Jenny Sabin Workshop: Matrix Architecture

Jenny Sabin visited Waterloo Architecture last week to not only give a lecture on the trans-disciplinary and experimental work of her Philadelphia studio, but also to lead a workshop entitled Matrix Architecture: Modeling Biological Reciprocity – A Landscape Takes Shape. The workshop was conducted as a two-day seminar and hands-on lab which explored the potentials of integrating biological phenomena into architecture and design practices. Students from the Beesley NEST Studio as well as interested participants built upon the rigorous scientific research of the eSkin project to then deepen investigation into “how cells can modify their immediate microenvironments with minimal energy and maximal effect.” The workshop approached the complexity of biological science from a design oriented methodology and employed the tools of advanced scripting logics in parametrics to investigate the potentials of hybrid material systems.

Students worked in groups through three interconnected paths. Component Family built upon a template to develop an analog organizational logic to develop a family of components which adapt to the informed landscapes. Ideas were exercised through a series of diagrammatic representations and physical iterations of the systems’ operation. For Visualization and Modeling, the established component-based system was then tested in 3-D digital environments with custom-written architectural algorithms. Finally in Experimental Material Systems & Simulation the developed abstract systems and methodology was applied to the design of experimental materials and geometries which displayed maximum response to environment.

For more information about the tools, methods, software and scripting used in the workshop, here are the links:

Python Files on F_RMlab’s repository: https://github.com/FRMlab/Jenny_Sabin_Workshop

Component Rhino Files for Variegated Grid

Contains two definitions for grids created through python scripts, one is variegated, the other includes sliders, to be opened in Rhino and set to the ‘curve’ battery in grasshopper.

https://github.com/FRMlab/Jenny_Sabin_Workshop/tree/master/Variegated_Grid

Scripting Introduction: Python for Rhino5

Unedited Workshop Transcript

Jenny Sabin Lecture, October 2nd 2014