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Minimal Complexity development

Vlad Tenu, the winner of our first international digital fabrication competition REPEAT, has shared his recent work in the Minimal Complexity series, MC/2.  This version of the system that forms complex surfaces based on a finite series of components further simplifies the design by using only 2 unique profiles rather then the 16 repeated parts in the MC we built in Houston out of aluminum sheet metal.  We look forward to more updates from Vlad an other TEX-FAB competition winners and finalists in the coming months as we move ahead with our next competition, SKIN.

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Houston Railroad Museum projects

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Students at the University of Houston College of Architecture in the ARCH 5500 studio worked on the Houston Railroad Museum (HRRM) this semester.  Many of the group attended a TEX-FAB 4 workshop in Arlington and gained insight into adaptable components and how to apply them to a various structural and enclosure systems.  The semester started with an analysis and parametric modeling of various case studies using The Function of Form catalog as reference material.  Typological hybrids and gradient morphologies were developed along with scalar association with miniature train included in the models.  This was the first use of parametric tools and Rhino modeling in general for most of the students.

We’d like to thank our jury members Christopher Robertson (RodDes, UHCOA), Michael Gonzales (UHCOA) and Kory Beig (UTSOA) for their commentary.

Student’s work pictured:  Lauren Gault, Marcos Sepulveda, Noel Compean, Alex Wei, Marissa Methvin and Mollie Silver.  Andrew Vrana, Studio Critic

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WORKFLOW RIGGING WORKSHOP

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David Fano and Nate Miller of CASE-inc. led the Workflow Rigging workshop at the TEX-FAB 4 event in Arlington this past weekend.  They debuted and tested with the attendees a new series of custom tools in Rhino, Grasshopper and Revit that they have been working on.  Building upon the very useful Lunchbox tools in Grasshopper, the group modeled a stadium as a case study using a custom stadium riser cluster.  From customized panelling and space frames to attractor based performance criteria the attendees had stadia designs ready to transfer to Revit.  In Revit custom component families were modeled and data sets from Grasshopper were than imported to drive the instantiation of the components into the Revit workflow.  From there drawing documentation and product scheduling were demonstrated.  This has opened up Revit to users who as less impressed its potential as a modeling tool but recognize its value for documentation.  This workshop was a very valuable addition to our lineup this year for professionals, faculty and students and we look forward to working with CASE again.

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Mode Collective’s ‘Crafting Material Effects’

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Mode Collective (Gil Akos and Ronnie Parsons) with the workshop participants on the last day in front of their projects completed at TEX-FAB 4 held at the University of Texas at Arlington. Structured as exercises developed in 4-days by small teams Gil Akos and Ronnie Parsons led the participants to explore folding methods within Rhino and Grasshopper from conceptual performative paper models into robust analysis of assemblies and inter-relating elements.

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TEX-FAB 4 Exhibition

The TEX-FAB 4 Exhibition – APPLIED: Research Through Fabrication opened after the Symposium, which was a full day of presentations by emergent and established practitioners in the fields of computational fabrication. With the installation of Cast Thicket, by Christine Yogiaman and Ken Tracy of yo_cy, the competition concluded a brisk and intense few months of design refinement and development. The competition drew over 68 entries of which 4 different prototypes were commissioned and juried for the selection of the final full-scale design. The exhibition runs on till the end of March.

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TEX-FAB 4 Workshops Underway

TEX-FAB 4, Workshops began in earnest at the UT Arlington School of Architecture with over 130 attendees. Mode Collective continued into their third day with Crafting Material Effects – prototyping was well underway pushing the schools laser cutter to the max. David Fano and Nate Miller from Case Inc. are presenting their Workflow Rigging drawing parametric geometries from design iterations from Rhino int Revit. The Design Scripting workshop led by  Chris Lasch is presenting syntactical strategies through textual coding in Python and visual coding in Grasshopper. Robotic Prototypes jumped into understanding and implementing audinos with Jason Kelly Johnson leading first-timers in there use. While the HKS|Line guys: Jon Bailey, Ben Compton and Ryan Gathmann are pushing the the connection and efficiency of Grasshopper, Python and Revit. And for the beginners, Travis McCarra is introducing novices to Rhino from ground-up through fully realized use of Grasshopper, all in the first day.

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Casket Ticket Progress

Over the course of the last few months the development of Casket Thicket has taken quite a few twists and turns. The overall design has evolved and become, we think much more interesting and indicative of our goal in fostering the best in digital fabrication exploration. Working closely with Christine Yogiaman and Ken Tracy of yo-cy, the TEX-FAB team with Brad Bell at its helm has taken the Applied: Research through Fabrication winning project to its first full-scale iteration and the process was revelatory.

Beginning in the Fall of 2012, after the ACADIA Synthetic Digital Ecologies exhibition and subsequent selection, the development began in earnest with weekly meeting. Buro Happold lent their expertise throughout the development as well as numerous other consultants in the continual dialog tat led to the final design concept being resolved.

We will be posting more images of the casting, fabrication and finally installation over the next few days – so stay tuned.

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SPIN-VALENCE: Second Round Progress

We are very excited to post the development of one of our Finalists, Emily Baker and the work on Spin-Valence. Please refer to the text below and the images.

The second round of TEX-FAB’s Applied Competition fell at the exact span of time that I was moving around the world and taking a new job.  This means that I had only limited use of the CNC fabrication tools that I’ve become accustomed to easily accessing.  I must admit that I felt like my hands were completely tied.  Learning-through-making has become an engrained MO, and faced with working outside of it, I become even more grateful for the time I’ve been able to spend gaining insight and intuition through making my ideas become physical.  Though my plans for this development period had to change, I have still been able to push the work forward.  Prototypes show nuances of finish on depth through shadow, shifting outdoor lighting conditions, potential shading variations, and system connections and folds.

  

If you saw my first round board, you read a diatribe against the “image-bias [in architecture] that threatens to render computational fabrication a mere theoretical exercise.”  I stand by that sentiment. Architecture is not just for looking at, and it should be developed in ways that support its multivalent purpose. Thanks to TEX-FAB for supporting this kind of research.

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Latent Methods: Wood Shingle Architecture

We are very excited to post the development of one of our Finalists, Eli Allen and the work on Latent Method. Please refer to the text below and the image to the right.

Shingle architecture is richly entangled in symbolism and architectural history, both in vernacular and academic architecture. Latent Methods supposes that the ubiquitous shingle is something most people are so familiar with that they often cease to see. Through the deformation of shingle surfaces, the goal is to make a shingle architecture that is unfamiliar enough to be seen anew. The pursuit of the unfamiliar must be followed through a methodical process, though process itself is not the subject. Latent Methods dwells in a tense space between sensuality and intellect.

latent, adj.
Hidden, concealed (rarely const. from); present or existing, but not manifest, exhibited, or developed.

method, n.
I. A procedure for attaining an object.
2. a. More generally: a way of doing anything, esp. according to a defined and regular plan; a mode of procedure in any activity, business, etc.
3. a. A special form of procedure or characteristic set of procedures employed (more or less systematically) in an intellectual discipline or field of study as a mode of investigation and inquiry, or of teaching and exposition.

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Facade Tectonics workshop

We just returned from San Francisco where we attended the COLLABORATION Innovation in Facades symposium and taught a one-day parametric design workshop called Parametric Facade Tectonics.  Hosted by CCA, the event was produced by Architect’s Newspaper and Enclos.  Speakers for the design community at the conference included Craig Dykers, Lisa Iwamoto and Marcelo Spina.  Instructors in the workshops included Jason Kelly Johnson, Andrew Kudless, Bill Kreysler and Chris Lasch.  Rajaa Issa attended from McNeel and is the developer of Paneling Tools which was part of the instructional toolbox we demonstrated and applied in our workshop.  Thank you to Jason Johnson for hosting and Diana Darling of AN for coordinating the event with the DFA.

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