Studio description
Peter Macapia is the director and founder of labDORA, an interdisciplinary research office that focuses on design, the geometry and topology of matter/energy relations, and the advent of the algorithm. Each year the explores these problems through both material and computational work focusing on new tectonic and spatial problems.
Statement on Digital Primitive
There is a story in Plato about the cave – it suggests the problem of matter, of perception, of illusion. Descartes rewrote the story from the point of view of observing a piece of wax. The tendency towards a Royal science we all know is based on the notion that there is, that there exists, a foundation. And that the foundation can explain everything else that needs to be explained. But actually that knowledge is the constant product of the invention of problems that can never be seen or anticipated by the foundation. Even Leibniz knew this when he wrote about the calculus as having a limit, and that the limit was like these monstrous little species that might emerge. There’s nothing primitive about these kinds of problems: what is a geometrical logic, what is a topological one, and what is an algorithmic logic. I tend to see the interest in manipulating the signs according to a new paradigm, to quote Wittgenstein. The fabrication part is the most difficult of these investigations. The nonlinear behavior of material organization always forces a revision.
Project 1: FRINGE PAVILION STUDIES
Location: MANHATTAN
Date: 2009
Client: STUDY
Digital tools: NESTLIST ALGORITHM
Credits:
Design/ fabrication / Implementation
PETER MACAPIA WITH MAT HOWARD
Peter Macapia is the director and founder of labDORA, an interdisciplinary research office that focuses on design, the geometry and topology of matter/energy relations, and the advent of the algorithm. Each year the explores these problems through both material and computational work focusing on new tectonic and spatial problems.
Statement on Digital Primitive
There is a story in Plato about the cave – it suggests the problem of matter, of perception, of illusion. Descartes rewrote the story from the point of view of observing a piece of wax. The tendency towards a Royal science we all know is based on the notion that there is, that there exists, a foundation. And that the foundation can explain everything else that needs to be explained. But actually that knowledge is the constant product of the invention of problems that can never be seen or anticipated by the foundation. Even Leibniz knew this when he wrote about the calculus as having a limit, and that the limit was like these monstrous little species that might emerge. There’s nothing primitive about these kinds of problems: what is a geometrical logic, what is a topological one, and what is an algorithmic logic. I tend to see the interest in manipulating the signs according to a new paradigm, to quote Wittgenstein. The fabrication part is the most difficult of these investigations. The nonlinear behavior of material organization always forces a revision.
Project 1: FRINGE PAVILION STUDIES
Location: MANHATTAN
Date: 2009
Client: STUDY
Digital tools: NESTLIST ALGORITHM
Credits:
Design/ fabrication / Implementation
PETER MACAPIA WITH MAT HOWARD
Description
Developed out of a series of nestlist algorithms with the help of Mat Howard.
The problem set involved finding a way to generate geometrical system without using geometry. Absurd in a sense. But insofar as mathematical operations can be carried out by simple algorithmic rules it seemed necessary to question whether geometrical outputs had to be based on geometrical operations - only.
The function is one of simply sending a product back into an initial equation where the results will continuously vary. The numerical sequence then produces a topological network that is graphed spatially through spring mechanics.
As a result certain points generate further points with more or less density in 3space. the design use of this system doesn't have an apriori intelligence. What became significant is the translation of this system from the domain of a spatial network into a tectonic logic. In that sense it follows the research on urban pavilions for looking a new ways to develop designs that work with exiting conditions (like vacant lots) without relying on typical notions of mass and enclosure.
Project 2: GROSS TOPOLOGY: MANURUGLY TOWER
Location: MANHATTAN
Date: 2030
Client: MANUARUGLY
Digital tools: CELLULAR AUTOMATA AND TOPOLOGICAL NETWORK ALGORITHM
Credits: Design/ fabrication / Implementation
PETER MACAPIA WITH MAT HOWARD
Description:
The basis for my research in this project was to look at the problem of design from the point of view of computation and algorithm. If topology (rather than geometry) can shift the way in which we think of the spatiallity of the tower, then we ought to consider how that problem might manifest itself at the level of structure. And so the investigation looked at the problem of structure as topological rather than geometrical starting point. Gross means essentially two thing: first it is a lower dimension topological problem, that is, it deals with things like 2- and 3-space and second it works from a generalized (schematic) notion of space as manifold. Topology as such deals with ways of distinguishing manifolds. Differential topology deals with non-metrical notions of manifolds while differential geometry deals with metrical notions of manifolds. But a manifold as such is a topological space with local Euclidean characteristics. The general operation of the system is a lightweight structure in which the Primary and Secondary structures are combined not through direct contact but rather through a kind of inflatable splint. This third element is the programmatic space of the “pods.” The pods are assembled using lighweight steel members that are combined like a mesh with singularities (lamina) to take up large scale structural loads and continue them through the Primary and Secondary structures. The “envelope” is a series of EFTE pillows that deflate and inflate according to the solar and optical conditions. The external Primary Structure is also “glazed” with EFTE membrane on a large scale to provide interstitial space and program. Finally, the logic of development and growth is to initiate a condition in which the structure is never complete, but always evolving and changing. That is, “pods” can be continuously added and transformed according to programmatic need. The building is kind of like a lattice on which to grow a vine from which to grow grapes. That’s a kind of gross analogy, but topologically, it works.
Project 3: PERFORMA PAVILION
Location: MANHATTAN
Date: 2011
Client: PERFORMA
Digital tools: COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS
Credits:
Design/ fabrication / Implementation
PETER MACAPIA
Description:
The Performa Pavilion the result of a study of using vacant lots in the urban environment for environmental and tectonic exploration of urban porosity and topology. The basic interest is to develop projects that operate in terms of the following principle: the geometry and topology of matter/energy relations.Computational Fluid dynamics was a way to develop minimal surfaces or surfaces with great tension that could vary in their spatial and organizational qualities – that is, it would provide a condition of constant transformation. The framing system was developed using a stochastic geometry for the super frame, and a more subtle topologically sensitive geometry for the secondary one that could be moved and transformed according to the needs of the installation and transformation of tensile fabric. At the same time, the interest in a lightweight above ground structure that implicitly relies on a kind of already situated infrastructure was an important projection regarding cities of high density, public space, and sustainability. Projects like this are not mean to follow the traditional notion of a building as a solid permanent mass – it is rather nomadic.
No comments:
Post a Comment