Philly AAIA TECH Series

February 24th - Concepts and Details of TWBTA

2011-02-24T03:40:00.002-05:00

Concepts and Details of TWBTA - 02/24/11

2011-02-16T00:25:00.000-05:00

Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects, architects of Philadelphia's renowned Skirkanich Hall and the soon to be Barnes Museum on the Parkway, will be discussing conceptual and technical aspects of their recent work. The work is notable for its conceptual resolve and inventiveness, delicately following a distinct thought process from initial sketch to final detail. Their projects possess both a harmony of design and site, as well as construction and material that make no sacrifices for the sake of convention. This lecture will focus on aspects of concepts, detailing, and materials in regards to their work.

Prominent works beyond Philadelphia include the Cranbrook Natatorium, The American Folk Art Museum, and the Neurosciences Institute of La Jolla, California. Join the TECH Series of Philadelphia's Associate AIA for presentations and conversations about the work of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects on February 24th, 2011 6:30 Pm.

This lecture is the final lecture of a 3-part series on design and detail that also included DIGSAU and Jenny Sabin Design.Walk-ins welcome. To RSVP or for questions and comments contact Brad Hubbard at Bradhubbard8@gmail.com.

Material Analogs

2011-01-10T23:18:00.000-05:00

Between Architecture and Science: Material Analogs , by Jenny Sabin

2011-01-05T12:44:00.004-05:00

Don't miss the upcoming TECH Series event featuring Jenny Sabin, January 18th 6:30 pm at the Philadelphia Center for Architecture.

Jenny E. Sabin’s research, teaching and design practice focuses on investigating the contextual, material and formal intersections between architecture, textile tectonics and biology. Her expertise resides in generative design and design computation, two contemporary trajectories in architectural design research. She is Director of Jenny Sabin LLC, a research and architectural design studio based in Philadelphia. She currently teaches design studios and elective seminars within the graduate Department of Architecture at PennDesign.

Sabin is the first non-scientist member of the Institute for Medicine and Engineering (IME), University of Pennsylvania, where she is collaborating with the Jones Lab, most recently initiating a research LabStudio between the IME and the School of Design together with Peter Lloyd Jones. She is also a founding member of the Non-Linear Systems Organization (NSO), a research group at PennDesign started by Cecil Balmond, where she is currently Senior Researcher.

Sabin has collaborated with the Advanced Geometry Unit, Arup London, on an installation at Artists Space, NYC, "H_edge." She is the co-recipient, along with Peter Lloyd Jones, of the prestigious Upjohn research grant administered by the American Institute of Architects. She was awarded the AIA Henry Adams first prize medal and the Arthur Spayd Brooke gold medal for distinguished work in architectural design, 2005. She was an American Association of University Women Selected Professions Fellow and has exhibited nationally and internationally most recently at the Siggraph 09’ Design and Computation Galleries and Ars Electronic, Linz, Austria. Sabin is a member of the international Smart Geometry Group and was a senior tutor and lecturer at the 2007, 2008 and 2009 Smart Geometry workshops and conferences. Sabin's work has been published in A+U, 306090, 10+1, ACM and various exhibition catalogues and reviews.

(http://www.sabin-jones.com/index.html)

Between Architecture and Science: Material Analogs , by Jenny Sabin

2010-12-31T11:39:00.009-05:00

When: January 18th, 2010 6:30PM - 8PM
Where: Philadelphia Center For Architecture

Collaborations between architects and scientists offer up venues for productive exchange in design while revealing powerful models for visualizing the intangible. Sabin's collaborative research, teaching and design practice focus on the contextual, material and formal intersections between architecture,science and technology. Through the visualization and materialization of dynamic and complex datasets, Sabin has generated a body of speculative and applied design work that aligns crafts-based technologies with digital fabrication alongside questions related to the body and information mediation. This talk will look at intersections between architecture, computational models, textile structures and biology through multiple modes of working and collaborating. The material world that this type of research interrogates reveals examples of nonlinear fabrication and self-assembly at the surface, and at a deeper structural level. In parallel, this work offers up novel possibilities that question and redefine architecture within the greater scope of generative design and fabrication.

Visit:

http://www.jennysabin.com/
http://www.sabin-jones.com/

For more information contact Brad Hubbard at bradhubbard8@gmail.com.

Construction Craft/Design Precision by DIGSAU --RE-SCHEDULED

2010-11-29T16:01:00.000-05:00

When: December 8th, 2010 6:30pm - 8pm

Where: Center for Architecture 1218 Arch St. Philadelphia

Focusing on the natural feedback loop between designing and building, DIGSAU will examine several case studies and the firm’s goal to approach construction documentation in a manner that anticipates the variables of construction and promotes opportunities for collaboration with various construction trades. As a way of adding texture and richness to the design process, each project seeks an appropriate balance between constraint, craftsmanship, and chance in the act of building.

Contact Brad Hubbard at bradhubbard8@gmail.com for more information.

DIGSAU - Design Precision / Construction Craft

2010-10-20T10:43:00.000-04:00

Presented by Jules Dingle and Marc Sanderson of DIGSAU.

When: November 16, 2010 6:30pm - 8pm

Where: Center for Architecture 1218 Arch St. Philadelphia

Focusing on the natural feedback loop between designing and building, DIGSAU will examine several case studies and the firm’s goal to approach construction documentation in a manner that anticipates the variables of construction and promotes opportunities for collaboration with various construction trades. As a way of adding texture and richness to the design process, each project seeks an appropriate balance between constraint, craftsmanship, and chance in the act of building.

2009-10-06T14:09:00.002-04:00

Trends in Sustainable Design and Construction

2009-10-06T13:59:00.001-04:00

Who: Howard Steinberg of Onion Flats

When: Monday, October 26 6:30pm - 8pm

Where: Center for Architecture, 1218 Arch St. Philadelphia

Today, buzz words such as 'sustainable' or 'green' design are used to describe much of the architecture and design processes being done in the industry. This emphasis on the environmental impacts of buildings has brought many great innovations and benefits to the built world and the profession. However, it also raises the question: is there a choice to be sustainable in good design, or is it all really just a part of good design. There is at least one firm out there that looks forward to the day when we can all drop the buzz words of 'Green design' or 'Sustainable design' and just call it good design. That firm is Onion Flats, and they are right here in Philadelphia. Onion Flats has been practicing environmental strategies in their design-build projects long before 'green' became a household name.

Join Onion Flats Principal Howard Steinberg as part of the Associate AIA TECH Series as he speaks on the in's-and-out's and the truths of green roof technology and Philadelphia's green roof legislation, rainwater harvesting and its practicality, and sustainable modular construction. The lecture will go over different systems and their benefits while demonstrating the work of Onion Flats to showcase their integration into architectural design. Come learn how these technologies are integrated in new construction and how they can work with the existing building stock of Philadelphia.

Howard Steinberg, AIA, LEED® AP is a Principal of Onion Flats. He is a Registered Architect in the State of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. In 1987, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Design from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA and in 1990 and 1991 respectively, he received Masters Degrees in Architecture and Construction Management, both from Washington University, Saint Louis, MO.. In 2005, Howard joined the Onion Flats team and created the architecture firm of Plumbob, LLC and JIG, Inc., a General Contracting /Construction Management and certified Green Roof design and installation company allowing the Onion Flats Collective to provide full design-build services for both clients and their own developments.

For more information on Onion Flats visit:

http://www.onionflats.com/

2009-06-24T07:33:00.000-04:00

Green Pieces

2009-06-18T20:28:00.000-04:00

by Todd Woodward

when: August 5th, 2009 6:30pm-8:00pm
where: Center for Architecture, 1218 Arch St. Philadelphia

Sustainable design and high performance building technologies and systems are increasing in availability and complexity. Architects are being challenged to both understand appropriate applications of these strategies and to integrate them successfully into their projects. For expediency, designers often simply attach green elements to an otherwise “standard” building, without giving much thought to the appropriateness of the architectural and environmental response. I believe that this approach is evidence of a troubling tendency: many proponents of sustainable design currently undervalue the architect’s role in the integrated design of a building, favoring instead the application of easily quantifiable green techniques. This is the “design by checklist” approach that may produce a LEED certified building, but will be much less likely to produce a truly sustainable one.

Architecture, though, has always been more than a technical practice. This lecture will focus on the incorporation of “green technologies” into a more complete architectural expression. A range of strategies and technologies will be discussed, including biological wastewater treatment, sustainable stormwater management, and solar energy options. The integration of these green pieces into a thoughtful architectural expression is a task that too few architects are embracing. When thought of as part of a larger whole, green design elements may make a significant contribution to our everyday experience of architecture and have great potential to teach us about our environment.

(Description by Todd Woodward.)

Todd Woodward is an architect and Principal at SMP Architects. He is a graduate of the Penn State Architecture Program where he was awarded the Faculty Thesis Prize for his thesis on the relationship between technology and society. Todd recieved the 2003 Young Architect Award from the AIA Philadelphia for his excellence in design and numerous contributions to the profession. As an active member of the design community, Todd has been involved with the Community Design Collaborative of Philadelphia since 1998 and has sat as Co-Chair of the board in 2003 and again in 2004. Todd is also an adjunct faculty of the Temple University, Tyler School of Art, Architecture Program where he advises students in their thesis year.

As a LEED AP and a Licensed Architect, his work emphasizes a sensitivity to the environment and its resources. The Cusano Environmental Education Center that Todd worked on was named an AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Project. The project brings together sustainability, preservation of nature, and education. Of its technologies are a Living Machine, Permeable paving, rain collection, geo-thermal heating and cooling, and a super efficient envelope.

To Learn More Visit:

http://smparchitects.com/

2009-05-11T19:37:00.000-04:00

Something Borrowed: Defining an Emerging Covenant between Architecture and Materials

2009-05-11T18:47:00.000-04:00

Image: Firefly, a sustainable woodland shelter at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education [photo by Nami Yamamoto]

Lecture by Rashida Ng.

When: 6.16.09 6:30-8Pm.

Where: Center for Architecture 1218 Arch st. Philadelphia, Pa.

“We are standing at the threshold of the next generation of buildings: buildings… which are extremely ecological in their behavior through the intelligent use of functionally adaptive materials, products, and constructions…”

As affirmed in the quote above by Alex Ritter, emerging material technologies promise a future architecture typified by adaptive phenomenological and performative behaviors. Modern advancements in material science have introduced an innumerable range of new materials that will continue to redefine the built environment. This lecture will interrogate the shifting relationship between architecture and materials as instigated by these material science advancements. Beyond a synopsis of new materials and technologies, it will scrutinize the possibilities that are proposed by the importation of material developments from disparate disciplines, such as cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, and defense. What opportunities are made possible through the re-appropriation of material resources borrowed from another context? Of equal importance, what inadvertent consequences may arise from the transfer of these material technologies?

As designers, we are inspired by the high-performance characteristics, responsive behaviors, and ecological sophistication of the numerous nascent materials currently entering the global marketplace. Examples of such materials will be presented with the aim of revealing the potential for research-based design and material innovation within architecture.

Alex Ritter, Smart Materials in Architecture, Interior Architecture and Design, (Basel: Birkhäuser, 2007), preface.

Rashida Ng holds a Masters of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.S. from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Rashida's research, teaching and professional work are based in material studies and innovations as related to architecture. She is the Founder of RNG design, and the co-founder and president of SEAM-Lab a non-profit collaborative think tank dedicated to research and dissemination of design-based knowledge focused on materiality within the built environment. She is currently a professor at Temple University, Tyler School of Art, Architecture program. Her studio's are conducted with a focus on emerging materials and system innovations. In collaboration with Nami Yamamoto, Max Lent, and Greg Charnock, Rashida has recently completed the construction of FireFly, the groups entry into the Gimme Shelter competition conducted by the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. FireFly was one of 6 structures to be constructed. Currently she is working on "ReD", a funded research project to develop a prototype of a responsive daylighting panel integrating phase change material.

Some of her achievements:

-Pennsylvania Green Building Alliance Product Innovation Grant for “ReD: a Responsive Daylighting Panel Integrating Phase Change Material,” 2008.

-AIA Medal, First Prize, University of Pennsylvania, 2001.

Publications

-KieranTimberlake: refabricating ARCHITECTURE, ARCC / EAAE 2006 International Conference Proceedings, 2007.

Exhibitions:

-Curator of Fused, Artemide Showroom, Philadelphia, PA, April 28 – May 2, 2008.
-Co-curator, with Sneha Patel and Jack Fanning of Reality of the Unbuilt, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, November 2007.

For more information visit:

http://www.temple.edu/architecture

http://www.schuylkillcenter.org/

2009-03-27T00:34:00.000-04:00

(Re)Appropriation: Procedural Modeling in Architectural Investigations

2009-03-25T23:13:00.000-04:00

Bob Trempe

of: Architecture Department, Tyler School of Art, Temple University

when: lecture to be held april 15th, 2009, 6:30 - 8:00 pm

where: center for architecture, 1218 arch street, philadelphia, pa,

event brief by bob trempe:

Architects have a long history of adapting industrial technologies from outside their discipline as tools for innovative design and research. From the work of the Eames with Naval glue technologies to Greg Lynn’s use of cinematic software as a methodology for articulating time-based design, the modern era of architecture has witnessed countless examples of the appropriation and re-appropriation of “foreign” practices in an attempt to push our profession forward.

This lecture will briefly examine the history of technological appropriation within modern Architecture as a basis for understanding one of the more recent movements in computational design: Procedural Modeling. Used in the Computer Graphics industry for over 20 years, Procedural Modeling has come into vogue with Architects in recent years both as a tool for investigational understanding as well as formal experimentation and articulation. Unlike more traditional modes of computational design, Procedural Modeling results are generated through the construction of hierarchical networks, whereby the effect of change within one “node” of the network causes adjustments to the network result as a whole, meaning changes to the actual computer model. For the conceptualist this means the ability to quickly visualize changes of states within compositions through the testing of simple parametric data. For the formalist, the network allows for quick and precise modeling of spatial models with the ability to wholeheartedly change micro and macro elements of the design while simultaneously updating other effected elements of the network. Procedural Modeling can be thought of as “reliant modeling,” whereby information constrained to the network adapts to the seemingly smallest of changes.

Examples of both conceptual and formal techniques in Procedural Modeling will be demonstrated through the use of SideFX’s “Houdini” modeling and animation package as well as “Grasshopper,” the Procedural Modeling Interface for McNeel’s “Rhinoceros” NURBS Modeling Software.

Bob Trempe holds a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a co-founder of Verspoor + Trempe Design and founder of Dis section Architectural and Media Design (DAMD). He has taught digital media in the architecture departments of Philadelphia University and University of Pennsylvania’s graduate program. Currently, Bob teaches at the architecture department of Temple University, Tyler School of Art. Both his work and teaching focus on instructional logic and information visualization through the output of repetitious systems. Bob Trempe is continually active in the Philadelphia design community, both professional and educational, through his work, teaching, lectures, writings and exhibits.

For more information:

http://www.dis-section.com/
http://http//www.temple.edu/architecture/4_0_people/trempe.html
http://slip.dis-section.com/
http://macrotel.dis-section.com/
http://uni.dis-section.com/