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AECbytes Viewpoint
#24 (April 5, 2006)
The Shape of Things to Come
Dominic Gallello,
President & CEO, Graphisoft
The free-form building environment
as a movement is about to move into
high gear around the world. We consider
how this will affect architects and
their design thinking, and ultimately
the space in which we all live and
work.
To understand the potential of the
organic design "movement,"
one need only look to another industry—the
product manufacturing industry. In
the manufacturing sector, designers
worry about form, fit and function.
More and more, manufacturers are realizing
that fit and function alone do not
sell product. It is style (form) that
has the strong emotional appeal with
customers (see Figure 1). There is
no better example of this than Nissan
Motor Company. By 1999, Nissan had
crashed and burned with $22 billion
of debt. Now they are a shining star
in the automobile industry. What turned
them around? Form. Nissan made a dramatic
shift from boring car designs to dramatic
styling, and the results speak for
themselves.
Figure 1.
Examples of product design with emphasis
on form. (Left) Illy's "Francis
X1" coffee machine, by Jay Dubin.
(Right) TV Egg by Jan
Sandahl for 1HTV.
Like the manufacturing industry's
principles of form, fit and function,
Vitruvius laid out a similar credo
in his book, De architectura (commodity,
firmness and delight). So, the subject
at hand is "delight" (form).
How can architects drive more delight
into their buildings? It can be argued
that organic shapes for both building
exteriors and interiors can give buildings
more feeling and evoke more emotion
in the people who live in them and
look at them. A great example is the
design of a concept hospital by Mac
Bouw Design in Holland (see Figure
2). Compared to a traditional hospital,
it is hard for the observer not to
have some reaction. In my view, there
are three main areas in which organic
form is increasingly taking a hold:
large buildings, family houses and
interiors.
Figure 2.
Future Hospitals: an Schevens, Mac
Bouw Design, Holland.
Large buildings
People like Daniel
Libeskind and Santiago
Calatrava have led the way. Going
forward, you will see more shape to
large buildings, whether they are
commercial like the new twisted tower
structure in Doha, or institutional
buildings like the £42 million
Unity City Academy building in Middlesbrough
by the UK's Hickton
Madeley Architects (see Figure
3).
Figure 3.
The Unity City Academy building in
Middlesbrough, UK.
Residential architecture
Many consider Frank Lloyd Wright
to be the father of this movement
which is growing rapidly. Today, the
organic direction of architecture
is being led by such architects as
Robert
Harvey Oshatz and Bart
Prince (see Figure 4). In addition
to this movement having its effect
on landmark buildings, more and more,
family houses will be built with an
emphasis on delight.
Figure 4.
A residential design architected by
Bart Prince. (Photo by Michele Penhall)
Interiors
Whether it is for store fixtures
or to develop a different mood in
a restaurant, organic shapes will
see their biggest impact in interiors.
According to the highly talented Hernan
Zanghellini based in Hong Kong: "It
used to be that in order to open a
restaurant, you put a few paintings
on the wall and a candle on the table.
Now, you have to create a mood for
the customer that is sensual, you
have to develop feeling." Creating
forms in ceilings, walls and decorations
formerly took weeks of effort, and
yet would result in only 75% of what
Hernan intended. With today's new
tools, weeks now turn into hours with
a higher level of satisfaction in
the result.
Figure 5.
The VIP room at the ZEN restaurant,
at Hong Kong's Victoria Peak.
Manufacturing trends in the building
industry
To understand where the building
product manufacturers are going, you
need to look no further than Permasteelisa.
This global manufacturer of facades
for some of the most stylish buildings
in the world (see Figure 6) is heading
from a 2D workflow to a 3D workflow.
Today, there is often a big gap between
what an architect specifies in 2D
drawings and what Permasteelisa actually
builds. This results in time delays
and cost escalation. The future for
Permasteelisa is a model-based process
where the architect communicates their
designs in 3D. This will alleviate
a lot of the confusion about what
the architect really wants to build.
Of course, Permasteelisa will still
make a detailed manufacturing model
in order to cut metal, but the process
will be faster and more cost-effective.
Figure 6.
Some of Permasteelisa's façade
designs.
As far as implication for design
tools is concerned, there will be
a progression as outlined below:
- 2D sketch concepts feeding
2D drawings: The easiest
and perhaps the most common workflow
problems arise with owners not really
grasping a clear understanding of
what they are getting, and no coordination
between sketch changes and drawing
changes (see Figure 7).
Figure 7.
Drawing based workflow is ambiguous
for owners.
- 3D modeling tools disconnected
to the 2D drawings: In this
workflow (see Figure 8), two different
software packages are used that have
no connection. The owner may get a
better idea of what the design will
really look like when constructed,
but there is no connection with the
drawing. Each iteration of the design
set in the model requires a separate
iteration for the drawing. This is
time-consuming and mistakes can occur.
Figure 8.
3D model workflow, developed using
Maya.
- A 3D environment where
organic shapes can be developed and
drawings extracted from the model:
In this environment, it is easy for
the owner to understand the design
concept and drawing changes are automatically
extracted from the model, ensuring
proper coordination. Both accurate
and coordinated drawing data as well
as model data can be shared with the
fabricators to insure that building
components can be quickly and cost-efficiently
manufactured.
Figure 9.
The same project as shown in Figure
8 (The Wall, VVKH Architects, Holland),
but developed using a model-based
environment.
It is pretty clear to see that the
use of free-form shapes in architectural
design has been building momentum
over a long period, and is about to
enter a much more pervasive phase
in the design of where people live,
work and play. It is also easy to
see that design tools are no longer
the limitation. What does it mean
to you as an architect to be able
to design and coordinate buildings
and interiors that evoke emotion?
My guess is that it will mean more
business, more satisfied customers
and just maybe, the ability to achieve
rock-star status. And if you dream
a bit, perhaps even the Pritzker Prize
is there for the taking!
About the Author
Dominic Gallello is the President
& CEO of Graphisoft. He has a
long track record of helping to shape
some of the major trends in the design
software industry. Prior to Graphisoft,
Mr. Gallello spent approximately 20
years in various executive positions
at Autodesk and Intergraph. Having
lived in Asia and Europe, Mr. Gallello
brings a unique perspective to customer
requirements and possibilities.
Note: The views expressed in Viewpoint
articles are those of the individual
authors and do not necessarily reflect
those of AECbytes.
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