Archinect - Advanced Design Studies - The University of Tokyo

Parallel World - The Photos of Jan Vranovsky

2015-10-30T23:26:00-04:00

For most of the past year, one of the researchers here, Jan Vranovsky, has been documenting the seemingly mundane spaces of Japan. His photos capture much of the spatial essence of Tokyo.

While Tokyo contains much "starchitecture," after living here awhile, I find the kinds of spaces Jan uncovers to generally be the most interesting part of the city.

In AA files 64, Thomas Daniell writes about "The Origins of the Street Observation Society." Jan's work continues in the tradition of ROJO, the Architecture Detectives League, the Thomasson Observation Centre: "identifying and categorizing the readymade 'artworks' lying latent in the streets of Tokyo."

Please have a look here: http://janvranovsky.tumblr.com/

Harvesting Plasticity Thesis Project Introduction

2015-10-30T22:56:26-04:00

For the thesis project in this program, we work in teams of two. We come up with a proposal together and then each focus on different aspects of how to fabricate the project to complete our individual research. All of the research projects last year studied ways that wasted materials could be utilized to make architecture.

Our proposal looked at applying recent research conducted at the University of Kyushu, where a process that turns mixed food waste into PLA, the type of plastic used in many 3D printers, was discovered.

More broadly, we looked at how to combine digital scripting and fabrication methods to create an architectural prototype that can be used to make the city of Tokyo more sociable, productive, and responsive to the needs of its inhabitants.

The project seeks to establish a link between scripted organizational patterns and digital interface systems. We have developed an architectural logic that places components in a 3-dimensional pattern and connects them utilizing a 3...

Thesis Video

2015-10-30T22:24:42-04:00

Hello Archinect world! Recently, I finished up my thesis project and graduated. Here is a short video we made several months ago to serve as an intro to our project. More posts to follow shortly.

1st Year Master's Program Progression

2015-09-10T02:21:38-04:00

I've been receiving some questions recently regarding the Master's program here at the University of Tokyo, and thought I'd briefly share how the course is structured and what we were up to the past year.

The system here at the University of Tokyo is divided in "labs" and is probably closer in spirit to the AA than to US schools, where you spend a year or even the entire course of your program under the tutelage of one professor. In order to graduate, you have to do a research project that goes beyond a design proposal.

Obuchi lab specifically focuses on fabrication, with an attempt to make full-scale mock-ups and pavilions that investigate some kind of new material, fabrication, or structural system.

The first few months of the program are spent fabricating the pavilions and concepts developed from the preceding year's research. When I came, I worked on a project that involved casting a series of differentiated bricks and stacking them to form curved surfaces for several weeks, and th...

Thesis Progress

2015-03-24T04:43:00-04:00

We recently finished their mid-term reviews and started spring break. I'll try to post some projects on here of what others have been working on. The first year students are working on Pavilion Project Proposals (one of which will be built in October) while those of us in our last year are working on our thesis projects.

My project continues with an idea similar to last year's STIK pavilion but with a different material. The concept is to use food waste as a building material. We can break the food waste down into a low-grade bio-resin, as well as PLA (this part of the process is more involved). After that, we want to basically make a scaled-up, hand-held 3D pen. It's a similar idea to the 3D-doodler that came out recently, but perhaps it could be used to actually make larger-scale items such as furniture or small structures.

We want to make a machine where people can draw lightweight structures in the air from the PLA.

And then it can be coated with the lower-grade resin, which shrink...

STIK project process/documentation

2015-01-07T09:26:51-05:00

The project demanded that various aspects be worked on simultaneously. The lab was therefore split into separate organisms that operated independently while remaining organized under the lab's focus.

The first image is a kind of flow chart that illustrates these simultaneous operations chronologically.

In Lab:

-Projection team: converted the 3d files into code for projecting and calibrating

-Panel Team: produced panels of rows C and D

Machine:

Machine team: created and adapted the machine to resolve issues regarding function and ergonomics.

On Site Team:

-prepared the foundations and entrance; poured rows A and B

(Naturally, depending on demand, some members jumped from one team to another.)

Finally, we used FARO 3D scanner to generate a point cloud of the final pavilion. Comparing the point cloud to the digital model revealed there was only minor differences.

Final Pavilion Images

2015-01-07T00:22:06-05:00

We'll be putting up a few more posts on how the final construction process went, including what areas still require further research. For now, here are some more photos of the final construct.

Commune 246 and Japanese Junction

2015-01-06T23:42:02-05:00

Taking a break from sticks for a moment (kinda), there are a few projects related to Obuchi Lab currently up and around town.

Commune 246 consists of a series of food trucks designed by various labs at the University of Tokyo or by youngish Japanese architects, as well as a "university" hosting free classes and a collaborative workspace area to the rear of the site. There was a grand opening last month.

Please stop by and check it out / grab some food if you find yourself in Omotesando! Some photos after the jump.

Additionally, three alumni of the lab, Chris Sjoberg, Shin Yeongsing, and Taichi Kuma have projects being shown at the annual Japanese Junction show at the Sanaa designed Shibaura House near Tamachi Station. Poster and a couple photos after the break:

Work by Shin and Chris on using tensegrity to create a new structural system for stadium canopies.

Work by Taichi done at the University of Stuttgart.

There is a lot of other excellent work being shown from universities in the US ...

STIK project part 6

2015-01-02T11:40:48-05:00

The following are a series of diagrams and drawings we produced to document the process of construction before we began building. It took us a little over a month to figure out the logistics of producing the pavilion as a panelized construct and on such a large scale.

Several factors changed as we developed the final design.

Despite our early success with the cantilevered mockup, we wanted to make sure the pavilion would be safe, so we introduced seven steel cable rings, embedded through the center of the structure, to ensure tensile performance. We were confident that the system would stand in compression, but because we were working at the larger scale and in the public context we had to ensure the pavilions stability in tension.

The cable system ultimately proved useful on-site as it helped us locate the panels in their rough positions, before we 3D scanned them and then re-adjusted them according to the new data. Once we were confident of the position of the panels, we filled the s...

STIK project part 5

2015-01-02T10:15:27-05:00

After our break in September, we resumed work on the project, with the help of graduate students new to the lab. We worked in four basic teams, which were somewhat fluid, but helped us structure the direction of the various activities.

The "machine team" worked to finalize the development of our "smart tool" with help from Shimizu, one of Japan's largest general contractors. There was still a lot of work to get the various mechanisms required to work properly.

A second team, led by Igarashi Lab, part of the computer science department here at the University of Tokyo, continued to develop the 3D-scanning system.

The third team focused on developing and documenting the final design and construction of the pavilion itself. During the break, it had been decided that, due to time constraints, as well as a desire to test the flexibility of the system, we should construct the final pavilion as a panelized system, rather than pouring the entire structure in-situ (as we had done with our circu...

In between STIK 1

2014-12-27T01:43:47-05:00

The STIK Pavilion demanded a high level of dedication and work throughout it's conception to it's completion. Nonetheless there were moments in between the process, and the city of Tokyo precedes itself as fast moving, cultured, and pocketed with serene moments all at once.

(The images are posted chronologically, demonstrating the various qualities mentioned.)

STIK project part 4

2014-12-26T07:30:58-05:00

August was a big month for the project. We wanted to progress the research as far as possible before our break in September. Our primary objective was to construct a 3 meter high mock-up of the final pavilion.

We setup our projection scanning system, got our machines working more smoothly, and proposed a simple, tapered tube with a small entrance. We wanted to test our system at an architectural scale, and also see how we could work with the 3D scanning / mapping system we had been working on.

During the process, we eventually got our glue distribution system working, and made more improvements to the machine, so that, although difficult, only one person was required to operate the system.

After a week+ of work, where we tried to constantly improve our process, we achieved our goal. Our final shape was close to our target according to our scanning system. We also used the Faro Scanning system to see how accurate we were.

Finally, we continued to develop our final pavilion proposal by ...

STIK project part 3

2014-12-26T03:10:05-05:00

In July, we gained more confidence in our ability to physically manifest a scaled-up version of our smaller prototypes. We figured out that by tilting the machine so that the sticks dropped at about a 45 degree angle, we could build angled walls.

Likewise, structural tests performed with our partner lab, led by Jun Sato, gave us more confidence in our ability to build larger structures with the system.

Interestingly, during structural crushing and bending tests, it is very difficult to establish when the sample truly "fails" as it displays an ability to twist and bend in order to find more strength. You could say it tries to locally optimize itself in order to prevent total failure.

While these tests were being conducted, we started to refine our design concept and form-finding exercise.

At its core, the geometry of the pavilion design is based on the movement of a harmonograph. We quickly built one to see how it functions in reality, and then worked more on our design script to appr...

STIK project part 2

2014-12-25T07:28:32-05:00

As we continued to develop the project, it became clear that there were several different issues we needed to address.

The development of the "smart tool," basically a hand-held 3d printer distributing sticks instead of plastic, quickly became a task requiring full-time dedication.

Likewise, we continued to develop our digital simulation program, as well as a design program that could start to drive the overall geometry of the project.

Finally, we began working on a 3D scanning feedback system, utilizing Microsoft's Kinect scanner.

We were still unsure as to how high we could build, and even if we could make a straight wall. Thus, we used our improved machine, as well as a very early version of the scanning system, to simply build a straight wall about 1.4 meters high.

STIK project part 1

2014-12-24T20:08:00-05:00

To kick-off this blog, I thought it would be good to describe the work we've been doing on our "STIK" project for the past eight months, the culmination of which was the construction of a large pavilion on the school grounds, as well as a food truck project in Omotesando, an area in southwest Tokyo.

The lab is setup so that every year, new master's students spend several months building the pavilion designed by the previous year students, in order to learn how to use digital tools and fabricate on an architectural scale. The next year is spent developing a new pavilion project, and the cycle repeats itself. Often, the concepts and research projects developed from previous years, as well as studies from other research institutions, are used as precedence studies from which we try to innovate.

This year, we looked at how the simple aggregation, or dropping of glue-coated sticks, could be controlled to build constructs.

In April, one of the research teams had experimented with the conce...

Hello All

2014-12-22T23:48:36-05:00

We hope to use this blog to chronicle the various happenings within the University of Tokyo, as well as look more generally at the architectural scene here in Japan.

Every year, we build a pavilion project with the intention of reanalyzing construction processes to create form. Below are a few "real size" projects that have been completed within the last year+