In 2017, AA Athens Visiting School, will address architectural themes
involving active engagement and participatory design through prototypes
that are characterized by action.The AA Athens Visiting School
incorporates in the design process, materials and scientific devices as
vital parts of the end-creations. The research aims at bringing closer
the user with the built environment via space animation and animate and
in its’ methodology, it rethinks habits of designing, building and
experiencing space through materiality. Here, ways of seeing become the
starting point for developing a working interactive prototype.
In
“SYMMETRY SENTIENCE”, materiality and form are considered as a “unified
whole”. The programme will investigate how membranes can reshape our
architectural understanding by bringing curvature and translucency. The
design teams will focus on the flexible nature of tensile fabric that
can be energized by motion and real-time reaction to various parameters.
In this world of “living” structures and interactive formations, the
design language includes Processing, Arduino, Rhino Modeling, and
Grasshopper. The architecture programme, integrates manufacturing
techniques that enable the design teams to actively experience the
aspect of fabrication in 1:1 scale. A set of lectures and tutorials by
experts from internationally renowned academics and practitioners, from
the Architectural Association, Zaha Hadid Architects and others, form
the theoretical background based on aspects of computational space,
machinic control as well as responsive and kinetic design.
Prominent Features of the workshop/ skills developed:
- Participants
become part of an active learning environment where the large tutor to
student ratio (4:1) allows for personalized tutorials and debates.
- The
toolset of AA Athens includes but is not limited to Processing and
Grasshopper for Rhinoceros, as well as design analysis software.
- Participants gain hands-on experience on digital fabrication.
- Design
seminars and lecture series support the key objectives of the
programme, disseminating fundamental computational techniques, relevant
critical thinking, theoretical understanding and professional awareness.
