With the completion of the 2010 Apomechanes studio, which led to the exhibition and publication “apomechanes / non-linear computational design strategies,” the summer studio of 2011 will open a new cycle of research further devoted to the construction of immersive architectural environments. At present, computational techniques are predominantly employed in the optimization, rationalization or surface decoration of more traditionally created wholes. This studio instead focuses on the inherent potential of computation to generate space and of algorithmic procedures to engage self-organization in the design process. Apomechanes 2011 introduces 3 parallel areas of research: immersive spatiotemporal media, feedback material systems and embodied computational ecologies. The studio operates as a design laboratory, investigating these areas at the scale of a temporary pavilion. Participants engage closely with computational processes in order to develop an aesthetic and intuition of complexity that resides in a balance between design intent and emergent character. During the summer studio, participants will create their own custom algorithms appropriate to the research trajectories of choice. Apomechanes will follow up with a second phase of design development (and another workshop) towards the construction of the pavilion in the academic year of 2011/2012.

Apomechanes 2011 will run primarily under the Python programming language for Rhinoceros 3D 5.0 BETA & Autodesk Maya. The application of python as the cross-software coding platform opens up a new set of possibilities for the development of cutting edge techniques of digital representation, abstract and spatial organization as well as intricate geometric precision for robotic fabrication. The Apomechanes team will be one of the first workshops to test python for rhinoceros/maya in an intensive studio and will seek to produce innovative intersections between advanced explicit modeling and algorithmic logics. Pushing beyond the threshold of academic means and constrains of fabrication, the studio will speculate on the limits of computer aided construction methods for the temporary pavilion. A detailed syllabus of the studio will soon be announced.