Kenny Kinugasa-Tsui and Justin C.K Lau, in collaboration with glass artist Min Jeong Song and Innovation design engineering specialist Julene Agulrre Bielschowsky, have been awarded 1st prize in an International architectural design competition organized by Archriumph for a Ecological Carpark in Shanghai.

Shanghai is one of the most dynamic cities in the world, with a long history of east west cultural exchanges, tension, resulting in a unique urban environment.

The proposal is an innovative ecological carpark, one that in not restricted to the conventional typologies of a stack efficient car parking system, but one that is integrated into the urban environment by utilizing un-used spaces in the city.

The main harbour of Shanghai will be the site for this investigation – how to utilize the space ‘above water’ to improve the current grey, green-less, dense waterfront of the city. The proposal is for a green ‘snake-like’ modular high-line garden structure that floats on stilts above the water along the waterfront, with various connection points to the main vehicle access points from the districts. Drivers will be able to intuitively drive into the high line structure, park their cars in ornamental tree-like structures and canopies filled with poetic fantasies of light, colour and shadow and then meander by foot through the forest of artificial natural treescapes. These structures provide an extension of the waterfront into the river, pedestrian pavements along Pudong and the surroundings are no longer narrow, but widened to provide a great sense of public realm, with large open air flexible spaces for public activities.

The structures will be designed in typological components, which can be assembled to create a larger and longer overall structure shall a longer ’snake’ be required over time, or can be disassembled to provide smaller multi-locational systems for temporary needs of the city such as Chinese festival events or concerts which might be spread over various locations on the waterfront.

A multidisciplinary design team led by Kenny Kinugasa-Tsui and Justin C.K Lau has been awarded the 3rd Prize Winner of an International architectural design competition organized by Archriumph to design a fashion pavilion in Rome.

Team members:
Amy Wong, Sarish Younis, Paul Boldeanu, Sophie Manner, Kenny Kinugasa-Tsui, Justin C.K.Lau

The radical concept is a ‘floating’ pavilion hovering above the centre of the Collosseum stage, suspended in mid air by a series of weaved tensile/steel structures. Visually stunning and beautifully lit, the pavilion would provide a floating platform for performances, as well as some internal spaces for functions. The pavilion also acts as a circulation hub, with a network of circulation ramps as arteries through the forrest of weaved structures. The three dimensional weave would connect the floating pavilion to various access points from the historical spectators seating platforms, as well as a suspended mid air catwalk run way ramp that would be used by a series of fashion shows by individual designers on different evenings. The pavilion itself would host temporary fashion exhibitions, and social events

The team has collaborated with a textile designer to create stitched versions of spirographs which are straight lines rather than the curved lines of most spirographs, drawing inspiration from the long historical and cultural Italian arts in patterns, sculptures, textiles and contemporary fashion. The pattern design reflects the past, present and future cultural values of Italian Roman textiles, but also to allow for contemporary interpretations. The architectural has interpreted the textile patterns into architectural applications as innovative structures to suspend a floating pavilion in the centre of the Collesseum, providing functions for the largest fashion/textiles related events that might be hosted inside the Collesseum.

Brief

Using the ever-growing flow of immaterial information, sets of data, network impulses, SMS, phone calls, e-mails, and online profiles, this intensive workshop aims to develop responsive prototypical interfaces.

Participants will learn the basics of physical computing, complementary principles of sensing and actuating, and their integration into design processes. Sensors and wireless networks will be used to capture information while existing or custom-made software will be used to map, visualise and utilise data.

The resulting interfaces will interpret the data and aim to physically materialise it, either by self-actuation, or by custom additive manufacturing. The output will be subject to re-scan in order to study and implement full feedback loops.

More info to come soon . . .

The “Point_o_Matic Ultra” is a custon made, portable, Computer-Numerically Controlled (CNC) robotic pointing device that challenges traditional ways of fabrication and engages the integration of rule-based designs, on-site responsive designs, and their emergent qualities.

Unlike traditional CNC technologies, the P_o_M.U.’s software and hardware interfaces have been developed to allow full feedback loops throughout the fabrication process. The machine is equipped with sensors and its USB connectivity also enables network communication. From predefined rules, the P_o_M.U. has the ability to read and scan the physical output and readjust every iteration based on the result of the previous operations.

For instance, a standard 3D printer reads pre-defined geometries from the computer, translates it into stacked layers of material, and then prints each of this layers one by one, from the bottom up. The P_o_M.U. on the other hand read rules such as “go to the brightest spot” and “avoid the colour of our building material”, and repeats the process over and over. As the construction progresses, the brightest spots will be shifted accordingly, so will the actions of the machine, bringing context-responsive and emergent behaviours to the design process.

Use

The “Point_o_Matic Ultra” has been tested during the AA MakeLab 2012 visiting school in Hooke Park. This location provided all ingredients to evaluate the on-site potential of the machine as this was a constantly changing natural context. Staff and participants studied design scenarios where each step was determined by set rules in order to illustrate the emerging qualities of this method.

A 1:1 scale prototypical blue “spider-web” was built with one continuous rope, and punctual attach points to neighbouring trees. The rules for the machine were to point to the brightest point on the site, but to avoid blue, as this was the colour of the building material.

The machine behaviour would change from daytime to nighttime as a result of brightness change, and it would constantly avoid pointing back to areas where the built fabric already got to a certain density of blue.

The “Point_o_Matic Ultra” has been developed by Denis vlieghe for academic research purposes with the support of the Architectural Association’s digital Prototyping  Lab. Contributors : Jeroen Van Ameijde and Brendon Carlin.

e: peter@horhizon.com

Kenny Kinugasa-Tsui
B.Sc.(Hons) (UCL), Grad.Dip (UCL), M.Arch (UCL), PG Dip, ARB, RIBA

Kenny is a architect and educator in overlapping the disciplines between teaching, practice and research. He has been actively engaged in the innovatory British design scene, in exchanges between international innovations and experimental developments for the built environment.

He has been a project architect at Urban Salon Architects in London, while concurrently lecturing as a Teaching Fellow at the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, leading a design studio with Professor Murray Fraser and Justin Lau. He is a member of Horhizon International Design Research Network since 2008, actively engaged in collaboration with leading schools of architecture from around the world.

Born in Hong Kong, Kenny is half Chinese and half Japanese. He studied architecture and completed Bsc, DipArch, and an MArch Advanced Architectural Design Research at the Bartlett School of Architecture University College London,  under Dr. Marjan Colletti and Dr. Marcos Cruz (Current Director of the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL).

Kenny has a unique extensive teaching experience in some of the top schools in Europe. He is currently teaching with Professor Murray Fraser (Professor of Architecture and Global Culture) at The Bartlett. Kenny was personally recommended by Sir Peter Cook to take up a visiting lecturer position at Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris. He taught with Dr. Jon Goodbun when he was a visiting lecturer for Masters of Architecture at the Royal College of Art, and associate lecturer at Oxford Brookes University and London South Bank University. He has tutored a number of awards winning students, his students have been shortlisted as finalists at the prestigious RIBA Presidents Awards in the last four consecutive years.

As a project architect at Urban Salon Architects, he has most recently worked on a prestigious contemporary office refurbishment for advertisement company BBH (Sir John Hegarty) in a historical Listed Building in Soho in London. He worked on a number of commercial projects and was shorlisted for the AJ’s Small Projects Awards in 2011. He had worked on a £95million scheme of a M&S Liverpool retail flagship store specialised in the digital design of the roof structure. Kenny previously worked for Richard Rogers Partnership as an architectural assistant, most notably for the planning application for the Leadenhall Tower (Nicknamed the ‘Cheesegrater’, a prestigious unprecedented high-profile 50 storey office building currently being constructed in the City of London.

e: Kenny@horhizon.com
t: +44 (0) 7818465209

Justin C. K. Lau is a practicing architect at Make Architects and a visiting lecturer at the Bartlett school of Architecture, University College London. While studying at the Architectural Association, Justin was awarded the William Glover Prize for Innovative Design. He completed his architectural studies at the University of Westminster under Dr Murray Fraser, Dr. Marcos Cruz and Dr Marjan Colletti. He was awarded the runner up of the RIBA / CLAWSA prize and received a distinction in his final year design thesis. In 2004, He won the joint 1st place on the RIBA and LSC international competition scheme ‘College for the Future’ exploring an innovative futuristic concept for the redevelopment of further education buildings and facilities.

Justin has extensive practicing experience, he has worked on projects around the globe including London, Madrid, Paris, Beijing, Sydney and Mumbai. He worked for Richard Rogers Partnership between 2002-6, most notably on 122 Leadenhall Street and One Hyde Park, a prestigious unprecedented high-profile 50 storey office building in the City of London and a residential building in the heart of Knightsbridge. He is currently a partner at Make Architects overseeing the construction of a boutique hotel in China as well as developing a residential tower in Mumbai. Both designs are aimed to celebrate the local culture which to promote a sustainable live work play environment whilst pushing a digital prefabricated tectonics on functional ornamentations within a cultural, political and economical context.

Justin was a visiting lecturer for Master of Architecture at the Royal College of Art in London and associate lecturer at Oxford Brookes University and visiting lecturer at Ecole Spéciale d’ Architecture in Paris. His ongoing research titled ‘Viewing Elegance’ and ‘Constructing Celebratory spaces’ are developed through studio teaching and practicing. Justin’s students have won and shortlisted for many awards, including the best student projects in Britain 2010 by Blue print as well as the RIBA President medal finalist over the last three consecutive years. Justin also takes social responsibility as an Architect for charitable events. He is also an in-house tutor at Make Architects in collaboration with the Bartlett and Open City to help young students between age 15-17 to engage Architecture.

e: justin@horhizon.com

Dietmar Köring is an architect, researcher, and educator living in Cologne & Berlin. He is a research fellow at TU Berlin / CHORA City & Energy and is head of the architectural research office Arphenotype, where he focuses on blurring the boundaries of different artistic disciplines. Dietmar has taught Digital Design at TU Braunschweig from 2010 to 2012, he was Guest Professor for Virtual Realities & Experimental Architecture at the University Innsbruck ./Studio3 in 2011, Technology and Design Lecturer at the Cologne Institute for Architectural Design / C-I-A-D and visiting lecturer for digital design at the DeMontfort University Leicester. From 2011 to 2011 he was assistant professor for Smart Grid research (Cologne Smart City 2022) at the Institute for Corporate Architecture at the Cologne Technical University.

He studied architecture at the University of Applied Sciences Cologne, the University of Western Sydney and at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts, were he graduated as in 2005 as Dipl.-Ing. Dietmar received his MArch in 2007 at the Bartlett School of Architecture University College London, under Prof. Neil Spiller and Phil Watson. Since 2008 he is a registered Architect at the AKNW and ARB.

Through his career he has worked internationally for offices such as Coop Himmelblau, Graft, 3deluxe and Andrew Wright Associates. His research has been awarded by the Jaap Bakema Fellowship / NAI and his works have been internationally published and exhibited, including Heide Museum of Contemporary Arts Australia and Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin. Dietmar has given international lectures, guest critiques and workshops.

e: dietmar@horhizon.com
t: +49 173 456 2771

Johan Voordouw is an Assistant Professor at the Azrieli School of Architecture, Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Johan’s research interests have a disparate range but common themes include the philosophical dimension of digital practice and its relationship with spatial histories His work is primarily focused on digital and spatial typologies and there resultant urban implications. Other interests include the notion of multiple means of simultaneous representation such as the dimensional interplay between 2-D and 3-D in digital space.

Johan is a graduate of the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL), London of Dr. Marcos Cruz and Dr. Marjan Colletti’s Unit 20 completing his Graduate Diploma in 2007 and a subsequent M.Arch in 2009. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Manitoba, Canada (2003) after an internship in the Netherlands (2000). He has worked in a number of practices in the Netherlands, Canada and the UK, the most notable of which was Foster + Partners until 2010.

Johan’s work has been exhibited and published extensively including: Digital Architecture: Passages Through Hinterlands, the Venice Architecture Biennale and the Royal Academy of Arts London Summer Show. He has conducted a number of academic workshops throughout the U.K. and has been a guest critic at schools including the Architectural Association, the Royal College of Art, Oxford Brookes, Paris’ Ecole Speciale d’Architecture and the Barlett School of Architecture, UCL.

e: johan@horhizon.com

Denis Vlieghe (Dip.Arch –High Dist.; M.Arch Architecture + Urbanism) is a fresh and forward-thinking Belgian designer,
researcher, and instructor.

He has worked in Belgium, Japan, and the UK, and on various international competition entries including the winning design of the Guangzhou Culture Center with Endo Shuhei. His work also includes collaborations with Shigeru Ban, Biothing, Tommorrow’s Thoughts Today, Robofold and Space Agency and has been exhibited in London and in the Netherlands. He has lectured and taught courses and workshops in the AA, the Bartlett, the University of Tokyo, TU Munich and TU Innsbruck.

He is also independently experimenting and pursuing a research based on physical computation and generative processes inspired from biology, physics, new technologies and pop-culture, with applications in a wide range of designs, from accessories, robots, and programs to architectural objects, pavilions and bigger buildings.

e: denis@horhizon.com