Vertebral Tower Study
Designed by Charles Lee. Tower inspired by the aggregation of vertabrae to generate a spinal column. Also inspired by the work of fellow Bios member Jason Chang. Congratulations are in order for his new job at Neil Denari Architects in Los Angeles. We will miss him 
but we always knew he would establish a remote office.
3 comments April 6, 2009
Concourse Study
Posted by Charles Lee.
Study into modelling procedure and techniques in airport 
concourse design and testing.
1 comment April 4, 2009
Aortic Arc – Exhibition night!
posted by Chris ChalmersPhotos from the debut of the Aortic Arc at Opening night of CCA’s FLUX exhibition
(please see flickr archive of this project here)
Thanks to all of you who helped with the installation, this project would not have been possible without you!
Add comment March 31, 2009
Dissipative System Study
Posted by Charles Lee.
Study into possible tectonics and materials for a new building. Uses curved Cri-Regulite glass for light transmission regulation. Dissipation fins help passively heat and cool the building. Glazed ceramic cladding is used for interior and exterior of the shell. The cermamic has thermal color changing abilities. Uses cellular component strategy for shell assembly. Compacted earth floors are used on the interior of the building for temperature control and a biophilic connection to the earth. The lamp in the interior is grown crystals on a mesh substrate.
Add comment March 19, 2009
Olavaquero
Posted by Charles Lee.
The Eco-Surf Resort Designed by Charles Lee has been completed. There is a nice website to make reservations . Here are a few images of the house and a few drawings I did last time I was in Mexico
Add comment March 9, 2009
Mosque Study
Posted by Charles Lee.
I love mosques.
Image by Charles Lee
1 comment February 26, 2009
Highly Commended in ArtVenture Freedom to Create Prize: Migrant Community Center
posted by Chris Chalmers
Chris Chalmers and Jason Chang were recently given high commendation for their Migrant Community Center project, described in more detail in this previous post.
ArtVenture is an international organization supporting human rights through art and design. Here is a description from their website:
“In all societies, the development of the arts has been a sign of culture and light. Yet not all governments provide citizens with the ‘freedom to create’ needed to foster innovation, commerce and prosperity. Some governments harass and impoverish their citizens, steal resources, stifle entrepreneurship and undermine human ingenuity and hope. In these societies, art can play an important role in giving a voice to those who are denied opportunity and resources. The ArtVenture Freedom to Create Prize consists of three categories. The main prize is open to individuals or artistic groups in all creative fields including the visual and performance arts, music, crafts, design and literature. The winner of this award will receive US$ 50,000.This is not a typical art prize. It does not simply judge the skill of the artist but rather recognises how the artist has used their work to promote awareness and alert people to the plight of others. The inaugural prize will be a unique and significant award and will be judged by a panel of eminent artists, commentators and human rights experts.”Add comment January 2, 2009
Phenotype Tower
posted by Chris Chalmers
I haven’t posted for awhile, but that means I’ve been hard at work on exciting stuff. This is some old work I thought I’d put up, just to fill the gap until I have more developed new work.
This advanced studio explored the use of parametric software and scripting in the design of a 300’ residential tower. The site is adjacent to an exit-ramp off the bay bridge and is located in San Francisco’s Transbay neighborhood, currently an area of intense urban development.
The name of the studio: “phenotype” references a phenomenon found in biological organisms in which individuals with almost identical genetic makeup (the “genotype”) exhibit different traits based on the specifics of their environment. Biological response is simulated in this project by setting a base typology for a residential unit (the “genotype”) and then writing a script that causes it to vary according to environmental parameters. Parameters include the unit’s height in the building, proximity to other units and orientation to pre-determined internal volumes or “vertical plazas”.
Structural integrity and mechanical systems are distributed throughout the building within individual units and by their attachment to each other. Thus the building maintains continuity without relying on a regularized structure, other than the vertical circulation cores.
Add comment December 22, 2008
Chair Designs for OFS Hotseat Competition
Posted by Charles Lee.
Here are some images from a current competition I have entered. Visit the site to find out more about them. HOTSEAT
Add comment December 15, 2008
NO Phycological Follies
Posted by Charles Lee.
I entered Jardins de Métis/Reford Gardens 2009 garden competition. I didn’t win but I still enjoyed the idea that it could be built and what great gifts they could have sold at the gift shop. 
Add comment December 9, 2008
Cactaceae Tower
Posted by Charles Lee.
Cacti are distinctive and unusual plants, which are adapted to extremely arid and hot environments, showing a wide range of anatomical and physiological features which conserve water. The design explores strategies for the skyscraper typology in the desert environment. Uses different materials to passively ventilate and generate multiple thermal massing conditions within the interior of the building.
Add comment November 21, 2008
Thiessen Polygon Table – Caesarstone Competition Entry
Posted by Charles Lee.
I recently entered a table design into the Dwell Magazine and Caesarstone Table competition. All entries are available at Dwell.com . In mathematics, a Voronoi diagramis a special kind of decomposition of a metric space determined by distances to a specified discrete set of objects in the space, e.g., by a discrete set of points. Voronoi diagrams that are used in geophysics and meteorology to analyze spatially distributed data are called Thiessen polygons. My design worked on the notion that the table is a place where agents interact socially over geophysical space (Caesarstone). As the conversation shifts so does the spatial influence of the participants on the table. These are defined by a thiessen polygons. The base of the table is a 3d path of travel from one thiessen polygon diagram to another extruded in the z direction. The polygons are then subdivided and generate a structural lattice to support the cantilevered table top from the base.
Design and Images by Charles Lee
Add comment November 13, 2008
Mutations of the Student Body
Posted by Charles Lee.
I want to show a few images of a project I did last summer as a consultant with Mark Donohue and Americo Diaz-Obrigan of Visible Research Office for the California College of the Arts Student Services. It isn’t biological in makeup but it has a life of its own. They have installed the counter top which is a torqued chevron and also did a mock-up of the ropes that where to be strung in the space. The client however refused to do the ropes and chose instead to put the computers on the walls instead of kiosks as in the original design which detracts from the ropes beauty of communicating the torqued ceiling and floor. I am happy and sad of the state of this project. Happy that many aspects are installed. Sad that the space could not grow into its maturity and instead was stunted by a budget drought or worse yet a critic. I would love to hear your thoughts.
Design by Mark Donohue , Charles Lee, Americo Diaz Obrigan
Photos by Americo
Modeling, Animation and Rendering by Charles Lee
Add comment October 30, 2008
ACADIA 2008 – Chemical Signaling
posted by Chris Chalmers
I’ve just returned from ACADIA in Mineapolis, where I had an amazing time. Click on the image above to see the slideshow I presented there. Sorry, I’ve only tested it on firefox, it may not work well on other browsers.
- Chris
1 comment October 20, 2008
Growing a Building – part II
posted by Chris Chalmers
This post chronicles continuing research into architectural form-finding methods using simulated biological processes. In this case: chemical cues that cells in the body use to communicate with eachother.
Here are a couple of quick renders showing two buildings grown in their context: site boundary and zoning height limit. The video below shows the simple rules used in their generation: cells aggregate, emitting pheromones when they detect a site boundary. When concentration is high enough, the cell type changes from an opaque panel to a spaceframe. Upcoming work will develop more cell types and pheromone relationships to negotiate interior spaces, floor area ratio, thermal comfort and more.
See the earlier posts for more info on this project.
Add comment October 14, 2008
PhotoBioreactor Sculpture Design Winner of HatchSpace 2008
Charles Lee designer of the Photobioreactor Sculpture is the 2008 winner of HatchSpace Integration of Art and Architecture Competition. Attached are a few photos of the Innovators Lounge and Award Ceremony. Also a few extra images of the Photobioreactor sculpture.
1 comment October 9, 2008
“Black Sun” Phenomenon
posted by Chris Chalmers
from wikipedia:
“Huge flocks of more than a million Starlings are observed just before sunset in spring in southwestern Jutland, Denmark. There they gather in March until northern Scandinavian birds leave for their breeding ranges by mid-April. Their flocking creates complex shapes against the sky, a phenomenon known locally as sorta sol (”Black Sun”). To witness this spectacle, the best place are the seaward marshlands (marsken in Danish) of Tønder and Esbjerg municipalities between Tønder and Ribe.”
This is probably old news to those of you with an interest in self-organizing systems (or birdwatching!) but I only discovered this phenomenon a couple of days ago. I immediately found it to be a compelling diagram for the dynamic self-organized design processes I have been so enamored with. Flocking has been a model for generative process for years now. In fact, one of my first forays into scripting ( chaos tower, below) was originally inspired by the dynamic form of a flock of pigeons taking off.
The application I see to my current work is this: Model each room (or zone) in a building as a”flock” of particles. Flocks fly around inside a three-dimensional site envelope that is defined by property line and zoning height restrictions. Each particle is simultaneously attracted to the other particles in its flock, as well as its “goal”: the place in the building that fulfills its pre-programmed parameters.At the same time, particles are repelled by the ones from other zones when they get within a certain distance. This keeps the flocks tightly packed.
The beauty of this system is that the “goal”, the place that the particles in a particular flock want to get near, keeps moving based on the actions of the other flocks. Picture the starlings above, but 3 or 4 distinct flocks, all swirling around each other inside a site envelope. Maybe they gradually find stasis, or maybe we just have to stop the process whenever it looks best. Either way, when the motion stops, each flock becomes a different volume in the building.
Add comment September 23, 2008
