Structuralism: Patterns of Interaction

ARK-E3003 Design of Structures – Autumn Studio
ARK-E5511 Digital Speculative Urbanism

The studio is organized as an experimental design lab and structured around three key elements:

• pattern generation
• pattern transformation
• speculative interpretation

Computational explorations, thereby, are complemented by physical explorations through the integration of the robot, as well as theoretical grounding. The computational skill-building curriculum includes extensive tutorials focused primarily on Rhino, Python, Grasshopper and robotic fabrication with Universal Robots. These skills are a prerequisite in order to approach the design task from the point of view of algorithmic design and are essential for the successful completion of the studio. In the studio, we will teach them from scratch through a series of intensive hands-on scripting tutorials accompanied with individual assignments.

Project area: 

City of Concepción in Chile, with special focus on the urban
edge to the river Andalién

Scale: 

working across scales: from S to XL (1:50 – 1:2000)

Task: 

experimental explorations at the interplay between the city Concepción and the Andalién River in various scales. The joint studio allows students to both explore and formulate small or large-scale design speculations in the area of urbanistic answers to the specific dialogue that natural systems and city undertake in Concepción.