Rethinking the Absolute Towers - Version 2 - Jackson Skarda

THE ABSOLUTE TOWERS

 OFFICE BUILDINGS

MISSISSAUGA, CANADA

Architects: MAD Architects

Year: 2012

THE ABSOLUTE TOWERS ARE A PAIR OF OFFICE BUILDINGS IN CANADA THAT USE PARAMETRIC DESIGN TO CREATE A TWISTING PATTERN. 

1. HOW CAN WE MAKE THIS BETTER?

 - I CAME UP WITH AN IDEA TO ADD VERTICAL SHADING DEVICES TO THIS BUILDING, THAT TWIST AROUND IT DIFFERENTLY THAT THE EXISTING TWIST OF THE FLOOR PLATES. IN THEORY THIS WOULD CREATE AN ADDITIONAL LEVEL OF OF GEOMETRY AND AESTHETICS TO THE BUILDING. I FIRST TESTED THIS IDEA WITHIN CHAT GPT. 

THE FIRST ITTERATION WASN'T QUITE WHAT I WANTED, BUT IT ATLEAST GOT THE CONCEPT ACROSS.

AFTER TRYING A FEW MORE TIMES, I WAS ABLE TO GET AN IMAGE THAT ATLEAST VISUALIZED THE IDEA OF VERTICLE MULLIONS THAT TWIST AROUND THE BUILDING AND MAKE THE VISUAL EVEN MORE WAVY AND ENTRANCING. HOWEVER IN ORDER TO CREATE THIS GEOMETRY, WE WOULD HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THE ORIGINAL DESIGN FIRST. 

THE TWO TOWERS ARE CREATED FROM THE SAME PARAMETRIC DESIGN, WITH CERTAIN PARAMETERS CHANGED, SO DESIGNING ONE OF THESE TOWERS SHOULD BE ABLE TO ACCOUNT FOR THEM BOTH. 

EACH FLOOR IS A IRREGULAR OVAL - LIKE SHAPE THAT COULD BE CONSTRUCTED FROM AN INTERPOLATED CURVE.

EACH FLOOR IS A COPY OF THE ONE BELOW IT, ONLY ROTATED A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF CHANGING DEGREES. AS YOU CAN SEE THE FLOOR ROTATE MORE DRAMATICALLY TOWARDS THE MIDDLE. 

BELOW IS THE NEW DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARAMETRIC DESIGN FOR THE ABSOLUTE TOWERS.

1. WE START WITH THE TWISTED CURVES FOR THE BUILDINGS FLOOR PLATES, AND HERE WE ARE GIVING THE LENGTH OF EACH OF THESE CLOSED CURVES A DOMAIN OF 0 TO 1.

2. THE CURVES ARE THEN DIVIDED INTO 40 POINTS, WHICH WILL BE USED FOR WHERE THE MULLIONS         CONNECT. 

3. THE GOAL OF THESE NEW DATA POINTS IS TO ROTATE ALL THE POINTS ALONG THE CURVE OF EACH FLOOR. IF EACH SET OF FLOOR POINTS ROTATES AT A DIFFERENT DEGREE, WE CAN CREATE ANOTHER WAVE AFFECT. IN ORDER TO DO THIS WE NEED TO TAKE THE ORIGINAL PARAMETER VALUES OF THE POINTS AND ADD TO THEM, WHICH WILL MAKE THEM ROTATE.

4.  HERE WE ARE USING A SIMILAR METHOD TO HOW WE ROTATED THE FLOOR PLATES, HOWEVER WE ARE NOT ACTUALLY ROTATING THE POINTS, INSTEAD WE ARE INCREASING THEIR PARAMETER VALUE TO MAKE THEM MOVE ALONG THE CLOSED CURVE. INSTEAD OF A ROTATION DOMAIN OF 360 DEGREES, WE ARE USING A DOMAIN OF 0 TO 1, WHICH IS ALSO THE DOMAIN OF THE FULL LENGTH OF THE CURVE. IN ORDER TO MAKE THIS NEW PARAMETER ADDITIONS APPLY TO EVERY POINT, WE HAVE TO DUPLICATE THE DATA 40 TIMES, ONCE FOR EACH POINT ON EACH CURVE LEVEL. WE ALSO HAVE TO GRAFT THE INPUT DATA TO MAKE SURE THE DATA TREES LINE UP WHEN WE ADD THEM TOGETHER.

5. AS THE PARAMETER VALUES ARE INCREASED, WE USE AN EXPRESSION WHICH WILL MAKE ANY VALUE THAT INCREASES ABOVE 1 TO REVERT TO ZERO. THIS CREATES A CLOSED LOOP SO THAT POINTS CAN CONTINUE TO ROTATE ON THE CURVE. THE NEW PARAMETER VALUES ARE THEN USED TO CREATE REAL POINTS ON THE ORIGINAL TWISTED FLOOR PLATE CURVES.

6. WE WILL THEN NEED TO FLIP THE DATA MATRIX IN ORDER TO MAKE OUR MULLION LINES RUN VERTICLE UP THE BUILDING. THIS POINT IN THE GRASSHOPPER SCRIPT IS WHERE WE NEED TWO SETS OF VERTICLE CURVES WHICH WE CAN LOFT TOGETHER TO MAKE THESE VERTICLE LINES INTO FINS THAT HAVE DEPTH. 

7.  HOWEVER, IN ORDER TO MAKE EVEN BETTER SHADING, WE ARE GOING TO CHANGE HOW THE FINS BEHAVE ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE BUILDING. FIRST WE ARE GOING TO TAKE THE PARAMETER VALUES WE JUST CREATED AND FLIP THEM SO THAT POINTS ARE ORGANIZED IN VERTICALLY UP THE BUILDING. 

8. HERE WE USE A SIMILAR GRAPH MAPPER BUILD TO ROTATE THE ORIGINAL POINTS ONCE AGAIN, HOWEVER THIS TIME WE WANT THE MOVEMENT ALONG THE CURVE TO BE DIFFERENT FOR EACH POINT ON A CURVE, RATHER THAN THE MOVEMENT BEING UNIFORM ON EACH CURVE. THIS WAY WE CAN MAKE THE ROTATION ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE CURVES GREATER. THIS GREATER ROTATION WILL LEAD TO MORE SHADE.

9. ONCE AGAIN, WE MUST DUPLICATE THE DATA, BUT THIS TIME WE ARE DUPLICATING IT 50 TIMES FOR THE 50 FLOORS, WHEREAS BEFORE WE WERE DUPLICATING IT 40 TIMES FOR THE 40 POINTS ON EACH CURVE. THIS IS BECAUSE THE GRAPH MAPPER SHAPE WILL APPLY TO THE POINTS ON A SINGLE CURVE RATHER THEN THE SHAPE BEING DISTRIBUTED ACROSS ALL 50 CURVES.

10. AGAIN WE WILL EVALUATE THE EXISTING CURVES AND PLACE THESE MODIFIED PARAMATER VALUES TO CREATE ACTUAL POINTS. 

11. BECAUSE WE WANT THESE NEW POINTS TO MOVE AWAY FROM THE BUILDING IN ORDER TO GIVE THE FINS DEPTH, WE USE AN EMITTER. THE EMITTER REFERENCES THE CENTERPOINT OF EACH FLOOR, AND PUSHES THE NEW POINTS OUT BY 3 FEET.

12. HERE WE SEE THE VERTICLE LINES WE CAN CREATE WITH THE FIRST SET OF DATA POINTS.

13. HERE WE SEE THE VERTICLE LINES WE CREATE WITH THE SECOND MODIFIED DATA POINTS.

14. AND HERE WE CAN SEE THE FINS THAT ARE CREATED WHEN WE LOFT THE FIRST SET POLYLINES TO THE SECOND SET OF POLYLINES. THE RENDERS BELOW WILL SHOW HOW THESE NEW FINS ROTATE ON THE SOUTH FACE OF THE BUILDING TO BE ANGLED. THE FACE OF THE FIN IS TOWARD THE SUN RATHER THEN THE NORTH SIDE OF THE BUILDING WHERE THE FINS STICK STRAIT OUT FROM THE BUILDING.