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Paper: dcbc
| Paper title: | Designing by Simulation [Diseño por Simulation] |
| Authors: | Flanagan, Robert |
| Summary: | This article evaluates ‘simulation’ as a contributing factor in architectural design. While computers enhance simulation, they have yet to transform the art of architecture. A partial explanation is found at the extremes of design processes: Gaudí’s Sagrada Família Cathedral of Barcelona is an empiricist’s culminating achievement -- faith expressed in stone. By contrast, SOM’s Sear’s Tower of Chicago is the modernist monument to rational process -- (financial) faith engineered in steel and glass. Gaudí employed an understanding of the heritage of stone and masonry to fashion his design while SOM used precise relationships of mathematics and steel. However, the designs in both the Sear’s Tower and Sagrada Família are restricted by the solutions inherent in the methods. In contrast, student designs often have no inherent approach to building. While the solution may appear to be evident, the method must often be invented; this is potentially more costly and complex than the design itself. This issue is not new to computers, but its hyper--reality is potentially more complex and disruptive. In evaluating the role of computer simulation in architectural design, this article employs two methods: 1.) Exoskeletal design: A limited collection of connected plates is formed and designed through warping, bending and forming. Reference architect Buckminster Fuller. 2.) Endoskeletal design: Curtain wall construction is taken to its minimalist extreme, using pure structure and membrane. Reference artist Christo. |
| Type: | |
| Year of publication: | 1999 |
| Series: | CUMINCADes:SIGRADI |
| Download paper: | /pdfs/dcbc.content.pdf |
| Citation: | Flanagan, Robert (1999). Designing by Simulation [Diseño por Simulation]. III Congreso Iberoamericano de Grafico Digital [SIGRADI Conference Proceedings] Montevideo (Uruguay) September 29th - October 1st 1999, pp. 25-30, http://itc.scix.net/paper/dcbc |
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W78
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