exploring passively sustainable solutions with arckit
Project ARCKIT is the largest ongoing multi-disciplinary initiative using ARCKIT, a modular component system we are using to explore and understand sustainable architectural design. For the past 4+ years, the project is an ever-growing, expansive portfolio, documenting not only our journey but, our ideas and solutions for holistically sustainable and passive design. With regular meetings, classes and workshops, we work to demonstrate the process behind sustainable design topics through rapid prototyping, physical modeling, construction/building assemblies, topography studies and computer information modeling. The most dedicated among us have teamed up on Project Snowdrop, a growing start-up working on researching, designing and manufacturing hyper efficient and cost effective homes that address inadequacies of current disaster relief and community building projects, both domestic and international.
so what is arckit?
Imagine a building system that makes designing and constructing architectural models simple, relatively cheap, and clean? What if the pieces held one’s hand were designed to reflect modern-day building techniques, conforming not only to international building regulations but also accessibility codes? What if common architectural elements like walls, floors, roofs, trusses, columns, and windows were all single units that could snap together? What if floor plans could be constructed in minutes, easily communicating ideas to a friend, professor, supervisor, or client? What if modeling was so fast and efficient, it could be a platform for rapid prototyping, quickly and efficiently "sketching" ideas in three dimensions? Most importantly, what if one could just concentrate on the design rather than being distracted by the building process? Simply put, ARCKIT embodies all the above and more.
Launched in 2014, ARCKIT, an award-winning precision architectural model-making system, enables users to physically design, build, and modify scaled structures. With a series of interconnecting modular parts, ARCKIT’s clean and simple workflow allows for continuous modifications that can keep up with the fastest of imaginations. Designed around real world construction techniques, ARCKIT melds both a iterative construction construction platform with physical and digital interplay. Simply put, ARCKIT’s possibilities are endless. To draw a diagram or visualize a computer-generated model is one thing, but to actually hold it in your hands and touch it is an un-paralleled experience. Physical modeling in architecture is an art whose importance I cannot stress enough. ARCKIT modeling makes iterative development and refinement so simple, easy and straight forward; it makes the common and lazy excuses irrelevant. Too many times have students not reached their fullest design potential because of the common barriers of traditional modeling. While ARCKIT may not provide the detail of a professionally-crafted, laser-cut model, it does not need to, it is not intended to, and we wouldn't want it to.
With all of that said, ARCKIT is such a rare breakthrough moment in the history of our medium and it's for this very reason that we have dedicated so much care into getting it the proper exposure it deserves. Without a doubt, it is a masterpiece that is an absolute must-try for anyone who appreciates architecture, structures, sustainable design, construction, or true innovation in any of the elements we have just listed.
As always, if you have any questions, suggestions or comments, I would love to hear from you through email to rikysongsu@gmail.com. Feel free to send us pictures or videos of your own creations, I always enjoy seeing all your models. For information regarding Arckit, visit www.arckit.com.
Thank you to all that have and will continue to support this adventure!