View South towards Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco

Siteplan

View of the waterfront park

Elevation

Competition Boards

Year: 2009
Location: Marin Headlands, California
Collaboration: David Fletcher of Fletcher Studio and Nenad Katic of nenadk.com

Description: For over 100 years, Horseshoe Cove has undergone massive spatial, programmatic, and ecological change. From its early years as grazing land to its long military use, the Cove has evolved to its current status as one of the Bay Area’s most significant cultural, educational, and recreational sites. However, the site has been developed in a piecemeal fashion that has resulted in the abandonment of the water’s edge. Although other sites such as the Cavallo Conference Center and the Bay Area Discovery Museum draw large groups of visitors, the water’s edge has remained in a state of neglect and disuse.

This proposal for the redevelopment and restoration of the water’s edge starts with the concept creating a dynamic, mixed-use site. The Cove is unique in its combination of recreational, military, and educational uses and the goal is to support and grow this programmatic diversity. This is accomplished through the construction of an interdigitated landscape between land and water. Like the fingers of two hands interlocked, the project stitches together the larger landscape into the San Francisco Bay. Land is pushed out into the water and water is pulled back into the land. Although the overall “horseshoe” shape of the cove is retained, a much more dynamic and diverse water’s edge is created. Understood biomimetically, the folding of the water’s edge increases its overall surface area and becomes a better filter between the land and water.

The folded joint between the land and water acts as the central circulation across the site. Its meandering geometry extends the promenade and connects it back with several important site features. The interior of each fold houses the primary functions of the site. From providing improved fishing piers to creating a bermed earth outside amphitheater, this project spine connects and redistributes the activities of the site. In addition to a warming hut containing restrooms and a waterfront café/restaurant, one of the new landscape piers houses a community event space that can be reserved by the public for things such as weddings, reunions, and other social gatherings. Finally, the inland landscape folds contain programs such as a National Park Service Visitor Center and Shop as well as a bike and boat rental/repair shop.

Beyond the programmatic diversity of the project, there is also a strong desire to integrate the ecological diversity of the site into the project. Several methods have been used to restore and enhance the ecological footprint of the project. Starting on western side of the site, the existing underground drainage system is daylighted, creating a new stream that would support flora and fauna as well as providing an opportunity for interpretive walks from the discovery center. This stream would exit into a newly constructed estuary on water’s edge. In the center of the site, a newly created wetland and bio-pool would process and store the graywater from the site while providing for educational and recreational opportunities. A contemporary interpretation of the famous early-20th century Sutro Baths across the bay, the bio-pool would quickly become a Bay Area icon of health, ecology, and recreation.

The project proposes two energy generation strategies through the use of wind and solar power. The Horseshoe Cove and Discovery Center parking lot will be covered with photovoltaic solar panels. Not only will these panels provide the project with energy, but they also provide shade for the cars below. Wind power is provided through a series of wind turbines sited near the historic Fort Baker bunker in a prime wind corridor. The turbines would be painted to match the Golden Gate Bridge as a reminder of the link between 20th and 21st century infrastructure of the Bay Area.

This plan for Horseshoe Cove recasts it as a place of life, energy, and education for the region. Providing much needed amenities for the thousands of annual visitors, the project stitches together land and water to create a new hybrid edge condition.

Photo by Kory Bieg

Photo by Andy Payne

Curation diagram

Photo by Kory Bieg

Photo by Kory Bieg

Photo by Kory Bieg

Photo by Kory Bieg

Photo by Andy Payne

Photo by Andy Payne

Photo by Andy Payne

Photo by Kory Bieg

Prototype Model

Grasshopper Definition by Andy Payne

Year: 2009
Location: California College of the Arts, San Francisco

Description: FLUX: Architecture in a Parametric Landscape by CCA Architecture/MEDIAlab is an exhibition that focuses on the emerging field of advanced digital design. In the last two decades of architectural practice, new digital technologies have evolved from being simply representational tools invested in the depiction of existing models of architectural space to becoming significant performative machines that have transformed the ways in which we both conceive and configure space and material. These tools for design, simulation, and fabrication, have enabled the emergence of new digital diagrams and parametric landscapes—often emulating genetic and iterative dynamic evolutionary processes—that are not only radically changing the ways in which we integrate disparate types of information into the design process, but are also significantly altering the methodological strategies that we use for design, fabrication and construction. After the early digital explosion of the 1990’s, new forms of rigor and production have entered into the field of architecture, supporting the emergence of parametric and building information modeling and the enhanced use of computational geometry and scripting that together represent the second critical wave of digital design practices. That our current models of space are far more continuous, variant and complex, is specifically a result of the tools we are using to produce them, an inevitable byproduct of the ever-expanding capacities of digital computation and related fabrication technologies as these intersect with theoretical trajectories that long ago dismantled the social, functional and technological truths of the early part of this century.

The FLUX exhibition was generated in conjunction with this year’s CCA Architecture Lecture Series focused on the integration of digital practices and design, CCA MEDIAlab’s digital workshops and the International Smart Geometry conference held in San Francisco in the spring of 2009. The content of the exhibition is organized through a series of thematic categories each of which explores a set of spatial logics that have been transformed through advanced digital practices: Stacked Aggregates, Modular Assemblages, Pixelated Fields, Cellular Clusters, Serial Iterations, Woven Meshes, Material Systems, and Emergent Environments. In this exhibit, these themes are elaborated through the presentation of 50 built works and experimental architectural projects, and are expanded by analytical diagrams and 3D printed models generated by CCA architecture students.

The FLUX installation, developed by a team of CCA faculty and students, also explores the possibilities of parametric modeling and digital fabrication through the production of the exhibition armature. Produced using CCA’s new CNC router and advanced parametric modeling techniques, the undulating structure expands and contracts as its volume extends down the center of the long nave space. Through the use of parametric modeling and a series of custom designed scripts, the installation design can be quickly updated to address new design criteria. From the thickness of the ribs to the overall twisting geometry and perforated skins, the spatial form of the armature is controlled through a complex set of relationships defined by its formal, performative, and fabrication constraints.

Official Credits
Architect: CCA Architecture/MEDIAlab
Location: San Francisco, United States
Date: 2008 – 2009

The FLUX installation, developed over 6 months by a team of CCA faculty and students, explores the possibilities of parametric modeling and digital fabrication at CCA. Produced using CCA’s brand new CNC router and advanced parametric modeling techniques, the structure undulates in plan and section producing a sense of expansion and contraction in the long Nave space. Through the use of parametric modeling and a series of custom designed scripts, the installation design can be quickly updated to address new design criteria. From the thickness of the ribs to the overall twisting geometry and perforated skins, the geometry is controlled through a complex set of relationships between its formal, performative, and fabrication constraints.

Director of Architecture: Ila Berman
Project Coordinator and Director of the MEDIAlab: Andrew Kudless
Installation Design: Kory Bieg, Andre Caradec, Andrew Kudless, Ila Berman
Exhibition Curation: Andrew Kudless with Ila Berman and Marc Fornes
Graphic Design Assistants: Jessica Gibson, Andy Payne, Melissa Spooner
Parametric Design Consultant: Andy Payne
Installation Team: Laurice der Bedrossian, Yoon Choi, Stephanie Close, Loi Dinh, David Garcia, Jessica Gibson, John Hobart-Culleton, Charlotte Hofstetter, Madaline Honig, Wayne Lin, Sandra Lopez, Mariko Low, Jen Melendez, Michelle Mucker, Andrew Peters, Jason Rhein, Ocean Rogoff, Angela Todorova, Dianne de la Torre, Michael Victoria, Olesya Yefimov
Graphic Design, Modeling and Scripting Team: Olutobi Adamolekun, Lynn Bayer, Ripon DeLeon, Anthony Diaz, Alexa Getting, Jessica Gibson, Noah Greer, Benjamin Harth, Madeline Honig, Elizabeth Jackson, Pouya Khakpour, Anna Leach, Ryan Lee, Charles Ma, David Manzanares Garcia, Ariane Mates, Andy Payne, Harsha Pelimuhandiram, Michael Perkins, Javier Rodriguez, Ricardo Ruiz, Melissa Spooner, Jessica Stuenkel, Vladimir Vlad, Duncan Young
Sponsors: SolidThinking, K Bieg Design, SUM Arch, Vogue Graphics
CNC Fabrication Support: Ryan Buyssens, Jo Slota
Consultation: Chris Chalmers, Andrew Sparks

Final Prototype (Image by SUM Arch)

Final Design (Image by SUM Arch)

Site Diagram (Image by SUM Arch)

Process: Step 1: Select Guidelines

Process: Step 2: Mesh creation through script

Process: Step 3: Convert to Polysurface

Process: Step 4: Convert to Mesh and Weld Seams

Process: Step 5: Smooth Mesh

View inside the railing of the twisting holes

Prototype image showing the angled aperatures

Year: 2007-2008
Location: San Francisco

Description: Matsys was hired as a computational geometry consultant by SUM Arch on this residential project to help create tools to design a stair railing. Using a series of user-generated guidelines, the script builds a irregular cellular pattern of apertures on the railing. Based on a field of attractors, the apertures rotate in the plane of the railing causing the entire railing to open towards certain views as a person walks up or down the stair. Dozens of script iterations were explored before the final design was achieved.

Physical prototype by Cook + Fox

Digital prototype: natural light

Digital prototype: artifical light

Digital prototype: night lighting

Labeling system for prototype

Ceiling plan of built prototype

Unrolled cells for laser-cutting

Early design prototypes

Early Design Prototypes: Scripts were created for each scenario for design team exploration and testing

Early Design Prototypes: Fabrication issues

Early Design Prototype: Fabrication diagram

Early Design Prototype: Plan of Scheme 5

Early Design Prototype: Section through Scheme 05

Year: 2007
Location: New York

Description: Matsys provided computational design consulting for Cook + Fox on this project. The project was sited in the lobby of a fashion designer’s studio in a Manhattan tower. The design team needed tools to help them model, visualize, and fabricate their design. Matsys created several rhinoscripts that could be used by the design team to iteratively explore their design concept.

Image from performance. Photo: Joel Thorson

Photo: Joel Thorson

Photo: Joel Thorson

Photo: Joel Thorson

Photo: Joel Thorson

Photo: Joel Thorson

Tahni lifting. Photo: David Clark

Testing in Tahni's studio

Tahni checks the set out for the first time

Natural light in Tahni's studio

Chris testing strength of plastic

Chris inside

Welding the plastic

Lifting the half-size prototype

First view of the half-size prototype

Prototype of welded texture

Diagram of welded procedural texture

Diagram of folding and layering of multiple sheets of plastic

Original inspiration image

Full Title: Endless Ocean Endless Sky Set Design
Year: 2007
Location: Portland, OR

Description: This project was commissioned by emerging choreographer Tahni Holt for her performance Endless Ocean Endless Sky. The set was designed in response to several design criteria relating to both the evocation of the choreographic aesthetic and the limits of financial and logistical constraints. From the very beginning of the design phase, we were interested in creating a minimal set that could be built and transported easily that was also able to create an evocative and mutable space for both the performers and audience. Relying heavily on the work of Ant Farm and their inflatable constructions in the 1970’s, a small 20′x40′ space was made using standard polyethylene. Additional seams and creases were welded into the plastic in order to avoid the typical balloon aesthetic of inflatables. Rather, there was a desire for the installation to be able to evoke both things that were simultaneously heavy and light (massive icebergs floating in the sea, 747’s flying through the sky, etc.). A generative algorithm was developed that would allow a fragmented pattern of creases to emerge on the surface without having to laboriously transcribe a predefined pattern on to the surface.

A short video of the last half of the performance can be found here. Other videos of the piece: 1, 2, 3.

Credits: Andrew Kudless with help from Ronnie Parsons and Chris Walker.

Site for Sykada V1, the Banvard Gallery at OSU

Diagram for V1 site (by Ronnie Parsons)

Jitter Interface for Sykada V1

Jitter Interface for Sykada V1

Site for Sykada V2

V2 site diagram (by Ronnie Parsons)

Site diagram (by Ronnie Parsons)

Jitter Interface for V2

Jitter Interface for V2

Description: This project was originally conceived as an interactive audio environment for the Cell exhibition at OSU. Specifically, it was designed as a partner to the P_Wall (2006) wall installation. The goal of the project was to create an anxious atmosphere informed by the movement of the gallery visitors as well as the ambient sounds of the gallery. As the soft, sagging, undulating forms of P_Wall draw visitors into the space, Sykada begins to interact with visitor. A motion tracking system records the distance between the wall and the visitor and modifies a constantly updated audio feed from the space itself according to this distance. When the space is vacant, Sykada hums to itself, however human movement and sounds can cause it to enter a violent feedback cycle.

Credits: Andrew Kudless (concept), Ronnie Parsons and Brandon Zeeb (design, programming, and fabrication)

Audio Samples:
Note: V1 audio files are much louder, rougher, and violent than V2. These files are actual files recorded in the space. The site for V1 was a large concrete box and V2’s site was a small, metal shipping container. As the audio was based on the actual ambient recordings within the space, the space had a huge effect on the audio.
V1: Very Angry
V1: Calm
V2: Awake
V2: Awakening
V2: Dormant