The Los Angeles Design Technology Forum is pleased to announce the sixth lecture in a series of monthly events focusing on the intersection of Design and Information Technology.

Please forward this invitation to everyone who might be interested.

Lecture by:
Buro Happold, Los Angeles
Matthew Melnyk and Stephen Boak

Tuesday 13 November 2007, 7pm - 8pm,   FREE
University of Southern California (see below for details)

Please RSVP to general@ladesigntech.org
This event qualifies for 1 CEU credit.

Dragonfly construction drawing, Emergent/Buro Happold (click for full size image)

Since its inception in 1976, Buro Happold has built a body of work that explores design optimization and strives to find synthesis between architecture, engineering and construction. Dragonfly, which recently showed at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, is an extension of this pursuit. Inspired by the morphology of the dragonfly wing, the structure is a highly irregular grid-shell made of plate aluminum that cantilevers 35ft from its supports. Both the overall form and the patterning of cellular tessellation were developed through an adaptive approach that looked for emergent behavioral characteristics and fabrication logic. The designers sought performance and wild variation. In doing so, Dragonfly reconsiders optimality in engineering, which is often about idealized problem solving, and attempts a messy evolutionary process closer to that seen in nature. Developed through close collaboration with EMERGENT, a design firm in Los Angeles founded by Tom Wiscombe, Dragonfly is an experiment on the fluid feedback of design sensibility, engineering innovation and fabrication logic in a contemporary digital environment where these disciplines have become intertwined like never before.

Matthew Melnyk, P.E.

Matthew began his career with Buro Happold in 2002 in New York and relocated in 2006 to Los Angeles as a founding member of the Buro Happold Los Angeles office. Over the past five years, he has expanded his technical expertise on a variety of challenging projects ranging from commercial high-rise to performance venue to stadium design. His ongoing research has focused on performance design, optimization and form-finding.

A graduate of the UC Berkeley School of Engineering (BS, MS), Matthew has lectured at Columbia University, Pratt University and Stevens Institute of Technology. He currently holds a teaching position in the graduate program of the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Matthew is a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of California.

Stephen Boak

Stephen began his career with Buro Happold in New York in 2005, as an intern. He was asked to join the firm as a full fledged employee shortly thereafter. In 2006, Stephen moved to LA as a founding member of the Buro Happold Los Angeles office. His work at Buro Happold has focused on the study of complex-geometry with an emphasis on BIM, parametric modeling and generative design.

Before joining Buro Happold, Stephen held an internship position at Gehry Technologies where he developed software tools and automation techniques for façade design.

He is a graduate of the University of Michigan, College of Engineering (BS) and holds a Master’s Degree in Product Architecture and Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology. He currently co-teaches a course with Dr. David Gerber in parametric design and modeling in the graduate program at the Southern California Institute of Architecture.

Dragonfly installation, Emergent/Buro Happold

Event Information

Tuesday 13 November 2007, 7pm - 8pm,   FREE
Gin Wong Conference Center, Harris Hall 101
School of Architecture, University of Southern California

The event will start promptly at 7pm. Light food will be served from 6pm. Please arrive early so that we can ensure a prompt start.

This event is free due to the generous support of USC School of Architecture and ABC Imaging.

1 AIA CEU credit provided by the AIA/LA CAD Committee.

Driving Directions

Enter the campus at Gate 1 off Exposition Blvd at USC Watt Way (between Figueroa and Vermont Blvd). Parking on campus is $7. The parking attendant will direct you to the closest available parking. The Gin D. Wong, FAIA Conference Center is located in Harris Hall just east of Gate 1.
For driving directions to USC, please visit this link:
http://www.usc.edu/about/visit/upc/driving_directions/main_entrance.html
or see this customized USC parking map

The Los Angeles Design Technology Forum

The Los Angeles Design Technology Forum is a collective organization representing a wide cross-section of architecture and engineering firms and academic institutions around the Los Angeles basin.  It serves to increase awareness of technological innovations in design and construction, and to foster their application throughout the Los Angeles design community. By connecting a diverse audience of designers, engineers, builders and owners who have widely varying conceptions of technology in their work, we hope to create new opportunities for efficiency and creativity.

The Los Angeles Design Technology Forum is coordinated by Marty Doscher and Reg Prentice. It is supported by ABC Imaging, a nation-wide reprographics company. The Forum wishes to thank Charity Craig, National Director of Sales, ABC Imaging.
 
Charity M Craig is a 15 year veteran with ABC Imaging and the reprographics industry. She has been part of an implementation process that has opened ABC service bureaus across the country including Boston, Miami, Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Houston. Charity's client base includes some of the most prestigious architectural and engineering firms. Her area of expertise is onsite outsourcing and color management solutions and her current focus is developing her client base on the West Coast. Charity Craig and ABC Imaging have been sponsoring the New York AIA Technology Forum for the past six years and are honored to be a partner in the Los Angeles lecture series.