zurich SWITZERLAND

Zurich, 2011 — Out of a collaboration between the Emergent Technologies and Design program (EmTech) of the Architectural Association, London, and the Chair of Structural Design at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, a temporary light timber construction has been design that functions as sun shading for parts of the grand stairs in front of the architecture department of the ETH. It is based on bending behaviour under selfweight of oversized sheets of plywood of up to 11 x 2.5 m. The design activates the material properties as the defining element in the transfer of forces.

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philadelphia PENNSYLVANIA

Imagine an alternative use for vacant lots and scrap yards. ICA Assistant Curator Kate Kraczon moderates a conversation between Simon Kim, PennDesign Assistant Professor of Architecture, and artists Billy and Steven Dufala about their respective reclamation projects, Philadelphia Masque and RAIR (Recycled Artist-in-Residency).

simon KIM & the DUFALA brothers
Thursday, 04/26
6.30 pm / Institute of Contemporary Art
University of Pennsylvania
118 S. 36th Street
Philadelphia, PENNSYLVANIA 19104

shanghai CHINA

Matias del Campo and Sandra Manninger head the Vienna-based Architecture firm SPAN, founded together in 2003. Their award-winning architecture designs are informed by an ecology of sources including Romanticism, Geometry, Biology and Botany. Employing among the most sophisticated digital design and fabrication tools, SPAN has become among the leaders of a new generation of form based practices in Europe.

SPAN
Wednesday, 04/25
1.00 pm / Theater, Tuwen Information Centre
Shanghai Institute of Visual Art (SIVA)
No.2200 Wenxiang Rd.
Songjiang District, Shanghai, CHINA

new york NEW YORK

ROBOT WORKSHOP COMPETITION
First place — $1200

suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.

julian LIANG & hector ROMERO: KNOWLEDGE PRECIPITATION

The NIMBUS cloud provides the robotic community a public forum to openly exchange and share knowledge. Outfitted with a massive interactive screen and a street connected communal space, the MEGA-Experimentation Stage allows for infinite possibilities to interact with each other—the belief that the best ideas flourish unexpectedly, through sharing and interaction.

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indianapolis INDIANA

Artist/designer Benjamin Ball will be the final speaker in Butler University’s spring 2012 Leadership Through the Arts Forum. Ball’s talk, “Fast, Cheap & In Control,” will take place at 7:30 p.m. April 25 in the Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall. All events in the series are free, but reservations are required. Reserve seats [HERE].

Best known in Indianapolis for the last season’s brightly colored string installation “Gravity’s Loom” at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Ball, is an artist, designer and founder of Ball-Nogues Studio in Los Angeles.

benjamin BALL
“Fast, Cheap & In Control”
Wednesday, 04/25
7.30 pm / Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall
Butler University
4600 Sunset Ave.
Indianapolis, INDIANA 46208

london UNITED KINGDOM

Massive addressability is a defining characteristic of our rapidly accelerating global network of connections, and emerges when cities, buildings, materials, objects, creatures, sites, books, words, molecules, all act as agents in a global, reciprocal ontology of things that can find each other. Across longer timeframes—decades, centuries, or millennia—this set of relations inevitably scales up to the post-planetary. We cannot think of design a century from now without taking it off planet. The consequences of this leap are profound. . . .

ed KELLER
“Massive Addressability & Post-Planetary Design”
Wednesday, 04/25
6.30–8.00 pm /Darwin Lecture Theatre, Darwin Building
The Bartlett School of Architecture
Gower Street
London, UNITED KINGDOM WC1

muncie INDIANA

ROBOT WORKSHOP COMPETITION
Second Place — $800

Ball State University

suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.

james DeCHANT: androidKRAFT is an exploration of the implementation of humanoid robotics in architecture and construction. Integrating computer methodologies and the design and fabrication process, the addition of humanoid robots allows for precise construction, boundless mobility, unlimited memory/processing capabilities, and superb strength. Humanoid robots will not replace humans in the architecture and construction field, but will instead act as an extension of humans and tools.

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hong kong CHINA

suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.

kristof CROLLA (LEAD), sebastien DELAGRANGE (LEAD), emmi KESKISARJA (EDGE), and pekka TYNKKYNEN (EDGE): The Dragon Skin Pavilion is an architectural installation designed and built for the 2011-12 Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture.

The Pavilion utilises a newly developed environmentally friendly material called “post-formable” plywood, which incorporates layers of adhesive film to allow easy single-curved bending without the need for steam or extreme heat. With no material loss, a CNC mill divided 21 of these 8×4 plywood sheets into eight identical squares, and accurately cut the unique connection slots that were programmed into the pavilion geometry by computer.

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new york NEW YORK

Street Views: Exploring our connection to the built environment through documentaries, narratives and experimental works.

Psychohydragraphy: Peter Bo Rappmund’s singular film, composed entirely of single frame photography and a highly crafted sound track, is a hypnotic meditation on the hidden infrastructure of modern life and the secret life of the one element that makes it all possible . . . water.

Followed by a Q&A with Artist Sarah Oppenheimer, architect Wes Rozen (SITU STUDIO) and architect Uri Wegman (The Cooper Union), moderated by Paul Dallas.

Sarah Oppenheimer, Wes Rozen, & Uri Wegman
Tuesday, 04/24
7.30 pm / Maysles Institute
343 Lenox Avenue
New York, NEW YORK 10027

sabana grande PUERTO RICO

ROBOT WORKSHOP COMPETITION
Third Place — $300

suckerPUNCH: Describe your project

angel l. VIDRO & michael j. QUIÑONES: As a linear feature that exists between two tectonic plates that are moving away from each other, the ‘Divergent Building’ breaks, separate and transforms its spaces. As a proposal for the Robot Workshop and inspired by robotic movements, the building applies mechanical systems to achieve its main feature: maximizing the space as is required by the users. The building opens in order to separate the program in two modules, creating a central atrium, which allows ventilation and lighting. Interior spaces can expand growing to the site limits, creating a dynamic façade that is in continuous change.

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