Brief#3 - Idea Store (Public Realm)

see also... http://www.ideastore.co.uk/

Overview:
Knowledge represents an important element of 21st century society and its dissemination integral to what it means to be living in our times. A quick search on www.google.com on mankind’s greatest achievement suggests the information networks that we have created (the question of subjectivity using Google can be made, however it is now considered one of the best ways to begin to search for information). Therefore the question of how information and knowledge is spread within local society and its positioning in an urban context is incredibly relevant to contemporary society.

The notion of an Idea Store is a relatively new building typology, based upon the development of the public library into a community focussed centre for education and lifelong learning. The concept is to bring different elements of communities together and to increase peoples use of improve the publically available educational resources.

Facilities such as exhibition spaces, classrooms, ICT support and extended library content including books and games are part of the proposals and the feel of the building is designed to contend with leisure and retail buildings along the high street as it is here in which peoples free time is mostly contested. This typology has been developed by Tower Hamlets council in London in response to extensive research into library usage and recently completed buildings promoting high quality design have attracted international interest for the architecture (both aesthetically and socially).
Whitechapel Idea Store & Tower Hamlet Idea Store both by David Adjaye Associates

Questions:
To explore the relationship between the public and information within the public realm. To explore how a building can dynamically change and adapt to changing usage and can integrate within a wider social context through responding to changing local conditions and in doing so creating a sense of place. How can a building become an active and central member of a local community and how can integration of interactive responsive technologies augment this process?

Goals:
- To explore how a responsive and adaptive building can evolve the concepts behind an Idea Store into a community focussed and responsive centre for learning. The building needs to be not just a visible element but a functional element within the local community.
The nature of a programme for this typology of educational centre should be questioned and developed and the notion of a responsive and dynamic building function should be explored through this development of building program.

- To integrate wider communities within learning and development environment and to explore ways in which this can be a more personal experience. This could be explore through design of multi-functional spaces which would integrate with the varied functional requirements of Idea Stores.

- To create a building integrated within the local community’s physical and digital infrastructures and that seeks to integrate these into the physical fabric of the building – a building which represents knowledge, data and discourse as important elements within society.

Line of Enquiry #1

Technology is often seen as a be all and end all within architectural design with students and practitioners having short sighted or superficial views of these technologies. The field of architecture has been backwards in technological development in comparison to other industries such as automotive and airline design and has been for at least a century.
Luddite mentality suggests technology is ill suited to human needs and offers enslavement over enlightenment. Where architecture is about people it should seek to address these fundamental criteria in whatever medium it is realised in. Where developing technologies are used, these should be in the service of architecture.

The changing role of architecture in light of the information age questions the relationships between communities and networks of systems which increasingly are less reliant on the notion of “where” as “when”. This project is about utilising technology on an integrated social level in architectural design, exploring human needs within the context of emerging adaptive technologies, networks, smart places and materials in a test bed project.


12m4s by Lab-AU (Source www.interactivearchitecture.org)

“…how architecture and its tasks adopt a fourth dimension, that of digital technologies. Their time based nature is increasingly producing sociospatial effects that challenge architecture’s traditional identity… now virtual networks are generally perceived as enhancement to the multidimensionality of the real world. ‘Multi-mediated’ interactive design is already entering every domain of work, leisure and domestic spaces… pervasive technology does not obviate the human need for space” (Bullivant 2005 - 4D Space Interactive Architecture, Wiley Academy)

With the increasing development of pervasive computing, technology is increasingly becoming an integral aspect to everybody’s daily life. Your environment is increasingly based upon data and your connections and networks, be them human, physical or technological. Within this, space and time are fundamentally interrelated and hence our world is increasingly becoming multi-dimensional in light of changing technologies and connections.

Where people would have previously met at the well or at the agora for social discourse, online forums have replaced these. There is no information to whether you are six or sixty and therefore a greater degree of expression of ideas and freedom exists in this realm. How is the physical realm affected by this and is there a way of linking these elements within a physical community? Information technology and networks are constantly changing, your natural environment constantly changes; should your built environment be designed to change and how might this occur?

This project intends to question these issues and through questioning technology’s role with ourselves and the built environment. Where an environment is capable of being aware of your presence almost as much as you are of being there how does this affect architectural design? We are in a position where these emerging technologies are allowing these ideas to be realised and therefore this project aims to explore these ideas form the basis of my line of enquiry underpinning this work.

Brief #2 - Arts Centre (Public Realm)

“Where information flows through every component of a building each element is potentially programmable with a set of instructions allowing it to adjust itself. When arrayed across a structure these adjustments can combine into large scale emergent effects.”(ROEWUarchitecture)

Arts & Cultures Centre

Question:
To explore the use and impact of responsive technologies and smart materials on human needs and social interaction in a building in the public realm.

Brief:
An Arts and Cultural centre which is dynamically adaptable and responsive both in functional and physical terms. Incorporation and adaptability for additional functions such as commercial/offices/research, recreation and public space and cultural/exhibition should be possible allowing response to any number of changing variables within the local and global infrastructure. This should include an integrated public space (agora).

Goals:
· To question and explore the concepts of the architectural hyperbody through programming a unique and adaptable user experience within a collection of works.
· Through the notion of a constantly changing and responding physical building fabric the idea of a gallery displaying artefacts can be explored. A building which can respond to users motions through a space could seek to reconfigure itself based upon both internal and external events and activities, based on immediate events and those from a wider network of interconnections and interdependencies.
· Exploration of the concept of the built form being as responsive and changeable as the weather and how this may affect human interaction with this.
· Responsiveness and adaptability of building function should be explored through the notion of a dynamically changing building function. The building could look to seek an equilibrium between functions, spaces and uses based upon events in the local and global infrastructure.
· Explore the role of pervasive technologies and their affects in the larger social context of the public square (agora). How technologies can be used to create communication and identity to spaces and bring groups of people together in a non-exclusive manner which offers the opportunity for integration with the larger scale global community.

Precedents #1

Precedents and Similar Projects:

ONL – E-Motive House
http://www.oosterhuis.nl/quickstart/index.php?id=348
This is the typical starting point for researching smart technologies within the built fabric of a building. Oosterhuis imagines users interacting in a game or dance with the built environment where the physical fabric is as changeable as the weather and responds in conjunction with both internal and external factors. An environment such as the E-Motive house allows total adaptability and freedom of personalising internal spaces. The process of habitation within the building is a hybrid process as the design integrates with a VR programme called Virtools which allows a computerised version of the environment to be simulated and data fed back and forth between the two environments.


















ONL – 9/11 Towers
http://www.oosterhuis.nl/quickstart/index.php?id=155
ONL’s proposal for an adaptive responsive replacement of the World Trade Centre site highlights concepts of a responsive building whose entire function can change and adapt based on local and global events. By making this building engage within the pubic realm, it also allows for physical interaction with the public realm and with people at large using the space. The notion of a building moving to offer shade from rain is rather romantic.


















Michael Fox – iRestaurant & iSpa
http://robotecture.com/idining/
http://robotecture.com/ispa/
These briefs and proposals focus upon social interaction within semi-public spaces (restaurant and relaxation/spa environment). He approach of mapping interactions and relationships within an adaptive environment. Outwardly linking elements to the internet allows responses and adaptations to both reflect the real on the virtual and the virtual on the real. Matching ideas of profiles – elements of your personality in the virtual realm – with actual physical interaction serves to explore these boundaries in a public environment.

ROEWU – House for 2 Engineers
http://www.roewu.com/
The main innovation with this project is the information façade which changes according to differing user requirements, providing different levels of privacy and shading at a local and responsive level. Based upon a pre-determined programme of activities or through the ability to be overridden through sensors or control systems. The building from these systems can know where and when to react to changing situations. Colorado University – Neural Network House This technical project investigates learning technologies integrated into the building fabric. Based upon sensors, a house could learn to anticipate users requirements by monitoring activities and any changes made through control systems. The goal would be to avoid user interaction by learning when certain elements are used and to develop a responsive system which an predict when these would be likely to occur. Optimisation for energy efficiency would also be a key aspect to this system as it could work both with understanding user requirements whilst adapting to environmental changes (and possibly even changes to supply circumstances).












MIT Media Lab - Augmented Kitchen
http://web.media.mit.edu/~jackylee/kitchen.htm
This is a very technical project investigating the processes of cooking based upon specific recipes and augmenting a kitchen as to focus upon developing optimum task efficiency for the process. Technologies such as projected interfaces allow relevant information to be displayed and updated information based upon monitored activity and progress.




NOX – D-Tower
http://www.d-toren.nl/site/
This tower, whilst being a sculptural installation within a local community changes, responding to differing emotions of the population gauged by a community website. This questions traditional building connections with the landscape and context, expanding it to the virtual environment. It could form the basis of departure for a public space with feet in the immediate and distant. Where community websites have often brought disparate elements of communities together could a piece of physical infrastructure have a similar function engaging with these technologies?

Brief - #1 Residential (Private Realm)

KAS OOSTERHUIS: communication is a positive thing, so why not communicate with your environment?
VIRTUAL FRIEND: will the building talk back to you?
KAS OOSTERHUIS: yes, sure, it responds directly to what you do or say, it may respond in many ways: talking, moving, refreshing information content, playing music, it all depends on the game you're playing (2001 E-Motive Architecture - www.oosterhuis.nl)

Residential Live/Work Scheme

Question:

To explore the impact and use of adaptive technologies and smart materials on human needs and social interaction within the private realm.

Brief:
A residential live-work scheme which is adaptable to individual needs and requirements, balancing privacy and interactions in both the pubic (work) and private (living) elements to the programme. Additional elements such as personalised community space as well as the possibility of additional features to support an increasing live-work workforce (such as conferencing facilities) should be considered as elements which could dynamically change according to usage, population and time of day within the scheme.

Goals:
· To explore the impact of pervasive technologies on 21st century concept of the house and notions of place making where individuality is often expressed through personal home pages and weblogs. What makes a house a home where home pages and their wider connections are often more personal elements to peoples lives?

· Explore hyperbody concepts of adaptability and response within a residential development, possibly driven from dynamic usage patterns of live-work and the idea of dynamically adjustable place making .

· Exploration of the wider notion of community both physically and virtually through integration of the concept of ones identity (eg johndoe69@anywhere.com) and a physical address. Different notions of community and identity emerge and can be questioned and different patterns of working have emerged based upon this. How is a residential community altered and what elements need to adapt to cater for this?

· Question whether your environment could be as personal and changeable as your homepage and whether your house is your physical home page and if so how is it expressed?

· Explore how smart technologies can address these issues and be incorporated into the local physical community where anonymous mass housing has become the norm. This can be expanded to how community space (semi-private) can develop reflecting individuality within the collective realm.

Initial Thesis Framework

Initial Framework Document. You are best off downloading it to view it as it will appear as a higher resolution image (1.15Mb Jpeg) as it has been shrunk to fit on the blog page. (This really should be a downloadable pdf which should be in the next incarnation of this work)

Initial State of Confusion

Right so what is it I want to achieve with this design thesis and what is this about interactive/responsive architecture? I am still developing these ideas and the project is still gestating. Whilst pushing ahead with a project, I am developing the theoretical framework and background to support this and hence its development is slower than other projects.

The initial exploration looks into the notion of a time based architecture, that is one that may not be the same from one moment to the next. The exciting aspect here is the manner in which this can operate in response to human activity.

In fact it is the response and adaptability on a human and social level which should be the key driving force of this design. Oosterhuis’s notion of the Hyperbody is an appropriate starting point for the further development of this notion.


KAS OOSTERHUIS: this definition needs explaining in greater detail · so i'll lay it on you one word at a time · a hyperbody is to architecture what hypertext is to written information · a hypertext is saturated with warp holes, you can jump from one universe to the next in a fraction of a second · it will soon be made clear to you how warp holes can be introduced into buildings · a hyperbody is a building body · a building can only go hyper if it has a body · this building body is the vehicle for processing information · information which has been dragged in by the user, and information fed into the building body by way of the umbilical cord · a hyperbody is a programmable building body · the building body is now programmable · we are seeing this process take place under our very eyes · take a good look around and you'll see what i mean · within the last ten, twenty years it has become possible to measure and adjust the services in buildings by remote control · buildings themselves have been measuring their temperature and humidity in real time since time immemorial · architects have just never got round to actively deploying these techniques in the design process · the agenda is still dictated by a monocultural monopoly of the ideal climate · everyone knows that such a thing doesn't exist and yet it is accepted without protest as an incontravertible given · a programmable building has no such givens · it is programmable, which means that you can create in it whatever climate you desire · it also means that architects can design experiences and that users can evoke experiences with their own particular climates · a hyperbody is a programmable building body that changes · until now architecture was a discipline of intractability · buildings were always meant to be as steady as a rock and give shape to the flow and, more importantly, resist that flow · let's imagine that buildings could move with changes in use, more so than was considered possible before now, that they could move with changing conditions · then architecture would become dynamic · and i'm talking about more than just moving windows and doors · here it's about the entire building · architecture would be able to move · a hyperbody is a programmable building body that changes in real time · nor am i talking about animation in the design process, but about animated buildings · buildings that are continually calculating, persistently fixing their position with regard to other real-time processes in and around them · i'm thinking about building parts that fix their position with regard to other parts of the same building · rather like an arm and the opposite leg balancing each other out · the building's components are a swarm of elements that can function individually but still belong to the same swarm · a hyperbody is a programmable building body that changes its shape in real time · i'm assuming that the building's structure will become programmable · until now designing the structure has always been aimed at resisting distortion · the most fantastic distortion diagrams are drawn up so that heaven and earth can be moved to rule out all distortion, and thus the beauty of distortion · a programmable structure never stops calculating, it keeps on fixing its position to preserve its balance or indeed to lose it, to relax or to brace itself · a real-time building body is always doing something · a hyperbody is a programmable building body that changes its shape and content in real time · real-time building bodies feed on information, they process information and then separate it again · that information of course travels as hypertext does, via warp holes from one universe to another · when this information settles in the hyperbodies as a hypersurface, then our perception of the spaces in and around the hyperbody can be programmed and driven and is therefore a subject for design · architecture becomes a game and the users players · architects are the programmers of this game ·
from... http://www.oosterhuis.nl/quickstart/index.php?id=264

In developing a brief
So now we are getting somewhere towards a thesis project based upon interactivity through a building like a Hyperbody. So where does this take a real world project? That is the key question here as I am needing to develop a project on a site with a specifc brief.

So where do I go from this????
This building is a good inspiration for incorporation of interactive technologies within the built fabric of a building. Here it addresses the varying user requirements and is the architecture of the building. Choosing a house as a focus of study allows more detail to be developed about user requirements and the game played between the inhabitants and the building. Dwelling offers richness in usage patterns, and social cohesiveness… what makes someone want to live in one of these buildings? The ideas of why people dwell and how people individualise themselves making a house a home would be something that would be important in pursuing this line of enquiry. Perhaps a departure could be into larger housing groups which can then respond directly to individual and collective behaviours. Whilst these technologies seem far fetched compared to “traditional” architectural practice, these technologies are being investigated and tested as ONL are not just a theoretical practice.

E-Motive Architecture

This week I have been mostly researching Oosterhuis... (does seem to be quite comprehensive on his theory and the actual research with Hyperbody research group is a good point of departure)

http://www.oosterhuis.nl/quickstart/index.php?id=264

also on the agenda is to find precedents for my project so a brief can emerge.

Overview

This is my initial blog site for my Architectural Design Thesis which I am working on at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. The whole content, name and location/format of this is subject to change through the development of the thesis, however it serves as a good starting point for developing my thesis project.

As a thesis topic, I am intending to investigate responsive adaptive environments integrating digital technologies into the building fabric. This is NOT the case of installing automatic doors just because you can (in a techno-anoracky way) but through an understanding of dynamic social/human requirements and integrating a built form which is capable of responding, adapting and augmenting this. The concepts and ideas are going to develop into something better articulated and concrete through this process and I welcome any comments/ideas which could help with this process.

The idea is that this site as part of the design development is dynamic, responsive and adaptive just as my project is and the development of this is in integration with potential technologies and ideas that the project is associated with.

Its all tbc, all in flux, all changable, adaptable and responsive... just the way I want it to be.