Statement

The studio was a collection of experimental projects in the first weeks of the University of Architecture semester, in which the critique of modern-day living spaces challenges the intertwining of two completely isolated neighborhood spaces. “By distancing themselves from the safe margin and by redefining the living spaces and neighborhoods from which identity of living is always affected, complex energy levels are formed that while being entangled and distinct from each other. In such spatial structures, which have a critical look at the definition of home and privacy in modernity, the concept of co-existence and privacy has been transformed by separating two interconnected networks. New borders have been formed, and the wall is no longer a simple cutting object to define these borders. “As if it were endless, you will find yourself tied to a labyrinth, the logical connection within which has brought you to these levels.” People will find themselves tied up in an endless labyrinth, with a logical connection within these spaces. Clockwork orange house projects have challenged the intertwining of two completely isolated neighborhoods in modern living spaces.

Overview:

Imagine a city with two groups of people, a group of family lovers and the other groups of black-hat people who try to torcher the other group just as fun. from a chronological standpoint, the definition of the house has been turning from a unit with the most barrier guarded private space into a less guarded space with minimal security in a glance. Imagine

Accessing quickly to this Arduino makes this device this popular for artists and architects all over the world; having no expected knowledge of robotics and electronics makes them able to not only discover their surrounding world differently but also come up with some inventions in responsive and interactive fields or customize their design tools.

The act of producing architecture is a collaborative, interdisciplinary exercise, and architects design with knowledge from many branches of study. Architecture involves the coordination of building projects, which themselves are products of a wide range of technologies and systems. Buildings are constructed and procured within a complex ecology of different disciplines, building trades, economic markets, and legal regulations. However, developments in digital technology continue to introduce new design methods and tools to the practice of architecture. Performance simulation, information modeling, and algorithmic design are now part of the expected skill set of the architect, and these new skills require knowledge from multiple disciplines.

The Featured Project:

East 80-08

Imagine a city speaking in its own way; you would be its god. Maybe you are that marionette of the game. But this time, your hands would make the city obedient. The city would dance with you, would breathe, would make it dark or bright. and you obtain the pulse of the city.

”Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marko Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of Tartars does keep on listening to the young Venetian with greater attention and curiosity than he shows to any other messenger or explorer of his…”

8008 of East is a fictitious city. If you get familiar with the rules and their real souls, you will be able to interact with them. Someone can change its form in many different shapes based on various hand gestures. There must have been a responsive surface to make this mobile city. In this way, many alternatives were made by origami, and various materials were tested considering the limited facilities. An origami with square subunits was chosen.

And finally, PVC sheet was used as a bending tissue due to its flexibility, foldable nature, and its capability of having memory. Changes of this shell are controlled by using a leap motion, an Arduino, three air controllers, four LEDs, and a DC motor. All of the actuators come together in a box that is under the origami shell. The Interactive language with the city is recognized by leap motion, and it is based on the location of fingers on the basis of absolute or comparative vectors, and the information is sent to the grasshopper plugin. Based on definitions, the Heteroduino plugin ( a connection between computer and Arduino) sends the information to actuators, and the result is the alterations that are made by compressors and LEDs.

Team: Sahar Barzani, Parisa Navidi, Faeze Pakravan

Plum Tree

Plum-Tree, as an interactive instrument, provides a musical experience in the social aspects and spatial side as well. Having tweaked the Delta-z Project, ‘Plum-Tree’ enhanced the pavilion to add a new interactive layer. The most noticeable feature about this architecture project is that it is a sensor needing additional sensors, which turns it into a “Project without sensor module.” There are two kinds of “sensory input” in this project:

• Touch this sensor: Capacitive touch sensor based on a gathered electric charge which shows if plums are touched or not.

• Don’t touch this sensor, which altogether forms a three-dimensional midi-controller. Capacitive distance sensors work with electric charges gathered in copper planes. (capacitors).

The Delta-z project, with its promising design potential, was designed to provide a modern public space for Caai School. Although it’s astonishing in design, shortcomings like improper positioning and lack of required shading have led to a lack of interaction and attention for individuals.

The Plum Tree project has turned this abandoned structure into a vibrant and live atmosphere by using musical sequences and notes. With Arduino Uno, the gathered charge in the Plum Tree is inserted and processed as input for the grasshopper. After that, the Heteroptera plugin’s input will be used in Cicada (plugin for grasshopper) as an output. Finally, the gathered data enters the loop midi and turns into MIDI musical notes, which now is ready for mixing and composing in FL studio software.

The Plum Tree project is strong evidence stating that the presence of music by itself could give new life to a leftover space and encourage people to interact with existing architectural elements in such a medium. The Plum Tree is an organism with music as its beating heart. It senses every movement and motion around. It senses touch and presence without any sensors in an unexpected way termed capacitive sense. This project is also a musical platform that could be used by any instrument player, composer, or street artist to communicate with the public or perform in it as much as it follows the standards of MIDI, communicating with all devices and software supporting MIDI. The Plum Tree project originally derives from the story of Adam & Eve and their unforgiven touch of the forbidden tree. The plum is the replaced element in our narration of this story, standing for all the inaccessible and untouchable taboos for human beings to draw on.

Team: Amirhossein Oliaee, Koosha Mirassadollahi, Mahdis Asadabadi, Yasaman Norouzi

O-Pen

The whiteness of the walls, the gray shades of concrete, and the presence of each individual means an intersection among the attendance of technology, pen, and us eventuates in O-Pen. O-Pen is the emergence of new intellectual viewpoints in applying technology to street art and urban communication and explores how technology can empower individuals creatively to alto and reclaim their surroundings. Pursuing the integration of democracy, art, and technology, “O-Pen” authorizes general users to design and draw on any dimension, any scale, and on any planar wall like a designer or graphic artist and display their message to other community members.

By renovating the “Spider plotter” project, which was a system designed for wall-plotting, which itself was branched from a 2013 project somewhere around 2015. Spider plotter’s achievement was solving the problem of separating pen and paper at the end of a drawing line. We gave it the capability to draw on any surface and thus re-envision and develop it further by adding sonar sensors.

Extension Projects:

Two of the projects in this workshop sent their projects as the proposal for TADAEX Festival ( The most prestigious annual digital art festival in Iran (Tehran/ Mohsen Gallery). Each year, the festival hosts digital artists from all over the world to exhibit their projects and grant only one project as the TadaGrant Project and fund one or two projects as the sponsor.

Helioripple teams were honored to grasp both Tadagrant and Tadafund projects in Tadaex 2018 with both teams. On behalf of Helioripple, Amin Bahrami became the mentor for both projects. Moreover, by adding sonar sensors for appreciating Heteroduino, the team was named Heteromanous (the TadaGrant) and Heteroganum. The project both were alternatives of the previous one in the workshop.

‘Manihood’

Alternative and extension of ‘East 80-08` project by Heteromanus team “Manihood” as the alternative for the East 80-08 project was a fictional land formed and characterized by its rulers’ authorities. The land gradually shapes at the gods’ command with sign language, which is the only way of communication. This language is like a magic wand that grants authority to the ruler to control the land, and he will decide how to build his land. “Manihood” has been influenced by his rulers. In this case, indeterminate land objects would emerge under the influence of power and choices. Each person will be chosen to be the ruler in a specific span of time. This kind of authority is not permanent but influences the land. This work will always remain with its land, even in its most hidden layers.

The difference is that it focused more on capturing the changes made by the gestures of hands. Each day a specific part of this land would be accessible to build, and it would be solved like a puzzle. The final shape ultimately depends on the quantity of audiences’ participation. There was a technical challenge: reading the sign language and turning it into variables. The problem became solved, and gestures would have been developed to make more changes, and the appropriate materials and actuators will keep these alterations.

(Faeze Pakravan - Mahdiyar Esmailbeigi - Ladan Johari - Parisa Navidi)

‘Dasein Projekt’

Alternative and extension of ‘Plum-Tree` project by Heteroganum team “The meaning of the world is not simply invented out of private subjectivity but is given to it by ‘Being’ itself. We are always already involved in a way of life, engaged with daily dealings with things in a known life-world that we can have some understanding of what things are all about. It is our being as participants in a collective world that first allows us a way of seeing reality and ourselves.” M. Heidegger, Being and Time In this sense, the human is the species who have in his mind a distinct “sense of being” which he refers to it as “Dasein”.

Heidegger gives great importance to “being” as a basis for understanding the seemingly outside world and ourselves. Dasein Projekt is a living organism with music as its beating heart which reflects “Being” through one’s moods. It can be an installation you interact with, an instrument you play or even a social experiment you participate in. Dasein Projekt as an interactive installation does not rely on traditional methods of participation since it senses your presence without any sensor modules. Implementing microcontrollers, a dynamic capacitive sensor has formed and charged by electromagnetic field intensity between the human body and conductive elements. This structure is responsive to the distance of conductive adjacence masses and used as sensory inputs (touch and proximity) to form a spatial MIDI-controller. There won’t be a need for a button or key to press nor a string to pluck; the music is unveiled by exploring the space around you as if the music is there all along waiting to be found and forged. There is no proper way of doing so: it is just your mood turning into melody.

“Beware of the touch, revealing what you are and not what you seem to be!” The Plum Tree was a living organism with music as its beating heart. It senses a man’s presence without any sensor modules, and it can take many forms. It can be an installment you interact with, an instrument people play, or even a social experiment you participate in. “Listen to the trees outside trading information; you know they’re just like us!” The Plum Album The plum tree, as an interactive installation, does not rely on traditional methods of participation. With the help of microcontrollers, sensory inputs (touch and proximity) are used to form a three-dimensional MIDI controller. There won’t be a need for a button or key to press nor a string to pluck: the music is unveiled by exploring the space around you as if the music is there all along, waiting to be found and forged. The participant is given one simple instruction: “Thou shall not touch the plum tree!” which encourages one not to follow it. There is no proper way of doing it: it is just your mood turning into melody.

(Amir Hossein Oliaee, Yasaman Norouzi, Pedram Karimi)

The allows behavior resulting from potential city spot data layer timber plywood was suggested as the material to better critique. Since plywood could have better represented the generated pattern, we concentrated on plywood rather than other materials. At the same time, students were generating the patterns within the workshop. We tested different subtractive machines supplied for the workshop. We use the RhinoCam plugin for generating the primer G-Code files and the customized CNC path patterns to reach the best result for the presentation of the design patterns. The canvas each student was supposed to use was extracted from an optimized paneling construction.

As the significant part of creating the MuQ plugin, this studio was defined in the third semester at the Pars University as a course for ‘architecture & technology’ master’s program of ‘technology and architecture,’ named ‘The Digital Design’.The studio began by exploring advanced geometries presented in Islamic archeology. We found Muqarnas as the most elaborated relics in such a category. Students investigate the Iranian Muqarnas and then explore the valuable muqarnas database gathered by Shiro Takahashi. MuQ plugins were being developed during the studio and given to students as a WIP add-on to document their experience.

The method we suggest as the primary approach was topologically-based re-thinking of such elaborated craft, albeit this was ostensibly against the standard methods about Muqarnas. The design and building of Muqarnas by all traditional and modern (digital) techniques has been based on geometric modules so far, while the studio stepped on a Modula-less procedure that gave preference to the topology of Muqarnas rather than its form.

Concerning changing this mindset and implementing the MuQ plugin, students were free to sketch every possible scrabble as the blueprint of Muqarnas. Students’ efforts were prototyped in a 25x25 cm cube as a quarter of the whole dome or the half of the entrance gate. All prototypes were 3d-printed and were represented for the judgment session. Also, the studio’s results and the plugin’s potential were represented in Acadia 2017 at the MIT university.

The way we describe and understand cities today is radically changing, and alongside this change, there is also a radical transformation in the tools we use to design them. As a result, cities call for a different approach towards developing new multi-scalar strategies in urban design and planning solutions.

Agenda

The way we describe and understand cities today is radically changing, and alongside this change, there is also a radical transformation in the tools we use to design them. Cities call for a different approach towards developing new multi-scalar strategies in urban design and planning solutions. Networked ecologies embody the dominant form of the organization today: the network, be it telematic, physical, or even social. These generate a complexity that can be organized through technology, laws, political pressures, disciplinary desires, environmental constraints, and social interaction. Cities can be described as systems of networked ecologies: a series of co-dependent aggregations revolving around environmental mitigation, land-use organization, communication, and service delivery. These generate a complexity that can be organized through technology, laws, political pressures, disciplinary desires, environmental constraints, and social interaction. Networked ecologies embody the dominant form of an organization today: the network, be it telematic, physical, or even social. The workshop focused on the potential of this network to work not only at an urban scale but also across diverse cities, interconnecting and expanding them. These will ultimately create a dynamic and interactive system of Hyper Cities: a variety of city-sensors (digital or analog) processing and transferring information in explicit manifestations, interrelating with the collective environment. Understanding the multiple hyper-connected elements, the dynamics of the urban phenomena requires well-designed and sophisticated tools. With the advancements in Do-It-Yourself data collection devices, algorithmic digital modeling tools, and digital fabrication techniques, there seems to be a limitless range of methods to move beyond data visualization, approaching data physicalization.

The project “HyperSculptures” investigated the trilogy of data collection, data analysis, and data visualization/data physicalization, emphasizing the capacities of the digital fabrication methods as an added value. The project’s outcome consisted of three data sculptures: ‘MyCityBit’, ‘Sense-able Memories’, and ‘Voxel City’. IaaC is delighted to develop and launch the ‘Global Summer School 2016’: ‘Hyper Cities’. This year the course will explore cities as systems of networked ecologies: a series of co-dependent aggregations revolving around environmental mitigation, land-use organization, communication, and service delivery. The ‘Global Summer School’ (GSS) is a platform defined by ambitious, multi-scalar investigation on the implications of emergent techniques in our planned environments. Each year, international teams located in key cities around the globe explore a common agenda with projects that are deeply embedded in diverse local conditions. IaaC GSS is a full-time two-week course open to creative and innovative people who are interested in fields such as architecture, urban planning, digital fabrication, and design, searching for a multidisciplinary experience in an international environment. The GSS16 will be directed by IaaC and developed in collaboration with multiple Nodes participating in the course from different parts of the globe, including Barcelona, New York City, Moscow, Beirut, Beijing, Monterrey, Mumbai, and Tehran.

The Projects:

Sensible Memories

The project’s objective was to rethink how a series of collected data can be represented, through digital and physical means, challenging the typical data representation and visualization methods. The students were divided into three groups, collecting data of 9 different spots in the city. Then, on a general map of the whole city, the level and frequency of environmental sounds were materialized with copper rods. The whole installation starts to perform by the time the user touches the copper rods: listening to the environmental sounds of each spot while enjoying the temperature, humidity, and CO2 rate which have been visually projected on the map. These data representations come together to shape the memory of each city spot. The conception of a city as a platform hosts various potential data layers. The installation has been designed and made so its form allows the audience to sense the layers in various manners. In other words, the installation is a kind of combination of both physical and digital interfaces of urban layers.

• Height: A maximum height for the blocks is set to prevent the abundance of density specific for each zone. It means that the blocks are not permitted to be piled up more than a specific number in each section.

• Area distribution: This rule is set to control the distribution of the cubes in each zone according to its occupied area.

• The Green Space: In this rule,laser-cut, we aimed to create a diverse green environ­ment by limiting the height of near blocks to provide viewpoints for each part.

• Blocks distance: The rule is defined to control the blocks in a nonlimiting number of blocks placed with no gaps. For instance, four blocks are not allowed to be placed incessantly. If occurred, the error will be displayed through the projector.

• Public Building: Some blocks are created with different colors, designated to represent public buildings needed for the zone. The ratio between public buildings and the base modules is calculated, and the re­sults are shown via the projector.

STUDENTS: Forough Mofidi Fariba Mashhadi AmirAli Razaghipour Siavash Rezaei Ali Ahmadian

Voxel City

Building Density variation in different parts of Tehran ignited us to think of these discrepancies that can be balanced to generate a moderate environment. Our goal is to create an easy-to-use tool suitable for different range groups. Simple cubes are defined to present the city’s density, applying them on the 1010 cm2 primary grid and 22 cm grids. The assembled cubes represent the city with four predefined rules. The rules for these plays are defined according to height, area distribution, green space, and block distance. According to the rules, a Kinect sensor is applied to detect the cubes and their arrangement. Consequently, the collected data from the sensor is calculated within the Grasshopper context, and then the regions or the blocks with errors are illustrated through the projector. The initial idea of creating the blocks was casting resin in predefined frames. The resin combination was tested through variegated samples with different transparency and opacity. After testing the projection and Kinect detection, the blocks did not present a high-quality output with the projection. Thus, we changed the material and instead used laser-cut fort wooden cubes.

My City Beat

A multitude of factors exists in Tehran’s city that affect the health and well-being of its citizens and their spaces. CityBeat analyzes the user’s heart rate in conjunction with their immediate surroundings, streaming data to mobile and online platforms that empower citizens to monitor their health data. From the network of merged data across the city emerges an urban system of an inter-connected and universally accessible health system. A multitude of factors exists in Tehran’s city that affect the health and well-being of its citizens and their spaces. CityBeat analyzes the user’s heart rate in conjunction with their immediate surroundings, streaming data to mobile and online platforms that empower citizens to monitor their personal health data.

STUDENTS: Kaveh Chehri Oveis Shahnaee Parnian Pezeshki Alireza Jamshidian Mohammad Mehdi Sherafat Peyma

The unit was supposed to investigate different rules on particular cities, which could be generic or fictional cities. The system ran based on agent strategy, discovering the urban rules and applying them to their new vertical mode based on two main theories: Counter Gravity & Vertical Nomadism. Cities are occupied with the giant monstrous vertical elements that force humans to set over gravity. However, with the burst of the post-digital era, it will be inevitable to set some physical and mechanical laws alien to shared space, i.e., gravity as a primary challenge of verticality does not have power in the hyper-network world. As a result, the analysis of fictional/futuristic cities can lead to lucid translation of these laws into future metropolises.

Agent-Based Fictions

study of particles, agents, and their behavior in a defined environment. Design a simple game example using processing/grasshopper. To design for this unpredictable world, one must first know the rules and then let the components find their roles. Even social insects who had had different experiences with ours, before the first humankind species managed their cities overriding gravity rules and about to each other with more harmonic social rules than humans’.

The simple behavior is the specific form that allows particles that participants discovered in 2 weeks and used in their game engine frameworks: seek, wander, flee, pursuit, evade, obstacle avoidance, interpose, hide, path following, trace, etc. The result comprised:

• Northwest Mansion Mystery

  In 1920 there was an Evil inventor named “Ludwig Mies, van der rohe.” He invented the time travel machine, and he used it to travel to the future. After he traveled to 2020, he noticed that there were some guys in his house. His face became red from anger, And he started to make troubles for them, but they stood there like Irish to the house…

• The BAT particle matters

  The bat particle matter ” was the name that Batman assigned to one of his battles against Joker with the help of Flash. “It was another day like any others, Gotham citsupposed’y was calm, and everybody was off to their work until a piece of news breaking that joker is taking people as hostages. As I saw the news, I got ready to help. On my way, I see some people that hit the floor as they’re standing or crash themselves into walls for no Explosion. Seeking help, I heard a familiar voice. I turned around and saw Flash or, better say, drunk Flash…”

• Battle of Berlin (100$ Mustache)

  This movie was produced in a village named “Charita” in Argentina where three Characters of the game (Hitler, Woody Allen, Benjamin Franklin) met each other accidentally. According to their different beliefs, they tried to kill or protect each other. So, Charita will become like a battle between three different thoughts. A freeman and a Nazi make everything miserable when a Jewish comedian roams around! A war is going to break out.

• Drake’s family (9Le double vie de Drac)

  Drake’s family Lives in a castle in the city. They have to leave home at night to find food. So they transform into Dracula every night and scatter in the city. They face three things: crosses, humans, and hunters.

Layering Cities Based on ‘Parc de la Villette’

The unit was supposed to investigate different rules on remarkable cities, which could be generic or fictional cities. The system ran based on agent strategy, discovering the urban rules and applying them to their new vertical mode based on two main theories: Counter Gravity and Vertical Nomadism. With understanding the concept of indeterminacy & trying to control its boundaries, the purpose was to redefine social concepts like void, intermezzo & public spaces. Students had to generate a database of maps (12x12 pixel grayscale images) that represented each of these concepts and stack or project these maps through. Monolith voxel-based software to make 3D models. The practical step begins with the maps tagged with the properties of the references. Thenceforth, the students were only allowed to use this database as the ingredient as the layers to create their cities. The techniques they implemented were stacking images over each other in three axes based on their theory. As part of international competition, 1982, to revitalize the abandoned land from the slaughterhouse in Paris. Bernard Tschumi was chosen from many entries, including that of OMA/Rem Koolhaas. The Studio in this section focused on investigating these two attitudes toward design for a piece of land and extending the essence of those notions to program new imaginary cities with the power and social distribution they derive from the result of those two designs. Students were divided into two groups and began a new subjective challenge.

Tschumi designs the park according to three organizational principles, which he classifies in points, lines, and surfaces. The series of follies give a dimensional and organizational quality to the park serving as points of reference, allowing visitors to retain a sense of place through the large park. The site is organized spatially through a grid or follies. Unlike other competition participants, Tschumi did not design the park in a traditional spirit where scenery and nature were the design’s predominant forces. Rather, it imagined itself as a place of culture where the natural and the artificial are forced together in a state of constant reconfiguration and discovery. As part of Tschumi’s overall goal to induce exploration, movement, and interaction, he scattered ten themed gardens throughout the large expansive site that people would stumble upon either quite literally or ambiguously. The Tschumi lines are essentially the main traffic lanes delineated throughout the park. Unlike the follies, the paths do not follow any organizational structure; rather, they intersect and lead to various points of interest within the park and the surrounding urban area.

Whereas Koolhaas designed major programmatic components as horizontal bands across the site, creating a continuous atmosphere in its length and perpendicular, rapid change in experience; like the tower’s floors, each program is different and autonomous but modified “polluted” through the proximity of all others. He emphasized that congestion demands a gathering together rather than separation. Their park superimposes urbanism on the deception of the landscape. There is a systematic logic behind the Project. Their proposal provides a design solution of how flexible open spaces can be configured under the idea of a social condenser.

Layers

• The Strips: Parallel strips contain different playing areas, thematic gardens, etc.

• Point of grids or confetti: Small elements such as stands, ticket sales, and the other stuff are placed on the site with the help of the confetti and grids.

• Access and Circulation: Two major roads; one is crossing Strips at North-South axes and the other one which contains and connects interesting groups and programs.

• Large Units: Big or unique objects that fit in the system located on sightlines.

• What La Villette finally suggested was the pure exploitation of the metropolitan condition: density without architecture, a culture of “invisible” congestion.’’

Density, land limitations, and the cost of human living infrastructure in growing metropolises lead humans to transition to the vertical direction as the main city development direction. In such a metamorphosis, architectural structures such as Wade, public spaces, squares, and neighborhoods need to be redefined. At the same time, we live in an occasional era where information is penetrating cities in different levels, from natural environments to virtual world dialogues, producing complex maps that can form the basis of strategy design. In this regard, Evolver Studio experimented with code and prototypes to explore data analysis for use in architectural design. It concluded that entering a competition has long been a challenge for architects. Therefore, it involves a data-driven design process to solve an urban architecture problem.

Wooly Travelers

Imagine the world with particles and agents in different kinds of society such as music, science, daily life, etc. behavior of these agents may cause a different variation of events depending on them or their environment. for example, the behavior of people catching a train. If a physical system is followed through a fold bifurcation, the system will suddenly transition to a new, very different behavior. This bifurcation value of the parameter a is sometimes called the “tipping point.” The key concept used in this process was the ‘Fold Catastrophe’ theory.

This enhances the following scenario-based design. All projects made several groups of points as an initial population with a specific movement, path (mesh) dependency, and wandering behavior (which can be controlled by a drawn graph in rhino) to catch their trains. Everything else turns out to be theory. For example, Gonzalo Frasca defines a game as an “activity organized under a system of rules that defines a victory or a defeat, a gain or a loss.” The reference point in design was the german movie name “Lola Renate” or “Run Lola Run” Lola plays a very simple game in the film based on such theory.

The topics consisted of: Self-organization is the process by which the internal organization of a system, usually an open system, evolves to greater complexity without being guided or exercised by external factors. It has been managed. Artificial machines and systems in previous centuries acquired their structures and organizations due to exterior plans and commands. In contrast, many natural systems are self-organizing according to their internal processes and laws, structured and systematic. As a practice, this design approach helps designers observe the CoreLogic factors for architecture or urban design as a live program that leads to a self-organized system. Methodologically, this studio stepped into such a field and experimented with an alternative design approach.

Final Projects

At the end of the studio, the students were divided into two groups to achieve the final goal. The final task was critical design due to the subjects of ‘Vertical nomadism’ and ‘Counter Gravity’ that expected them to have a computational approach to reach the target.

No Man’s Land

In the year 2090, cities become so dense that they can’t expand horizontally. No man’s land is a term referring to a group of people who call themselves free spirit assigned to the land they’ve found when they were escaping from the city’s high density and downtown-like ambient that it has become, a place that yet is untouched. These lands are not likely on the ground - as they’re filled with cities, but on the rooftops. They will terrorize the city’s flat roofs and make it their own as if they are living in the countryside. So, as the free part of society, they started to ride their motorcycles and enjoy these free lands while there’s nothing above to restrict them. Until the mighty ones, wealthy people who are also tired of the crowd and bustle of the city and want some peace and quiet in somewhere like the suburbs they’re used to going before, see the opportunity and use their money and power to make their way to the top. They start to expand the city’s mega infrastructures and different types of roads and connections vertically.

The whole urban network intertwines in itself and starts to grow upward as if the city’s structure stretches within to balance the density. Thus a new system has been creating itself through this process. It is a dynamic system that results in a fast-developing city that no one can define its zones as downtown, uptown, suburb, or slums without stopping the timer as their quality changes with time.

Unlike the prior urban systems and cities with horizontal development, this system is mostly evolves based on a counter gravity movement that forms most of its connected networks, using forces like eccentricity and transportation means like vertical funicular or centrifuge based helix structured roads to deviate and tilt gravity in order to obtain vertical flow. Public spaces in such a city may function differently; a plaza is a place that people gather to see the sky and nature, and it’s called a sky portal, or the suburb-to-be free land that has not been possessed yet is called No Man’s Land. The supply and demand rate of land is in constant change since there was no specific place or pattern for the growth and development of the city when it all started; the next step may be anywhere at any time. The rooftops of a zone formerly known as uptown could become downtown after a while, passing some developments. The city can only be explained in a specific period of time. But no matter what, the story continues because the free spirits will never stop riding their motorcycles to discover The No Man’s Land…

In most English-speaking regions, suburban areas are defined in contrast to central or inner-city areas. In general, they have lower population densities than inner-city neighborhoods within a metropolitan area. Though they appeared on the outskirts of many world cities in the early 1800s, suburbs began to grow extensively, especially in the United States, only after the general implementation of electric railways in the late 1800s. The importance of Transportation. Emerging in the 1850s as a result of a fast-rising urban population and improving transportation technology, suburbs have remained a popular alternative to the city even today.

As of 2000, about half the population of the U.S. lived in the suburbs. People may live in the suburb in order to avoid the density and untidiness of the city. Since people have to get around these vast stretches of land, transportation (including, to a limited extent, trains and buses) plays an important role in the life of a suburban resident who generally commutes to work. People also like to decide for themselves how to live and what rules to live by. Suburbs offer them this independence.

LEED

In a time when our planet is raped by accepting CONSUMERISM as dominant social and economic order, people are only able to dream of catching sun rays or gazing at stars while listening to the sound of their beloved ones breathing in and out heavily through breathe masks. We bought and bought and bought, for exchange a thick layer of polluted air indwelled our cities, blocking exuberant sky with all its vital resources. Considering all mentioned above, the unreachable sky above polluted air becomes NEW GOLD MINES, and they come up with one deviously clever plan of SELLING THE SKY. “Prospectors” are erected as giant upside-down drills to exploit the sky. As the sky and its resources become sources of income, competitive markets begin to grow, selling the sky under brand names. When there are too many SKY BRANDS trying to own the market, Edward Bernayses of the era come with their PROPAGANDA plans of all kinds, trying to scientifically manipulate public opinion. Prospectors, once being just mega devices reaching the sky, open their doors to BRAND AMBASSADORS, accommodating them in luxury living spaces designed.

The downside of the Prospector, a MEGA ATRIUM is designed. Since clean air is not generally available, people are not able to fill their conventional public spaces or even their vast houses with breathable air. Therefore, public spaces are no longer usable, so they come up with a new glamorous plan, which is designing mega atriums under Prospectors, which will provide people with all the pleasant experiences once they had. People can gather with their family and friends in mega atriums, remove their breathe masks, and enjoy natural sunlight or real night sky only if they have enough money to pass the gates. Brand Ambassadors live in these apartments and condominiums designed within Prospector’s wall thickness and benefit of all-sky resources at their very best quality. Their living area separates a chamber of resources from a polluted city in a way it becomes INTERFACE of the city and sky brand’s headquarter. In other words, people will watch the whole tower with the foreground of its brand ambassadors. Extracting all-natural resources underground, now it’s time to grab the brilliant opportunity provided by the polluted air layer and sell the sky and all its vital resources, which became unreachable to people.

In the first section, held in five weeks and ten sessions, all three mentors supervised and directed the studio with the students with the same topic. The second part of the studio diverged into three parts, each supervised by one of the mentors. The sub studios consisted of

• Counter Gravity

  supervised by Amin Bahrami (& Helioripple Team)

• Stairway to heaven

  supervised by Hooman Talebi

• Periferia

  supervised by Mobasher Nekouei

At different course stages, the students were screened and guided in the academy of ideas with the benefit of professional architects and professors in this field. Finally, the ideas selected in the Evolo contest would have been tested. One of the studio characteristics is advancing the design and familiarity with inventing a computerized way to deal with an architectural problem in / or out of context.

Data Driven Design

They are practicing rule-based design with the study of “2D Cellular Automata,” such as Conway’s “game of life” in 3*3 square grids. Each team member has a right to design a rule for each cell in a grid, based on its neighborhood. Each level is being extruded and stacked above its previous steps. After doing the first phase of the assignment, as a warm-up, students were supposed to be introduced to static and dynamic data, learning to collect, visualize, map and apply them to the arbitrary grids defined by themselves and extract new rules from their design public and individual environments. In the meantime, participants started to use cloud space such as Google Drive as the first steps of collaborative design.

Ok-Arduino was the first Arduino workshop in Isfahan and the springboard of resting Cicada and Heteroduino plugins. This workshop was held in the ultimate days of 2014 in a delightful place in the ‘Matn gallery’ in Isfahan, under the supervision of Helioripple by Amin Bahrami. The workshop’s objective was to invite architecture undergraduates to design and make interactive interfaces between humans and the space. They implemented images, videos, sounds, sensors, and actuators to represent digital art with the implementation of Arduino. Most participants were bachelor students and had little knowledge of electronics and computation. The workshop began with teaching grasshopper as an interface to Rhino (the primer platform most students had implemented), and the format was tweaked by Helioripple ( Amin Bahrami and Mobasher Nekouei).

Arduino is an interface tool for creating a sort of computer-like device, which not only senses our surrounding physical space but makes changes to that. In other words, this tool is a physical computing platform provided by a simple microcontroller board. Also, it is a developing field for programmers to customize their tools via a developing feature name IDE. Creating interactive objects, Arduino can receive input data from several sensors and send controlling commands to lights, motors, pumps, switches, and other physical actuators. Accessing this Arduino makes this device popular for artists and architects worldwide; having no expected knowledge of robotics and electronics makes them able to not only discover their surrounding world differently but also come up with some inventions in responsive and interactive fields or customize their design tools.

To enhance using Arduino for architects, Helioripple-Studio created Heteroduino, an interface plugin for grasshopper, to simplify the implementation of this device and similar microcontrollers effectively via Rhino and Grasshopper, some of the best design platform software, which has been tried to bring the most capability to communicate to Arduino. This workshop will be provided by the latest beta release, with special features being underdeveloped depending on the projects. Under the supervision of the Helioripple team, the Heteroduino workshop will focus on digital logic accessing analog space and architectural intervention in surrounding space using microcontrollers. Along with these criteria, after being familiar with devices, students will design their prototypes using Heteroduino as an interface between grasshopper and Arduino.

The Projects:

Bat (Midi Table)

Imagine that the song sync’s itself to your movement instead of syncing your movements with the song while dancing on the stage or the bottles on the plate that can arrange the music in the party just by moving them. Things like this that alter our perception of our surrounding environment could be pretty interesting. But orientation toward making architecture into different fields through the use of new soft wares and hard wares and the help of other fields of knowledge such as computer, robotics, electronics, and mechanics can be as a tool to make new creative architectural spaces with new potentials for new needs is the main reason for this event to occur. The primary idea for this project was to interact with the space by the user and the imagination that today the human has the possibility of changing and ruling the space that he is surrounded by just with the improvement of new technology. The challenge is the interaction of people and the music in the space in a way that just by being in a specific place, the device can get the information from the environment, such as distance from the sensors, Direction, and the pace of movement, then apply this information and numbers to specific qualities of a tone. The distance detector sensors and Arduino processor as an information receptor using grasshopper and other related software were used as the primary software. According to the coverage of the sensors, a triangular platform was preferred with three sensors in the corners. For Such a device, in addition to having a complete understanding of any movement within it. It can also release instantaneous location, traveled distance, and movement direction. This device impacts the music according to the sensor numbers. Each sensor works as an independent controller responsible for specific modifications in the effects, tone, tempo, etc. For us, the challenge was to use all three sensors simultaneously without letting their conflict with each other. As a solution, programming modification was necessary to delay sending and receiving data to have the sensors working respectively and not facing each other. The next step, or the main challenge, was the synchronization of the statics from the process to the music sound. However, the grasshopper was not compatible with this task, so a system was designed to create communication among them through the implementation of various software.

Woods (Controller Glove)

We have always had and still have many problems controlling computer environments, and the need for an intermediary tool that can modify and modify data analogously is strongly felt. One of the issues that have always been in the human mind is the need for the ability to control analog inputs and outputs in computer environments, especially software environments, by means of a tool in the real world. Fortunately, this need has been met by a variety of tools in the world today, one of which is Arduino hardware. Arduino hardware plays an important role as an intermediary between real and virtual worlds. It provides us with a wide range of possibilities, including using a variety of sensors (sensors) and creating a bridge between analog inputs and analog or digital outputs. Rhinoceros software can establish this connection effectively through plug-ins, Grasshopper and Firefly. In this workshop, we tried to connect effectively to the software environment by using analog data and bending sensors.

Given the fundamental and vital role of the hand in controlling the environment for humans, we decided to design and build a smart glove (Smart Glove) to create easier and more effective control in the software environment. We implemented the idea so that due to the ability of flexures sensors to send continuous analog data, we can make a more realistic control possible. In this way, we embedded the bending sensors under the fingers on the glove, and as the fingers bend, they begin to send this data. Due to the limited time of the workshop, we decided to simplify the idea and thus implement the design with only three fingers. The output will be such that by bending each of the three fingers, one of the functions of twist, bending, and changing one of the dimensions of the volume (width, length, height) will be analog and continuous. One of the major advantages of this project is the possibility of its extensive development in various dimensions and environments according to the functions we need. The ability to receive output both digitally and analogy allows, in addition, to control in software environments, we have the ability to control different quantities and spatial qualities according to our needs and desires in the environment. These control features can include control of the opening or closing of the shutters, control of artificial ambient light, control of the heating or cooling system, and the like. It is also possible to define different codes by different hand movements, which points to the remarkable potential of this design in terms of development. A large number of functions can be controlled along with a smart glove.

Pangolin (Reactive Wall)

This concern has been challenged in the forthcoming project to achieve a reliable result using tools such as. The definition of the problem began with the assumption that the lip motion sensor could be used as a tool with relative accuracy and, of course, very accessible. Therefore, the problem was raised how a level can be completely controlled in all directions with the help of a lip motion sensor, and the set can be realigned. The information obtained from the lip motion sensor is entered into the Grace Hopper environment with the help of the Firefly plugin to be used in the next steps. We also assumed that each cypress only rotates between 0-180, so it only seemed logical, but it was very challenging to achieve a basically simple physical structure that could be controlled with certain values. After proposing different options and considering the facilities and the lack of complexity of the tools used, a bend was considered for each of the servos attached to the two ends of the thread to create wrinkles in the panel by moving the cypress. At this stage, the project went beyond solving technical problems and entered the field of information management and its application to the physical set. With the help of Grace Hopper controller software, the gyroscope sensor obtains the angle that the surface makes with the Z-axis on the four sides of the surface. Also, this angle can be used to change the settings. For this purpose, we used Arduino hardware to activate the service by placing the service on the surface. When the fingers are in front of each service, the lip motion sensor analyzes the fingers, and the Arduino executes a command by an algorithm in Grace. Hopper defined, starts moving.

Mule (Balance Machine)

In the interactive design of information management, it seems very important how to take advantage of all kinds of information, so in the forthcoming project, this concern has been challenged to use inaccurate tools such as aquarium air pumps. Gain trust. The definition of the problem began with the assumption that the types of sensors available in smartphones could be used as a tool with relative accuracy and, of course, very accessibility. Therefore, the problem was raised how a level can be completely aligned and controlled in all directions with the help of a gyroscope sensor in the mobile phone, and also by applying another force, the set can be able to level itself again. The information obtained from the gyroscope sensor with the help of Grace Hopper controller software that can be installed on smartphones with the Android operating system - is entered into the Grace Hopper environment to be used in the next steps to level the surface. We also had in mind the mathematical assumption that only one page passes through three points in space, so it only made sense to have only moving points but reach three moving points. Basically, a simple physical structure that can be controlled with Having certain amounts was very challenging after considering the various options and, of course, taking into account the possibilities and considering the lack of complexity of the tools used, three similar sets of balloons, for each of which a pump for inflating and an electronic discharge valve were considered. At this stage, the project went beyond solving technical problems and entered the field of information management and its application to the physical set. With the help of Hopper controller software, the gyroscope sensor obtains the angle that the surface makes with the Z-axis on the four sides of the surface. Also, this angle can be used to change the settings. For this purpose, we used Arduino hardware to activate pumps and electronic valves so that by placing the mobile phone on the surface and of course in proportion to the three points, if the surface is out of alignment, the Arduino will execute the command by an algorithm. Defined in Grace Hopper, it keeps the pump on one side and the drain valve on the other until the surface eventually returns to level.

Galileo Machine(Day-Light Simulator)

Galileo Machine tries to simulate the effect of sunlight on earth and how the sun causes shadow and diffuse areas by its photons. By how this project works, we will simulate the natural sunlight during different times along the days, different seasons, different months, and diverse latitudes worldwide. The above story can be seen physically and much more sensible and visible. By choosing the specific latitude, day of the year, and the particular time during the day as inputs in the “Diva” plugin we will get the angle between the sunshine and the earth. Then we can calculate and decompose this angle into two separate planar and vertical angles.

The gear works by the planar angle, and the belt works vertically. These two components work together and make up a single angle upon the earth, which can precisely simulate the sun’s position and its effect, which causes shadow and diffuse areas. Stepper motors control the gear and the belt. Also, the Stepper motors are controlled by the Arduino hardware, which controls the number of steps Stepper motors work with. A LED lamp simulates the sunlight during times from sunrise to sunset. A PWM signal controller from Arduino controls the maximum and minimum amount of light during different day hours. At this time, after the simulation of sunlight from sunrise to sunset, the system will be reset manually, and the LED lamp will move to the first point it started. But in the project’s development process, a potentiometer will be used for the movement of both vectors, which can analyze and find its own location and then intend to get back to its start point when the sunlight simulation is over.

Spider (Drawing-Machine)

The main goal of the “Spider Plotter” project is to create and make graphical forms and shapes by a triangular structure, including two stepper motors and the gravity force, which all play a tensional force role, and this can provide us the geometrical justification of the project. One of the significant characteristics of the project is the possibility to control the stepper motors by using the Firefly” and Grasshopper Plugins in “The Rhino software environment. One of the main goals which were tried to follow during the project is developing and adapting to most kinds of surfaces, dimensions, materials, and diverse forms. Because of this purpose, it has been tried to design and fabricate all of the structures and mechanisms by considering the pointed out goals since, without these developments and adaptations, the domain of the project functions would be limited, and we cannot expect it to be used in diverse positions and situations. First, we started to design and fabricate the plotter’s e common elements, positioned on the top corners of the vertical surface we wanted the plotter to work on.

The function of these elements is to hold stepper motors inside and bear the force of the gravity against the “Pen Holder.” These elements can be placed on top corners by using suction arms, hooking on edges, and hanging on spike objects, and this is why these elements can adapt themselves to different positions. On the next step, designing and fabricating the pen holder element was the other challenge we had to face since adjusting weight division, and the center of forces on the pen holder was a crucial and precise task. Any mistake and mismatch in calculations of this step would fail the whole function of the plotter since the pen will not touch the vertical surface. Also, it was needed to design a mechanism that allows us to change the penned element for other uses of the plotter. The main challenges of the Wall Plotter project were designing and fabrication of the joint elements, pen holder element, adjustment of the distance between ropes and the surface, the place which “Servo Motor” stands (which is in charge of removing pen so that the plotter stops drawing), dimensions of the pen, design of gears that assembles on stepper motors and the exact point which ropes conjunct the joint and pen holder elements inasmuch as all of the above factors played vital roles in the whole function of the plotter.

After solving structural and physical issues, the next challenge we had to encounter was definitions by which the plotter works. The above process had to be done in the Rhino software environment and by using Firefly and Grasshopper plugins. In this step, we had to consider the relations of factors such as the rolling amount of each stepper motor, the rolling angle of each step, the movement and displacement of the ropes in each step, decomposition of force vectors on elements, and the synchronization of physical motions and definitions in software. The “Spider Plotter” is able to draw forms and words on vertical surfaces from glassy window shops and bedroom walls to wide building facades. Also, the Spider Plotter is able to be programmed by diverse manners so that it can draw simple words to complicated forms and shapes. Another significant trait of the plotter is its ability to be carried in a small bag or backpack so that it can be even carried, assembled, and disassembled by a single person in a short time span.

The main goal of the “Spider Plotter” project was to create and make graphical forms and shapes by a triangular structure including two stepper motors and the gravity force, which all play a tensional force role, and this can provide us the geometrical justification of the project. One of the significant characteristics of the project is the possibility to control the stepper motors by using the Firefly” and Grasshopper Plugins in “The Rhino software environment. One of the main goals that were tried to follow during the project is developing and adapting to most kinds of surfaces, dimensions, materials, and diverse forms. Because of this purpose, it has been tried to design and fabricate all of the structures and mechanisms by considering the pointed out goals inasmuch as without these developments and adaptations, the domain of the project functions will be so limited, and we cannot expect it to be used in diverse positions and situations. First, we started to design and fabricate the joint elements of the plotter, which are positioned on the top corners of the vertical surface we want the plotter to work on. The function of these elements is to hold stepper motors inside and also bear the force of the gravity against the “Pen Holder”. These elements can be placed on top corners using suction arms, hooking on edges, and hanging on spike objects, which is why they can adapt themselves to different positions. On the next step, designing and fabricating the pen holder element was the other challenge we had to face since adjusting weight division, and the center of forces on the pen holder was a crucial and precise task. Any mistake and mismatch in calculations of this step would fail the whole function of the plotter since the pen will not touch the vertical surface. Also, it was needed to design a mechanism that allows us to change the penned element for other uses of the plotter. The main challenges of the Wall Plotter project were designing and fabrication of the joint elements, pen holder element, adjustment of the distance between ropes and the surface, the place which “Servo Motor” stands (which is in charge of removing pen so that the plotter stops drawing), dimensions of the pen, design of gears that assembles on stepper motors and the exact point which ropes conjunct the joint and pen holder elements inasmuch as all of the above factors played vital roles in the whole function of the plotter.

After solving structural and physical issues, the next challenge we had to encounter was definitions by which the plotter works. The above process had to be done in the Rhino software environment and by using Firefly and Grasshopper plugins. In this step, we had to consider the relations of factors such as the rolling amount of each stepper motor, the rolling angle of each step, the movement and displacement of the ropes in each step, decomposition of force vectors on elements, and the synchronization of physical motions and definitions in software. The “Spider Plotter” is able to draw forms and words on vertical surfaces, from glassy window shops and bedroom walls to expansive building facades. Also, the Spider Plotter can be programmed in diverse manners to draw simple words to complicated forms and shapes. Another significant trait of the plotter is its ability to be carried in a small bag or backpack so that it can be even carried, assembled, and disassembled by a single person in a short time span.

The student started with digital sketching for the roof based on the guidelines, which the stadium’s architect probably desired. Later, they explore various optimization algorithms and choose one to optimize the designed structure. To achieve a multi-objective optimization result, they mainly implemented evolutionary algorithms like the Genetic algorithms.

As an advanced architecture academy in Isfahan, MAAN Architect curated a workshop for elite students about Digital Fabrication and invited Helioripple as a well-known platform in developing Computational Design as the mentor for the workshop. The workshop began with the grasshopper, fundamentals of parametric design, and focused on digital fabrication.

The students learned how to use digital tools like grasshoppers to organize the fabricating pieces. They also should have considered the forces to tolerate a body weight. In the beginning, the first challenge was building furniture by implementing waffling techniques. Next, they struggled with designing a structure with the most porosity to make it as lightweight as possible. This challenge emerged as they wanted to cluster the pieces and code the notches. Some classic machine learning tools also were implemented to press the pieces. With C#, We used the Accord library for clustering the units. The structure built with cardboards was a practice for students to learn how to distribute the forces on a structure.