Suggestions for technology for Arch Student Aviary Project

[woodface]

Hi cgarchitecters,

 

I am an architecture student developing a project for an aviary based around the theme of urban ecology. A cenral idea is that organisms can be classified into 3 broad groups: Weeds, adaptive generalists which flourish in human dominated environments; relics, specialized for a particular environment in which they will survive if actively 'conserved', and ghosts, which clash with human development and are likely to be extinct except for in zoos. (read more about 'weeds' here: http://www.churchofeuthanasia.org/e-sermons/weedplan.html -its a weird site but the article was originally published in Harpers)

 

My idea is that the aviary can illuminate this idea spatially and architecturally, treating each group differently according to their needs and our goals. For example, the ghosts may need enclosure and protection, while relics might be provided with access to habitats in which they can nest, with the overall goal of increasing the wild population.

 

I have decided to site the aviary in East London's Lea Valley because of its industrial past, because its current neglected state with patches of land left to grow undisturbed offers ready-made habitat, and because its proximity to the Olympic village could create interesting juxtapositions of new and old development.

 

One of my goals is to draw parallels between the 'ecosystem' of industry and infrastructure, and the biological ecosystem. I have chosen the electricity grid as a starting point - with pylons having a particular attraction.

 

Can you think of technologies that could be used to 'grow' pylon type structures? I know there are plant growing programs - could they produce pylon-like trees? I thought of creating a spectrum of structures- pylon at one end, and tree (perhaps the ideal tree for a specific species) at the other. Is there a 'morphing' program that could do something like this? Or perhaps I could write a script to generate these kind of structures? I hope to generate a large number of structures then evaluate them from the perspective of several bird species. This might simply be an analysis against a written set of criteria, with results worked out using an excel spreadsheet, or it might be done 'actively' using a bird simulation (my friend showed me his 'boid' simulations in 3DSMAX, which looked amazing).

 

I am happiest working in Rhino, but I have basic knowledge of Maya. Because I am currently working on my internship, I only have evenings and weekends to work on the project, and in my limited time I'd rather not have to get to grips with another complex package. If I can accomplish this in Rhino or Maya it would be a huge benefit. I don't know Rhinoscript, but I have downloaded the tutorials from the web site and I think I could handle it if I put my mind to it.

 

What do you think?

[AJLynn]

Interesting idea. Have you read The Granite Garden by Anne Whiston Spirn? Anyway, take a look at Xfrog (not the plant library, the plant generator - I've used it for Cinema4D but there's also a Maya version). It lets you do the kind of branching, bending and repetition that you do for tree generation on any objects in your scene. Maybe if you take the vocabulary from that and search for it on Rhino sites you'd find scripts for doing the same things.

[woodface]

Thanks for the reply AJLynn. I had never heard of The Granite Garden, but having checked it out on Amazon it seems like a very pertinent and useful book. It's out of print, but I can order it used from the states. Based on my initial flick through using 'look inside' it seems to view ecosystems in terms of biological services provided to a city, which I know is an approach that economists use when putting a monetary value on organisms and ecosystems.

 

XFrog also looks promising. I guess the basic idea is a that there are a small number of fundamental elements and processes that can be found in most living/plant structures, and these can combine in a huge number of ways to create the enourmous variety in plant form. This might be exactly the right approach to take - going back, in a way, to first principles of natural form generation. The non-natural images in their gallery are encouraging. I will try and engage the Xfrog community to see what they think of the pylon idea.

 

Thanks for the great tips.

 

I was thinking of updating this thread with my progress over the next couple of months. This is not a typical cgarchitect project, and 3d rendered images will not be much of a focus, but it still might be interesting? I would love to hear more of the thoughts from the community.

 

Are there any other places on the net where there might be people interested in this work/ideas, who might have other useful suggestions?

[AJLynn]

As a recovered architecture student, I'd be interested to see where this goes.

[Frosty]

There are a number of current and former architecture students on this board who would appreciate the type of project you are proposing. Although its not traditional CGA type work, it is the type of project that pushes the definition of architecture and how architecture is explored/designed with digital tools. There is much a visualist could learn and contribute.

 

You seem to have a very strong theoretical stance. I think you should also study "On Growth and Form" by D'Arcy Thompson and any aviary biology books you can get your hands on. The structures of trees and birds, particularily wings, hold potential for some interesting architecture. If you choose to use C4D and XFrog as AJ suggested, I would like to add the Jenna pluggin to that list.

 

I myself used a dynamics engine to produce my graduate work based on bubbles. I look forward to your progress images, butI suggest you start a new thread in "WIP" for all of us to follow.

[woodface]

Thanks for the suggestion of "On Growth and Form" Frosty. About avian biologicy/wings etc. I'd rather not create something zoomorphic for form's sake - if anything, I'd say that aesthetically I'd be better pleased with industrial/infrastructural form, which is one reason I have started with the electrical pylons. The tree forms come into it when considering how to create structures that perform the function of bird habitat better - because they are common habitats for birds in this country. Of course, the ideal habitat is different for each species (lots of birds do not live in trees), and until I pick out which species I should concentrate on I won't have criteria to design these structures against (that should probably be my number one task).

 

I haven't expressed that very well, but I guess I'm saying - aesthetic starting point = industry, performance starting point = biology. Hopefully the end product will be structures that are highly functional as habitats and look like neither trees or pylons.

 

I looked at Jenna, but it seems like the company that makes it has gone bust? The best reference I could find to it was this:

 

http://www.maxon.net/pages/dyn_files/dyn_htx/htx/243/00243_00243.html

 

But http://www.bhodinut.com, which is where I expected to find out the full information on the plugin, is just a page of ads.

 

 

I'm hoping this project will boost my portfolio enough to win a scholarship to the AA diploma school, and I'm a little worried I have bitten off more than I can chew, considering the limited time I have on my hands after work. I also hope to submit it as an entry in this competition:

 

http://www.cgco.co.jp/english/environmental_zoo.html

 

... which I actually found after I had begun to think about this, but it fits very well, and might provide a useful framework to work to.

 

When I have my first images I will follow show them in a WIP thread, like you suggest.

[Frosty]

Adam, a condensed version of my project (Freespace) is posted on http://www.archiprix.org if you are interested. It was completed entirely in C4D.

[AJLynn]

That's pretty darn cool. I especially like the sections - they look straight out of a cell biology text. Erm, is a "vomitorium" what it sounds like it is?

[Frosty]

That's pretty darn cool. I especially like the sections - they look straight out of a cell biology text. Erm, is a "vomitorium" what it sounds like it is?

 

Yea....think of it as a mudroom for micro-gravity.

 

AJ, the project from the conception stages was intended to look and feel organic and even biological as all of the walls are flexible fabric and inflatable. I really attempted to create images looked like a 1950's futurist but with a modern flare. Sky Captain was a pretty big influence as were of course Bucky Fuller and ArchiGram. Reflecting now, I think they look a little flat and could use some depth blur. During my review I was givin two pieces of criticism 1) they didn't like my Bucky Fuller type font, 2) my perspectives should have had misc junk floating around in them.

[woodface]

Frosty: A great looking project - Buck Rogers and Buck Fuller. I think I remember seeing larger images poted directly to this forum? It seems like your project has a good balance of science and science-fiction, which I think all the most interesting student projects have.