This winter the AA will hold its first annual Beijing Global School at the Digital College of CrystalCG in collaboration with the parametric Studio of Tsinghua Architectural Design & Research Institute.

I will be a part of this event as a tutor.

The studio-based course is open to anyone interested in the experimental design of architecture and will investigate emerging computational approaches in the context of Beijing, one of the world’s most architecturally eclectic cities.

Challenging the Iconic As the capital of the world’s fastest growing country, Beijing has become an experimental platform for many architects, making grand statements encouraged by the obsession for so-called iconic buildings. Does Beijing need more of these and do these projects respond to the city’s history and culture or create an entirely new context? This workshop will address these questions. The objective is to evolve a coherent architectural prototype by ‘Super-Blending’ conflicting elements co-existing in Beijing (e.g. hutong and boulevard, courtyard and skyscraper, culture and technology, old and new, nature and artefact, order and chaos). Students will tour parts of the city prior to working in a team-based design studio. A series of seminars and lectures related to computational design will also be offered. The essential parametric design technique will enable students to experiment with code-based modelling and simulation following the workshop’s objective to challenge the iconic buildings of Beijing. participants will learn Rhino Gh and Scripting, plus some Maya and 3D Max animation and simulatio techniques, as well as 3D printing of prototype models.

Applications
The deadline for applications is 15 January 2010. Application forms and additional information are available online at:
www.aaschool.ac.uk/beijing2010 and applications can be submitted to: visitingschool@aaschool.ac.uk

Posted: November 15th, 2009 under News.
Comments: none

As part of my work for Zaha Hadid Architects, I have designed the installation for the ZHA retrospective exhibition and the Table of Architecture, both of which have been unveiled during the 2009 Barbara Cappochin International Architecture Biennial. The exhibition takes place at The Salone of Palazzo della Ragione (constructed 1172-1219), one of the most notable monuments in the city of Padova, being reputed to have the largest roof unsupported by columns in Europe and decorated inside with an elaborate cycle of frescoes.

The Palazzo has presented itself as a vigorous design challenge for Zaha Hadid due to the historical quality of the space. The aim has been both to respect the spatial / contextual characteristics and to intervene in the space at the same time. The Salone is viewed as a field upon which the existing data of the space, such as entrances/openings, act as shaping forces. This force-field has resulted in the creation of a world of undulating landscape-like forms, made up of blocks and plinths. Due to their slender geometry, the blocks, performing both as installation and exhibition medium, allow the visitors to appreciate the frescoes and other existing sculptures in the space. The plinths can be used for placing the various products/furniture pieces ZHA has designed as well as offering seating spaces for the visitors.

The undulating blocks, whose forms are defined by the rules of breaking and continuity, generate 6 distinct islands within themselves. Each of these islands define the Conceptual Morphologies of the ZHA exhibition concept, namely: (1) Lines/Bundles/Networks, (2) Waves/Shells/Cocoons, (3) Aggregations/Clusters/Jigsaws, (4) Fields, (5)Landscape & Topography, and (6) Parametricism.

The purpose of the Table of Architecture is to showcase the winners of the 2009 Barbara Cappochin Biennale. Located in Piazza Cavour, Padova, the object is designed to challenge the usual perception of wood as a sheet or stick material, rediscovering the sculptural potential of the wooden mass. A large block of wood is carved out by dynamic forces to create an undulating structure, installed as a large scale piece of urban furniture which will attract and surprise the pedestrian flow around it. Seating areas as well as displays are provided within the sculpture.

The top undulating surface has been panelized to generate a series of elements that can display the architectural projects of the winners of the Biennale.

Table of Architecture is 2,3m x 1,5m x 19,8m and it weighs 7,3 tonnes.

Me with the Table of Architecture and the Installation

Posted: November 15th, 2009 under News.
Comments: none

I am glad to announce that I will be a PhD Candidate Student at the Architectural Association starting in September 2009.

As part of PhD in Architectural Design Program (which is an option for qualified architects with experience in design research and an interest in relating theory to design practice), the topic of my research is “MATHEMATICS IN NATURE: SELF-ORGANIZATION IN PARAMETRICALLY GENERATED MORPHOLOGIES”.

I will be updating my blog regularly showing the progress in my PhD research.

Posted: August 16th, 2009 under News.
Comments: 2

I have been invited by Nous Gallery (Melissa Woolford) to participate in Beyond Media 2009, the 9^th Edition of the International Festival for Architecture and Media, that takes place in Florence, Italy during 9-17 July 2009.

I will be presenting a 3-minute video showcasing my work on www.elif-erdine.com, as part of the Nous Gallery installation at the Stazione Leopolda.

Here is some information on Beyond Media 2009:

“BEYOND MEDIA is one of the main events worldwide dedicated to the most current visions on contemporary architecture and on the outcomes of the intense relations which exist between architecture and the media.”

“Within a world that is rapidly accelerating, architecture itself is attempting to renew its identity, to redefine its function and tools, and to reconfigure the borders of its areas of intervention. And it is in this progression that communications and media increasingly become part of the means with which project designers operate and develop their relations and tools that, as a result, inevitably influence a consistent part of architectural production and its widespread presence.

With BEYOND MEDIA we have chosen to insist upon the investigation of this scenario in order to effectively convey and report the architecture of our times, through a manifestation that gains strength from both widespread sentiment and independent observation.

It seems that, in the last few years, contemporary architects have lost their ability to pursue grand visions and to construct a broad outlook that engages complex transformations of the built environment. They are unable to construct thoughts and a conscience beyond that which is usual, empirical, and visible. It is also true that the massive production and consumption of architectural images has resulted in a greater proximity to design issues by the general public. In the era of global communications, the representation of projects expresses an increasing tendency to develop new capacities to elaborate its very realm of action and to determine new systems of relations, while heading towards something that can be interpreted as a renewal of those persuasive intents that were part of humanistic representationalism. However, at the same time, those images, which are often so autonomous as to seem disassociated from representation, have altered the way people conceive of architecture; hence they seem to have affected the ability and the opportunity to generate visions, and hence theories, that are deeply rooted in our time and, at the same time, receptive to new, possible scenarios.
With VISIONS, this festival proposes a new reflection on the themes of project figuration and representation, and on the limits of our ability to observe and report that which is not in front of our eyes, in order to move towards a research of more effective visions that are extended in space and time. Visions that allow us to think about and better define the context and framework for the future.”

Posted: July 11th, 2009 under News.
Comments: none

The House of Arts and Architecture Association CASARTARC settled in Settimo Torinese, Turin, is developing a project called ‘Advanced Architecture Settimo Tokyo’ (AAST), a group of Generative Architecture events: workshops, a two days conference and an exhibition with venues in Settimo & Tokyo and possibly Cagliari & London.

The events of AAST focus on the approach to design through parametric design tools, such as Rhinoscript, Grasshopper, Mel script, DP, GC.

YME will be part of the international exhibition with our AA MArch. thesis project Hybrid Species, presenting the utilization of Mathematica as an architectural design tool.

The first stage of the exhibition will run from 7 April to 17 May 2009 in Turin, Italy. The opening conference for the exhibition will be made by Patrik Schumacher (partner at Zaha Hadid Architects). The exhibition will travel to Tokyo, Japan in May 2010.

For more information, you can check http://www.casartarc.org.

Posted: March 15th, 2009 under News.
Comments: none

I and Margarita of YME presented our MArch. thesis project Hybrid Species at the Architectural Association on the 05^th of March. The presentation focused on how YME employed the software Mathematica as a parametric design tool throughout our 16 month design research.

For more information on Hybrid Species, you can look at www.yme-uk.net .

Posted: March 15th, 2009 under News.
Comments: none

YME has been commissioned by the Architectural Association to design and manufacture a special edition book case for “DRL TEN: A DESIGN RESEARCH COMPENDIUM”. The book is a critique of the 10 years of DRL, including thesis projects, articles by the tutors, etc.

X: 1. (Roman numerals) The number 10.    

2. a letter in the Latin alphabet.

3. an unknown variable in algebra. (from wikipedia.com and wiktionary.org)

The concept of morpho.X is derived from the trajectories that X would travel in time through an unknown landscape. As X makes its journey in this unknown landscape, it creates multiple trajectories and fuses with the landscape, adapting its morphology to the changing topography. X becomes the landscape, or the landscape becomes X; the result is a Moire pattern.

 The book and the special edition slipcase, morpho.X, were launched on the 13th of March at the AA.

Posted: March 15th, 2008 under News.
Comments: none

I’ve attended the Smart Geometry 2008 Workshop and Conference, which was held on February 27th- March 5th, in Munich.

The workshop structure was comprised of 5 different categories, namely Environment, Fabrication, Form, Computation, and Architecture.  I was part of the Computation group, looking into ways of scripting and manipulating mathematically defined forms in GC.  My goal was to develop YME’s proposal for the AADRL.TEN Pavilion, basically defining the underlying geometry, the mobius-klein nonmanifold, in a parametric manner inside GC and then populating this geometry with components of varying depths and openings. In GC script, it is possible to describe any geometry with an explicit formula. Thus, by defining the x, y, z parameters of the surface and inserting variables for its sub-domains in GC script, it was possible to visualize any part of the surface by changing the sub-domain variables. Afterwards, four types of simple components with different depths and openings were assigned to the UV coordinates to populate the 4 sub-domains of the mobius-klein nonmanifold.  

Mobius-Klein nonmanifold scripted in GC.

Sub-domain of the surface visualized by changing variables.

Sub-domain populated with one type of component.

Posted: March 11th, 2008 under News, Parametric Design.
Comments: none

Elif Erdine and Ceyhun Baskin have been the guest editors of Betonart for its Winter 2008 issue, investigating the impact of concrete and digital technologies upon one another under the theme “Digital Concrete”. Their article “Towards a Paperless Architecture” have been published alongside with articles from Christos Passas (ZHA), Charles Walker (ZHA), Andrew Murray (AKT), and Wolfgang Rieder (Rieder FiberC).

Read more »

Posted: March 11th, 2008 under Architecture, News, Parametric Design.
Comments: none

The AADRL.TEN Competition was organized in October by the AA Design Research Lab (DRL) to rethink and celebrate its 10th anniversary. More than 30 proposals were submitted by postDRL designers. YME has been selected as one of the 5 finalists with their parametrically generated pavilion.

This proposal aims to capture 10 years of DRL explorations of new forms of design thinking in a realized tangible structure. The pavilion presents itself as a non-orientable manifold where there is no clear distinction between inside and outside. It offers a unique and intriguing spatial experience that will serve as a teaching instrument for the academic community. The design pushes the structural properties of fiber-C by proposing an innovative use of this material as a modular, self-supporting assembly.

The shape of the pavilion is mathematically generated by combining the properties of two non-orientable manifolds, the klein bottle and mobius strip. The pavilion measures 10×7x4 meters and is intended to be a freestanding structure without anchoring to the ground.

The curved surface of the manifold is constructed out of plannar fi ber-C panels that are folded into parallelepipeds forming ‘cells’ that are connected together to form the curvature. Paracloud software is used to populate the geometry with components. More information about the competition can be found at 

http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/aadrl/drlpavilion/ 

Posted: December 4th, 2007 under News.
Comments: none