Chercheurs

Technologie / BURRY, MARK

mburry

Position

Professor (Chair in Innovation: Spatial Information Architecture),
Co-Director Interactive Information Institute (i-cubed),
Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory
RMIT University
Melbourne, Australia.

Thèmes de recherche

Pure Research:

- The Life and Times of Antoni Gaudí
- Gaudí: reconciliation between idea and artefact (PhD)
- Computer aided decision support: implications for design and construction
- CAAD and the implications for construction representation and management
- UK, Australia and New Zealand Building language and components

Applied Research:

- Antoni Gaudí and the Sagrada Família Church

Antoni Gaudí’s long career extended from 1878 through to 1926. During this time he produced relatively few buildings but all, without exception, are extraordinary works of architecture. One project, the Sagrada Família Church, occupied him during virtually all his working life. At the time of his death, however, only the apse and one transept were completed. Work has continued and today, 118 years from laying the foundation stone, the building is still less than 50% complete.

Considering the Sagrada Família Church in detail and comparing it with his other projects is very revealing: there are marked differences in his approach to composition for the later stages of his design compared with his previous work. Gaudí left complex geometrical models of the nave to aid its completion after his death. I have worked on the interpretation of these models since 1979. Is there a ‘real’ Gaudí, and if so which phase of his career is the most representative? Scholars are not inclined to share a common view.

Other than the Coordinating Director, Pr Burry is the architect currently working in the team with the longest association with the project. He has coordinated the design interpretation and implementation for much of the nave including the roof and have been commissioned recently to interpret Gaudí’s design drawing for the Passion Façade.

His investigations have helped place the Sagrada Família in the context of Gaudí’s other work and informs his other collaboration such as that with dECOi architects in Paris. Beyond the polemical arguments regarding its continuation, it is only now that somewhat esoteric building representation and construction techniques can be shown to have a value beyond the Gaudí arena. Both in terms of representation and construction, Gaudí left a legacy of challenges that even 21st Century technology has difficulty in fulfilling. This aspect now enjoys intense interest internationally witnessed by special visits from key personnel from F O Gehry’s office in recent years. Australian and New Zealand Construction Primer
Computer-aided Design Decision Support: Interfacing Knowledge and Information Computer-aided design decision support has proved to be an elusive and intangible project for many researchers as they seek to encapsulate information and knowledgebased systems as useful multifunctional data-structures. Definitions of ‘knowledge’, ‘information’, ‘facts’, and ‘data’ become semantic footballs in the struggle to identify what designers actually do, and what level of support would suit them best, and how that support might be offered.

The Construction Primer is a database-driven interactive multimedia environment that provides readily updated access to many levels of information aimed to suit students and practitioners alike. This is hardly a novelty in itself. The innovative interface and metadata structures, however, combine with the willingness of national building control legislators, standards authorities, materials producers, building research organisations, and specification services to make the Construction Primer a versatile design decision support vehicle. It is both compatible with most working methodologies while remaining reasonably future-proof. The structure of the project highlights the importance of sound planning and strict adhesion to library-standard metadata protocols as a means to avoid the support becoming too specific or too paradigmatic.

- Espai Gaudí: Interactive multimedia

Collaboration between the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (20%) and Deakin University (80%) to produce an interactive CD ROM (for the l'Espai Gaudí with support from the Temple Sagrada Família archives).

This is a research project addressing a single question: ‘how do you show and explain art through art and not words, and to a wide audience, and transcending many cultures?’. The work is in six sections ranging from design ideas to construction processes. The multimedia preparation tasks range from assembling a series of historic images along a visual timeline to preparing sophisticated frame-by-frame animated descriptions of the various geometrical approaches to the design. The project is based ‘within’ a browser interface and will make extensive use of Macromedia compilation software.

- Mediating between design and construction processes through parametric design principles

Although parametric design (also known as 'associative geometry') has been available commercially for at least a decade, it is not used in the typical architect's office. It is expensive and requires high-end computers; a typical installation could approach $US100,000 for software and hardware placing it beyond the reach of most architects. Parametric design software has been developed principally for mechanical engineers, civil engineers, industrial designers and for the transport industry all of whom make good use of products that allow the 'whole' to be resolved into a large number of associated and adaptable parts. My work in the area has been applied successfully to the Sagrada Família Church and more recently to design collaboration with dECOi in Paris.

Prix et récompenses

Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship 2006

CHASA Award 1995

‘Diploma I la insignia a l’acadèmic corresponent’ and the title Senyor Il. Lustre by la Reial Acadèmia Catalana de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi. February 2004.

Committee for Melbourne Achiever Award (Creative Melbourne), October 2004.

Publications

Books and monographs

Burry, Coll, Goméz, La Sagrada Família: Work in Progress , Ediciones Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain, (commissioned).

Bonet, J, (Burry, M.C. trans L’Ultím Gaudí), The Essential Gaudi, Encyclopaedia Catalana, Barcelona Spain, May 2001 (new edition in English only).

Bonet, J, (Burry, M.C. trans), L’Ultím Gaudí, Encyclopaedia Catalana, Barcelona Spain, May 2000.

Burry, Coll, Goméz, Melero, La Sagrada Família: de Gaudí al CAD, Ediciones Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain, 1996

Burry, M.C., The Expiatory Church of the Sagrada Família, Phaidon Press Ltd, London UK, 1993.

Book Chapters

Burry, M.C., Homo Faber, in Architectural Design “Design through Making”, Vol 75, No 4, July/August 2005, pp30-37.

Burry, M.C., Notes on the Non Standard: numerical and architectural production tomorrow, in Non Standard Architectures, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2003, pp042- 047.

Burry, M.C., Between Surface and Substance, in Architectural Design “Surface Consciousness”,Vol 73 No 2 Mar/Apr 2003, Wiley-Academy, pp 8-19.

Burry, M.C., Blurring the Lines: Mediating between analogue and digital skill sets, in Architectural Design Vol 73 No 2 Mar/Apr 2003, Wiley-Academy, pp 110-118

Burry, M.C., Between Intuition and Process: Parametric Design and Rapid Prototyping, in Architecture in the Digital Age (ed. Branko Kolarevic) Spon Press, London, 2003 pp148-162

Burry, M.C., Gaudí and Information Technology: an architecture of real absence and virtual presence in Gaudí 2002. Miscel·lània, Editorial Planeta, Barcelona, 2002, pp 200-215

Burry, M. Liquid Stone, Architecturanimation, Col.legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya, Barcelona 2003 pp 342-363

Burry, M.C., Beyond Animation, in Architecture + Animation Architectural Design Vol 71, No 2, Academy Editions, London April 2001

Burry, M.C., Dunlop, G.M., Paramorph I, in Cyberspace the world of digital architecture, The Images Publishing Group Pty Ltd, 2000, pp07-09, pp 134-139

Burry, M.C., The Expiatory Church of the Sagrada Família, in ‘City Icons’ reprint of 1993 monograph Phaidon Press Ltd, London UK, 1999, 60 pp

Burry, M.C., Paramorph: Anti-Accident Methodologies, Architectural Design issue on ‘Hypersurfaces 2’, Academy Editions, London, September 1999, pp78-83

Burry, M., C., Gaudí, Teratology and Kinship, Architectural Design issue on ‘Hypersurfaces’, Academy Editions, London April 1998 p38-43

Burry, M.C., Towards New Design Conventions, ed Asanowicz & Jakimowicz (Chapter title: From Real to Virtual) Technical University of Bialystok, Poland 1997

Burry, M.C., Approaches to Computer Aided Architectural Composition, ed Asanowicz & Jakimowicz (Chapter title: Generation and Degeneration) Technical University of Bialystok, Poland 1996

Refereed Journals

Huang, X., Xie, Y.M., Burry, M.C. A New Algorithm for Bi-directional Evolutionary Structural Optimisation, Computer Methods in applied Mechanics and Engineering, September 2005

Huang, X., Xie, Y.M., Burry, M.C. , Tang, J., Felicetti, P. Evolutionary Stiffness Optimisation of Non-Linear Structures, Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, 2005

Burry, J, Felicetti, P., Tang, J., Burry, M., Xie, Y. Dynamical structural modeling A collaborative design exploration, International Journal of Architectural Computing vol. 3 - no. 1,2005, 27-42

Burry, M.C., CAD/CAM and Human Factors, Automation in Construction, March 2002

Burry, M.C., Coulson, J., Preston, J., Rutherford, E., Computer-Aided Design Decision Support: Interfacing Knowledge and Information, Automation in Construction, January 2000

Burry, Gómez Serrano, Coll, A Mathematical Framework to Gaudí's Use of Geometry, Journal of the International Association of Shell and Spatial Structures (vol 38 no1), July 1997

Burry, M.C., Parametric Design and the Sagrada Família, Architecture Research Quarterly, UK, 1996

Burry, Whybrew, Struthers, Cathedrals, Concrete Profiles, and CAD/CAM, IPENZ Transactions, Vol 20, No 1, July 1993