dECOi ARCHITECT’S

Mark Goulthorpe (Principal)

Raphael Crespin
TEAM
Steven Shpiner, Stylianos Dritsas, Sawako Kajima, Alexandros
Tsamis, Lydia Kallipoliti, Kaustuv de Biswas, Gabriel Blue Cira,
Matthew Trimble, Pryanka Shah Oliver Dering, Arnaud
Descombes, Gabriele Evangelisti, Prof Mark Burry,Dr Alex Scott
David Glover, Marc Downie, Paul Steenhuisen, Mikey Fujihara,
Saeid Nahavandi, Mark Burry, Alex Scott, Bill Bartolotta
Mark Goulthorpe
• Mark Goulthorpe is an Associate Professor at
MIT Dept of Architecture, teaching in
undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate
programs, and undergoing research in digital
design and fabrication.

• Current research centers on robotic

fabrication and a variety of composite
fabrication methodologies, as well as a new
iteration of the dynamically reconfigurable
Hypo Surface

• He has two published books

1.―Autoplastic to Alloplastic‖ by Hyx/Pompidou,

2.―The Possibility of (an) Architecture‖ by
Routledge theorizes
Rethinking architecture:
Mark Goulthorpe is an architect, writer, and
teacher.
To seek models of thought that might yield
new approaches to designing and
constructing buildings.
He uses innovative materials, processing
logics, and computer-aided design.

Seemingly radical praxis

—the process by which a theory, lesson, or
skill is enacted
— yields buildings that are not only resilient,
economical, and visually stunning, but also
offers insights into attaining environmentally
benign buildings.
Goulthorpe says that the need for new
modes of designing and building are
essential for both their aesthetic value and
for catering to the dramatic population and
economic growth of the developing world.
dECOi architects works
1.One main street
(Subtle Digital Form + Sustainable Timber + CNC
Milling)
2. Electromagnetic Hypo Surface
3. Bankside Paramorph
1. One main street
(Subtle Digital Form + Sustainable Timber + CNC Milling)

An office refurbishment that relentlessly

deploys numeric command machining of
sustainable plywood to evidence the
versatility and efficiency available via CAD-
CAM design-build processes.

Ceiling topography
The project displaces the combinatorial logic
of ready-made components typical of late-
industrial process for a seamless and non-
standard protocol of customized fabrication.

A formal aesthetic emerges from these

processes , imbuing the design with a
curvilinear continuity at a detail and spatial
level.

Ceiling Skin - Inflection and draft angle

analysis
MATERIAL

Using a sustainable and carbon-

absorbing raw material, translated
efficiently into refined and functional
elements via dexterous low-energy
digital tooling.

The project essentially comprises two

planes –

Floor
Ceiling

Articulated as continuous surfaces

inflected by function.

The curvilinearity expresses both the

digital genesis and the seamless Floor Skin with furnitures
fabrication logic,.
 Unitary Fabrication Logic
All visible elements of the design,
except the glass, have been
fabricated as stacked sectional
elements cut from flat plywood
sheets by a single 3-axis numeric
command milling machine.

The ceilings, walls, floors and static

furniture have all been made as
striated ply laminated elements, with
functional elements such as
ventilation grilles, light pockets, and
door handles formed directly by
milling the mass of wood.

Offloading pre-assembled ceiling components

Parametric Inflections
The surfaces of the project deform to
perform technically, in the floor used to
capture the glass, or the ventilation grilles
that warp to the curvature of the ceiling.

These functional attributes were

developed as ‗parametrically‘ variable
elements, applied so as to locally adapt to
the base surface conditions ‗automatically‘
(they self-generate to suit their host site).

Where the glass wall is longer, so the

structural fold of the floor heightens to
augment its grip, the entire series of
bumps then varied by a second-order
constraint.

Where airflow is increased locally, the

vents elongate to baffle the flow
proportionally, flaring the ribs of the
ceiling wider.
 Scripting / Machining Protocols
As architects, we handed over actual milling
files for fabrication,

Already nested onto plywood sheets to

minimize waste, which were the actual
cutting instructions then issued digitally to
the numeric command machine.

These highly abstract machine instructions

displaced the usual representative precepts
of architectural production, but in fact we
developed a machinic ghost of the final
form, never modeling an accurate original!
Well over one million linear feet of cut were
issued, a shift in the base protocol of
contracting logic, the architect now fully in
control of every detail via fabrication code.
Ceiling generated milling file before
Machine-age manufacturing logic shifts to nesting process.
digital fabrication processes.
The Column
The ceiling lifts over activity, inflects as if to seek light, and is pulled
by flows of people: an allo plasticity.
Continuous-Surface Formalism
The continuous machining process,
the numeric command machine
executes curved cuts with equal
precision as straight lines,
essentially indifferent to the
complexity or number of cuts.
There is efficiency in maintaining
surface continuity, large and highly
accurate prefabricated parts
quickly installed on site without the
need for multi-component
assembly.
This is manifest in benches that
curl out of floors, or reception
desks that emerge as inflections
from the general field.
The continuity of surface, in fact
assembled into an apparent unity
from many highly accurate
customized parts, is the formal
extension of the machining logic,
challenging the component-
assembly aesthetic of machine age
Benches

Scripting process to generate milling information

Bench pre-assembly at CWK shop

Nested elements on panels
Reception desk Fabrication Wavy scare crossing the all space to emerge at the reception
desk

The developed design was nuanced

parametrically in celebration of the
indifference of the CNC machine to
formal complexity! Indeed - the
machine preferred continuity of
curved cut.

Reception desk model before nesting

Reception desk

Reception desk emerges as a continuity of floor

Bankside Paramorph
(extension to a towertop apartment in Bankside, London)
The project looks to establishing principles
• a radical new spatial potential, trapping movement in 3d
form(―geological formation‖)
• a revised attitude to CAD modelling, using multi-layered
techniques(―dirty digital‖)
• a revolution in fabrication protocols (―a collapse of
contractor space‖)
Creative Process
1. INTUITION -intuition that parametric modeling (relational
geometry) will allow for complex yet efficient 3-d space/form assemblies
2. FORM
We liken the genesis of the project to calligraphy in that a period of
assimilation of the complex brief led to a highly articulate ‗gesture‘
that negotiates the complex formal and technical constraints:
1. an awkward stepped spiraling towertop site
2. a client request for views in all directions
3. the ability to nuance thermal performance
4. a need to modulate its structural form
5.the need for a lightweight prefabricated construction logic
FORM
3.Design
1. series of spiralling 3d
structure/surface elements,
offers a dramatic completion to
the tower, whilst offering a radical
interior spatiality. The implicit
assumption is that its form can be
articulated as a series of variable
parameters
2. There is also a need for highly
accurate and articulate fabrication
techniques, which implies 5-axis
numeric command machining, the
structural box-trusses then
assembled from beveled triangular
panels
3. structure, insulation and weather
proofing ‗trapped‘ within its
thickness - an essential recovery
of efficiency within a now complex
formal environment (CAD/CAM). ie
there is a collapse-back of
distinction in regards to functional
performance
 4.Principle
Within a digital environment, where variancy is
the norm, open-ended and proliferating
generative strategies are employed, sampling
and editing displacing design determinism as
the essential aptitude of the architect.

Parametric modelling, which models variables

within a dynamic system, demands that the
architect articulate the essential parameters
and their implication within a generative
environment: how does one establish the
rules by which an architecture might be
produced rather than a singular determination
of form?

The paramorph emerges as the principled

opponent to accidental methodologies of
form-generation.
 Computer Modeling

1. Sketch Design
The initial computer modeling
was done in 3D Studio Max

2. Design Development

3. Currently we have moved to

modeling the form in CATIA
where we are concentrating
on the detailed level of
articulation
Computer Modeling

http://web.mit.edu/mg_decoi/www/
bankside/Computer/Parametric.html
Fabrication Logic
1. Structure/Surface
2. CNC Machining / Assembly
3. Prototypes

http://web.mit.edu/mg_decoi/www/bankside/Fabrication/index.html
Fabrication Logic
Electromagnetic Hypo Surface
concept
http://www.ad.ntust.edu.tw/grad/think/97_2_Selected_Architects_of%20the%2020th_Cent
ury_finalreport/MarkGoulthorpe/MarkGoulthorpe.htm