Thesis Abstract Statement

GENERATIVE TYPHOON

Extreme weather such as typhoon happens more and more frequently nowadays. Facing such extreme weather, which is a form of natural energy release, what are our stands? Shall we see it as a disaster and evade it as possible as we can? Or shall we treat it as the last natural phenomenon in our civilized environment and embrace it with our most enthusiasm? I would like to take the latter one, to see typhoon a generative phenomenon. My thesis will be a repeatable architecture, which can situate anywhere along the coastal line of southeast China, where typhoon frequently passes by and brings massive destruction. I would assume that the typhoon will influence the site annually to enable me to create a long term dynamic, interactive and evolutionary process between typhoon and my project. My thesis will involve with aerodynamics, generative design computing, ecology, meteorology, engineering and geography.

This thesis will try to answer the questions including what is the architectural form in an extreme weather condition; what is the ecological system in that condition; what should the relationship be between architecture and climate, especially extreme climate; is it possible to transform passive and defensive infrastructure, such as dike, into an active element and if yes, how to transform; Is it possible to take the advantage of the typhoon instead of the conventional way of fighting with and evading it and if yes what are the methods. By answering these questions, I hope my thesis can broaden the scope of architectural disciplinary knowledge in terms of an alternative relationship between architecture and disastrous climate.

The thesis will begin with studying the qualities of typhoon in terms of its speed, energy, air flow mode, amount of rain it brings, air pressure, tracks; how is the typhoon generated; how does it develop and disappear. During this period, mapping will be intensely used, especially intensely engaged with the representation of invisible elements of typhoon, such as the air flows, humidity, energy distribution, behaviors of people in the danger of typhoon and so on. After the collection of enough information of typhoon, generative design method will be the key technology. During this phase, I will first study precedents of the emergent architecture, such as projects done by Tom Wiscombe. And afterwards I will try to use the mapping information as the source and generative methods as the tools to stimulate the design process, in another word, I hope to discover the emergent qualities of the typhoon.

During the process to the end, the artifacts would be a series of representation of typhoon qualities and installation which experiments various generative methods.

Site as Thesis

HURRICANE AS ENERGY TO SURVIVE

The large amount of hurricanes, which happen every year, is a huge disaster. By mapping the routines of the hurricane, we can find that the hurricanes very concentrate on certain area. That means this area will repeatedly encounter hurricane every year. Although compared to big earthquake, the death caused by hurricanes might not be considerable; the wealth spent on repeatedly repairing or even rebuilding homes is even larger than big earthquake. Also hurricanes will cause big wind and rains, which on one hand destroy the local infrastructure such as electricity towers, water supply, which will influence the life during hurricanes, on the other hand, will retard or even stop the outside aiding by damaging the roads. Therefore what can we do with the hurricanes? Is there any possibilities that the hurricane can provide help to survive during the disaster?

So what if in the case, I make a box represent the low rise house in fishing village. The reason I choose low rise house in fishing village is that, first fishing village always locates front line area of hurricanes tracks, secondly house in fishing village is always low-rise has a shallow foundation which is more vulnerable to hurricanes. There is a huge wind turbine on each box. When hurricane comes, wind turbine rotates which move the box to the underground. In this way, houses will not be destroyed by hurricane. Rain always comes with hurricanes; rain will be collected as drinkable water. Also wind turbine can continuously generates electricity during hurricane. In this way, this box gains water and electricity, which is the very basic element for living, from hurricane.

Demo Set

House As Thesis

Flexible House

Architecture is always designed by architects, who can be seen as generators and experienced by users, who can be seen as receivers. By designing a project, architects always predicts who will be the users, what the users might need, how will the users use this building and so on. According to the prediction, architects then design the architecture. Here, design is totally a top-down system and implies a certain degree of “determinism”. In this way, it seems like that users’ activities in the building is exactly predicted and designed by architects, or in another word “controlled” by the architect. Users always follow what the designer has provided to them. They enter the building from the main entrance where designers hope them to enter; follow the so called the right and best circulation which architects has figured for them; live and work in the room which architects has partitioned for them. They experience the same sequence of space every day. Connections to the building are passive and boring.

What if the building can be always felt fresh to users? What if users can experience the architecture in the way they wish? Then the architecture requires “Wilderness”. In the Wilderness from Far from Equilibrium written by Sanford Kwinter, the author said that “There is no central control, and the “design” does not come from the whole and trickle down to the parts, but rather travels in the opposite direction. Such bottom-up systems are called “subsumption architectures.” The natural universe is itself a subsumption architecture utterly “out of (central, single) control.” To give place to such out-of-control, adaptive, robust, self-directed designs is to allow, or to install, a degree of wildness within them.

Therefore, I am proposing a flexible house. The house should be designed by both the architect and user. The architect build up the basic framework of the house and the left work will be done by the user. During the life-long time, users can move the interior wall to adjust the layout, to add or take away some floor plates to form different space, to increase or decrease the number of the rooms according to the actual situation. There is no fixed circulation path and the experience in the house is always new. The users play a more active role in the house. In this way, I hope to erase “determinism” in a certain degree, and achieve the “wilderness” by losing the ability to predict -from the outside- what it will do.