7/26/2011

Anamorphic Walkway by Alan Lu

I would like to go back over a project designed in 2008 by a M.Arch candidate at MIT, Alan Lu. This bridge project, titled Anamorphic Walkway, is part of Lu's research on typology, computation, and digital fabrication, precisely, and this what interests me, the articulation of typology, form-finding, form-making and fabrication and construction techniques.
Anamorphic Walkway © Alan Lu

Alan Lu's design consists of application of modular structures to various typologies of walkways in order to determine a set of types and behaviors of forms and materials including curvature, concave, convex of bridges' forms.
Scent Pavilion © Alan Lu

This is not the first time that Alan Lu combines typology, form-finding, site's characteristics and manufacturing such as, to quote a few, this Scent Pavilion which derived from funnel typology study, form-finding and site's input, precisely fluid simulation, branching networks that act as a starting point for the organisation of programs including scent fabrication, storage, and commercial sales.
Anamorphic Walkway © Alan Lu

The volume and form of this bridge demonstrate a strong relationship to a given site's inputs.
Anamorphic Walkway © Alan Lu

A complex geometry arises from a series of manipulation like trimming, creasing and intersection.
Anamorphic Walkway © Alan Lu

The below diagram shows us different steps of the form-finding process including initial projected figures, trim operation and restablishment of privileged views and an overview of the surface which derived from the convergence of vantage points at a given site.
Anamorphic Walkway © Alan Lu

This geometry and its resultant structural forces establish the tectonic system of the entire bridge, that is, a continuous surface that, then, connects to the ground.
Anamorphic Walkway © Alan Lu

Now that the design of this bridge is determined, Alan Lu examines the translation of computationally-generated form into its construction through CAD/CAM technologies.
Anamorphic Walkway © Alan Lu

This generates a voluntarily anamorphic prototype with adaptive openings in four directions, front-to-back and side-to-side, for circulation inside this bridge.
Anamorphic Walkway © Alan Lu

With this bridge project, Alan Lu pursues his research on not only the combination of typology with emergent design, construction and digital fabrication techniques but also, and why not, infrastructure in the 21st century.
Anamorphic Walkway © Alan Lu

Who is he?
Alan Lu is a designer and prospective architect based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is currently in the M.Arch program at MIT as a Presidential Fellow where his studies and research are deeply engrained within the realm of form, fabrication, and the endless pursuit of luxury through space. Alan Lu has collaborated with Morphosis Architects, Zaha Hadid Architects, CA Architects, IwamotoScott Architecture, among others.







No comments:

Pageviews last month

Powered By Blogger