Commuter Retreat: A refuge in the middle of rush-hour

Commuter Retreat: A refuge in the middle of rush-hour

Schreurs, P.H.M.

Bier, H.H. (mentor)
Lee, S. (mentor)
Hoekstra, F. (mentor)
Van Weeren, C. (mentor)

Architecture

2009-03-31

The 'Commuter Retreat' project was developed in the context of the Border Conditions graduation studio. This studio emphasizes on an experimental approach to architecture, based on the development of specific techniques of representation to describe specific urban and architectural phenomena. The first part of the studio focuses on the urban investigation of a specific city and the second part consist of an architectural design, derived from the discourse developed in the first part of the studio. The design of the Commuter Retreat is based on the notions of flow, movement, connectivity and the network as a basic means of notating these phenomena. The design was generated from these notions and aims to test these notions as architectural tools by means of 3D computer modeling with Nurbs surfaces. This is crucial, as these surfaces are defined in space by vectors, which have a specific speed and direction, rather than by points, which are static. This type of modeling is fundamental to a different way of thinking about and dealing with 3 dimensional spaces, which can now be based on movement and transformation rather than stasis. Based on this generative approach to the generation of 3 dimensional spatial models, an architectural model for a Health Centre that connects an Underground subway station to an Elevated train station is developed. The design deals with the genesis of architectural form from the notions of network, flow and movement by translating these into specific shapes through vector based Nurbs modeling. A four-directional grid, or Diagrid, is used to control the deformation of the Nurbs surfaces to accommodate specific programmatic requirements. The project researches parametric construction development and the use of file-to-factory techniques to create physical representations of the computer model. By means of project of simple construction elements on complex 3 dimensional surfaces, the computer calculates the parametric deformation of these elements, which data can in turn be used to control the CNC machinery that manufactures these unique elements.

border conditions
nurbs modeling
cnc
double curved surfaces
parametric design

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5ec77324-4673-4e7e-b6f9-304ace2edd23

TU Delft, Architecture, Architecture

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2009 Schreurs, P.H.M.