The Leviathan Sukkah

by Erica Wannemacher & Sarah Petri

“A whale may be used to make a sukkah’s walls. Also a living elephant. No other living animal may be used as a wall.” –Sukkah City regulation

The design for our sukkah resonates with the form of the mystical and biblical creature of the Leviathan. Its history dates back to the book of Genesis during God’s fifth day of creation during which he formed, “all the birds of the skies and all the creatures of the sea”. The Leviathan is commonly associated with a whale or large sea creature, dwelling in the sea. In Hebrew history the Leviathan is to be slain, and its skin used to cover a tent for banquet, and the righteous are to feast upon its flesh.

The formal generation of our Sukkah comes from the overall skeletal structure of the Leviathan. Using straight and steam bent wooden members that interlock, we wanted the sukkah to curve and twist in much the same way that the spine of the whale works. The correlation to the skeletal structure of the whale was our inspiration for the formal curves and shifts employed in our sukkah.

Two separate sets of members twist and interlock to form necessary structure as well as a roof for shading and also an area for seating. The idea is that there would be an area for seating in the more open end of the structure where people could eat and gather together. The inner, more enclosed space of the sukkah is meant for more intimate gatherings and sleeping. Most of the sky is exposed so that a clear view of the stars can be seen each night during the festival of the Sukkot.

Via Sukkah City

Pleated Sukkah

Eva Perez de Vega, Ian Gordon

Emerging from a flat assembly of honeycomb cardboard panels, no larger than 4 handbreadths, the sukkah structure wraps around itself to create an intimate space open to one side. This area serves as an initial gathering zone prior to entering the enclosed area, which is larger than seven by seven square handbreadths and provides a protected area for meal times. The highest part of the sukkah allows tall people to stand comfortably while the lowest areas at the sides of the structure provide intimate zones for sleeping and relaxing.

As a parametric system of gradually opening hexagonal oculi, the dynamic network of pleated panels directs the gaze from the earth – from which it emerges- up towards the sky beyond the bamboo schach woven through the structure. The louver-like elements are oriented in such a way as to provide relative closure towards the southern exposure thus shading during the day while allowing open views to the starlit skies at night and permeability to rain. No animal testing, food or utensils will be needed to produce this sukkah.

Via Sukkah City

P.YGROS.C / passive hygroscopic curls

THEVERYMANY / Marc Fornes with Jared Laucks

“Embrace tradition while decorating it your way…”

P.YGROS.C proposes to reinvent the common Sukkah morphology into a continuous network of timber grid shell structures – yet following the ancestral rules.

Wood is a natural fiber-composite material. Due to its ANISOTROPIC MICROSTRUCTURE (directional dependency of its structural properties), overlapping two layers of stripes as thin as timber veneer, if of opposite direction, creates a very strong and rigid structure – yet extremely lightweight (ease of assembly) and translucent…

The three dimensional lattice is wrapping around itself to create rigid pipe like structures, that bundle together, shaping from ground up three organic walls that join and twirl at the top, shaping three gigantic oculars toward the sky. In order to discover the created channeled views to the stars one has to insert his/her head within one of the lower polyps / trumpet aperture – discovering within the intricate network many side views offering social interaction and all sorts of possible effects through the filtering of light…

Thin timber veneer stripes also display DELIQUESCENT QUALITIES (defined as the materials’ potential to absorb humidity from its ambient surrounding environment). What can usually be perceived as a negative effect can actually produce passive variations along the life of the Sukkah and activate its surrounding.

Through absorption of moisture -and respectively its disposal- the material expands or contracts while undergoing dimensional changes. Purposely over-extended tips of the wooden strips allow a real time passive registration of the humidity level of its environment by bending up and twisting into natural curly shapes during wet weather -revealing the bright green painted under faces- and bending back to a flat wood aspect when dry….

What can be seen as a tip to curls behaviors is also aiming to activate social awareness to passive energy to the surrounding of the Union Square public plaza…

Via Sukah City

CLJ02: Parametric Design Workshop

ASTA Cluj organizes a parametric design workshop with the aim of designing the actual lounge pavilion of the ZA event in Cluj, Romania. Tutors are Dimitrie Stefanescu and Patrick Bedarf. Organizers are Bogdan Hambasan and Anamaria Androne. Read below for registration and participation information.

The aim of the week long workshop is to produce a working model for the fabrication of the ZA lounge pavilion, which will be placed in Unirii Square, Cluj. The design process will explore different computational techniques which will all work together towards the actual building of the pavilion. The material goal of the workshop is to have a 1:1 working prototype by the end, whilst the final fabrication and assembly will take place before the ZA event.

The software used will be Rhino3d and Grasshopper. Participants are expected to have some experience using the tools mentioned above, though this is not mandatory.

The workshop will take place during the 7th to the 13th of March 2011. If you want to participate, please fill in the form below. Please note that the participation fee is 50 RON/12 EUR for students and 211 RON/50 EUR for graduated individuals, payable to ASTA Cluj at the beginning of the workshop.

For more information please direct your questions to the organizers.

Aku & Sesuatu – Shaari Sulong (Aie)

AKU DAN SESUATU -by Aie (Shaari Sulong)

Aku dan Sesuatu Aie

Aku dan Sesuatu- Aie

Aku dan Sesuatu - Aie

Aku dan Sesuatu - Aie

Aku dan Sesuatu - Aie

Hasan- ADS by Aie

Aku dan Sesuatu- by Shaari Sulong

modeLab Parametric Design Workshop

ModeLab will be conducting a Parametric Design Workshop in New York City, April 24/25. This workshop will engage the conceptual and technical domain of parametric design by introducing participants to systemic processes capable of registering and responding to a range of diverse ecologic criteria.

Emphasis will be placed on workflows that utilize constraint-based design, associative modeling techniques, and environmental influencers to discover novel and inventive design solutions. For more information and details, click here.

aast International Workshop 2011

aast International Workshop Tokyo 14-19 March 2011

International Architecture Workshop

aast, Advanced Architecture Settimo Tokyo, is a series of events ideated by CASARTARC, an architectural association in Italy, (with Andrea Graziano and Davide Del Giudice) to link the host cities of the UIA InternationalCongress of Architecture in 2008 and 2011: Turin and Tokyo.As the joint event of ALGODE TOKYO 2011 (http://news-sv.aij.or.jp/algode/index.html) the international symposium on Algorithmic design held byAIJ (Architectural Institute of Japan), Casartarc is offering the aastinternational student workshop in Tokyo on the theme:Generative Space for Tokyo: innovative use of wood with algorithmic design.

Objectives

The aast workshop aims at offering a unique, hands-on experiencefor architectural students to research and experiment in the field ofGenerative Architectural Technology and Computational Design applied toDigital Fabrication.Participants will be able to explore new concepts for architecture andurban space by setting up adaptable design processes and seamlesslyconnect them to the real construction of a 1:1 scale prototype for a temporary space in Tokyo. Computational design techniques and realfabrication processes will be approached and explored at the same timethrough the use of the most traditional of the building materials in Japaneseculture: wood. In traditional construction, the Japanese carpentersemployed their knowledge (passed on from generation to generation) to usewood as a construction material, solving joint problems in a way to createlong lasting structures.Now algorithmic programs can help the designer to explore several designprocesses at once, to generate new environments and to create adaptivesolutions for a particular spatial concept.Digital fabrication processes, such as CNC cutting can deal with extremelycomplicated but algorithmically controlled work, making it possible to usethis sustainable and natural material in innovative ways. By joining smaller,machine-cut pieces, according to an assembly rule to generate a whole it isthus possible to innovate along the Japanese tradition of creating patternsas a space-defining interface. Tradition and innovation, digital design andreal fabrication will be the topics of this workshop, with the aim to advancetheoretical research as well as potential practical applications of algorithmicdesign in architecture and urban design.
http://aast09.wordpress.com/

for more info see the flyer or send a mail to:

lorenaATalessiostudio.com, cristina.edizioniATtucanoviaggi.com

Port Arthur – Historic sites

“Port Arthur and Coal Mines Historic Sites are two of eleven historic places that together form the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage Property”
Few pictures of Port Arthur buildings. To read more about Port Arthur history and its offered activities, click here.

Port Arthur - The Historic Site

WE SPENT JUST FEW HOURS AT THE SITE BEFORE HEADING BACK TO HOBART. THEY JOURNEY FROM HOBART TO THIS HISTORICAL SITES TOOK 90 MINUTES DRIVING, EVEN WITH OUR “BABY LAMBO“. BUT, WE WERE A BIT FRUSTRATED TO GIVE UP FOR THE GHOST TOUR WHICH ONLY OFFERED AT NIGHT. INDEED, ITS A SCARY, MYSTERIOUS, SPOOKY PLACE, EVEN DURING THE DAY. READ MORE ABOUT THE GHOST TOUR

Azizul Hakim Musa

Timeless route – Half real space

half real space exploration - phenomenological space

Name: Azizul Hakim Musa
Artifact title: Timeless route – Half Real Space
Artifact description

Timeless route is a ‘half real space’ that could not be measured by numbers like other 3D mental space, but a space that draws interaction. This space constitutes game principles; needs, desire, personal growth and freedom. People perceive the shortest distance of two points as a straight line but straight lines may or may not produce the shortest time of journey. Time would become slower when things move faster. I placed the artefact next to a straight route to bring the user in understanding the notion of space relative to time; a temporal dimension that designers always forget. Phenomenological space classified as abstract space challenges possibilities of operation. It exists by senses and presumption, rather than normally seen and known. By giving value to the rhythmic human movement or body schema, instead of stopping and walking through, of certain arrangement of ergodic settings, it will turn the transitional space into a dynamic living space where people can investigate and challenge them . The player will experience other people’s imagination and hallucination with the self encouragement to explore and is given opportunity in becoming virtuoso, based on human escapist desire. This creation of space by using loose element definitely is a risky proposition with no guaranteed benefits, but as incomplete space, endlessly completed by people who use it.

Timeless route is the starting point of ‘half real space’ exploration, guiding style of my ludic architecture of the future.