This triangular tessellation is an abstraction of an image and is generated through a script I wrote using the Processing programming language. I wrote the script to interpret an input image and give a resultant triangular tessellation with larger triangles representing brighter areas of the image and vice versa. After initial investigations/experiments I am very much liking the results that I have been able to produce.

Adding to this, I wrote a couple of RhinoScripts to interpret the data from Processing, recreate the triangular geometries as Rhino-native polylines, and simplify the resulting network of lines into the simplest, straightest paths for a CNC mill. I did this in order to convert this 2D representation into a 3-dimensional abstraction. The linework is milled out of a painted wooden board to create a rather intriguing relief.

Although I used a number of softwares/mediums to get the final finished product, I built the bulk of the programming in Processing.

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Detail of the milled piece.

The image abstraction upon which the milled art piece was based.

Self portrait.

This sculpture was a piece commissioned by the Superfront Gallery in Los Angeles for their exhibition, “TIMEless,” an exhibition exploring the 4d possibilities of space. I worked with Michael Fox of FoxLin to develop a sculpture based on a short story which Michael wrote entitled “Nano City” (read it here). The story is of a city that is constantly being reborn and destroyed by an army of nano robots. It snakes across the planet consuming whatever it encounters and rebuilding it into a city at the nano scale on its front end and then destroying the city and rebuilding whatever it is that was there to begin with at the nano scale. The idea, then, was to build a kinetic sculpture that would embody this constant reinvention.

The TIMEless sculpture is driven by a motor turning at 60 rpm which drives a series of gears connected to the greater wheel upon which the city lies. The driving motion is pared down via a series of gears to the point that the large wheel ends up turning at the rate of one revolution per year. Upon the outer wheel is a topography made of high-density foam which is constantly being eaten away by a number of robots on one side and rebuilt on the other.

Final gallery installation.

Final gallery installation.

An exploded diagram of the final gearing scheme.

Build process...

Build process...

Milling the outer pieces.

Finished outer ring pieces.

The final product sans robots before gallery installation.

ENV Downtown was my Senior Degree Project at Cal Poly Pomona. The proposal is for a new facility for the College of Environmental Design of Cal Poly Pomona in downtown Pomona.

As a concept, the idea of a College of Environmental Design is a unique one. The model at Cal Poly Pomona is unique in that it brings together the departments most relevant to our built environment—Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Planning, and Art—in an attempt to promote interdisciplinary exchange. A lack of facilities, however, means that these programs are dispersed throughout Cal Poly’s campus, making interdepartmental interactions all but non-existent.

The proposed facility provides a place in which to house the College as a whole, and this facility is integrated into historic Downtown Pomona in an attempt to better connect it to an urban context.
Within the building, then, there comes a need to provide a connective tissue that would integrate the departments on a deeper level than simply the sharing of facilities. The College of Environmental Design Downtown Facility, then, is an investigation into the concept of hyper-connectivity within the program and site.

Click for the full size PDF and further description.

Much research went into the development of the ciruclution system employed in the ENV Downtown facility. In attempting to create a hyper-connected building it is necessary to investigate the and be critical of various vertical and horizonatl connective typologies – atrium spaces, open floor plans, etc. – and the spatial experience each possesses. The ENV Downtown facility is informed by these various canons of architecture and attempts to synthesize the methods employed in these projects to create a hyper-connected state.

A few of the study models I made throughout the process (I made a lot of study models).

Click for the full size PDF and further description.

Click for the full size PDF and further description.

Click for the full size PDF and further description.

Click for the full size PDF of the project space diagrams.

Click for the full size PDF and further description.

Click to see the full set of drawings.

Click to view full size.

Click to view full size.

Click to view full size.

The task at hand for this studio was to design an economically viable space station. Initially, the station was to be programmed as a space hotel, but to make the station economically viable each student was to propose another use for the project that could feasibly create revenue. This was one of the most interesting/frustrating design studios I have taken because when it comes to designing architecture in near-zero gravity conventional design tactics just don’t work. To add to the stress the systems proposed also needed to be based on feasible technology, and we were reviewed by a panel consisting of more NASA and JPL engineers than architects. Still, it was a fun studio. If you’d like to find out more about the studio head on over to the studio website at Robotecture.

This studio was run a bit differently in that we were required to maintain a blog with updates on progress. Check out the development of this project here.

This project was on display at OBJCT Gallery in Claremont, CA and will be on display at NewSpace 2011, the Space Frontier Foundation’s annual conference at NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, CA.

Inspired by the ideas of John S. Lewis, the EVSS will serve as a home base and processing center for a near-Earth asteroid miningprogram. Instead of the dead vacuum some people might assume outer space to be, our solar system is full of resources readilyavailable for our use, and some of the most viable targets for space mining are near-Earth asteroids. Eventually, the EVSS willserve as home base for a comprehensive asteroid mining program whose goal will be to eventually hollow out and colonize a near-Earth asteroid for outer space exploration. This goal, obviously, will have to be reached in phases.Initially, the only programmatic element that will be appended to the EVSS’s hotel programming will be a small (relatively) stationthat will serve as host for the first small drones that will be sent to mine the most valuable resource available on near-Earthasteroids, water ice. The drones would be sent out to melt and collect the water ice and return it for processing. An electrolyzingstation and refinery would be housed in the station to process the water brought back by the drone. The electrolyzing processwould separate the hydrogen and oxygen from the water; the hydrogen, along with some oxygen, would be refined for use asrocket fuel and the oxygen would be used in the EVSS by its inhabitants. Also, it goes without saying that some of the raw waterwould also be used by the inhabitants of the EVSS. This initial phase would also require docking facilities not only for the dronesbut for other spacecraft looking to purchase fuel as well.Besides water-ice, valuable metal ores are available on near-Earth asteroids. It is estimated that at least 10% of the mattercomprising near-Earth asteroids in naturally occurring stainless steel. Additionally, it has been postulated that a two-kilometer wideasteroid could contain more ore than has been mined in the entire history of civilization. The ability to mine for such valuableresources would require more advanced drones and bigger processing facilities on the EVSS, so this ability would be phasedin after the water mining program has been proven successful. A docking station for the new, most likely bigger, droneswould be added as well as a manner in which to store the raw material. This would likely be an holding cell outside ofthe core EVSS facility because the raw material would not need protection from the environment. A facility to process thismaterial would also need to be added, and this would begin to reflect the manufacturing capabilities that the EVSS wouldhave. Once established this system would be self-sustaining and self-perpetuating. The material mined could return and beused to make more drones for more mining and to expand the existing facilities. The majority of the material, of course,would be sold to other facilities in space either in their raw form or as manufactured components.

The future Mairehoj culture center draws a clear profile in the landscape. With a new foyer, the culture center will get a new face that invites in all the people of Ruderdahl’s municipality and a heart that can bring together the many users and activities in the house.

The culture center merges together with the green landscape. It bridges the gap between the arrival area, the cultural plaza and the beautiful backyard of Mariehoj. It opens up toward the surroundings and incorporates the green qualities to the acitivites in the house.

The house is at the same time a cultural activity center and a well functioning working place. Through reorganization and rebuilding a more appropriate position is given to each of the various functions. At the same time more new functions, cross fields and meeting points are created. It brings together the multiple activities in the house and creates a space where new meetings and activities across interests and ages may arise.

I part of the design team on this project while I was employed at WE Architecture in Copenhagen, Denmark.

This project won first prize in an invited international competition and is in progress to be constructed.

Urban Continuance is the new urban typology. In dense urban areas, large, open park spaces are under utilized and inefficient. Sprawling expanses of grass are both unsustainable and unrepresentative of the needs of an urban population. Instead of the isolated grass lawn, then, a new park typology is needed: the park as connective tissue. The term “park” is used loosely because Urban Flow functions as more than a recreational space; it is an integrated infrastructure, a connection between the disparate aspects of the city. Urban Continuance connects. Urban Flow connects literally by linking the Arts District and Boyle Heights across the east and west banks of the Los Angeles River. The bridges provide a pedestrian access across the river to support the existing 1st Street Bridge. Urban Continuance connects epochs. The formal disposition of the new pedestrian bridges respects the existing structure and they bow out to acknowledge its presence. By framing the old 1st Street bridge the project creates a dialogue between the old and new; a connection through time. Urban Continuance connects people. Urban Flow provides a meeting space, a recognizable landmark for social gatherings. You can walk, jog, run, skate, bike, jump, and play or just sit and relax and catch up on your tan at Urban Flow. Urban Flow combines a number of activities providing a variety of experiences to the people of the city. Urban Continuance connects infrastructures. The structural supports of the bridge double as water extraction and purification systems to draw water from the river. The water drawn from the river is then used in the closed loop system of algae growth tubes feeding to and from an algae research center. These tubes constitute the skin of the bridge system. This system becomes an integral part of Urban Flow and prominently displays green technologies.

Notodden has decided to join several cultural functions such as a cafe, a museum, and a library under one roof. This project programming allows for the possibility of creating a building where people of different ages and interests can meet and interact. As a tribut to the history of the iste, the roof of the builidng is laid out as an amphitheater which spirals around the old shipping dock, and the dock itself houses a floating stage. Much like in a Greek theater, the surrounding landscape becomes the scenography.

I was part of the design team on this project while employed at WE Architecture in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Catchy name, yeah? This is an idea I’ve kind of had kicking around in my head for a while. It is based on the Random Tessellation script I wrote for Processing a while back. This Grasshopper does much the same thing but in three dimensions instead of two. A unit module is created by the manipulation of a square base and this module can then be tiled to create a dynamic facade. Best of all, only one distinct element is used; the variety comes from the manner in which it must be manipulated in order to tile correctly.

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Facade-O-Matic by Luis Gil is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

]]> http://www.legildesign.com/archives/590/feed 0 http://www.legildesign.com/archives/604 http://www.legildesign.com/archives/604#comments Thu, 21 Apr 2011 21:27:12 +0000 Luis http://www.legildesign.com/?p=604

A Walking City is a project on which I was design team member while I was employed at WE Architecture in Copenhagen, Denmark. The proposal was our entry in an international competition to reinvent the city of Drammen, Norway. The approach we took on this project was that of reinvigorating the historic city center of Drammen and transforming the city into a sustainable 21st century cultural metropolis. Although the city center had a prime waterfront location, it was essentially cut off from it because of a strip of industrial buildings and a railroad that ran along the water’s edge. This industrial complex has been struggling, and our proposal aims to reinvigorate the city by reappropriating existing structures along the waterfront and transforming the once industrial center into an cultural spine. For more information on the project, check out WE Architecture’s website.