an entrance object to the existing gallery. The project focuses on the flow of forces in the structure and uses so-called BESO optimization, where the flow of forces from load to support is monitored, and fluidity is further tracked. The movement of concrete mass. The cast concrete then evokes the feeling of a cave and complete naturalness of the material and structure.
The research project in collaboration with TU, led as a workshop, develops the idea of the same diversity on the pavilion, this time from aluminum spirals, where each tube is coiled into a pentagonal spiral. The spiraling of spirals into each other creates a stable structure that establishes the spatial situation of the pavilion. As parts, descriptions of dust particles from the late 19th century were examined, where dust particles in the shape of spirals were discovered. The shape of the pavilion arises from the movement of these particles, simulating the behavior of dust and its performance. The spatially and structurally rich object is installed 1:1. After the event, it is dismantled and recycled.

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José Sanchez: Exponential Design

manifest: Polyomino is a research project that explores the concepts of combinatorial design in a gaming environment as tools for creating form. The player has access to an interactive interface that allows them to place and rotate various units generating patterns and architectural formations. The game platform allows players to 3D print objects from the gaming environment. The project is currently sponsored by Stratasys.

Sanchez presents new concepts in the architectural discipline. José is known for his great tutorials. A skilled coder and inventive player, in the first part, he introduced his philosophy of shared community and culture. By analyzing the complexity of competitions, he proposed the thesis that a single architectural competition takes up the entire career of 2 architects. So, if 1700 competition projects are contested, which are on average done by 3 architects per team, let's say over 3 weeks, it amounts to 5100 weeks, or 100 years. Sanchez illustrates the competition model as: unpaid work, devaluation of design, concentration of capital, secrecy among participants/non-collective thinking, and resource wasting. However, if a situation arose where we shared our knowledge and experiences, creating alternative modes of practice, our design could grow exponentially. He follows with strategies on how to go your own way, blurring boundaries between disciplines, cooperation among fields, creating one's own product, own software, and self-contracting.
If we share knowledge, we create a community that speaks the same language. He proceeds with the project Negative Entropy. Reverse disorder arises from the thesis that we do not know the final form of the product but know its parts, respectively the element. Negative superposition can be a Rubik's cube or Lego. We know their end shape, cube, castle/ship, and they are composed of the same elements - cubes. Sanchez, along with Andashek, proposes a component from which new, surprising objects can be assembled. Materiality allows breaking the system and therefore delineates the repertoire from the coded assumption. And indeed, people across the globe are playing, creating incredible and sometimes familiar shapes, such as wheels, circles, and dinosaurs. The possibilities of the element, thanks to several axes of grooves, allow for a wide range of variability, thus also producing expressive forms of benches, pavilions, and installations of fascinating shapes.
Another project, polyomino, goes further. The user plays an interactive design game in a virtual 3D environment. In various styles, they create a system "from gaming to making." The resulting structure is 3D printed.
The final project deals with "slow computation" and "Time-based vs. Trade-based systems." The speculative urban gaming experience Block'hood challenges the existing holistic planning of the city with partial emergent urbanism.

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Gilles Retsin : Very strange Mereology

manifest: Increasing computational abilities push architecture into a new domain of yet undiscovered details - materiality, structure, and aesthetics - and provoke renewed discussion on the continuous vs. discrete nature of architectural systems.

A graduate of AA DRL 2012 in the studio of Robert Stuart-Smith, he presents his thesis of accelerated structuralism. Based on fundamental digital tasks, he orients towards the tectonics and structure of parts and the whole. In his words, "Rather than borrowing models from nature or neo-phenomenology; digital ontology for architecture should be based on sharpening the tension between architecture and its parts"; he introduces his theory of mereology*. He reinterprets the structure of "Corbusier's DOMINA" as an assemblage of direct elements. He declares his manifesto: 1. Complexity arises from limitations. 2. Production is based on individual, separate, simple elements. 3. Distinction - Dispersion of mass is resolved by increasing the number of elements.
In projects, Retsin presents protohouse Softkill, a generated house produced by 3D printing. He continues with projects using coded architecture, where he focuses on the aesthetics of tectonics and structure.

* mereology : [Greek], logic, the system of S. Leśniewski, acting as a theory of parts and the whole, understood as a theory of sets (classes). The publication of mereology in the form of a deductive calculus in 1916 was one of the realizations of the program for a general deductive theory and reduction of mathematics to logic at the level of simple type theory.

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Roland Snooks : Behavioral formation

manifest: Algorithmic design methods can incorporate the conceptualization of design, construction, and construction processes as intricate properties of design expression. This gives architects unprecedented freedom in establishing pragmatic links through generative creation and realization.

Agent-based behavior and geometry generation utilize basic interaction rules of individuals and clusters. Cohesion, separation, and alignment are primary parameters. Furthermore, Snooks addresses the possibilities of constructing geometry from agents. Where he uses cloud points, lines, meshes, and agent bodies. The structural behavior of agents is often based on algorithms built on social interactions of insects, birds, etc. The structure is subsequently analyzed and evaluated, namely optimized until it finds the desired outcome.
Next is a showcase of projects from the research studio Kokkugia, where Snooks presents the application of his research to projects of various assignments. In smaller prototypes, he then showcases fabrication techniques using multi-axis robots. The main message lies in the coherence and integration of architecture, where it is no longer about a collage of individual elements as we know from modernism, but rather about an interconnected system of structure, façade, and interior.

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MONAD studio – Pulsation in Architecture

manifest: Veronica Zalcberg and Eric Goldemberg - MONAD Studio creates pulsating architecture that thrives on a series of spatial paradigms based on movement. Pulsation leads to sensory perception of movement, stemming from the mysterious relationship between space and the acoustic effect activated by rhythm. Architecture has rhythm! According to Lyotard, in every rhythm, there must be some incorporation of the condition for repetition - formal identity and regularity. It is incorporated into the matrix of the object, whose aim is to disrupt such regularities and shatter such identities with its own inclination towards "bad form." The very rhythm, composed of both repetition and its absence, is part of this "bad form." It is violence lying in wait for form and at the same time a form of violence.

Goldemberg presents the architectures of Monad studio based on transformation, movement, and aggregation. A noticeable fascination with curvature, form, and its development achieves the greatest articulation of mass. From larger architectural-urbanistic projects, it moves to smaller objects where the decisive factor is not purpose but experimentation with form. Its continual chiseling leads to expressive, predatory objects, which find themselves on the edge of the connection between artificial and natural, while retaining their autonomy. The relationship between the subject and the object is escalated into taut tensions.
Monad studio comes with a reinterpretation of the acoustic object. When the form is sounded, it becomes an instrument, music, frozen architecture. Their development of musical instruments from one-string bass guitars to more complex wind instruments was presented through playing a one-string bass guitar.

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Archi/Bio/Tech

manifest: In the intersections of architecture, biology, and technology, new forms emerge. Research into biological processes based on laboratory experiments allows us unexpected solutions for space, structure, material, and construction.

Jan Tůma presented the work of the studio based on the intersection of architecture with the fields of biology and technology. By combining these three key factors, they propose new solutions to existing problems, such as the first project addressing water quality issues in the overpopulated slum in Lagos. Another project is the Laboratory Silenc, currently installed at Expo in Milan. The project synthesizing the natural ecosystem of the forest responds to tranquility by zooming into macroscopic details. Land of Stories addresses the formal similarity of sediments typical of the Czech landscape and the possibilities of imitating it by generating similar situations. The analysis of formative processes is applied in computer simulation. The studio's last project, BEE HIVE, tests the possibilities of transferring the behavioral algorithms of social insects, bees, into geometry.

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Atelier Vukmanov

manifest: Virtual reality arises from the ashes of the 20th century cyberpunk era. This time, however, technology has advanced to a level where it can finally serve its purpose - and even better. With a culture of smartphones, we welcome once strange digital screens connected to human eyes. As virtual reality continues to spread from the gaming industry to film and animation, architects see an opportunity to adapt this technology for visual representation. From hand-drawn perspectives to computer modeling, 3D rendering, and now VR, the evolution of our presentation once again changes the way we think about space and morphology. This new method of visualization requires a camera with a 360-degree shot that creates distorted, unfolded, flat images. These capture every angle of the design through a multidimensional lens. If nothing can remain hidden behind the frame, how could architects hide the details of virtual spaces?

Vukmanov presents a broad scope of work ranging from university projects from Greg Lynn's studio to filmmaking projects. Projects based on environmental analyses push the use of digital tools further, from the realm of formal studies to the application of real data, such as sunlight, wind flow, and water movement. The performance of architecture can be translated as an interactive process of simulation and perception, where parametric elements represent the flow of forces, systemic and material behaviors. Topological elements are represented by context, visual expression and physical or virtual environments. The bidirectional interaction of analysis and application pushes the boundaries of design and enables recursiveness.

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