Tutors: Norbert Palz (Denmark), Ayelet Izraeli-Karmon (Israel), Eyal Sheffer (Israel).

The workshop will offer the use of a parametric design tool, ParaCloud Modeler, which converts spreadsheet driven matrices into a powerful generative and associative modelling and analysis application. This tool allows the positioning of adaptable cell components on given surfaces and their optimization with relation to the overall surface tectonics and behavior. This offers the opportunity to model textile surfaces computationally, at a level that takes into account both the performance of the surface as a whole, and the condition of the individual stitch, as well as the pattern, texture and shaping.

The workshop will explore the potential of three-dimensional knitted surfaces to become elements of the built environment by testing their behaviour and design via their interaction with the environment, both human and physical. Behavioural attributes of various knitted surfaces will be explored according to predefined performative requirements, through the production of computational models and material prototypes in the Knitting Workshop at Shenkar. Since textile surfaces naturally attain complex geometrical behaviour, both at the level of the overall surface and the local stitch, ParaCloud Modeler, will become an exploration tool for the behaviors of these surfaces as part of a built environment. The workshop will incorporate the use of different materials such as advanced composite materials, to achieve both rigid and elastic conditions.

More Information

• Peak Performance: A Digital Design Workshop @ CITA, Copenhagen May 2008
• Generative Parametric Design Workshop (Tutor: Efrat Gilboa), Shenkar College, IL
• Digital Design Workshop: Interaction of Music/Sound and Architecture, Hamburg, July 2008
• 2008 International Workshop | Music-media, Space & Digital Design | Tutors: Arch. Shraga Kirshner, Des. Efrat Gilboa
• ParaCloud visiting New York City: 12-14 May 2008