AAVS Jordan 2013 – report

On June 2013 Co-de-iT was invited for tutoring the AA Visiting School Jordan 2013 from its director Riyad Joucka. The Visiting School took place from 1st-10th september in Amman.

The workshop proposed the rethinking of the process of developing architectural interventions within the Jordanian desert. Set within the dynamic city of Amman, the rose-rock carved city of Petra and the echoing desert of Wadi Rum. Throughout the 10 day programme, participants familiarized with generative modeling techniques and computational analysis softwares through seminars and were encouraged to observe natural formation as a precedent for the production of macro and micro architectural interventions within the desert ecology.

. Co-de-iT unit

The Co-de-iT unit (Tommaso Casucci and Alessandro Zomparelli) explored the use of advanced computational strategies and simulation to define proactive architectural formations inside the extreme conditions of the desert ecology. This design intent was pursued through the use of non-linear strategies operating within systems of multiple self-organized agents and lattice simulations. Starting from the observation of natural phenomena inside the Jordanian desert, the students were guided in the use of digital simulation, reproducing some of the rules behind many of the observed natural formations, towards architectural design intents. From a purely technical standpoint students approached a set of advanced computational tools such as Rhinoceros Grasshopper (stress analysis with Millipede) and Processing (Multiagent based simulations, Cellular Automata/Reaction-Diffusion systems) in an integrated pipeline for design.

. Sponsorship by D-shape

Co-de-iT unit was sponsored by D-Shape that offered its support as a consultant and their registered materials for the fabrication of large scale 3D models produced transforming desert sand in a solid and efficient building material.

. Field trip

The workshop included a 2 days field trip on the desert of Wadi Rum and the ancient city of Petra, during which the students were encouraged to document natural and manmade formations present in the desert environment.

. Unit projects

Back to Amman students assisted to a series of tutorials introducing them to the use of Processing (in particular multi-agent based simulations and Cellular Automata/Reaction-Diffusion systems) and to the use of Millipede for Grasshopper for stress analysis. The students were then organized into two sub-groups to work on two final project proposals. The final presentations consisted of a 15 minutes presentation of images and videos explaining the projects and a series of physical models.

Here below a short overview about the two projects:

project reConnect

students: Agata Kurzela, Ban Edilbi, Farah Mudhefer, Mahmoud Aref, Sarah Hussein, Shahad Farouk Ghafoory.

brief:

The project is a proposal for an architectural infrastructure able to provide the path to Petra with spaces to rest, walk and have physical activity inside climately controlled areas.

The design process consisted of a combination of topological optimization studies based on stresses analysis, defining the overall distribution of the project, and a 2.5D Reaction-Diffusion (Grey Scott) system that were used to define the detailed spatial qualities of the overall formations. In particular, more or less dense areas are defined accordingly to stress intensity throughout the analysed volume.

project coEvo

students: Tala Fasheh, Mohammad Al-Majed, Adeen Ghaith, Hashem Joucka, Sounia Al Nimiri, Suha Hasan, Morad Alzaghal.

brief:

The project is a proposal for an observation platform on the top of one of the many rock formations present inside the Jordanian desert. Starting from the observation of rock formations, the project aims to engage erosion processes as an active phenomenon to articulate project qualities both performatively (water collection) and aesthetically (definition of controlled surface erosion patterns). The platform main articulation was defined by exploring many different spatial articulations and continuously verifying their capacity to create self-supporting structures through the use of the Millipede plug-in for Grasshopper. Multi-agent based strategies were then utilized to define surface patterns capable to intentionally drive the structure erosion during the time and at the same time to act as a water/moisture collection strategy.

. Acknowledgments thanks to Riyad Joucka for inviting us to the workshop and for organizing such a great event, thanks Ursula Frick and Thomas Grabner (UTO) for being such a great partners in tutoring the Visiting School, thanks to all the students for all the hard work in finishing the projects in time and fabricate the models, thanks to Christopher Pierce the overall organization, support and encouragement.

. Exhibition in Amman the visiting school projects has been presented in the occasion of the exhibition TRENDSETTING IV: ARCHITECT AS DESIGNER , at Nabad Gallery in Amman from 9th December to 29th January 2014