TROPICAL PLAYGROUNDS
conducted by Claudia Pasquero/ecoLogicStudio, London
nov 17-19 2009
The workshop has the ambition to develop a new paradigm of eco-logic architecture in urban context. The meaning of the word ecology here is extended to an understanding of the urban reality as a complex dynamic system, often pushed far from equilibrium by the large flows of information, matter and energy traveling in and out of its physical boundaries. The turbulent nature of the city makes an application of the traditional codes of architecture inadequate and their linear application often produces results of contradictory nature.
Studies of environmental psychology have begun to show alternative methods to operate in such complex dynamic realities; often based on direct field work and mapping they focus on urban public spaces (the urban landscape) rather than on buildings themselves. Moreover they underline the deep correlation existing between the behavior of the urban dweller and the characterization of the urban space in which he is immersed. Finally they indicate direct responsiveness as the fundamental regulator of psychological stresses.
Outline
The workshop seeks to breed models by developing 1:1 scale material organizations that operate as analogues computers subjected to specific sets of structural and organizational principles, programmatic regimes and urban stress fields. Students will look more into detail at the how specific “architectural machines” can generate “playfulness”;
we will define the nature of playfulness in relationship to specific urban environmental stresses and design “playgrounds” capable of turning passive acceptance of urban pressures into novel opportunities of engagement and exchange; within this paradigm communication can evolve in time and give rise to novelty or, in linguistic terms, to a conversation, and, in our terms, to playfulness.
///////////////////////////////PROGRAM The workshop will start with a group exploration of muscular systems as found in heliotropic or insectivorous plants.
//////////////////////////////KINETIC modelling the geometric logics of the fibrous filaments that constitute muscular systems and that support kinetic response
//////////////////////////CYBERNETIC diagramming the flows of information that regulates cybernetic feedback in muscular response to environmental stimuli
////////////////MOLECULAR/MATERIAL experimenting with the hybrid material composites that characterizes muscular assemblages
We will then formulate our artificial muscles as fibrous systems where performances and behaviours are the non-linear product of the coordinated affects of thousands of single fibers. In such redundant systems qualities and behaviours can be bred and differentiated in relationship to environmental fields and specific programmatic regimes through iterative interactive processes. We will engineer this processes by developing specific mechanisms of production and fabrication as well of sensing and computation; we will learn how to manipulate thousands of entities and to record and manage the emergent qualities of the assemblages.
////////////////////////////////////WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS Nizar Aguir Florian Aistleitner Nina Bammer Miha Cojhter Ramona Ehrle Gita Ferlin Vytautas Gecas Mignon Grube Christine Gunzer Désirée Hailzl Dominique Hölzl Thomas Huemer Daniel Mandel Wolfgang Novotny Anna Pech Elisabeth Pfeffer Sonja Pizka Sarmite Polakova Eva-Maria Pribyl Marija Puipaite Tatjana Schinko Elena Silaeva Felix Vierlinger Stephanie Wolf /////////////////////////////////////ASSISTANCE&SUPPORT MSC Ebru Kurbak, PhD student s&d Dominique Hölzl, student of Industrial Design
