#arc311

Exercise 6 - Robotic Toolpaths

Exercise 6 - Robotic Toolpaths

Exercise 6 - Robotic Toolpaths

Exercise 6 - Robotic Toolpaths

“It is precisely when practice and experimentation turn up inconsistencies in the “normal science” that new theories are produced.” (XII)

“Constantly mixing media in this way, material practices produce new concepts out of the materials and procedures of work itself.” (XIII)

           We have spoken this semester of risk and surprise. Craft is risk, the evolutionary algorithm must produce surprising results to be worth our time, prototyping depends on risk and unknown to discover new systems—otherwise it would be a model not a prototype. Innovation in architecture happens in the gaps between what we know, in the processes of building and designing and creating in which we do not know the end result. Allen reintroduces this notion, speaking to how “theory” and “practice” are actually the same: practice produces theory, and in doing so makes theory another sort of practice. It’s architecture; our end results almost always take up space in the real world, and for that reason we are quite tethered to our realities which means our theories must constantly be acted upon, adapted to the world. They must constantly evolve, learn, grow. 

           “Tethered to a fast-moving reality, material practices need to be agile and responsive, which often requires that they leave behind some of the weighty baggage of received ideas” (XV). There is a constant back and forth between concept and making. Architecture has a responsibility to keep up with the latest technological innovations, the newest climates and cultures, and for that reason we do things like learn of building systems in our architecture class not in the details of plumbing and air conditioning, but in understanding geometry, tools, concepts of workflow that will keep us steady through a fast moving reality. It is our responsibility to refuse to think of architecture and architectural ideas as monolithic; they have to change rapidly, constantly.

In the introductory chapter of his book Practice: Architecture, Technique and Representation, Stan Allen opposes the categories “theory” and “practice” as shown in the following table.

However, Allen doesn’t just argue that architecture is practice rather than a theory, but he also suggests a further differentiation between two competing categories of practice. He distinguished between “discursive practices” and “material practices” as in the following table.

Allen argues that architecture qualifies as a material practice rather than as discursive practice for multiple reasons:

1) The Specificity of Building Compared to other discursive practices as writing, film, new media, etc. architecture is “relatively inert as discourse”. Practicing architecture as discursive practice is “a troublesome pursuit”. However, as material practice, architecture’s material and instrumental properties present great opportunities. Architecture’s real attraction is its source of creativity, operational power, and pleasure. [p.14]

2) Architecture’s Agency in the Public Architecture is part of a complex social exchange. Because of the constant change of the public sphere, architecture cannot rely on existing norms and conventions of agency but needs to be agile and responsive to the fast-moving reality. Therefore, architecture must be conceived as material practice. [p.14/15]

3) Practical Consequences and Effects of Architecture “The ability of architecture to generate perceivable experiences and sensations in the world – practical consequences and effects – is more important than its conformance or non-conformance with some abstract set of theoretical criteria”. Architects work with lots of theoretical knowledge, but the impact of this knowledge is indirect. However, the variables of construction in architectural procedures create practical consequences and effects. [p.16/17]

4) Constant Change of Architectural Practice Architecture influences culture and society but is also largely influenced by culture and society. Architecture has survived the constant changes of society by being constantly revised and changing itself. Architecture cannot rely on theory and past work. As material practice, “the significant work of architecture is one that allows continual revision and rereading, teasing out new meanings as the context changes”. [p.17/18]

5) The Writing of an Architect

Architects write texts as well, but the activity of writing of architects can be part of architecture as material practice. The writing of architects is constantly on the lookout for change and new techniques. It works from examples towards something new, and it does not work from principles to regenerate something that already exists. [p.20]

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The reading is very much in accordance with our class which clearly treats architecture as material practice. Some of Allen’s arguments are very comprehensible in the context of the class:

4) Constant Change of Architectural Practice ARC 311 gave us an understanding of the constant change of architecture and “the new ways of thinking and seeing that have emerged with modernity” as mentioned in the text (p.20). One of the biggest changes in modern architecture has been the shift to digital design and computation. The class taught us how to use computer programs and algorithms to facilitate the architectural design process. Furthermore, we learned how to use modern technologies and machines like the laser cutter, the Zund, or the CNC Milling machine. Another development in the architecture world is the rise of robotics, which we have also dealt with in the class.

3) Practical Consequences and Effects of Architecture When producing volumes and shapes with some of the machines listed above, we generated perceivable experiences and sensations. Also, it was oftentimes apparent that whatever we produced was not conforming with theory. There was always a factor of doubt or risk, practical consequences and effects of materiality that weren’t accounted for, etc.

5) The Writing of an Architect Through our weekly readings we dealt with many writings of architects. However, we never tried to conform with the existing principles from the texts in our projects. We used the readings as base, but always pushed ourselves to go beyond previous work and create something entirely new and original.

Exercise 7.2 - Material Process: Casting Concrete

During the casting, we were interested in adapting the concrete not only by adding color but also by adding other materials for additional texture. Bubble wrap (small and large sizes) was used to test and push the boundaries of concrete’s physicality by producing texture and the permanent impressions of crumbling plastic air bubbles into this solid form.