This place rocks like granite: a ginormous CNC press is spitting out the first test pieces for a 1:1 prototype and we’re off to an all-nighter of scripting to implement joint optimisation and automate the geometry unrolling. 12h to go until the file-to-factory deadline – and that’s pushing it!
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By democratic vote a series of proposals has been narrowed down to a final pavilion design, now on its way towards full-scale construction. The material, UPM’s brand-new post-formable plywood sheets, is so fresh, unexplored and untouched that the close monitoring, guidance and supervision by their team of engineers is highly welcome. Constant design tweakings following feedback form physical component and material tests add to the caffeine-induced high... BOOYAKASHA!
The 3rd Finland Workshop kick-off opening lecture “Material Design & Digital Fabrication” by Sebastien Delagrange set the tone and linked favorite, highly-respected “oldies” with today’s ongoing architectural design debate. Laptops, knives and cardboard were introduced into the design arena the next day and off we go for a week of material design & digital fabrication intensity!
What a DAY! An avalanche of digital experiments filled the room, spawning captivating debates with visiting jurors on the various challenges urban design is facing and how explorative tools can help in broadening discussions and horizons. While outside the sun was burning one team after another passed the review presenting their visions for the future City on the Sea and at the end of the day, exhausted but satisfied, everybody finally submerged themselves into Shanghai’s vibrantly wild nightlife. What a DAY!
With one more day and night to go the tension rises…
The only change perceivable in the physical world seems to be the expressions on the student’s faces gradually growing more tired and intense and the thickening of the air in the humming studio hive… This however could not be further away from the digital reality brewing behind the screens: with “Density On The Sea” as a studio topic uncharted types of extreme urbanism are bravely being explored and fascinating interventions gradually emerge in response to Shanghai’s rising sea levels. 2 Days before the final jury and we’re building up some serious momentum!
As studio projects slowly take shape the Symposium “Rising Seas and the City” supplies an avalanche of data, facts and figures on the reality Shanghai faces in the next decades. Prominent agents like Hou Yiling of the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau, Wang Qian, of the WWF and Chen Weizheng, Tongji’s Expert in River Estuary City Planning share a mission to shape the future urbanism of China and present their speculations and projections, all moderated by Su Yunsheng, Nigel Reading, and Tom Verebes. MORE INTENSITY!!!!
A two hour drive through the countryside took 88 staff and students to the Venice of the east, the gorgeous watertown of Tong Li, followed by a trip to the overwhelmingly beautiful traditional Chinese gardens of Sushou. Boiling heat and a numbing humidity so badly took the edge off the most hardened local students only a massive air-conditioned group dinner fest succeeded in reviving the dampened spirits!
Intermediate presentations of students’ first dazzling digital design sketches spawned interesting debates on how these amazingly nimble and diversified freshly-learned tools can now be taken forward more concretely in the second part of the workshop. With all the teams reinforced with a second design tutor we shifted into a higher gear and evening lectures on own work by teaching staff Zhang Xiaoyi, Lydia Kim and Bittor Sanchez Monasterio broadened perspectives on where tools can be applied in practice. MORE INTENSITY!
Intermediate presentations of students’ first dazzling digital design sketches spawned an interesting debate on how these amazingly nimble and diversified freshly learned tools can now be taken forward more concretely in the second part of the workshop. With all the teams now reinforced by a second tutor we shifted into a higher gear and evening lectures on own work by teaching staff Zhang Xiaoyi, Lydia Kim and Bittor Sanchez Monasterio broadened the perspective on where tools can be applied in practice.
Evening lectures by Wang Xin, Immanuel Koh and Daniel Gillen were a fascinating yet short moment of relief for the 82 happy faces who cheerfully enter the first long "night before the presentation"….
All studios kicked off with fierce intensity, cramming as much tools and tricks into the limited time-frame as possible. Dazzled faces, confused eyes and racing minds process as quickly as possible as we gear up for actual design. Evening lectures by Kristof Crolla and Xu Feng discuss the challenges of applied digital tools in practise through a presentation of own work and the exhibition opening of “DigitalFUTURE” at Tongji University sets the bar of what is expected of this week by showcasing current work by digitally explorative practices in and around China.
Programme director Tom Verebes could not have wished for a more appropriate opening day for the City on the Sea workshop: tropically hot torrential downpours inundated the hotel area within minutes, forcing staff and students into acrobatics to make it to the workshop introduction in time. Studio brief presentations by tutors Ercu Gorgul, Wang Xin, Immanuel Koh, Xu Feng, Daniel Gillen and Kristof Crolla set the tone for what promises to be a week of intense submergence in the world of digital design. Tom Verebes’ evening lecture opens this week’s core debate by skilfully challenging today’s notions of Urbanism and Urban Design.
Dennis Lo & Team in action for the photo shoot of the Shine Shop in Causeway bay: beautilicious pictures coming your way soon!
The HKU Summer Workshop "Digital Practice" is running full-force now! For daily updates: check the blog on www.dreamationworks.com/?cat=10
