(continued)

2) To encourage students to design more three dimensionally, using a variety of complex, organic, and/or compound curve based shapes.

3) To encourage students to use digital design in their studio courses.

4) To teach students a comprehensive digital design process, beginning with initial massing studies and ending with high-resolution presentation drawings.

5) To expose students to the image-making opportunities of realistic rendering techniques and their role throughout design.

6) To expose students to the opportunities of graphic design via the computer and to explore presentation methodologies beyond the painterly approaches of architectural tradition.

The first half of the class introduces the process of digital design, wherein students learn to design exclusively using the computer (beyond an initial site plan sketch). Design decisions are made on screen, using form-Z and Photoshop.

These two cross-platform (PC and Macintosh) programs are widely used in professional practice. Recent advances in computer hardware and software have opened opportunities for a digital design process that does not diminish but rather enhances creativity.

Course Projects

A finished design for a simple building, in a 3D digital format, is typically due at midterm. This has required that the problem be simple and that the students be free to design individually, unencumbered by the demands of a normal studio.

The second half of the course studies the use of 2D computer graphics as a medium for creative expression. The goal is to explore digital presentation as a creator of meaning that goes beyond the traditional use of plan, elevation, or perspective. The 3D design model serves as the foundation.

Ray-traced rendering techniques are used to translate the design into a 2D format. Ray tracing allows the designer to produce images that range from the photorealistic to the poetic. Image editing software is used to study the relationships between images created from the 3D model and images that are relevant to the design but created independently of the 3D model.

These images may come from a variety of sources, including photographic, historical, contextual, or text. Computer graphics offer new opportunities to express process as an element of a presentation, as well as the ability to create great depth in layered meaning, which, when done with traditional techniques, is inordinately time consuming. The final project is a 600-square-inch (4000-square-centimeter) high-resolution collage based on the 3D model produced in the first half of the class.

The Outcome

This technique has produced significant results at many levels. Foremost has been an explosion of creative energy in the three-dimensional quality of the forms the students have studied and in the quality of their results. The majority of students in the course report that they were able to study architectural forms which they would never have attempted without the computer as the primary design tool.

In particular students explored designs which range from the "fluidity of form" found in the work of Elise Lui, to the more conceptual "supplanted topography" of Martin Schaedler. In general, all of the students are creating designs with increasing levels of detail and use of texture maps.

Many of the students used form-Z to study materiality and light in ways deeper than a traditional design method would allow. In essence, the students have clearly learned to use the computer as a true design tool resulting in substantially better designs.

John Marx is an architecture lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley. He is also a principal in the San Francisco firm Form4.

Sport City

Project by Elisa Lui

Signifying a new age of dynamic movements, exciting advantages, and ultimate fun, the Sport City is a stage for the extreme sport players. It is the essential stop for the death-drive seeker. The form of this new stage is derived from the shape of the human heart. Twisting, bending, and overlapping, the two organic-shaped glass tubes in the center of the stage move like the rushing red blood cells in our arterioles.

It is the source of vibrant energy for the structure and the players. These seemingly light and free-flowing arterioles are in contrast with the solid, stable, ridge-shaped structures on their sides. Deriving their shapes according to the arterioles, the two structures on the sides act like the two sides of the human heart.

They function not only as protector for the arterioles but are the place for performance. Here the players will execute their ultimate act and generate a new source of energy back to the arterioles, creating an endless revitalizing cycle. Like the human body, both parts of the building are essential for the function of the whole.

Swatch Headquarters

Project by Wilson Au-Yeung

Time is an infinite matter. To express this concept in a building, a series of planes represent time. The planes overlap each other, giving a feeling of continuity. To emphasize this continuity, the design needed to create a sense of movement. The domes at the bottom act like the gears of a watch, turning the parts of the building. Being a Swatch building, bright colors were used to catch attention. Red and white, the colors of the Swiss flag, were an eye-catching combination.

Monument of the 20th Century Sports

Project by Han Chung

This project was inspired by Michael Jordan's retirement. As a professional basketball player, he achieved the highest accomplishment in the history of the sport. But how many people realize all the hard work he had to do to get to the top?

Instead of looking at the glamorous side of professional athletes, this project focuses on the road to success. The building features one athlete at a time, exhibiting footage of his or her career, awards, behind-the-scene training, etc. The glass elevator represents the "road to the top." It takes visitors to each floor of the exhibition tower, featuring different stages of the athlete's career.

The destination of the tower is the sky garden, which represents the career high point. Being on top of the building and seeing the surroundings through glass evokes a feeling of accomplishment and success. A more interactive part of the building, where the featured athlete can meet the fans and answer questions, takes place in the ground glass atrium. The idea is to make visitors personally experience the athlete's hard work and determination.

A more philosophical reading of the project is to encourage people to seize the moment, carpe diem. Like these athletes, this project urges people to focus on the present, live their lives to the fullest, and work hard for what they do. Ultimately, they will enjoy the sweetness of their own success.

Most of these projects were first published in the 1998-99 form-Z Joint Study Program Annual Report.

Sport City. Image: Elisa Lui In a student design for Swatch Headquarters, Wilson Au-Yeung used a series of overlapping planes to represent time. Image: Wilson Au-Yeung Swatch Headquarters. Image: Wilson Au-Yeung Swatch Headquarters. Image: Wilson Au-Yeung Inspired by Michael Jordan, Han Chung focuses the Monument of the 20th Century Sports on professional athletes' road to success. Image: Han Chung Monument of the 20th Century Sports. Image: Han Chung A campus center designed by UC Berkeley student Martin Schaedler. Image: Martin Schaedler Campus Center. Image: Martin Schaedler   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.