International Islamic University Malaysia had been organizing a competition.

Musawah-Sharing the World

The theme of the competition is
"Universal Product for Disabled, Aged, and Children."

For more info, please visit my blog post HERE...

For those who are inspired by parametric design and seek for parametric as solution, lets explore.


1. Download Rhino from rhino website (there is open-source for student I think)
http://rhino3d.com





2. We need a plug-in as a parameter and generative tools call Grasshopper,
download plug-in from grasshopper website
http://www.grasshopper3d.com


Some guides from people's blog
http://woojsung.com

The Arts and Crafts Movement, which evolved between 1860 and 1910, was a big rebellion against much of the mass-produced, symmetrical architecture and décor. The movement brought about one of the key design and property styles of the mid to late 1800s to the early 1900s.Arts and Crafts architecture sought a spiritual connection with the surrounding environment, both natural and manmade.

It focused on high quality, hand-crafted items, textures, designs and structures, as opposed to anything machine-made and mediocre. There was much decoration and ornamentation on arts and crafts designs, and although it was meant for the masses, due to the extreme handmade nature of the goods and materials, it was often expensive for many. The Arts and Crafts approach, on the whole, was often asymmetric, sometimes with medieval influences, but its style had many similarities with Art Nouveau.

When came to 1900 to 1945,the architecture was gradually developed with the help of science and technology.Modernist movement was lead in architecture which was an attempt to create a nonhistorical architecture of Functionalism in which a new sense of space would be created with the help of modern materials.It is an adoption of the machine aesthetic whereas a rejection of ornament which means a simplification of form and elimination of "unnecessary detail". Thus,about 1920, some architects developed in simple cubical forms.Eg of architects: Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright

After World War II, modernism was moved to postmodernism. But it's not clear exactly when postmodernism begins. In fact, modernism is viewed as excessively minimalist, anonymous, monotonous, and boring. Whereas postmodernism has a sense of humor. It is combining new ideas with traditional forms, postmodernist buildings may startle, surprise, and even amuse.Some features of postmodern houses:
- Sense of "anything goes": Forms filled with humor, irony, ambiguity, contradiction
- Juxtaposition of styles: Blend of traditional, contemporary, and newly-invented forms
- Exaggerated or abstract traditional detailing
- Materials or decorations drawn from far away sources

Following is deconstructivism in architecture, also called deconstruction,which is development of postmodern architecture that began in the late 1980s. It is characterized by ideas of fragmentation, an interest in manipulating ideas of a structure's surface or skin,non-rectilinear shapes which serve to distort and dislocate some of the elements of architecture, such as structure and envelope.

Well, how about in future?..yes..here we go..parametric..Parametricism is the great new style after modernism. Postmodernism and deconstructivism have been transitional episodes that ushered in this new, long wave of research and innovation. Modernism was founded on the concept of space. Otherwise, parametricism differentiates fields. Fields are full, as if filled with a fluid medium. Swarms have also served as paradigmatic analogues for the field concept. Late modernist architects are using parametric tools to maintain a modernist aesthetic. At Zaha Hadid Architects, our parametricist sensibility pushes in the opposite direction and aims for a maximal emphasis on conspicuous differentiation.

Discussed by cheejye, chinhsien, yinying

1.Pilotis

2.Free Plan

3.Free Facade

4.Horizontal Window

5.Roof Garden

1. The supports. To solve a problem scientifically means in the first place to distinguish between its elements. Hence in the case of a building a distinction can immediately be made between the supporting and the non- supporting elements. The earlier foundations, on which the building rested without a mathematical check, are replaced by individual foundations and the walls by individual supports. Both supports and support foundations are precisely calculated according to the burdens they are called upon to carry. These supports are spaced out at specific, equal intervals, with no thought for the interior arrangement of the building. They rise directly from the floor to 3, 4, 6, etc. metres and elevate the ground floor. The rooms are thereby removed from the dampness of the soil; they have light and air; the building plot is left to the garden, which consequently passes under the house. The same area is also gained on the flat roof.

2. The free designing of the ground- plan. The support system carries the intermediate ceilings and rises up to the roof. The interior walls may be placed wherever required, each floor being entirely independent of the rest. There are no longer any supporting walls but only membranes of any thickness required. The result of this is absolute freedom in designing the ground- plan; that is to say, free utilization of the available means, which makes it easy to offset the rather high cost of reinforced concrete construction.

3. Free design of the facade. By projecting the floor beyond the supporting pillars, like a balcony all round the building, the whole facade is extended beyond the supporting construction. It thereby loses its supportive quality and the windows may be extended to any length at will, without any direct relationship to the interior division. A window may just as well be 10 metres long for a dwelling house as 200 metres for a palatial building (our design for the League of Nations building in Geneva). The facade may thus be designed freely.

4. The horizontal window. Together with the intermediate ceilings the supports form rectangular openings in the facade through which light and air enter copiously. The window extends from support to support and thus becomes a horizontal window. Stilted vertical windows consequently disappear, as do unpleasant mullions. In this way, rooms are equably lit from wall to wall. Experiments have shown that a room thus lit has an eight times stronger illumination than the same room lit by vertical windows with the same window area.

5. The roof gardens. The flat roof demands in the first place systematic utilization for domestic purposes: roof terrace, roof garden. On the other hand, the reinforced concrete demands protection against changing temperatures. Overactivity on the part of the reinforced concrete is prevented by the maintenance of a constant humidity on the roof concrete. The roof terrace satisfies both demands (a rain- dampened layer of sand covered with concrete slabs with lawns in the interstices; the earth of the flowerbeds in direct contact with the layer of sand). In this way the rain water will flow off extremely slowly. Waste pipes in the interior of the building. Thus a latent humidity will remain continually on the roof skin. The roof gardens will display highly luxuriant vegetation. Shrubs and even small trees up to 3 or 4 metres tall can be planted.In this way the roof garden will become the most favoured place in the building. In general, roof gardens mean to a city the recovery of all the built- up area.

These points were illustrated best in Le Corbusier's domestic architecture. Le Corbusier's first attempt to deal with the problem of mass housing was Maisons Citrohan, designed in 1920-1922. All parts of the house are united by a spatial continuum, while the open space created by the pilotis and the flat roof increase the otherwise small available area.Citrohan introduced ideas of Le Corbusier's '5 Points of New Architecture': the building raised off the ground on pilotis, which 'free' the ground for vehicular circulation and for services. The roof-garden or terrace, which is clearly established in the Citrohan projects as a component of private, domestic space. The prototype of a single-family unit, which was later modified to a module within a collective building, for example the basic units of the Immeuble-villa.

Maisons Citrohan