Aaron Westre

Building Ornamentation Toolkit

2010-02-18T17:18:28Z

Building Ornamentation Toolkit Beta Test #2 from Aaron Westre on Vimeo.

The Building Ornamentation Toolkit (BOT) is a series of software applications that I am developing as part of my research with Minneapolis Art on Wheels. These tools enable artists to project dynamic 3D geometry onto building facades. The first application in the series, Shelves, projects 3D forms and has a variety of animation capabilities. Shelves is currently in the testing phase and will be released free and open source as part of the Minneapolis Art on Wheels suite of technologies.

Other applications built on this platform are currently in the development phase and include tools for producing algorithmic facade decoration, facade-scale interactive games, and more.

Minneapolis Art on Wheels

2009-08-27T19:18:23Z

I have joined Minneapolis Art on Wheels as a researcher for this academic year. MAW is a project within the Collaborative Arts program at the University of Minnesota. Founded in 2008 by Ali Momeni, the group's focus is in creating mobile projection technology in the service of art and community engagement. MAW has performed across the country and around the world in this short time, including the Badlands, California, Istanbul, and many other locations. My role will be to bring my experience in architecture and computation to the project through software and performance that interacts with the built environment.

The core MAW team 2009-2010:

Ali Momeni, Founder and Principal

Christopher Baker, MFA

Sinan Goknur, PhD Candidate, Computer Science

David Steinman, BA Candidate, Theater

Andrea Steudel, BA, Art

Aaron Westre, M.Arch.

Cloudy Night Sky

2009-07-09T20:52:57Z

A software generated cloudy night sky. Made with processing.

Cloudy Night Sky from Aaron Westre on Vimeo.

Source: cloudynightsky.pde

Design Games

2009-03-20T20:50:50Z

A course about rethinking digital architectural design tools at the University of Minnesota, Spring 2009.

Course Description

How is the architectural design process a game? How could video gaming influence architectural design? In this course students will explore the world of digital game play and propose new modes of designing based on their findings. Using a simple programming toolkit, students will design and build game software that presents new ways to see the design process. No prior experience with either computer programming or video games is necessary; course assignments will be geared toward students new to these topics.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course students should be able to:

think critically about design processes in terms of the concepts of play, gaming, and interface.
develop new design processes by combining elements from various forms of game play.
realize game designs by building software using basic programming skills acquired through course assignments.

Modes of Inquiry

This course will rely primarily on process-based instruction as a mode of inquiry, utilizing computer programming as a primary medium. Programming will be taught only to a level sufficient to enable students to use it as a tool to realize their envisioned design games. The majority of learning will happen in programming workshops in which students and the instructor collaboratively translate ideas into computer code. In addition to the process-based instruction, students will engage in research into digital game play and human-computer interfaces.

Expected Outcomes

The outcomes of the course exercises will be a set of simple software applications that present playful ways for designers to create using computers. These software applications will take the form of rough prototypes and a final (not necessarily "finished") design game. In addition to the software, students will also make two short presentations: one on a digital game and one on a human-computer interface device.

Course Documents

Student Work

The work presented here represents the final results of student work during the seven week course. In each zip file there is the final design game software, source code, introductory text, and an initial sketch by each team. The software applications included here are works-in-progress (completed in a short five weeks) and thus are not complete by commercial standards. They are meant to show trajectory and progress of each team at the end of the course.

Architetris
Team 1: John Jacobs, Kim Kantrud, Caralyn Stevens

"Create quick floor layouts by guiding the falling furniture."
Download design game: windows | mac

Chizellin'
Team 2: Alex Bryan, Me'osha Solsberry, Mark Zeitler

"You and your chisel family are on a mission to complete the incomplete, and YOU have been called to chisel part of a whole."
Download design game: windows | mac

Bomb Squad
Team 3: Rob Daley, John Dockry, Griffin Jameson

"Locate the bomb within each level before time expires and answer an architecture related question to avoid disaster."
Download design game: windows | mac

Kiragami
Team 4: Addison Siewert, Dane Steinlicht, Erin Stromgren

"Beat the clock by cutting the paper to make it fold."
Download design game: windows | mac

Zombitecture
Team 5: Sunny Lam, Joe Mollen, Mike Rucinski

"On a 3D cube world zombies have taken over... kill them and watch the world change."
Download design game: windows | mac

Lil' Planners
Team 6:Rachel Gieseke, Shreija Madhusuodanan, Amy Wolff

"The drafting table is empty so it's YOUR JOB, Lil' Planners, to FILL IT UP!"
Download design game: windows | mac

Building Blocks
Team 7: Corey Pederson, John Maurer, Bethany Wolvington

"Reassemble the blocks to restore the original forms that fell from the sky."
Download design game: windows | mac

Example Code

generic3d template (zip)
Multiple Screens/Modes Example (zip)
Drag and Drop Example (zip)
Object Array Example (zip)
Two Dimensional Object Array Example (zip)
Adding New Objects to an Object Array (zip)
Swarm (zip) Demonstrates a 2D title screen over a 3D scene.

Reference Texts

Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists, Casey Reas and Ben Fry
Learning Processing: A Beginner's Guide to Programming Images, Animation, and Interaction, Daniel Shiffman

Web Resources

A Brief Tour of Replicant Architecture

2009-03-10T23:27:32Z

A paper written for Robert Ferguson's seminar The City as Theater at the University of Minnesota, spring 2008.

Excerpt:

"The image is familiar enough - the Eiffel Tower bathed in the dim, multi-colored light of a fireworks display - but something is askew here. (fig. 1) Gone are the trees and buildings that line the Champs de Mars, replaced by a near infestation of construction cranes. The reason for this uncanny quality is that this particular Eiffel Tower is in Tianducheng, a new residential development outside Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China.1 Upon a bit of research, one is struck by another uncanny realization: there are over twenty, more or less exact scale replicas of, the Eiffel Tower in the world.2 The most intriguing question in the face of this realization is: why? Why is the Eiffel Tower such a seductive target for replication? Why does this drive to reproduce copies appear to be so universal?"

Download full paper

A Digital Rocaille

2009-03-10T23:08:21Z

A paper written for Robert Ferguson's seminar The Cave and the Light, spring 2007. Presented at the 2007 Minnesota Society of Architectural Historians Student Symposium.

Excerpt:

"The link is in the simulation itself - in the creation of alternate realities. Both rocaille and generative design create these alternate realities through the abstraction of natural phenomenon. Rocaille's reality is shaped by its grotesque metamorphosis of biomorphic forms. Generative design's reality is created through an abstraction of natural phenomenon into logical procedure. Both share the quality of the uncanny. Their products seem familiar and foreign at once. In both autonomy is an essential quality, manifest directly in forms that seem to grow and transform of their own accord. There is that sense of naturalistic artifice, a sense that once the author sets the process in motion there is little they or anyone else can do to stop it. It is this growing, moving, lifelike quality that points to deep similarities between these two forms of expression that at first glance seem worlds apart. There is a sense of wonder and magic, play and experiment that pervade both ways of designing. Perhaps the most magical aspect of both is that this wonder emerges out of the power of simple actions repeated."

Download full paper

Grasshopper Workshop

2009-02-18T21:56:02Z

A short course in parametric modeling using Grassopper, a plug-in for the Rhino3D modeling environment. Taught at the University of Minnesota, February 18th, 2009.

Downloads

Grasshopper Definition Files (zip)

Presentation at ACADIA 2008

2008-10-01T19:19:14Z

I will be presenting Complexity Machine 1 at the ACADIA conference at the University of Minnesota on October 17th.

Rapson Hall Projection Screen to be displayed at ACADIA conference

2008-10-01T19:04:14Z

The Rapson Hall Projection Screen Project will display our first complete prototype during the 2008 ACADIA conference at the University of Minnesota.

Complexity Machine 1

2008-10-01T18:18:34Z

Complexity Machine 1 (CM1) is my thesis project for the Master of Architecture program at the University of Minnesota. The software simulates emergent behavior such as flocking and swarming and produces three dimensional form based on these movements. This is a speculative project looking into the form-making potential of complex simulation and is part of an on-going effort to create a more general framework for producing form with emergent rule sets. See the video and thesis document below for more details.

Introduction to Complexity Machine 1 from Aaron Westre on Vimeo.

Some images from the CM1 project

Download the software (source included): Linux Mac Windows

Download the masters thesis Complexity Machine 1: Drawing 3D Form with Behavioral Simulation for free at lulu.com.

About Aaron Westre

2008-09-08T19:57:46Z

My research is focused on building software tools for architectural design that employ the methodology of simulation. In science, simulation is used to test the validity of models of the world as it exists. In contrast, this this research investigates a reversal of this role; it seeks to use simulation to explore worlds as they could exist. It is a speculative endeavor that attempts to describe not Nature, but artificial natures - future, as yet unmapped, territories of potential. At a basic level, the software employs the logics of existing emergent systems such as movements in large groups of organisms, cellular differentiation, and molecular bonding. These processes are modified in an iterative fashion to arrive at a simulation that behaves less like the original system than a generator of novel architectures - less a scientific instrument, more an engine of alternative futures. The products of the simulations are fabricated two and three dimensionally, and at various scales. These physical artifacts are then subjected to interpretation, which further informs the use of the software. Once an instrumental, productive range of potential architectures is identified they are packaged and disseminated to the discipline and the public. This line of inquiry is situated in a space which assumes a role for the architect as actively producing possible futures that can inform decisions in the present.

Curriculum Vitae

2008-08-18T20:29:43Z

Aaron Westre
westr015@umn.edu

Education
2008
Master of Architecture. University of Minnesota. Minneapolis, Minnesota.
1998
Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology. St. Cloud State University. St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Teaching
2009
Design Games: Rethinking Architectural Design Software. Undergraduate Workshop. School of Architecture, University of Minnesota.
Design Games: Programming Creative Interfaces. Undergraduate Workshop. School of Architecture, University of Minnesota.
Introduction to Parametric Modeling with Grasshopper. Workshop for Students and Faculty. School of Architecture, University of Minnesota.

Professional Experience
2009 - Present
Researcher. Minneapolis Art on Wheels, Department of Art, University of Minnesota. Minneapolis, MN.
Adjunct Instructor. School of Architecture, University of Minnesota. Minneapolis, MN.
Principal. Artificial Natures, A software consultancy serving architects and designers. Minneapolis, MN.
2005 - 2009
Technology Coordinator. Institute for New Media Studies, University of Minnesota. Minneapolis, MN.
2001 - 2005 Web Developer. The Graduate School, University of Minnesota. Minneapolis, MN.

Publications
2010
"TensileDraw" (Software Review) Fabric Architecture. Jan/Feb. Industrial Fabrics Association International.
2009
"ForTen 3000" (Software Review) Fabric Architecture. Jan/Feb. Industrial Fabrics Association International.
2008
"Complexity Machine 1: A 3D Modeling Application Implementing Behavioral Simulation" (Paper) in Proceedings of the 2008 ACADIA Conference. Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture.
Complexity Machine 1: Drawing 3D Form with Behavioral Simulation (Masters Thesis). University of Minnesota.
Volume 4: Design+Freedom, Co-editor. THERE: Journal of Design. University of Minnesota.
2007
"Design Hackers" (Article) in THERE: Journal of Design, v. 3. University of Minnesota.
2006
"Techno-green" (Article) in THERE: Journal of Design, v. 2. University of Minnesota.

Presentations
2008
Complexity Machine 1: A 3D Modeling Application Implementing Behavioral Simulation (Paper Presentation) 2008 ACADIA Conference. University of Minnesota.
2007
"Design Code" (Presentation). Emerging Digerati. University of Minnesota.
"A Digital Rocaille" (Paper Presentation). Minnesota Society of Architectural Historians Student Symposium. University of St. Thomas. St. Paul, Minnesota.

Exhibitions
2008
Co-curator. Emerging Digerati Showcase. University of Minnesota.
2006
Packaging as Object of Desire. 9th Annual CALA Student Exhibition (Group Show). University of Minnesota. Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Awards
2008
Saul Parness Scholarship. Department of Architecture, University of Minnesota.

Contact Aaron Westre

2008-08-09T22:17:46Z

aaron@aaronwestre.com

Videos of Complexity Machine 1 now available

2008-07-14T19:29:15Z

I've posted videos that I produced during my thesis research at Vimeo.com. I've included them here for easy viewing.

The first is a 10 minute introduction to the project:

Introduction to Complexity Machine 1 from Aaron Westre on Vimeo.

The second is a short recording of a session in CM1:

Complexity Machine 1: Predator Prey from Aaron Westre on Vimeo.

Select the title link below each video to view on Vimeo at high resolution, and to read the descriptions.

Thesis document available at Lulu.com

2008-07-14T19:24:42Z

My thesis document entitled Complexity Machine 1: Drawing 3D Form with Behavioral Simulation, is now available as a free download on Lulu.com. Printed copies can also be purchased.