Tutors:James Solly, Emma Kate, Melis Van Den Berg, Patch Dobson-Perez, Peter Scully
Brief Introduction This design portfolio includes two projects that proceeded parallel for three months, the first project is designed by me and manufactured by my partner Peter Bus. In contrast, the second project is designed by Peter Bus and later be made by me. The two projects shared the same intention to hold an object as an armature. The two objects were chosen by the makers for the designers to design two corresponding armatures. This two-way working mode trained us to become more familiar with both designing and manufacturing.
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A S A DESIGNER Object: Hoberman Sphere Designed by Lei Lin
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This project is a design that aimed to hold a hobberman sphere as an armature. A hobberman sphere is a well-known toy that expands and collapses mechanically. I started with a fantasy to make the sphere interact with the window's motion, expand and collapse with the window, breathing like a creature. The image on the left is a collage that shows this intention. The armature s h o u l d b e a b l e t o m ove w h i c h i s t h e m o s t c h a l l e n g i n g t h i n g . 5
The chosen site for me by Peter Bus is the window area in his apartment, I've decided to use the corner window as the trigger to make my object move, for it shows more protagonist feeling to me. The two images on the right shows the first attempt at the trigger system. The upper one would collapse the Hobberman sphere while opening the window. However, my intention was opposite to this result. To make the Hobberman sphere breathe like, I want the sphere to expand while opening the window. I then came up with the next result which used reverse mechanism to approach this original idea. 6
As Peter Bus and I worked in distance for the entire process, the sketches are the most important part of the discussion, as they act as an efficient tools to communicate with each other. We exchanged a lot of sketches t o re d u ce m i s u n d e rs t a n d i n g s . A l s o, i t i s very helpful for me to study my own design. 7
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#Generation I 10
The first design generation was basically an experiment of the moveable section. I started designing with the nodes and put much effort into this part rather than the form as I thought this would be the most essential thing that determines whether the moveable system is feasible or not. The early outcomes are mainly hand-made nodes, but as the lead strings are so hard to bend and the quality is very hard to control. I came up with the idea to use a laser cutter to cut acrylic in order to build 2.5D nodes by assembling the parts. It is much easier in terms of manufacturing and quality control.
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#Generation II 12
The top image is the collage of the movable armature that made the space alive. To make this armature look more like a creature, I moved on to study the form. The second iteration was an attempt that extends the inspiration by the node of using laser cutting to assemble 2D sheets into 3D objects. I tried my best not to use too much material. However, it still wasted
a lot of cardboards as I designed too many layers. It turned out that some of the layers weren't necessary. Although I was quite happy with this result, it is clear that the armature had an inconsistent style with the Hobberman Sphere itself. Also, I found some of the parts are difficult to assemble. The top part of the armature was so fragile because I didn't consider
t h e d ev i a t i o n o f t h e m a n u f a c t u r i n g process. At the end of the day, this is still a very enjoyable outcome. and I tried to import the result of the moveable system into this form and the motion of collapsing and expanding is very smooth. I haven't thought about how the window could trigger the motions yet at this point, I decided to work on the form first
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The diagrams on the left indicate how the movable system and the structure of the armature were assembled. There are five 2mm cardboard layers in the thickest part of this armature which turned out to be overdesigned. There is also a problem with the dome on the top. The halfcircle strips were designed as one piece which made it difficult to insert into a full circle strip. 15
#Generation III 16
With the lessons learned by the previous generation. I then moved on to designing another iteration of the structure form trying to make the armature merge better with the Hoberman sphere and also the site. The bottom images are some of the details in this generation that I found worth mentioning. These detailed components are the optimization of the previous version.
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The two diagrams on the left show how the armature was assembled. This generation is much easier to assemble than the previous version. And compare to the previous version, it is lighter as well. However, the assembly process requires much more accurate components due to the fourvalve needed to be at the same height.
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The four-valve of the structure was held by the two designed node, the nodes had to be assemble by at least two person. Although it worked out well holding the pieces, I knew that this was the part that needed improvement. I really liked the form of the armature, so I maintain the almost same form for the next generation.
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Comparing the second and the third version, it wouldn't be hard to see some improvements both on material saving and the correspondence style with the Hobberman Sphere. The movable sections are able to transform smoothly in both cases. However, both of these iterations haven't dig deep enough in the realm of the trigger system.
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#Generation IV 22
To improve the third generation, I changed some of the features that didn't work out well enough in the previous generation. Also, the most important part of this iteration is the prototype of the trigger system. I designed a system that transfers the force of opening the window into the force of opening and closing the paw of the armature. However, when I calculated the dimensions, I found out that the distance needed to trigger the system only requires 12 cm of movement. In other words, the window can only open 12 cm. The assembly pulley system reminds me of exponential growth in the distance, with 3 pairs of pulley block, I can multiply 8 times the distance of the original distance. With this introduction, the window could open up to 96cm which is a pretty sufficient improvement.
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First, I carefully install the trigger system onto the armature without too much change on the form. This forced me to redesign the upper part of the structure, to m a ke t h e s p a ce o f m ovem en t enough for the trigger system to expand. I also had to reinforce the structure to hold the paws.
Also, I added some extra support to prevent tipping when the window opens. This improvement requires an accurate measurement of the site. Furthermore, I had to manipulate to make the height of center gravity lower than the upper support of the armature, to make sure it works.
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The part where the four-valve intersect was originally held by designed nodes. However, I found it difficult to assemble by a single person. Thus, I made it into two valves which could hold each other by their notch. This made it much easier to assemble, and stiffer.
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#Generation V 26
If you look closely at previous iterations of the structure, it may seem that some offsprings have little in common. They all strived to maintain the protagonist of the sphere throughout the process. As the height of the widow easily leads the armature to be too large in scale. I started to think, I may have put too much effort into developing the form, this eventually snatch the performance of the Hobberman Sphere, which I thought was the most important thing in this project. Thus, I tried my best to weaken the structure's form with simple sticks. The sticks may look simple, however, the details of the nodes were diverse, each node was the result of previous research. This simplelooking structure may seem boring comparing with the previous generations, but I think it somehow succeeds to reveal the motion of the sphere as the main performance.
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#Final Version 28
When I then moved to focus on the trigger system, I continued asking myself, is there a better way to make my design aim clearer? Can I combine the three systems into a simpler form? When I focus too much on the forms I think the armature loses the original emphasis which is to make the motion of the sphere present clearly on the armature as the window opens and closes. 29
Detail The hardest part of this design iteration is to find a way to support the heavy structure by a single connection node to the edge of the windowsill. The cantilever of the armature makes it even harder. The first attempt of the node failed due to the instability of the node. When I try to lock the bolts on one side, the other side of the node became unstable.
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On the second attempt, I added another group of bolts to add reverse force and made the whole structure stable. Also, the weight of the bolt made the center of gravity closer to the edge of the windowsill, this solved t h e p ro b l e m o f t h e l o n g - d i s t a n ce o f t h e cantilever. On the right, there is an image that demonstrates the detail of this improvement.
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The upper two images are the rendered images of the final armature, These rendered images were developed before the structure was built, if you compare them with the real images on the right page, you wouldn't easily distinguish a difference. This is the result of a good conversation between the maker and the designer, we exchanged all the pieces of information online, and Peter Bus (the maker) did a perfect job assembling the pieces on his site. Eventually, the armature fits perfectly with the object and the site, it also "breathe" smoothly with the window's motion.
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A S MAKER 38
A Object: Telescope Made by Lei Lin Designed by Peter Bus
This is a project that was designed by Peter Bus and later assembled by me. We exchanged all the information online including the dimensions of the site, the model of the object, etc. The object I chose for this project is an antique telescope. I chose this object because I live next to a park, and the site is the window of the balcony facing the park. It would be very nice if I could have an armature that holds the telescope for me, and changes the location itself. Peter Bus and I both found it interesting to build a movable armature on my site.
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I d i d s o m e s i t e a n a l y s i s f o r Pe t e r B u s t o m a ke h i m understand more about the location of the site and also the dimensions from the attractions to the window, with this information Peter Bus is able to generate the prototype above for me to assemble. We both found the early study of the site essential for the whole design. It had even guide Peter to finish the design of the armature.
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I also made a detailed 3D model for Peter Bus understand the components of the telescope. With this accurate measurement. there are more possibilities for Peter to try. He even used some of the components a s t h e s u p p o r t t o t h e a r m a t u r e.
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The diagrams above are the diagrams that were made by Peter Bus and later reproduced by me. This is to demonstrate how the telescope rotates and how it was assembled. The structure of the telescope holder was made of cardboard and bent manually. 44
These images are the process of the material tests I did before the final assembly. Peter Bus and I spent a lot of time discussing how to fabricate this project and what material are we going to use. To create a space and a wide range of sight, Peter Bus decided to bend the material. The bending of the material was the hardest part. Within the material tests, I tried plywood, acrylic, and cardboard. I soak them in hot water for two hours after cutting by a laser cutting machine and later bent by hair curler. I found out that cardboards are most suitable for this project. However, it is also fragile, so Peter Bus had to double the layers. 45
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The image on the right page is also an image made by Peter Bus and later be reproduced by me. It shows how Peter Bus wanted me to assemble the pieces. The images above are the image taken on the site of the final outcome that was manufactured by me. I ordered plywoods and cut them into the length I need for the frame of the armature and designed some detail to make the frame stable on the site. The four motors on the corners manipulate the armature to move around the site. The armature made the telescope flying around like an insect. 47