MONOLITH

2023

Los Angeles

The project taps into the prowess of A.I. image generators, with a spotlight on Stable Diffusion, fostering a distinct design ideation process. It sifts through a plethora of images resonating with inflated artistry and edifices. These visual cues guide the A.I. towards tailored design insights. Wielding the capabilities of SideFX Houdini, it modulates Stable Diffusion’s trajectory using control nets and distills unique elements to embed in their architectural tales. Houdini’s vellum simulation empowers them to craft vellum incarnations that mold, adhere to, or defy the inherent discrete architectural shapes.

Monolith questions and reimagines the conventions of monolithic architecture. It prompts a paradigm shift – from the monolithic perceived externally to one that resonates internally. Visualizing pliable vellum materials pressing against the multifaceted recesses of a building, their inflated silhouettes emerging through gaps and crevices, each discrete component set apart yet bound by the unifying vellum.

Centered on the design of a National Concert Hall, the project presents an immersive design expedition. It ranges from conceptualizing a sprawling main concert hall with 1500 seats, and an intimate hall for 500, to designing inviting lobbies and essential backstage facilities. Beyond mere design, it’s a narrative fusion of pragmatism and critical architectural endeavors.

2.5D models are created by displacing geometries based on extracted data using machine learning algorithms. The 2.5D model is modified, transformed, and distorted by adding external shapes to or removing shapes from the 2.5D form.

Before being demolished, an existing dilapidated building is digitized in 3D. It is integrated into the massing model. These fragmented pieces of the “existing building” can be viewed as abstract objects similar to how toys are used in Greg Lynn’s Recycled Toy Furniture.

Finally, architectural elements are designed and integrated. These elements are articulated and organically integrated into the project, which enhances the unique architectural and spatial experience. These discrete elements, including the shell, the fragments of the “existing building”, the architectural elements, and the “site object”, together form a new type of monolithic architecture.

  • An image of Greenspacing.

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  • An image of Greenspacing.

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  • An image of Greenspacing.

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