Virtual Tectonics
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AimThe aim of this short experiment is to investigate the possibilities of using the skeleton tool in the application MAYA to construct a ‘virtual tectonic’.
From the outset of the project, two questions are posed. 1) Can MAYA simulate the complex dynamics of a construction, in a way that lets the architect investigate and develop a construction in a virtual space before it is build in a real space? And 2) Is there a special kind of construction – a twin in a way – that would exist side by side the real physical construction?
ConstructionThe green ball is the only object that is animated. The construction is manipulated through a parametric relationship to the green ball.
Primary applications MAYA, RHINO, Form•Z, Fire.
DiscussionA conclusion of this experiment could be that both of the questions above are confirmed. The constructions ‘act’ in the same way as in real life and can be constrained in ways that are very close to the very real constructions act. Through this use, new possible scenarios of complex constructions can be investigated. On the other hand, the experiment shows that there is a virtual construction of joints, constraints and parameters that structure the space of the construction – which could be called the design space of the construction.
One approach could be to define the ‘virtual tectonics’ of the architecture – its parameters, its constraints, its dynamics. Not to define its final expression from the start but rather to activate the ‘virtual tectonics’ and work with the dynamic structure towards a manifestation as a building – where the architect does not design the building itself but the relationship between its elements.
Manuel de Landa describes the interaction with materials in a design process – which in essence is what the idea of tectonic is – as having two modus operandi; one in which the abstract idea is transferred onto any given material that will ‘obey’ the idea and one in which the idea is developed with the active participation of the material.[1] De Landa argues hereby that the first may be reutilized often in modulated steel components, while the other cannot. This could in essence be posed as the distinction between ideas that are transcendental or ideas that are immanent to matter it. [If this is the case that ideas are developed together with the material and not on the material, what is then the relation between an architectural idea and architectural space? If space has become active and participating what is then the ‘role’ of space?
[1] De Landa, Manuel (2001), 'Philosophies of Design, The Case of Modeling Software', in Verb Processing, Barcelona: Actar.
© Thomas Leerberg, 2004
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