UNBUILT: Synesthesia by Joris Putteneers
Joris Putteneers
Experiment, Sint Lucas Architecture 25/10/2016
Docent: Corneel Cannaerts
Synesthesia is a project influenced by the works of Francois Roche. It is made with the intentions of creating an architecture that defies classification and reductionism. I try to explore unexplored levels of resolution and topological complexity in architecture by developing a series of compositional strategies based on purely geometric processes. In this project, I use a coalescence of two algorithms to create a growing structure that appears at once synthetic and organic.
This single process generates many scales of architecture, from the overall form with its broad curvature, to local surface development, down to minute textures.
The design process strikes a delicate balance between the expected and the unexpected, between control and relinquishment. Although the algorithms do not incorporate random values, the results are not necessarily entirely foreseeable either. In order to create an extension from the vertical system, the protocol receives input information that is extracted from surface directionality of the structure.
A seed is planted from the moment of removal in the vertical system, and from that point on, every location on the terrain is mapped with a directionality that points towards the void and the sun. Once a system reaches the edge of the structure, an illusion of parallel cities is projected, and the information acts with gravity until it disappears.
As the system evolves, vines bundle up, then twist and bind to each other. The bundles then split and separate around volumes of spaces that are translated into chambers. As the vines lose attachment to the structure or each other, they are partially affected by gravity and by the search radius of the nearest vine.
Towards the end of the bundle extension into the void, the aggregated vines that have bound with other bundles begin to converge and overlap in an interior space. These vines are collected and woven into a central pattern. The repetition of this action causes a symmetry to occur. These images are only visible to the occupants of the chambers.
The machine works on the logic of its own point of view. As it navigates away from the vertical structure, a signal is given which results in a feedback loop. The machine begins to read its own past projections as current vision and navigates towards it. The result is a differentiation of behavior in three different stages. Initiation, Transition and serenity.
Towards the final stage of the machine’s journey, it becomes hyperactive and overfills with its collection of vines. As a consequence, the machine expels a coating of resin, leaving behind a structural membrane on its vines as a continuous weave. the resin solidifies and captures the modification of the vines, defining the outer boundaries of the chambers. The processes can devise truly surprising topographies and topologies that go far beyond what one could have traditionally conceived.
Synesthesia is between chaos and order, both natural and the artificial. Any references to nature or existing styles are not integrated into the design process, but are evoked only as associations in the eye of the beholder. Such a hierarchical differentiation can also be found in classic architecture. Yet unlike traditional architectural design processes, here a single process is used both to sculpt the overall form, and to create the surface details.
This articulation can be used to create features that exceed the threshold of human haptic or visual perception that would be entirely un-drawable using traditional means.
Virtual:
• Algorithmically generated geometry
• 18000 vectors
• 9 million surfaces
• 2,6 billion voxels
• 12 GB production data
Design Development:
˜80 hours in the course of 5 weeks
Team
Fabrication: Joris Putteneers
Video / Photo: Joris Putteneers
Mentor: Corneel Canaerts