In July 2009 two leading independent schools of architecture, the Architectural Association, London and the IE School of Architecture, Madrid/Segovia, will join forces to launch a new summer school in Madrid, one of Europe’s most dynamic capital cities. The intensive 10-day studio-based design workshop is open to students, young architects and other designers worldwide. Participants will investigate new architectural and urban design approaches within the context of Madrid. The workshop will focus on the redesign and redevelopment of an iconic site located in the core of the city.
(text from the Summer School Poster)

Links:
IE Shool of Architecture
Architectural Association + IE School of Architecture = Summer School Madrid

Flyer and Summer School Poster :

The AZCA district in Madrid underwent a rapid transformation in the middle decades of the twentieth century. Designated as a special zoning district, the 190-hectare site was envisioned as a great business centre with high-risebuildings for finance, offices, housing, hotel, commercial use and open space. Following models derived from old dominant principles, it was driven by a combination of factors that quickly contributed to its decay, demise and disuse. Like other large-scale developments elsewhere in Europe, it became obsolete as it failed to keep pace with the many ways in which building
types, open spaces and public use patterns evolved since the time of its construction. Focusing on the AZCA district, the workshop will emphasise the way in which emergent urban ideas, experimental design strategies, processual working methods and hybrid
public initiatives can be brought to bear on such sites in order to fundamentally improve public life in the city.
Text: extract from the Summer School Poster

Image from google Earth.

This is a small colaboration with Mary ann busby, from chile.
the aim was generate surface from other surfaces, and create some kind movement.
the code works under recursion: analizing, generating and deleting every surface.
is very abstract and also is very simple how it’s works.

Some Images from the complete generation, saving every “child”:

And here the code:
some functions from Marius Watz:
Option Explicit
‘Script written by carlos de la b.
‘Script copyrighted by designemergente.org
‘Script version miércoles, 24 de junio de 2009 18:17:12

Call Main()
Sub Main()

‘//we need a Surface to grow and grow
Dim Idsrf
Idsrf = Rhino.GetObject(”sel srf”,
If IsNull(Idsrf) Then Exit Sub

Call rec(Idsrf, 0)

End Sub

Function rec(Idsrf, counter) ‘//recursion under your own Risk!!!

‘domain of the curve
Dim Udom, Vdom
Udom = Rhino.SurfaceDomain(Idsrf, 0)
Vdom = Rhino.SurfaceDomain(Idsrf, 1)

‘parameters, divisions, counters and a point
Dim Up, Vp, divU, divV, i, j, k, pt, l
k = 0
divU = 6
divV = 6

Dim arrPoints(35)

For i = 0 To divU – 1
For j = 0 To divV – 1

Up = Udom(0) + i * ((Udom(1) – Udom(0)) / divU)
Vp = Vdom(0) + j * ((Vdom(1) – Vdom(0)) / divV)

pt = Rhino.SurfaceCurvature(Idsrf, Array(Up, Vp))

‘Randomize
‘ If 0.5 < rnd Then
‘ pt(1) = Rhino.VectorScale(pt(1), rnd * 5)
‘ l = Rhino.PointAdd(pt(1), pt(0))

‘ Else
l = Rhino.PointAdd(pt(1), pt(0))

‘ End If

arrPoints(k) = l
k = k + 1

Next
Next

Call Rhino.DeleteObject(IDsrf)
Dim n: n = Rhino.AddSrfPtGrid (Array(divU, divV), arrPoints)

Call Rhino.sleep(3000)

renderView()

Call rec(n, counter + 1)

End Function

‘ Render current viewport
Function renderView()’this function from Marius Watz, a very little modification by me.
Dim view,filename

view = Rhino.CurrentView
Rhino.Command “_-Render”
filename=getRenderFileName(”GrowSurface”)
Dim cmd : cmd=”_-SaveRenderWindowAs ” & Chr(34) & filename & Chr(34)
Rhino.Command cmd
Rhino.Command “_-CloseRenderWindow”
Rhino.Sleep(3000)
End Function

‘ Get auto-incremented filename
Function getRenderFileName(scriptName) ‘this function from Marius Watz
Dim index,done, doc, file, temp,imgNum

done=-1
index=0
Do While done=-1
doc=Rhino.WorkingFolder & “\” & scriptName & padStr(scriptName,index) & “.jpg”
file=Rhino.FindFile(doc)
If IsNull(file)=True Then
done=1
Else
index=index+1
End If
Loop

getRenderFileName=doc
End Function

Function padStr(prefix,val) ‘this function from Marius Watz
Dim l : l=Len(val)
If l<1 Then
padStr=”000″ & val
ElseIf l<2 Then
padStr=”00″ & val
ElseIf l<3 Then
padStr=”0″ & val
Else
padStr=”" & val
End If
End Function

The last week I have been teaching at ETSAM in Madrid, doing a RhinoScript Workshop in GIGA  Departamento de Ideación Gráfica. Most of the Participants are professors of the university with high levels of mathematics and geometry. The rest, students with high levels in scripting (VB and processing). The workshop lasted two days, we start with Data Types, Mathematical Operations, Conditionals, Loopings, Arrays, Functions and Advanced Functions, Curves Analisys, Surface Analysis, Generation of Surfaces by Parametric Equations (in the group we count with a mathematician), Fractals and Recursion.

The atmosphere during the workshoop was really cool!. I would personally like to thank: Carmen García Reig (Organization and invitation), Ismael García (Organization), Antonio Casas (the mathematician), Pablo Miranda Carpintero (I’m eager to see the programming in Sketch-up), Tomás Pineda (Images), Miguel Vidal, see his blog: arquitecturaprogramable.es

With no particular order, some images of the projects during the workshop.




Tomás Pineda:

Pablo Miranda

Miguel Vidal

Ismael García

Carmen García Reig

Smart Geometry 00:00 am

SmartGeometry 01:00 am

SmartGeometry 03:00 am

SmartGeometry 04:00 am

This was my first time in an SmartGeometry, and I was impressed the high level of the participants and tutors.

Truss Optimization Trough Excel

Mi proposal for the workshop (4 days) consisted in optimize a steel truss, reducing the total weight of the steel, changing thier geometry. but constrained some nodes of the truss move in determinated zones. My original idea for the optimizatión was use Genetic Algorithms.  but in the workshop they propose me use the SOLVE program of Excel to optimize the truss.

This Image Show the description of the problem

This Image  show the relation between GC and Excel how excel Manage the Geometry into GC. Also explain where in excel is the goal (the number that we are trying to reduce). The loads in the truss is decomposed node by node using the trignometric function Sin and Cos. fortunly for me the most part of the excel spreadsheet was maded by Matthew Clark from Arup New York. and the Strategy to connect both programms was of Steven Downing also from Arup Australia.

I Adde the constraints zone into excel and connect them to the position of the points also in the spreadsheet. the code in GC is really short but very intelligent because gc is completely camptured by Excel.

In this image there are an screenshot of the Solver in excel and the truss before and after the optimization. this Images were prepared for the conference day.

This are the parameters of the solver into Excel. also there are more options that you can control like the number of the iterations, the type of the algorithm to optimize, the accurate, etc.

This is an Screenshot during my work.

This is another screenshot and show the truss and the zones where the nodes can be moved. The width difference among all the tubes depends of the section area. also calculated from the spreadsheet in excel.

The truss with differents settings and extreamly constraints in the nodes. th truss now is calculated completely in compression, the reason becasuse all the tubes are in red color.

now the truss is calculated and new loads are defined. blue colors represent that this tubes are working to the slenderness.

And here after tthe optimization.

sketches in my notebook.

Here the constraints for each node.

And this is a video of the process.