318 EAAE no 35 Teaching and Experimenting with Architectural Design: Advances in Technology and Changes in Pedagogy
computational tool that can model each of these mini-systems separately, and at
the same time offer strategies of negotiation between these sub-systems. The aim
was to find a tool that is intuitive, visual, ambiguous, and easy to use, while being
sophisticated, numerical, precise, and empowering.
Morphing
After exposing the students to all the tools offered by 3d Studio Max, morphing
seemed to be the right tool for our investigation. Morphing is a process that locates
the interstitial states between two different conditions. Inherently, it offers a com-
putational means for precisely negotiating between different states of the same
system.
figure 2
Morpher is a 3d max modifier that implements morphing. It was origi-
nally developed to animate facial expressions. The interesting part
about this modifier is the capacity to hold up to 99 channels which are
the targets manipulating the deformation of the form. These targets
become the seeds of a hybridization process. Changing the percentages
of mixing among these channels generates a new variation.
Due to its visual interface and ease of use, students felt very com-
fortable and empowered by the tool. Rather than spending much time
learning the tool, they spent much of their time exploring what they
can do with it. This was an important pedagogical aim for the stu-
dio.
Part II: Student’s work
Phase 1
The students were asked to identify an object of study and elaborate on it (graphi-
cally as well as verbally) in terms of the high-performance aspects that are suitable
to this investigation. The analysis of ‘High Performance’ objects and assemblies was
supposed to address the formal, material, and structural systems that guide design
and culminate in analytic and transformational diagrams, models and drawings that
suggest new architectural interpretations. Students were encouraged to use the con-
ceptual and technical strategies developed in this stage in the final project.
Student’s work
Becca Edson’s object of investigation was the running shoe. Due to the complexity
of the interaction between the different systems at play, Becca decided to focus only
figure 3