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Towards the end of my academic career at the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, I was invited by one of my professors to take on a summer job to work on a physical model that represented the University's new fifty year plan for the campus.
My work was primarily in creating the content files for digital fabrication from Autocad, assembling the fabricated pieces into the buildings and wiring all of the electronics.
While taking a furniture course during my architecture college years, I was heavily influenced by my course in Digital Fabrication. Designing parametrically changed my overall approach to design and I explored complex fabrication concepts with multiple planes of construction reference.
This "chair" was intended to sit upside down in to have blood circulation flow quickly through the brain and recharge the mind. An idea I was hopeful would help with sleep deprivation, something all too common in architecture school.
The design process involved researching ergonomic principles, measuring my own body via photographs and then modeling in Rhino. I output the model into CNC files for wood fabrication.
LITE Beam was a semester long class project in a first of its kind in the architecture curriculum. Digital Fabrication was an emerging concept for architecture as digital design modeling became more parametric and easier to manage manufacturing criteria. Our class was lead by Andrew Vrana and Joe Meppelink and this was the first iteration of this class that still exists today.
Our aim was a small studio, was to make a modular ceiling unit. Our materials were architectural foam, metal, acrylic and metal wire. I did work in Rhino, CNC file creation, electric wiring and assembly labor.
It was this class that sparked my love of parametric design and digital fabrication that primed me for BIM work and a life enriched with what could be done if better merged with technology.
