_Workshop Day1:
Workshop started out with an incredible amount of people. Both
students and architects seemed very interested of this event, which of
course made the whole pre-event time worth its while. The day started off with the three of us (Tudor Cosmatu, Andrei
Raducanu and Irina Bogdan) and our dear friend Alexander Kalachev giving
a short introductory lecture on parametric design and fabrication
methodes and talking about our thesis projects approaches. A short introduction into Rhino followed, allowing (most of the
people) to get a glance on what this software is able to do. Grasshopper
introduction and tutored examples followed. This proved to be the
hardest part, but we definitely believe everyone got the point and can
start discovering the potential of it further.
_Workshop Day2:
More tutored examples followed during the whole day, increasing the
number of bedazzled people. Things started to get messy towards noon,
but in the end everyone got the point, which was a great deed. We went
through a series of examples ranging from object to potential urban plan
scenario.
_Workshop Day3:
Following our previous presentations we decided to let the people
start to discover the software on their own. They had to work in teams
of 5 and they were given the task to develop a system (knowing that they
will have to deal with – flat sheets of 6mm cardboard) which had to
have a chosen function (although this was not our biggest interest,
given the workshop scope). Alex Cristal from our new best friends SPOT
DESIGN came to join us and brought with him one of his babies (a
600x450mm laser cutter). Our intent for this day was that people were
supposed to see how such a machine works and how the process of sending
files to factory has to be dealt with. People started regaining
interest and enthusiasm and worked hard on getting things done. Later
that night we met Bence Pap and Andrei Gheorghe and went out for a beer
in order to discuss details regarding the following days.
_Workshop Day4:
Bence and Andrei delighted the participants and us with a
presentation about previous workshops and projects of their own.
Madalina Dumitru marketing director of RUUKKI for Romania and Bulgaria
(our platinum sponsor – which believed in the success of the workshop
and gave us the chance to make it happen) gave a short presentation
about some of their latest works and softwares and explained why RUUKKI
is interested in the participants work. The whole day past pretty fast
and towards the evening we had the participants present their 2 days
developed proposals. We were very excited about the results.
Unfortunately (given the remaining time) we asked them to vote for one
project each, so that in the end we can build at least one. After a long
discussion between ourselves (tutors) we decided we might have time to
built 3 projects fitting in 3 different types of approaches – emergence,
sculptural endeavor and component based pavilion. The finalists were
named: VIRULENCE, WISHBONE and hex[igloo. Immediately teams merged and
prepared for the final run.
_Workshop Day5:
People started working early in the morning, merging concepts, ideas
and methods in order to make everything work correctly. The team of
tutors went through all the projects trying to make each and every one
of them work. Late that night the VIRULENCE project got sent to the
laser cutter, while the Wishbone and hex[igloo were still struggling to
prepare the files for laser cutting.
_Workshop Day6:
While the VIRULENCE people were waiting for final pieces and starting
the assembly on site the other teams were struggling to make the files
for production as intelligent as possible. Thanks to our good friend
(dj/vj) Cristi aka CRID we had the chance to stay up because of his nice
speakers and amplifier. Soon the university square was covered in the
furious beats of cristi’s playlist.
_Wokshop Day7:
After a long night for the laser cutter and for Alex (SPOT DESIGN),
most of the WISHBONE pieces were done and more than half of the
hex[igloo components arrived. Soon a very interesting configuration
emerged: some of the people were involved in putting the pieces together
on site, while the so called FACTORY was working hard on putting the
components together. Half of our tutoring staff had to leave, so a quick
ceremony took place where participants received their participation
certificate. Days and nights started to merge and to become one (a thing
we really enjoyed). The beats started pounding and increasing the
workflow, the best song proving to be nympho – borgore ;.)
also because the pieces were not that wide, so you can stick your hand
inside. Cardboard fisting, while holding a glue gun in your hand, was a
specialty only a few could perform our specialists being Cristi, Irina
and Ina. The Wishbone got finished towards the end of the night.
VIRULENCE \\ photo credits: Cristian Stefan Crasmariu
WISHBONE \\ photo credits: Ina Leonte
HEX[igloo components
HEX[igloo components
_Workshop Day8:
To our surprise a lot of people (all of them) showed up for the final
run in assembling the final pieces of the hex[igloo. Although our
estimation was to finish towards 6 pm it proved to be rather wrong.
Towards the end of the night the hex[igloo started to force itself into
place waiting for the final rows to come into place . The work and fun
continued until late in the morning. Glue guns started running out of
bullets, jamming and giving up on the tough job they had to perform,
tapes were being reused and people were tired. 6pm (our previous
deadline) quickly became 6 am, but with the enthusiasm and interest of
the whole group, the hex[igloo got finished as the sun was rising,
allowing our final guest (Alex) to get to his flight on time. As a final conclusion we have to say that we (as tutors/organizers of
this event) are extremely proud of the results and the way people
worked together. Although we placed the mockups without any permission
in the main universities hallway, we are happy that everyone was glad to
see the results.
What will happen next is making the event and results public by
taking the models on the streets, during the STREET DELIVERY festival
which will take place from 10th june till 12th june, and to the Architectural Annual 7th july till 17th july 2011.