- POT Tiling
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Over the past year I’ve forgotten how much fun Arduino was. For my final in my Processing/Programing Applications class this year I plan on using my Diecimila for some analog inputs to implement a GUI for an idea that I’ll mention in maybe the next post. In this example I used a potentiometer to drive some of the angles for a recursive drawing. While almost completely worthless it’s still fun to feel a physical connection with your computer aside from the mouse and keyboard.
- Bent Space
Precedentsfrom left to right: Wallpaper Vegetation - Patrick Blanc, Local-River - Mathieu Lehanneur, Topiary garden”
Detail Section (The finish floor is a Plywood/Fabric laminate (previous post), Beneath is serial section wood form work and a soil matrix for the plants composed of recycled plastics. Plants absorb water from reservoirs at the base of the columns in the space through a hygroscopic membrane and capillary action.)”
MDF MillFor the past week, I’ve been producing some working drawings and models for our upcoming final review. Our brief requires the replacement of a non-load bearing partition wall in an existing campus building. The project attempts to synthesize the research from bent plywood precedents (previous post). In my project I’m proposing a series of seating/planters that will divide the space into partitioned areas and provide a visual, sensual and functional replacement for the existing wall. Below you can read a rough draft of my brief.
Agenda:
Domestication has become a pinnacle of mankind’s achievement whether for function, commodity or ornament, our desire to control natural systems seems to be a force inseparable from the human condition. The French topiary gardens of the 1800’s may be one of the earliest precedents describing our desire to incorporate nature as a mutable material and thus, regarded as an artist’s medium. Working within the practice of topiary, the act of subtraction in this case wood and foliage provides the artist with a tool for shaping an ideal often simple or sublime form. While effective, this method assumes diligent action against the natural system in an effort to force a natural system into an artificial state. Within the context of this project there is an effort to work in parallel with nature to achieve a symbiotic relationship between nature, artifice and user interaction. The project also seeks to develop an interface for natural and artificial systems where the user can exploit nature by allowing it to operate on its own terms. Specifically in this case the plants not only provide a visual stimuli and function to partition space but the also seek to improve indoor air quality. Ultimately by working in this way the project attempts to elucidate the relationship we have with nature and begs the question, “How much control we are willing to lose?”
- Laminates
Last week as part of a 2 person team I completed a case study on Charles and Ray Eames experimental chairs in 1945. Specifically, focusing on the fabrication of doubly curved surfaces using bent plywood. I won’t go into a history of Charles or and Ray but rather Some of the methods we used to fabricate a portion of their 1945 Experimental Lounge Chair pictured at top. One fact that is somewhat obvious is that glue laminating veneers proves to be extremely effective for producing a high degree of curvature, however, the material properties of wood including the grain orientation, type and number of plys, certainly limit a 3d bending of wood. To aid in flexibility the wood had to undergo three processes in our experiment, in order to create doubly curved surfaces. The first was a series of darts analagous to those in tailoring template design (above). These darts were an attempt to reduce the degree of tension within the wood allowing it to curve by removing material. The last two processes required were high pressure and high heat. In order to achieve these a die/jig was created that would stamp the part by using a male and female mold created through a serial section of the surface. Before placing the part in the mold, steam was introduced in order to fit the part within the complex mold. In conjunction with the die a high degree of heat was introduced during the molding which increases the heat of fusion for wood and thus cools into shape when released from the mold after about 6 hours. The exercise definitely makes latent the invaluable research initiated by the Eames during their early years of experimentation. With no advanced CNC or Laser technology the complexity of the pieces they produced have retained a timeless quality that still today is included in our idea of furniture of the future. Our next exploration will be using the research compiled from the case study to redevelop an interior for an existing building. Some of the images below describe a wood material system I’m exploring to create complex curvature with no die or stamping required.
- Volume
This is just a quick post on one of the interesting qualities of using cutting planes in perspective to explore the sectional quality of complex manifolds.
- Cumulative Coherence IB (Pre-Midterm)
Primitive
The system of organization derived from the model and extended below begins with a single primitive acting as a seed for growth following a process of reaction based aggregation. This system sets rules for reactions based on nearest neighbor relationships. These relationships consist of: (I) Node Limitations (II) Primitive Family Type and (III) Structural efficiency.The parent primitive or unit is designed using a tripartite system of nodes with simple slip notch connections. The unit is a single material consisting of 0.79mm or 1/32in veneer. The unit in its unrolled shape facilitates growth limited to the vectors tangent with its plane or surface. However, through a simple bending deformation (fig.2), the unit can provide a multiplicity of growth vectors.(fig.1).
The parent primitive is also host to two child primitives which differ in surface area ratio created by three interior fillets of increasing radi. The consequence of the child primitives include unique growth vectors and structural properties that play out through various stages of the generative assembly.
Product
A few resultants greater than the sum of the relationships were: (I) Clustering, and (II) Weaving. The first resultant (I) clustering was primarily a result influenced by the structural stability relationships and produced a volumetric and porous spatial quality. Weaving was ultimately achieved by the factors of stability as well; however, the attraction of growing the system to the maximum height provided opportunities within the system to weave. Overall, gaining height, as well as developing a nested aesthetic. A unique property of the system was its development as a physically linear system with a non-linear rule-set. Consequently, the overall process led to the generation of a complex system that closely resembles those generated by natural systems.Click the thumbnails at the top of the post for higher res.
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- Cumulative Coherence
Project Brief:
Project 1A explores increasingly complex tectonic assemblies created through the repetition of simple units with simple rules. First, primary construction methods and material behaviors are explored empirically through physical models created of small units and specific connections. Next, the generative growth potential inherent in these components and their relational logics are explored through accumulation of parts and repetition of their rules of connection.This project is now in phase 1B which includes the drawing and representational portion of the project which I’m currently working on. Thus far the project has been relatively enjoyable. All practical applications aside, the project hits at the core of several issues: generative/bottom up logic and it’s relation to tectonic and form, material dynamics, translating euclidean geometry into complex assemblies and then being able to describe final morphology through material, connection, and logical relationships.
This type of project seems to be a popular launching point for many schools of architecture now and probably borrowing a bulk of the logic from the Architectural Association in particular. For example at Penn and NJIT, Prof. Michael Mostoller & Associate Prof. Rhett Russo have developed a Card Assembly project using generative assembly as a shift into issues of developing complex form from parts.(Project Brief) Mike Mckay’s PERFORMA fabrication seminar at University of Kentucky College of Design is another example. These projects reveal our current obsession with the desire to not only create but understand how to generate complexity through a deterministic, often simple set of rules and constraints. Arguing for economy and rational, we are constantly trying to defend our desires with tangible results. I’m often skeptical of this type of top-down/post-rational defense mechanism when used by architecture students (not excluding myself), however, I’m starting to realize these projects have to be understood as tools not products.(I know, I’m a little slow) But, for example a mathematics course teaches students a language, it’s application isn’t presented immediately. Thus we have courses like Applied Mathematics, where understanding base language for most students leads to more complex execution, and often helps them find shortcuts or patterns in solving a problem.
- Drawing w/ Swarm Behavior
Earlier this week I was working on a physical model using the logic of generative assembly, its been the intro project for UCLA’s MARCH I for quite sometime now I understand. Now the second phase of this project is to draw our assembly or system. Without knowing this from the outset I feel like I have a lot of work to do. This post is somewhat backwards due to the fact that I should show the model first then the drawing process. Anyway, I’ve been using Maya’s dynamics to create some drawings that will potentially generate construction lines for then modeling the entire assembly. The video above is only the quality of motion I’d like to achieve. More on the physical model later.
- On The Cusp?
Much awaited and to my surprise, UCLA’s 2009-10 Fall Lecture Series “On the Cusp?” might describe a rhetoric appropriate for the vague future of the architectural profession? Although a few of the lecturers are somewhat anticipated, I’m pleased to see that the lecture series takes an initiative to place each guest in a critical dialogue with the other. I’m most interested in a dialogue versus a lecture. Whereas a lecture prepared and practiced appears more predicable and ideologically specific, a conversation plays out as a dynamic juxtaposition of two or more ideologies that provoke both question and thought. Regardless of format I’m very excited to see film director and GSAPP Alumni Joe Kosinski (TRON Legacy 2010) in conversation with Greg Lynn. If you haven’t already, check out the new TRON trailer below.
- Point Clouds and Complexity
I finally got some of those Twitter point clouds from my previous post (below) into 3 dimensions and into Rhino3d. In processing I added parameters for the Z dimension inside the Particle and Attractor classes. Then using the createWriter() method I wrote all the points to a points file .txt and brought them into Rhino through GH to try some Delaunay, and 3d proximity triangulation methods. I had several issues and ideas on how to convert these points to a surface and none in the end retain the aesthetic quality of just the points in space. But in trying i was able to make some pretty wicked surfaces from draping surfaces across the points. The images above are the result with a high UV count.
- Twitter4D
So I stumbled across the Twitter4J library for Java and had been wanting to give it a go using Processing for a while but never had the time. Finally I’ve had some free time to knock out this simple application that uses a really awesome drawing technique from Jared Tarbell. The drawings are produced by simple attractors and forces setup within Processing, taking advantage of the void draw() thread to generate highly complex curvature and form. Where I contributed is linking this method to twitter allowing the use of real-time data to draw the image. What I find interesting in this scenario and other media projects that utilize data, is not simply the idea of using real time data, but the product of the data. A sign, that as a diagram or indicator contains an embedded logic not visible on the surface, but rather, through it’s relationships to other signs generated by the same data.
When I get some time i’d like to explore these drawings in 3 dimensions and possibly use a reverse-engineering work flow to develop something more architecturally relevant. You can find the source files and excecutable applications for download in the links below:
Download the App, choose your OS:
MacOSX
Windows
Linux
