i.M.A.D.E hosted an international symposium entitled “Manufacturing Material Effects: Rethinking Design and Making in Architecture” at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
Architecture as a material practice implies that making, the close engagement of the material, is intrinsic to a design process. Material effects, such as pattern, texture, relief, or varying properties, become the means through which building surfaces manifest the design intent, often at different scales. As surfaces become more complex in their form, shape, composition, and appearance, the manufacturing of material effects becomes a locus of design and production efforts.
Today, however, making is increasingly being mediated – it is the CNC machines and not the hands of the maker that mostly shape the materials and their properties. Innovative new techniques based on digital technologies are redefining the relationship between design and fabrication, enabling a closer interrogation of materials from the earliest stages of design, encoding in the process new ways of thinking of and making architecture.
i.M.A.D.E assembled leading thinkers, designers, and manufacturers from around the world to closely examine collaborative design and production practices based on innovative and experimental processes of material exploration. The symposium framed the various levels of engagement of new forms of architectural production that bring designers deeper into the complexities of making, assembly, and material formulation.

MMFX Symposium website

CHAIRS: Kevin Klinger and Branko Kolarevic, Ball State University

VENUE: Indianapolis Museum of Art

CORPORATE SPONSORS:
Autodesk Inc.
Bentley Systems Inc.
McGraw-Hill Construction Information Group
Autodessys

INSTITUTIONAL SPONSORS:
i.M.A.D.E
College of Architecture & Planning, Ball State University
Department of Architecture, Ball State University
Center for Media Design, Ball State University
Indianapolis Museum of Art

Nash Hurley from SHoP Architects led an Ecotect workshop at Ball State on September 28th and 29th. Ecotect is a complete building design and environmental analysis tool that covers a broad range of simulation and analysis functions for understanding how a building design will operate and perform sustainably. The two-day workshop consisted of a brief lecture about simulations tools in practice, demos and walk-throughs, and a self-directed, small design project which evolved through the analysis and optimization based on daylighting.

Nash Hurley came to SHoP Architects after receiving his Master of Architecture from UC Berkeley in 2005. Prior to his studies, Nash spent several years working for contractors and fabricators in California. Since joining SHoP, he has been instrumental in developing implementation strategies for BIM, while coordinating production on eight models across a variety of project scales. Nash is currently project architect and BIM coordinator on a 600,000 sf residential tower in New York City. This fall, Nash will enroll in the Product-Architecture and Engineering Lab at Stevens Institute of Technology where he will focus on links between environmental analysis and computational design. He plans to fold this research into his contributions to the design process at SHoP.

Chris Sharples, partner and co-founder of SHoP, delivers a lecture at Ball State. Following the lecture, Chris spoke at a round table discussion with the students from the “Streams” studio.

i.M.A.D.E wishes to thank SHoP for their collaboration during the students’ design charrette for the Perimetric Boundary and Terrestrial Suture projects.