Jefferson Ellinger

8-14-13

            Jefferson showed us a variety of projects that he and his firm E/Ye Design have been working on in the past.  Their design process and concept is along the same lines as Chris Beorkrem’s approach to parametric design.  Mainly, in the way that they use conventional construction methods in conjunction with customized parts.  Jefferson described this process as “critically engaging normative construction methods.” Additionally, E/Ye Design takes an ecological approach to their design along side the parametric approach.  They use tools such as Vasari and Fluent to analyze their buildings for efficiency after designing them with parametric scripting tools such as Grasshopper or Generative Components. It’s this combination that lends specific forms and spatial uniqueness to E/Ye Design’s projects.

            E/Ye Designs earlier work involved parametrics at a small scale. By examining the construction methods and material limitations, they determined the simple ruled strategy would be an effective way to create interesting spaces.  This way, conventional construction methods could be used and would make assembly of the designed project relatively straightforward for someone unfamiliar with the design.  The ruled surface allowed for pushing and pulling that created an interesting space in which to interact in.  They discovered that by manipulating this type of form, they could activate certain areas of the space in which they were designing, whether that be a conference room or PS1 competition entry. This process could continue to be used and applied at small scales, but became less effective as the scale of the structure increased.  For larger buildings, programming and scripting were the choice design method, all while still implementing the pushing and pinching that was inherent in the rule surface strategy.  In the larger scale, they weren’t simply for defining or activating space like they were at the smaller scale, but instead served to function as ecologically mindful design elements.  These activations would funnel air for a passive ventilation technique or act as a way to capture the sun and control heating in a passive manner. 

            Because some of these projects are being constructed, we can evaluate the effectiveness of the design based off of real world results.  Obviously, testing in climate simulations can tell us a fair amount of how the building would act in a given location, but actually constructing and inhabiting the building can shed light on future designs and methods of construction.