Branching and Lotus Example files

I. John Frazier’s Evolutionary Architecture

Physical computing: interaction creates electronic connections between modules > Skylar Tibbett’s project to embed intelligence

Concept of creating many unexpected variations

Genetic algorithms create rules for creating the next generation and then making a selection of survivors. (Natural articulated rules vs. Artificial selection through intuition).
Convergent vs. Divergent solutions

The Development system reads the environment and the genes to create results which provides feedback to both. The Genetic algorithm determines how the child variants are created from the parents and how results are sorted.
It has to be a consistent system generating reliable results

II. Evolutionary Development: Master Hox genes turn on genes that create parts of the body. Chicken Teeth can be created when latent extinct genes are accidently activated:

John Conway’s Game of Life video showing the simplest computational genetic system (3:30 min.)

Prof. Robert Sapolsky on Emergence and Complexity explains mathmatics in the context of biological phenomena: how simple mechanisms can create complexity.

Fractals and Recursion (idea of branching)

Oregon Explorer has a Wildlife Explorer

HOMEWORK:

1) Assignment 1B: Rhino / Grasshopper model of a natural form, process or system (select something whose organization, form or dynamic might have architectural application.

2) Reading: Jean Frasier’s Evolutionary Architecture and Sean Carroll’s Endless Forms Most Beautiful. Chapters 1 and 2.

3) Install Kangaroo Physics GH plugin

I. Course Introduction, discussion of student learning objectives

II. Inspiration for Assignment 1

• Marjan Eggermont’s Engineering Student Sketches of Organisms and Biomimetic Designs
• Biomimicry Design Challenge.  (What’s Up Dock?  created with Prezi.com)
• Karl Blosfeldt Archive of Nature Specimen Photos
• Hilla and Bernd Becher’s Water Towers

III. Hands-on Demo: Galapagos Evolutionary Fitness

John Frazier’s Evolutionary Architecture

galapagos files v3 with area matching

Galapagos video tutorial (shows curve, square and volume)

The Challenge:  Translate the structure, process or system of a natural organism into an architectural form or environmental design element.

RESEARCH (visual summary)
1. Biomimetic inspiration: hand-sketches
2. Diagrams of physiological, behavioral or anotomical elements: How are the organism’s physical systems, behaviors and structures adapted to climate? How do they enable specific functions?
3. Climatic Interface: How does the organism’s structure, process or system mediate the external environment?

DESIGN
Show how a designed building, structure, responsive surface or object addresses a specific challenge or deficiency.

4. Problem definition & Design concept statement
5. Diagrams: How does the design’s structure, mechanism or system work?
6. Context (i.e. site plan, plan and section, photo, sketch)
7. 3-dimensional view
8. Detail i.e. section of facade module w/ daylight, wind or water.

Optional: Change over time, before and after

I. Puzzler: Based on the Golden.gh file, how do you create a double helix? the Swiss Re? Spiral Staircase?
Single point on a spiral:
x = R * Cos (A)
y = R * Sin (A)
z = k * (Height/NumSteps)

Add Pi, 180 degrees, to the angle to create a point on the opposite side of the circle:
x = R * Cos (A + Pi)
y = R * Sin (A + Pi)
z = k * (Height/NumSteps)

Creating a Series, adds a increment to the angle, as it moves up. Spiral stair: rotate the spiral by that same angle increment.

II. Ladybug
Portal to Radiance, Daysim. Honeybee is a portal to EnergyPlus.
Visualize weather data, compare performance of design options.

III. Paneling Tools’ 3DMorphList selects a modular variation according the Weight assigned to each cell. Be sure to Graft the Pattern Object.
Look at Paneling Tools’ Component examples and the Tutorial handbook.

IV. Shading examples

Solar Facade, Kuwait University College of Education designed by Raft Architects and Perkins and Will. See Aksamija, A.: 2013, Sustainable Facades: Design Methods for High-Performance Building Envelopes by Ajla Aksamija, Wiley, London. pp. 262-271. (on Course Folder)

Al Bahr Towers Kinetic Facade, CNN Video

Performative Parametric Design of Radiation Responsive Screens by Henry Marroquin et. al.

Thermal [MU]: A Class of Performative Masonry Units, thesis on self-shading units by Matthew E. Gindlesparger, now at RPI CASE.

GEOMETRY OF GROWTH

Video on Philip Ball’s Self-made Tapestry

Animated examples of how nature uses simple processes to generate complex patterns that vary according to the starting condition. A compilation of the gorgeous Youtube clips include Fractals including branching & cracking, Golden Ratio generating a sunflower, animal Stripes vs. Spots.
(start at 1:22)

GRASSHOPPER
Golden example: Circle > Spiral > Spiral with Graph Mapper or ArcTan profile
Trigonometry ref:  Wikipedia, Wolfram Alpha
Wolframs’ Demonstrations (parametrics created in Mathematica)

Solar Simulation Heliotrope & Ladybug Setup
Heliotrope: lightweight, direct sun angle simulator, gives shadows.
Dynamic and interactive.

Example: Solar Flags – 2D Morph (3D Morph traps flag to the box geometry)

Data management:  lists need to be in same format

• Use Tree Mapper, Panel, Point List and List Item as Diagnostic tools
• Graft separates each item onto its own list
• Flatten puts all the items into one list so that Cull Index can remove problem ones
• Simplify removes extra, unused branches
• Some operations such as find grid centers for diagrids destroy the grid structure of rows and columns

LADYBUG
Ladybug: climate visualization (sun, wind, temp, etc.), portal to powerful Radiance and Daysim daylighting, EnergyPlus

• Open file in METERS
• Place: Import Weather Data
• Time: Set up moment or time of interest
• Factor: Select study of interest
• Sun Path:  multiple paths

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Homework for 2/4:
Develop research project outline and draft, using Wolfram’s demonstrations and Nancy’s Diigo references (posts https://blogs.uoregon.edu/bioform)
Work with Heliotrope to create interactive component and surface (Assignment 2)
Install Ladybug and watch tutorials: 00 Getting Started and 03 SunPath.

Homework for 2/11: Assignment 3, self-shading surface using Ladybug Solar Radiation.

HIGHLIGHTS from Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Diana Wright and Donella Meadows

Ch. 1

Re-framing to see the larger framework can complement traditional linear thinking, yielding new solutions.
Aphorisms contain complex system ideas:
A stitch in time saves nine.
Rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Parts of an Elephant

Function or purpose is reflected in behavior, not rhetoric.

i.e. Bathtub: stock of water depends on outflow and inflow.
Stocks slow to change: act as a buffer

Feedback loops : rules to trigger actions that are dependent on the level of the stock – closed chain.
Balancing feedback loops > equilibrium, resists change
Reinforcing feedback loops > self-enhancing >> exponential growth, runaway collapses

Ch.2  Systems’ Zoo
Examples: Hole in the bucket, Thermostat and heating a leaky house

Stock-maintaining balancing feedback needs to have a goal that compensates for the processes draining the stock.
Dominance of inflow vs. outflow: Population, birthrate and mortality.
Complex behaviors can happen when dominance of feedback loops shift.

Testing the Value of a Model
1. Are the driving factors likely to unfold this way?
2. If they did, would the system react this way?
3. What is driving the driving factors?

Delays in feedback can cause oscillations (shower hot water).  Changing the delay time of loop can have very large consequences.

Nonrenewable resources are stock-limited:  faster extraction means shorter resource availability (depletion).

Renewable resources are flow limited: by regeneration rate.  If extracted too quickly, they are essentially non-renewable.

Possible renewable paths:
– overshoot extraction >> adjust to sustainable equilibrium
– overshoot equilibrium >> oscillation
– overshoot equilibrium >> collapse of the resource (depletion of resource)

Ch.3 Why systems work well
Resilience: ability to recover / restore / repair themselves
Self-organization  (fractals)
Hierarchy (watch repair subsystems).  Ideally hierarchichal systems evolve from the bottom up with upper levels serving the lower levels

Ch.4 Systems and surprises
Linear vs. Non-linear
Adding fertilizer can generate more crops up to a point, then it kills them.
Too many cars kills flow
Soil erosion’s effect is minimal until all the topsoil is gone.

Non-existent Boundaries : waste and resources are in the same world
Input & output from systems depends on where we draw the boundaries.
Limiting factor is the most crucial.  “Every physical entity with multiple inputs and outputs has Layers of limits.”

Delays are ubiquitous:  timeframes will change how we see and intervene in a system, and their consequences

Each individual has “bounded rationality” (god grant us to accept what we can’t change, the courage to change what we can change and the wisdom to know the difference.)

Ch. 5 Traps
Trap: Policy resistance.  Different players pull the system to their own motivations.

i.e. Population spur:  Romania abortion/contraceptive ban >> illegal abortions, Hungary larger housing units, Sweden $ supporting child-rearing: better child care & free obstetrics, support for poor families, education.

Ch. 7 World of Systems
Systems thinking raises questions

Best Practices:
Carefully study the system first to get out pre-conceptions: examine potential causative factors and their relationships.
Expose mental models
Reveal information
Use language carefully
Include key non-quantifiable factors
Use policy to develop feedback loops
Look at the big picture, expand time horizons
Identify key triggers & responsibility
Keep learning: an open mind can overcome misconceptions

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