Ronald Rael

Prof. of Architecture, University at California, Berkeley

By Bob Bennett

I crossed the Bay Bridge feeling somewhat vulnerable in the speeding traffic thanks to my sub-compact rental car. I was mentally preparing to negotiate the tangle of roads at the end of the bridge to reach the meeting place where Ronald Rael suggested we have breakfast.

I arrived much earlier than expected and called Ron. “I’ll be right over – I only live a couple of blocks away” he said. I glanced around at the huge recycling yards that dominate this part of Oakland and focused on the restaurant incongruously sitting by itself. A delicious smoke curled out of a stovepipe chimney – it smelled like sweet wood from a fruit tree was being burned. I wandered in and instantly picked up the welcoming vibe and noted the seriously well outfitted kitchen. This is a great place I thought and quickly texted a friend who works nearby at Pixar to alert him to what “I” had found.

I had been meaning to meet with Ron in person for months. He is a Professor of Architecture at the University of California at Berkeley in the School of Architecture and we had granted him software for some of his students to dive deep into modo. He had indicated he was active in the area of 3D hardcopy and applying it to architecture – and he was planning to use modo. We wanted his feedback on how modo could be applied to design projects and how well students adapted to it.

I instantly liked Ron, with his laid back look combined with intellectual intensity.

“This restaurant is an island in a pretty intense area, welcome to West Oakland”, Ron offered, “the owners basically are making a statement by remaining here.” Ron pointed to an incongruously well landscaped median strip outside the window and told me that the 1989 Loma Preita earthquake had leveled the elevated highway that once cut the area in half. This provided an opportunity for a kind of urban renewal, and this restaurant was ground zero.

“Did you come across the Bay Bridge?” Ron asked. “You know they are building a replacement for it.” I recalled reading about an expensive and high profile repair that was necessary to “fix” the Bay Bridge. “I am not referring to that” he said, “they are literally building a replacement bridge alongside the old one.”

A napkin was quickly employed to illustrate the massive project.

The new Oakland Bay Bridge span being constructed was hard to miss – but I had not noticed it.

An aerial shot of the same thing drawn on napkin above

“I came up with a design for what to do with the old bridge and I modeled and visualized it with my wife, Virginia San Fratello (ed: also an architect) in two weeks.” He flipped open his laptop and flipped through an amazing set of designs that hung housing units from the bottom span and repurposed the top level into a trail that linked various public spaces. “That bridge was designed to handle massive freight trains and can hold an astonishing amount of weight” he offered.

Prof. Rael shows off his innovative ideas for re-purposing part of the “old” Oakland Bay Bridge done in modo

Ron had once lived in New York right next to another abandoned elevated rail that is now a linear park. The High Line project was a raging success. “In the past week the media have discovered my little Bay Bridge project and you would not believe the calls I am getting.” I could see why, the designs were gorgeous and ambitious. “Not everyone is in favor of my ideas.”

We finished breakfast and drove up to Berkeley, discussing the neighborhoods we drove through. “OK we are back in West Oakland briefly,” he said, pointing at the little oak tree symbol discreetly placed on a street sign. Nice idea to do that, I thought.

Oak graphic is a subtle wayfinding signal that we are now in Oakland

Ron’s office sits near the top of a huge fortress – like structure on the Berkeley campus. “Schools of Architecture [buildings] are usually pretty identifiable on a campus – and often ugly” he said as we approached. As we climbed the stairs he told me about his last teaching post for Clemson in Genoa, Italy – a very plush gig where he lived in a University owned villa complete with a cook. He felt fortunate to go from Italy to this position at Cal Berkeley.

I asked him how the students reacted to modo. “Our students love it – some of them have told me that they are actually addicted to it.” He continued, “Last summer we took a group of art and design students to the Netherlands and brought modo with us. Every day we visited a couple of well designed buildings and at the end of the day each student was required to build a chair in modo that took design cues from the structures they had seen that day. The students made a little book of the resulting images, and it is quite good I think.”

Cover of self-published book by Virginia San Fratello on students’ modo work from Netherlands trip

Ron’s official office was “different” and looked more like a materials storage room than an office – even with a stunning view of the campus and the nearby Campanile. “That bell tower is based on the tower in Venice but this one is both taller and older.”

He proceeded to explain to me how he has been perfecting the process of getting 3D designs from modo into ceramic – a material which can last upwards of 30,000 years. “We initially used a CNC router to carve out this low density foam,” he said. “But that resulted in some loss of detail. From there we experimented with plaster to create a mold which is used to slip cast ceramic. Through evolution of our process and materials, we have come up with a way to preserve almost all of the modo detail.”

Some experiments in getting highly durable ceramic hardcopy out of modo

We visited the ceramics lab to get more insight into the process and to meet the generous character who runs the facility. Ehren Tool is the manager of the lab and an artist in his own right. His lab was right downstairs – highly convenient for Ron’s architectural research. “We have perfected a method of getting durable hardcopy out of modo” said Ron. We took a look at a dusty large kiln that was emanating heat as we approached. “This is a pyrometric device that is used to gauge how much heat an object has received over time inside the kiln” explained Ehren. “As each part droops from the heat, you get an excellent record of how much heat was applied for how long to get a particular result.”

Pyrometric cones are a temperature measuring device used in kilns

Many intriguing possibilities for using modo to create ceramic forms are being explored by Prof. Rael and his students. Obviously, this is great for creating art – here is a student example that featured interlocking forms built in modo that was an art piece hanging on the wall.

Student ceramic sculpture art project originally designed in modo

We have also created pieces that are part of a building itself – like specialized “bricks” that hold plants – or trap water run-off. “We have many ideas on how to exploit this ability to create designs and “print” them in the real world.”

I asked to see some current student’s work and we ventured up to the top of the adjacent Environmental Design tower – which sported a great view. Here we saw how first year Architectural students were exploring forms and spaces with modo. “The assignment is based on the work of the German Scientist, Ernst Haeckel” said Ron. Students were invited to recreate an organic “radiolarian” in modo and then to explore how that form could be modified and re-interpreted digitally.

Student work in modo inspired by work of Ernst Haeckel

Organic form by Ernst Haeckel

A student named Janice was inspired to create this “space” in modo

“A big part of design is being able to come up with new designs that are part of this and part of that. The morph feature in modo lets us create an almost infinite number of comparables by taking a percentage of this and a percentage of that to create something new.”

“These organic forms are really a hit and one of our students is already applying this work to her design of observation towers at a nearby wildlife sanctuary.”

As we walked back to my rental car, I asked Ron if he would keep me up to speed on both his and his students’ work. “I will because we have something I cannot tell you about just yet” he said with a little twinkle in his eye.

For more information about the Bay Bridge project please visit http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/bay-line.html as well as this PDF file: http://sf.streetsblog.org/wp-content/upload1/TheBayLineWPA2.O.PDF

Another link to the bridge project: http://sf.streetsblog.org/2009/09/09/uc-planners-envision-bay-line-park-on-the-old-bay-bridge-span/

If you would like to learn more about the Students chair designs, the book is here. Anyone can download it for free as a PDF from there.