This 500,000 sqm building will be the headquarters for Chinese state TV and is Rem Koolhaas’ attempt to create “an unbelievably beautiful building”. It also sees him making a bid for global recognition: Koolhaas has yet to produce his definitive building, and this could be it. Koolhaas was invited to enter both this competition and the one for Ground Zero in New York; his new-found opposition to skyscrapers and a distaste for George W Bush’s America persuaded him to focus on Beijing. “We felt that CCTV was more legitimate territory for experimentation than Ground Zero would be,” he says. The building takes the self-consciously unskyscraper-like form of a giant loop and is as much an exercise in extreme engineering and icon-mongering as an attempt to house the diverse functions of a major broadcasting outfit that employs 10,000 people. “A new icon is formed … not the predictable two-dimensional tower soaring skyward but a truly three-dimensional experience,” he writes in Content.
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Music for Bodies
Music for Bodies is a research project linking the sonic mapping of human bodies to architecture, through a practical study of bioresonance and interface building. Its aim is to discover new methods of experimental music making, as well as make new music more accessible to the wider community. It is doing this concentrating on making music to feel rather than just listen to. Currently it is making Sonic Beds around the world; it recently won an Award of Distinction for Digital Music at Prix Ars Electronica
Pyramid of Peace
Recently opened the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation in Astana, the new capital of Kazakhstan. According to Foster and Partners "as a non-denominational contemporary building form, the pyramid is resonant of both a spiritual history that dates back to ancient Egypt as well as a symbol of amity for the future."
Refractive Imaging
Photographer Alan Jaras experiments incorporating colour into the nominal b/w images of the refraction patterns of light passing through formed and shaped plastic. The objective is to introduce colour while still retaining the fine detail of the basic pattern.
Electric Sheep
Electric Sheep is a free, open source screen saver run by thousands of people all over the world. It can be installed on any ordinary PC or Mac. When these computers "sleep", the screen saver comes on and the computers communicate with each other by the internet to share the work of creating morphing abstract animations known as "sheep". The result is a collective "android dream", an homage to Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
Parasitology
Rudolf Leuckart was considered the "Father of Parasitology" as well as one of the most famous zoologists of the 19th century. His careful descriptions of morphologic details gave major support to the newly established field of animal systematics: the idea that evolution can be traced through structural changes. Leuckart's textbooks remain a classic to this day.
Morphogenomics
The creation of an infinite variety of forms based on a single algorithm is a method used by Lalvani in the Column Museum (above) It is a virtual environment of all possible architectural columns of the past, present and future. Haresh Lalvani is a professor of architecture at Pratt Institute and a self-described “architect-morphologist”. He has focused a lifetime of study in architecture, nature and math in the exploration of forms and the development of a new architectural language. He introduced the field of genomic architecture five years ago, where the model of DNA building blocks are applied to the creation of an endless variety of forms. In this new science, called Morphogenomics, he is formulating a universal code for all morphologies - natural and artificial. He also developed AlgoRhythm technologies to efficiently bend sheets of metals into complex forms based on advanced mathematics of surfaces for architectural and design applications.
Biothing
Alisa Andrasek is an experimental practitioner of architecture and computational processes in design. She is the founder of biothing, “a transdisciplinary laboratory which research focuses on generative potential of physical and artificial computational systems for design.” Her computational design techniques are applied to architecture, fabrics, interactive and sound installations, structural studies, gardens, curtains, ceilings and more. Her explorations include computational algorithms, morphological patterns and genetic design. She is interested in the synthesis of art and science by bringing together aesthetics of design with engineering through the use of genetic algorithms in the manufacturing process of materials. Working with genetic algorithms, she says “You can control the nature of them, but not the final result. You’re setting up certain conditions and then letting this genetic game play on its own.”
Algorithms in Architecture
Michael Hansmeyer is an architect who uses L-system growth processes for architectural design. He explores the interpretation of L-system strings into geometric forms, through mappings and turtle graphics. His process is well documented and provides a good picture of the potential of L-system-derived 3D forms. His work shows different methods of mapping strings through vertices, surfaces, objects and groupings of strings and generations. His designs are created in Maya, using MEL (Maya Embedded Language). I would like to experiment with some of the methods he has used in the visual interpretation of strings.
