The Digital Design elective within the final year of university explores the variation of digital mediums we utilise in the architectural process. The report includes a reflective log which focuses on mindfulness while processing tasks and detailing when, how and why they are done. It will detail all active thought at varying scales as each week progresses. It will combine intermediate progress captures, diagrams, images and coding to assist in detailing the progress of individual/group tasks and coursework development.
This report is structured to prioritise 3 'key report segments' as per the descriptions of the brief: Shape Grammars, Fungible/Non-Fungible Tokens, and the Utopia Project. I prioritised the 3D modelling/creation aspect of the module, learning about Blender, AI and coding.
Utopia
Utopia Project Development
Using Blender to form an idea
When designing the Utopia project, the brief describes the section in regards to ‘Shanzhai Utopias’, a book by Byung-Chul Han, and requests students to examine and implement researched computational design strategies to attempt to ‘redefine architectural modernity’. The Utopias are places that possess no logic and do not physically exist. It can be argued that they exist in our minds and our fantasies but no further. They can describe a distant and desirable future, which disregarding the realities of architectural standardisation and normality. This task allows the design of architectural concepts to fuse more intensely with art more than anything.
I also had the idea throughout the ‘Utopia’ task investigation of a floating, or high structure that stretches the limits of practicality. The Cloud city of ‘Bespin’ is a likely initial inspiration to begin modelling a futuristic take on computational architecture.
I am going to begin by modelling with basic editing and geometry nodes to create an elaborate cityscape. Afterwards, I want to add textures, a landscape and HDRI(s) to improve the scene. I want to apply as many different Blender skills as I can to this task to truly test my knowledge and understanding of the program.
Shape Grammars and 3D Design
