top of page

The     - placed Roof

Academic | UCLA | Technology Seminar | Spring 2022
Instructor: Max Kuo
Mallorca | Barcelona | Spain

Category: Post Digital Architecture
Collaboration with: Shubham Vidyarthi

The 145-year long construction of Antonio Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia has witnessed a ‘generation of technologies’ from hammers & chisels in the pre-digital era to softwares like Catia & 3D printing today. The Dis-Placed Roof examines how the legacies of iconic architecture from the pre-digital era begin to influence its surrounding urban fabric through the process of mistranslation in the post digital era. This case is evaluated through Antonio Gaudi’s highly individualized style, & more specifically from the church of Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain. Our roof is an inverted version of the ceiling in Sagrada Familia.
The production of this roof is guided by machine learning & algorithms where VQGAN+Clips is being used to generate images. Text prompts define the characteristics that help in further mis-translating OR re-defining the identity of our Dis-Placed Roof. A picture of the ceiling from Sagrada is used as an initial image on VQGAN which is trained using keywords & target image. These keywords characterize our roof & at the same time mis-translate its identity. Several machine generated outputs are then put together to reconstruct a new mistranslated visual of the ceiling at Sagrada. This mis-translated visual is further given a third dimension using several deformers in Cinema 4D which allows us to redefine its identity. The kaleidoscopic ceiling of Sagrada from the pre-digital age is dispersed on to its immediate context in the post-digital era. This abnormal roof functions as a single entity which is constantly in flux due to its kaleidoscopic nature both in 2 & 3 dimensions. It imitates the basic structure of a city by integrating a system of solid mass, water channels, skylights & solar panels. The undulations within the surface emphasize its dynamism & flexibility establishing a relation between the fragile nature of a 2-dimensional ceiling & a 3-dimensional roof.


The Dis-Placed Roof is our interpretation of Gaudi's creation in the post digital era.

Experience in AR

Postdigital Frenemy Matrix - Unpredictable Friend

Unpredictable

Friend

Enemy

Predictable

Appearances: Friend

Biomimicry/ elements of nature, Antonio Gaudi, Sagrada Familia, Redefinition, Keywords, Speculative

Behaviors: Unpredictable

Relies on machine learning & algorithms, VQGAN generated output, Ceiling is being inverted, Mis-translation, Kaleidoscopic

Keywords & Hashtags

#generationoftechnologies

Hammers & chisels from the Gaudi era to softwares like Catia & 3D printing today.

 

#dynamicmovement

The undulations within the surface emphasize the dynamism of the form establishing a relation between the fragile nature of a 2-dimensional ceiling & a 3-dimensional roof.

 

#aiisinfluential

Unpredictable & speculative nature

 

#mistakenidentity

Gan generated outputs mistranslate the initial identity of the image. Visuals play a key role in how humans perceive the world around them.

 

#redefinedidentity

A set of parameters/ text prompts help in creating a new visual identity & functional identity.

Postdigital Systems

VQGAN Trial

Displacement Trial

VQGAN Form Generation

Roof Displacement

Roof Displacement on Context

Virtual Reality

bottom of page