really incredible examples Steve, I had
never seen the Kahn nor Mitchell/Guirgola
buildings. it had me thinking of that one
skyscraper (not sure if it was archigram
or SITE) which had an open frame with each
level a plot of landscaping with housing,
floor by floor going skyward, green acres.
not sure, though I wanted to clarify these
zometools are not software but instead are
modeling kits like lincoln logs or legos,
so those models were all easily built with
this system and then physically placed in
the landscape, then photographed. so the
idea I was considering was to make such a
scene then to alter it in software, such
as adding architectural details to a small
volume to make it appear a building instead,
and to use perspective changes in this way.
the thing about Buckminster that was found
upon doing this modeling is that space-frame
modeling is incredibly easy, and having many
bucky-books stored away in boxes still, it
was when pulling one out about geodesics that
i wondered about the veracity of the claims
yet forget what it was that seemed too simple
when making frames-- it may have been doubling
or mirroring of tetrahedra in space-frames that
offered different vantages of designing trusses.
i think this modeling tool could be an effective
way to explore structural design in a course too.