Couverture de la cour Visconti, département des Arts de l’Islam - musée du Louvre
Client : Musée du Louvre
Architecte : R. Ricciotti & M. Bellini
HDA : consultant façades et structure
Parabo Spheric Flower | Atelier Yukio Minobe
Entropy and the City | Proposal for a metabolic approach to the systems we live in

At This Rate by Giles Revell and Matt Willey
designwithcomputer:

Our paper at this years IASS conference (here) introduced a new method of exploring funicular structures by dynamically linking the mass applied to a zero-length spring system (dynamic mass method). This provided non-unique funicular solutions on a projected rectilinear grid that still proved to have very good stress distributions amongst members.
I have now applied the method to hexagonal structures which will provide unique solutions for statically determinate systems. This is important because it enables the designer to view the member forces in real time whilst relaxation is taking place, loads are adjusted and/or as boundary conditions are tweaked. Extension to area elements is also achieved by applying a force proportional to the dual of the hexagonal grid, inspired by Williams (1986) and recent work by Block (2007) - growing and contracting meshes to follow soon.
I’m primarily interested in this approach because of its speed and the fact it cannot be replicated using a physical system (practically speaking). As with Daniel Piker’s STF4 presentation, we are now in a position where processing power can help us make structurally-informed design decisions at the conceptual stage of design that go beyond physical modelling.
Block P. and Ochsendorf J. P., “Thrust Network Analysis: a new methodology for three-dimensional equilibrium”, Journal of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures, Vol. 48, No. 3, 2007, pp. 167-173
Williams, C. J. K., Defining and designing curved flexible tensile surface structures, The mathematics of surfaces, Ed. J.A. Gregory, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1986, pp. 143-177.
lrjp: I am attracted to things that are capable  of transcending their own banality and materiality to become something  else, something more. I like the way that videotape is simultaneously  delicate and durable, since it’s meant to last. I can rip it easily with  my hands because it’s so thin, but I can also stretch it. Videotape is  made to present the world in color, but it appears purely black. It’s  supposed to be this safe container of the past, but it is destined to  vanish like a dinosaur, to become obsolete, pushed away by new  technologies. It’s a familiar mass-produced commodity, but it can be  surprisingly sensual and can look almost alive if set in motion. It can  be seen as a solid, thick, black line, but it can also disappear right  in front of your eyes if it’s turned on its side. So, to me, it’s not  just VHS tape but a rich sculptural material. It allows me to achieve  subtle perceptual effects, which I simply would not be able to achieve  with steel, stone, or any other material. I also like the play of the  artificial and the natural. Even though my work is made of industrial  materials, displayed under artificial light, and sometimes uses  artificial wind and electricity, I am going for something fundamentally  natural. Looking at one of my works can, I hope, be like watching a  flame or a running river. I want people to forget for a second what they  are looking at and inhabit a parallel world, where abstract things make  perfect sense as long as you are willing to take the time to look […]
(via TEN TO TEN TO TEN TO… kazuyo sejima : carina shop)
Crystal & Flame: Form and Process
Manuel A. Báez

Structure and connectivity

‎”Structure is not about framing or making skeleton but about giving meaning to connectivity.”


- Cecil Balmond

Specification:
Improbable parasite
Material:
Umbrellas, aluminium, wood, kevlar
Dimension:
3.4 x 3.4 x 3.4 m (closed)
4.1 x 4.1 x 4.1 m (open)
Content:
Huge assemblage of umbrellas, wood sticks, wires, and filets. Mixed structure taking its source from a machine, an ephemeral installation, a shelter. “(…)Enclosed / confined within this strange sea urchin-umbrella, diverting casual objects , the user is expressing his needs, his view to the world, his spontaneous sensibility.(…)”
posthorn:

“Fly” by random international.
“Inside a glass vitrine, an abstract representation of a fly is held captive, centrally entrapped by eight cables… the ‘insect’ is controlled by an autonomous algorithm which accurately simulates the observed behavior of real flies.”
sojamo:

Bijorn Dahlem at Saatch Gallery in London
via purestform