We are pleased to share photos from our recent Pratt 2011SP Pratt | Digital Crafting Midterm Review.

The seminar is examining the procedural distinctions between craftsmanship and manufacturing; the former being the “workmanship of risk” and the latter the “workmanship of certainty”. Digital Crafting operates through a framework of computational, material, and fabrication strategies that hinge on the craftspersons’ skill, dexterity, and willingness to embrace the unknown, what has been termed “Risk” by David Pye in his seminal work, The Nature and Art of Workmanship .

It is our assertion that through this notion of Risk we may best critique our current milieu and arrive upon an apt characterization of Craft, as well as its affiliated set of procedures, within architectural praxis today.

Participating Students:
Heidy Garay
Justin Hattendorf
Sharon Jamison
Eun Ji Lee
Seo Hee Lee
Victoria Perez
Christopher Santos
Ji-Won Shin
Jia Rong Zhu

Thank you to Christopher Santos for the great set of photos!

More information and photos can be found HERE!

We are pleased to be working with Marius Watz on some CNC drawings using the KNK-MAXX 24 here in our studio. The work is off to a very interesting start and we are looking forward to future development.

Thanks to Marius for the awesome photo!

More information about the many things that Marius Watz is up to can be found at the following links:

http://www.generatorx.no/

http://www.unlekker.net/

http://workshop.evolutionzone.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/watz/

Studio Mode is pleased to announce that we will be conducting the Advanced Parametric Design workshop at the upcoming ACADIA2010 Conference.

The ACADIA 2010 conference will focus on the changing nature of information and its impact on architectural education, research and practice. With the ever-increasing integration of information technologies in the design laboratory, the discipline of architecture has changed profoundly in recent years. The emerging fields of digital fabrication, generative and evolutionary modeling among others, are now at the core of investigations in a growing community of digital design practitioners and researchers.

ACADIA 2010 will explore the ways designers, architects, engineers and scientists collect, analyze and assemble information through computational systems that redefine the notions of design performance and optimization, evolutionary and responsive models. These notions are today inherently related to the possibilities and limitations offered by our increasing computational capabilities, and the way information shapes relations between the human, the environment, and the machine.

ACADIA 2010 will gather leading practitioners, theorists, and researchers who will examine the relation that architecture has with technology and information, and how the latter propels today’s most innovative design experimentations and research. The conference will be centered on a series of peer-reviewed paper sessions and a groundbreaking exhibition including peer-reviewed projects.

ACADIA 2010: October 21st to 24th 2010, The Cooper Union, NY

Associative Protocols | Catalyst Workshop | University of Minnesota | 20100308-20100312
Ronnie Parsons + Gil Akos

Architecture continuously informs and is informed by its modes of representation and production. Evidenced by recent material, construction and media innovations in our field, the introduction of computation and fabrication has accelerated and broadened the means by which architects imagine and construct the world. As architects, we have the unique capacity to catalyze opportunities in this contemporary scenario into novel design solutions.

While this fertile ground may seem exclusive to the contemporary condition, there is a rich history of material and construction innovation within the field of architecture poised for interrogation. This can be seen in the work of architects such as Charles and Ray Eames, Erwin Hauer, and Miguel Fisac, whose explorations prefaced architecture as a material practice. Drawing from such precedents, this workshop will investigate a design model that simultaneously incorporates means of working and making that are iteratively examined and cross-related through prototyping and material testing.

Associative Protocols encompasses processes that are explicit, specific, and operative. This model will be the mechanism by which we incorporate design and fabrication constraints as well as cultural pressures in the design of rich and robust material assemblies and prototypes.

Text coming soon…

Mode experiments with System Path Optimization.

Text coming soon…