Design idea development Week Four Virtual Environments
Anna Petrou - 586090
Design idea development DEVELOPING A REPEATABLE PANEL
To develop this panel I drew from the geometry of a single artichoke leaf and how they fit together. I made some sketch ideas of panels which may overlap satsfactorily and tried to simplify the artichoke shape to get a suitable solution.
The result was this skewed diamond pyramid shape. I also considered it in terms of construction as a panel and fold structure. Creating a panel like this would be very easy to do using a thin, rigid material.
Developing the shape: Planar Curves I was unsure of the most efficient way to draw the shape I wanted on Rhino, and suspect the method I used wasn’t the best. I first drew the desired shape using a wireframe. I then traced over each segment with a closed triangle.
I used the planar curves command on each of these triangles to generate planar surfaces.
I then joined each of these surfaces, resulting in this 3D geometry. The shape is conducive to stacking due to the splayed shape.
Personal space
Design idea development CREATING A SECOND SKIN
Having made a satisfactory panel, I began to experiment with how the panel can be repeated to create a single structure. I tried to consider how the panel could join and express personal space. I focused on the shoulder because I see it as the the body part we use most to express personal space. When we feel our personal space is threatened our shoulders move upwards and inwards. Our arms also cross. I wanted to make use of these almost universal gestures of discomfort. My original idea was static, I just wanted to create an “armour” which accentuates shoulder movements. However, working in a group made me consider making a dynamic design from looking at Michael’s first sketch designs.
EXAGGERATED BODY LANGUAGE
If we wanted our design to truly exaggerate body language and as a result articulate the wearer’s ideas of personal space, we needed a design which responds to the wearer’s actual body language. I started to consider how the body moves when you feel your personal space is threatedned and how you could create a defensive structure which responds to these movements. This is why I decided on panels which spread and open when the wearer’s body responds to a threat of personal space by raising their shoulders or folding their arms. The design also exaggerates these actions by imitating them.
Potential designs A DYNAMIC WING
The design is a dynamic wing structure which folds flat and responds to body language in order to create defensive spikes which articulate the wearer’s personal space. This is drawing on the way the body responds when personal space feels invaded: the crossing of arms and upwards movement of shoulders. This draws from natures - think of animals such as a frill-neck lizard or puffer fish.
COMBINED STRUCTURES
The design uses both panel and fold and skin and bone structures. The panel and fold system is used to make the individual plates which form the structure. Each plate could be considered a panel OR a skin. The string which is intended to run through the panels to make the design adaptive is the corresponding “bone”.
Renders
FRONT
RIGHT
Renders
TOP
PERSPECTIVE