Transforming Interior Volumes: Volume + Surface + Mass

Author: Jonathon R. Anderson & Laura Lovell-Anderson Year: 2018 Source type: chapter (Ch. 18 of The Interior Architecture Reader, ed. Gregory Marinic, Routledge, 2018; pp. 145–150 per the authors' TMU publication list; Taylor & Francis DOI 10.4324/9781315693002-18, published 17 January 2018) Raw file: raw/chapters/anderson_2018-transforming-interior-volumes.md

Summary

Anderson and Lovell-Anderson's chapter (Ch. 18 of Marinic's The Interior Architecture Reader) argues that interior architecture is acquiring a new computational epistemology — "a paradigmatic fluidity" in its "systems of knowledge, thinking, and problem solving" — through the coupling of traditional tools with emergent software and digital fabrication. Its program: defining interior volumes using surface mathematics to develop autogenic design topographies at the interior scale, via "aggregates or modular component-based systems to manipulate volume, surface, and mass." The chapter supplies an ontology (March & Stiny's ladder shape < surface < volume), a systems-theoretical machinery (Meadows's system definition and characteristics, rule-based computation, modeling), and a built academic case study — Janine Yeung's The Gyroid (Ryerson School of Interior Design, supervised by Jonathon R. Anderson, spring 2016), an autogenic topography whose input parameters derive from the self-organized chitin gyroid nanostructures of Callophrys rubi butterfly wing scales (50% structural volume / 50% porosity). It contributes to the Reader an eighteenth register of the discipline: interior architecture as the computational (systemic) transformation of interior volume.

Key Claims

Interior architecture is undergoing "a shift in systems of knowledge, thinking, and problem solving within interior architecture – a paradigmatic fluidity – emerged through the coupling of traditional tools and emergent software and digital fabrication."
Digital technologies and processes "yield unprecedented capabilities, allowing for physical and fabricated realization of designs that were once considered too complex or unbuildable."
Designers are "defining interior volumes using surface mathematics to develop autogenic design topographies at the interior scale and context" — the interior volume as the object that computation transforms.
The design continuum: "In the inextricable design continuum, form and function are balanced by science and mathematics as variables to design and realize objects, environments, and experiences."
The ontological formula "starts simply: shape < surface < volume" — shape is two-dimensional primitives (points and lines); surface "an interconnected set of points and lines that have length and breadth"; volume "the three-dimensional space enclosed by a collection of surfaces" (March & Stiny, via note 3).
A system is "a set of elements or parts that is coherently organized and interconnected in a pattern or structure" (Meadows, Thinking in Systems, via note 4, p. 187); its characteristics — "the components, constraints, interrelationships, interface, boundary, purpose, environment, input, and output – when aggregated, produce a pattern or structure… and exist in both biotic and abiotic systems."
The digital design process "expresses an algorithm to intervene in a system and segment a complex design query into several simplified sub-problems, and later reconstructed to create a solution" (via Meadows and Rocker, note 1).
Wilensky (note 2): "by enabling the rendering, simulation and visualization of the evolution of complex systems over time, the computer has proved an indispensable tool for making sense of complex systems and emergent phenomena."
Autogenic — "auto" ("of oneself") + "genic" ("produced or generated by"): an object, system, or process that is "characteristically self-generated or self-produced" (the term from Evan Douglis's Autogenic Structures, 2009, via notes 9 and 12); "these variable inputs allow for the calculated manipulation of the surface parameter, environment size, and variations in the number of nodes or agents."
Agent-based visual scripting and computation serve "as a medium for experimentation, decision-making, and problem solving to formulate dynamic surfaces and topographies"; systemic (rule-based) computation and visual-spatial scripting extract "a series of nodes or agents at the micro-level… from a data source."
A model is "an abstract representation of system developed to aid in the understanding and/or predicting of its behavior"; the modeling process is "a rigorous method for creating and testing models."
Aggregates: "large amounts of unbound elements lying in loose frictional contact, therefore subdividing a system into smaller parts that can be independently created and used in different systems" (Hensel, Menges & Weinstock, via note 11) — systemic articulation forms "aggregates or modular component-based systems" that manipulate volume, surface, and mass.
Geometric transformations "resulting from the physical expression of surface mathematics, are often simulated through a process of cell aggregation to generate volume."
Biotic systems supply design input: "emergent computational form-generation approaches to design applied in conjunction with digital and physical making encourage the examination of the complexities that compose natural forms and their corresponding internal geometries."
The Callophrys rubi case: the butterfly's wing scales are composed of chitin organized in gyroid forms "to produce structural coloration and the effect of iridescence when light moves through these geometries"; chitin deposited in the extracellular space of a scale cell forms a double gyroid, then "the cell degenerates and is transformed to a single gyroid structure, leaving an interconnected network of chitin in air" satisfying "a condition of 50% structural volume and 50% air or porosity. This parameter becomes the primary input that will be applied to the submodules."
"The autogenic characteristics of the biotic system interact with the self-organizing logic of the mathematical surface to produce the final component geometries."
The Gyroid's geometric protocol: a base micro-component contained in a cube; the surface's edge curves extracted and mapped onto the cube's faces, preserving vertices at corners; "The optimized geometry is a locally minimized surface that contains six vertices and six curved edges, where each edge is in contact with a unique face, and each vertex is in contact with a unique corner."
The conceptual framework has three parts: "input of micro-level emergent phenomena to delineate spaces, simulation of simple shape grammars in visual scripting, and an output for visualizing the loop-based calculation by the various micro-level emergent phenomena and macro-level patterns."
K3DSurf and isosurface constraints: the gyroid generated through the trigonometric approximation cos(x)·sin(y) + cos(y)·sin(z) + cos(z)·sin(x) = 0 at x = y = z = 1.5, altering Cartesian values to manipulate existing surfaces.
Output translation: "The output can be translated through analog and digital means, with an array of modeling or physical prototyping realities" — realized "through both additive and subtractive means."
March & Stiny's computational theory of design (via note 14): "designs and their meanings [can] be viewed as the results of computations carried out according to rules of composition and correlative rules of description."
Pedagogy: the studio outcome "reflects the value of systemic articulation as a method for problem solving, especially in an academic environment and undergraduate curriculum"; students worked "in small collaborative groups" combining "an amalgam of analog making techniques and emergent digital making technologies."
Yeung's reflection on the component design: subdivision introduces parameters ("the general shape and the number of vertices in each module"); "This process stems from the notion of 'self-generated' modular forms as a result of a subdividing process" (2016, p. 12).

Connections

Concepts: autogenic-design, surface-mathematics, emergence, systems-theory, the-gyroid, computational-design, digital-fabrication, digital-architecture, mass-customization, discrete, kit-of-parts, interactive-architecture, boundaries, authorship, interior-architecture, shape grammars (method)

Authors: Anderson & Lovell-Anderson (authors), marinic-gregory (volume editor), schneiderman-deborah (whose Textile Technology and Design co-edition the chapter's note 10 cites), Janine Yeung (case-study student author, not paged), Evan Douglis, Donella Meadows, Lionel March & George Stiny, Uri Wilensky, Michael Hensel, Achim Menges & Michael Weinstock (all referenced, not paged — see log)

Debates: static-vs-dynamic-architecture (dynamic surfaces formulated by computation — the generative antecedent of the responsive-environment position), interior-design-vs-architecture (the computational knowledge base as the interior side's answer to the "no philosophical base of knowledge" charge)

Related source notes: source-notes/manack-2018-fabricating-interiority (digital fabrication as interior architecture's instrument), source-notes/carraher-2018-spatial-agency-digital-praxis (the adjacent computational chapter; heterogeneous space), source-notes/satterfield-swackhamer-2018-swimming-upstream (system- and tool-authorship), source-notes/schneiderman-2018-inside-the-prefab-house (the Textile Technology and Design volume the chapter cites; prefab modules), source-notes/taylor-2018-shape-shifting-dynamic-design (the dynamic interior), source-notes/dubbeldam-2006-thing-shapes (generative surfaces), source-notes/claypool-discrete-turn (part-to-whole digital ontology)

Direct Quotes

"In the inextricable design continuum, form and function are balanced by science and mathematics as variables to design and realize objects, environments, and experiences."

"The result is a shift in systems of knowledge, thinking, and problem solving within interior architecture – a paradigmatic fluidity – emerged through the coupling of traditional tools and emergent software and digital fabrication."

"These digital technologies and processes yield unprecedented capabilities, allowing for physical and fabricated realization of designs that were once considered too complex or unbuildable."

"Through an amalgam of these techniques and technologies integrated within digital design and physical prototyping, designers are defining interior volumes using surface mathematics to develop autogenic design topographies at the interior scale and context."

"by enabling the rendering, simulation and visualization of the evolution of complex systems over time, the computer has proved an indispensable tool for making sense of complex systems and emergent phenomena." (Wilensky 2001, via note 2)

"The digital design process expresses an algorithm to intervene in a system and segment a complex design query into several simplified sub-problems, and later reconstructed to create a solution." (via Meadows and Rocker, note 1)

"The formula for developing autogenic systems of design starts simply: shape < surface < volume. In the most primitive sense, shape is the two-dimensional primitives such as points and lines; surface is an interconnected set of points and lines that have length and breadth; and volume is the three-dimensional space enclosed by a collection of surfaces." (after March & Stiny, via note 3)

"a system, a 'set of elements or parts that is coherently organized and interconnected in a pattern or structure,' is the logical basis for defining and transforming interior volumes via visible surface mathematics." (Meadows quoted, via note 4, p. 187)

"Individual characteristics of a system – the components, constraints, interrelationships, interface, boundary, purpose, environment, input, and output – when aggregated, produce a pattern or structure within a system, representing an expression of an observed regularity, and exist in both biotic and abiotic systems."

"'auto,' is a prefix meaning 'of oneself,' and 'genic,' is an adjective meaning 'produced or generated by.' Autogenic can, therefore, be understood as an object, system, or process that is characteristically self-generated or self-produced"

"However, such transformation requires a hybrid process combining foundational design elements – volume, surface, and mass – with both spatial geometries and systems theory."

"These systemic components are organized into larger surfaces or screens to form aggregates or large amounts of unbound elements lying in loose frictional contact, therefore subdividing a system into smaller parts that can be independently created and used in different systems." (after Hensel, Menges & Weinstock, via note 11)

"Systemic theory and computation as applied to spatial systems in interior architecture and design allow for the conceptualization, modeling, and fabricated realization of designs that were once considered too complex or unbuildable."

"The Gyroid reflects an autogenic design topography that was generated through analysis and systemic computation of a surface. This work is based on the repetition and subdivision of a cell and submodules of a gyroid surface to which input parameters from a biotic system consisting of a 50% fill density and 50% porosity were applied." (on Yeung's assembly)

"In this species, these structures are organized in gyroid forms to produce structural coloration and the effect of iridescence when light moves through these geometries."

"The resulting chitin network satisfies a condition of 50% structural volume and 50% air or porosity. This parameter becomes the primary input that will be applied to the submodules."

"The optimized geometry is a locally minimized surface that contains six vertices and six curved edges, where each edge is in contact with a unique face, and each vertex is in contact with a unique corner."

"The conceptual framework consists of three parts: input of micro-level emergent phenomena to delineate spaces, simulation of simple shape grammars in visual scripting, and an output for visualizing the loop-based calculation by the various micro-level emergent phenomena and macro-level patterns."

"The autogenic characteristics of the biotic system interact with the self-organizing logic of the mathematical surface to produce the final component geometries."

"designs and their meanings [can] be viewed as the results of computations carried out according to rules of composition and correlative rules of description." (March & Stiny, via note 14)

"The output can be translated through analog and digital means, with an array of modeling or physical prototyping realities."

"Incorporation of these processes of transforming an interior volume, as evidenced in the academic case study The Gyroid by Janine Yeung, reflects the value of systemic articulation as a method for problem solving, especially in an academic environment and undergraduate curriculum."

"there is often an ambiguity between invisible and defined boundaries in mathematical surfaces – and this may translate to factors of the component in regards to overall geometry relating to form flexibility." (Janine Yeung 2016, p. 12, quoted in Figure 18.3)

"This process stems from the notion of 'self-generated' modular forms as a result of a subdividing process. The outcome should ideally allow for an articulate component organization about a substrate." (Janine Yeung 2016, p. 12)

Open Questions

The chapter defines the interior volume computationally but never asks what it is for: no inhabitant, program, or use appears anywhere in the argument. Is "transforming interior volume" a disciplinary project at all, or a formal-method project housed in an interior design school? (Contrast Qureshi's therapeutic and Teston's political conceptions of the same discipline.)
Is "autogenic" design genuinely self-generated, or is the self being attributed to the system actually the designer's transferred authorship — the parameters, input data, and system boundary are all chosen upstream (cf. Satterfield & Swackhamer's relinquish-control paradox)?
The biotic precedent is used as a parameter source (50/50 fill/porosity) rather than as a logic of making. Does borrowing a natural structure's numbers reproduce its performance, or only its image? What would a genuinely biotic interior architecture require beyond the number?
Yeung's "ambiguity between invisible and defined boundaries in mathematical surfaces" — is this ambiguity a defect of the representation (a rendering problem) or an ontological property of computed volume (surfaces that don't know whether they enclose)? See boundaries.
The chapter cites Anderson's own earlier chapter ("Materializing the Digital Realm," with Laura Schoenthaler — the co-author's prior name) and Douglis's Autogenic Structures; is the interior-scale autogenic topography a genuine sub-discipline in formation, or a pedagogical import of Evan Douglis's architecture-scale programme into interior design curricula?
The gyroid case derives its input from a nanostructure and outputs an installation-scale module system. What is the status of scale in surface mathematics — does the butterfly's geometry mean anything at room scale, or is the 50/50 parameter the only thing that survives the transposition?

Notes

Pagination: the raw chapter file carries no page numbers of its own (the Marinic Reader pagination is not marked; the chapter spans pp. 145–150 per the authors' TMU publication list). Quotes are unpaginated except where the chapter's notes supply original pagination (Meadows 2009, p. 187; Yeung 2016, p. 12).
The raw text's footnote superscripts are partially OCR-corrupted (footnotes 5–10 are not visibly anchored in the body); notes 1–4, 11–14 are identifiable by content.
Note 10 cites "Jonathon Anderson and Laura Schoenthaler, 'Materializing the Digital Realm', in Textile Technology and Design: From Interior Space to Outer Space, ed. D. Schneiderman and A. Winton (Bloomsbury, 2016)" — the chapter's co-author under her prior name (Laura Lovell-Anderson's own records list the same chapter among her publications).
The case study credits: "A precedent assembly by Janine Yeung, under the supervision of Professor Jonathon R. Anderson at Ryerson University School of Interior Design and completed in spring 2016" (note 13: Yeung, "The Gyroid: An Investigation of the Self-Organizing Cuticular Structures of Butterfly Wing Scales in Callophrys rubi," IRN 800, Ryerson University School of Interior Design, 2016).
Software named in the chapter: K3DSurf (isosurface generation). The gyroid equation given: cos(x)·sin(y) + cos(y)·sin(z) + cos(z)·sin(x) = 0, with x = y = z = 1.5.
The authors' TMU/UAL publication lists give the chapter's span as pp. 145–150 of the Reader.