Presentation of ideas to tutors panel 25/8/09

A ten minute presentation to convey the direction I am heading in. I showed images from the blog of the efforts of others but the images I have included here are what have not been on the blog. little experiments and cartoons of ideas.
I was recommended to consolidate to one idea and go for it rather than trying to do everything. as there are less than two months until the final assessment. I must produce something with a lot of substance on a clearly defined conceptual core.
Design is communication.

Zvi Hecker b.1931 Poland

Ramot housing 1 Detail from Hecker's webpage

Ramot Housing 1, 1972 from wikipedia

Hecker's Ramot Housing 1 in Palestine, Israel featured in the New York MOMA's 'Home Delivery' exhibition'08. I make two connections from this work firstly Buckminster Fullers Geodesic dome because of the geometric components and also Moshe Safdie's Habitat 67 - Montreal. The connection to Habitat67 is not a compliment, I see it as unfortunate that both structures evoke malleability but from what I understand fail to achieve it.
The exciting thing about this structure to me is how it brings the geodesic repetitive modular structure to focus on the individual, community and is an existing (hopefully affordable) structure.
"The first two stages of Ramot Housing were built using specially designed prefabricated elements, the remaining three stages by conventional methods of construction." "720 apartments of varying size" total "72.000 m²" at the time costing "45.0 Mio. US $" which equates to an average $62,500 per apartment -Heckers Website

Antonio Gaudi (1852-1926) Spanish Catalan

Images from Gaudi Designer

In the eyes of the electron microscope

Image of tobacco seed care of Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center

Explorations in nature reveal complex structures. However repetitive patterns which when dissected are often simple. These repetitive simple compositions often achieve amazing feats of strength, minimal material use and other optimisations current design concepts fail to compare with.

I see these structures if not immediately adaptable for human use, exquisite presidents for further experimentation.

The repetition in such structures is exciting to me as it relates directly to modular construction! Prefabricated, mass-produced, cheap, transportable, modular components. If that isn't enough what if what if grammatically correct combination of these components formed optimum structures. Meaning we require even less resources to achieve our architectural goals.

Jørn Utzon (1918-2008)

Sydney Opera House architect, Jorn Utzon created a form generating language.
Based on physical components and grammatical rules as to their composition. This allows infinite combinations within limits set by the architect.

The expertise of the architect are distilled into this architectural language. allowing the architect to simultaneously help everyone who is interested, and not have to do anything once the language is available.

I see this as a very simple language but a terrific example of how architecture can be free and beneficial to as many as who are interested.

An invention or discovery like the wheel or the software program windows, can continue to benefit everyone without constant work of the inventor.