DIGITAL DESIGN + FABRICATION SM1, 2017 WATER CUBE Xinyue(Ann) WU 752748 Lyle + Group 2
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Contents: 1.0 Ideation 1.1 Object 1.2 System Analysis 1.3 Digital Model 1.4 Sketch design proposal 1.5 Sketch Model 1.6 Volume 1.7 Reflection
3.5 Final Digital model 3.6 Fabrication sequence 3.7 Assembly Drawing 3.8 Completed 2nd Skin 3.9 Reflection
2.0 Design 2.0.1 Personal Space Analysis 2.0.2 Measuring Personal Space 2.1 Design Version #1 - ‘Water Cube’ 2.1.1 Precedent Research - Water Cube 2.1.2 Precedent applied to design 2.1.3 Design development 2.1.4 Prototype 2.1.5 Precedent of Membrane 2.1.6 Testing Effect 2.2 Design Version #2 - ‘Honeycomb’ 2.2.1 Precedent Research - Honeycomb 2.2.2 Precedent applied to design 2.2.3 Design development 2.2.4 Prototype 2.3 Design Version #3 - ‘Sea Snail’ 2.3.1 Precedent Research - Honeycomb 2.3.2 Precedent applied to design 2.3.3 Design development 2.3.4 Prototype 2.3.5 Testing Effects 2.4 Reflection
5.0 Appendix: 5.1 Credit 5.2 Bibliography
3.0 Fabrication 3.1 Fabrication introduction 3.2 Design development & Fabrication of prototype V.2 3.3.1 3D Printed Prototype of Joint 3.3.2 Digital modeling detail of joints 3.4.1 Reference Readings apply to design and Response 3.4.2 Prototype development V.1 Bone 3.4.3 Prototype development V.3 Joints 3.4.4 Full Size Prototype 3.4.5 Prototype development - Material 3.4.6 Prototype optimization - Skin 3.4.6 Prototype optimization - Joint
4.0 Reflection
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1.0 Ideation
1.0 IDEATION
INTRODUCTION In this phase, I focused on researching the structure of umbrella and the connection between the skin and bone. By analyzing with drawing and digital modeling, I summaried the features of each part of umbrella so as to be the basic information for the next design phase.
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1.1 Object
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1.2 System Analysis Telescoping:
Pin Joint:
Ribs rotate around the pin joint and the angles between ribs can easily change.
The main pole of umbrella consisting three tubes (inside another)with similar diameters is telescoping and it can be shorten and extended.
Fabrie Skin) Expandable Mechanism Once one of the ribs is under stress, the force can transfer to another rib. Thus the systematic moverment is drived.
The fabric is tightened up by the tensile force of stretchers . Stetcher(Bone)
Rotate
Pin Joint
Tension
Tension Support
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1.3 Digital Model
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1.4 Sketch design proposal Adjustable size
Flexible Linked Tensegrity system
Aggressive Armour
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By analyzing the skin and bone system, I realize that the idea of expandable mechanism can be used in my design. In different situation, different sizes of personal space are required. In my design concept , the base frame of the object in octagon shape sits on shoulder and there are eight adjustable sets of ribs on each angles of the base frame. These sets of ribs can both fold and extend. Finally, the adjustable ribs and covering membranes can form the adjustable and foldable bubbles like personal space.
The design focuses on the interaction between skins and bones. According to the analysis above, strings(skin) are tightened on the member bars. The member bars sit on the elbow joint , shoulder, chest ,crotch and neck. When personal space is needed, the users can ac arms and the strong protection is formed. On the basis of the skin and bone system, I explore the tensegrity system and the idea apply to my design.
I consider about ‘push others away’ instead of ‘protect myself’. The skeleton is formed by triangles with different angles with the fabric on it. The skeleton is connected by pin joints and is adjustable. Thus the pointed skeleton can be aggressive and ‘ask’ other to stay away.
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1.5 Sketch Model
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1.6 Volume
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1.7 Reflection First of all, it is amazing to have the process of measuring the umbrella, drawing it, digital modeling and and analyzing . According to the idea of personal space, I am inspired by the readings of Sommer (1969). It is quite difficult to point out the relationship between individual’s boundary and personal space under different conditions. I am considering if it is possible to design a convertible personal space. With further exploration, I realize that any element containing in the ‘Skin and Bone’ cannot be isolated. The most important thing is that they need to work together as a monolithic structure which will enhance the function of ensemble. According to my sketch design, although the design idea of expandable mechanism and tensegrity system are quite strong with sufficient researches of bone structure, the function of skin is ignored. Thus, I start to consider about the interaction between skin and bone. Generally, bone structure is strong in tension and compression and various shapes can be formed. By the way, the skin structure is pliable and soft which is easy to be shaped. As for now, I find I can use bone structure to build the shape of design and use skin can be used to deform it. For further ideation process with my peers, I want to explore the relationship of skin and bone structure such as: restrain, interplay deformation.
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2.0 Design
Xinyue(Ann) WU 752748 & Xiang Li 766220 & Isaac Yong 778069
INTRODUCTION In this phase, we explored the connection between skin and bone and exerted ourselves on trying more possible methods to combine these two connotation together. And then, according to our design proposals what we discussed, we developed our design and generated three different prototypes corresponding to three plans.
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2.0.1 Personal Space Analysis In the case of designing a meaningful second skin, individual personal space is the thing we firstly focus on. The illustration above, delineates the ‘invisible’ surrounding space that an individual imagines is his or her social boundaries. Sommer’s Personal Space (1969) touches on the fact that personal space is individualistic and unique, and that the space is and amalgamation of not only physical but also emotional and psychological aspects. From our measurements it was clear to us that personal space seemed to be more pertinent to the upper body. In order of sensitivity; face, neck, chest and arms respectively. Our second skin aims to shield the individual from such vulnerabilities while maintaining aesthetic appeal to the wearer and those around him/her. As there is a varying amount of sensitivity in different areas of the body, we want our design to have a varying degree of both protection and ‘openness” to the wearer’s surroundings.
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2.0.2 Measuring Personal Space
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2.1 Design Version #1 - ‘Water Cube’
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2.1.1 Precedent Research - Water Cube Beijing National Aquatics Center(water cube) Architects: Chris Bosse, Rob Leslie-Carter
Bubbles, Molecular structure，Transparency, Soft This design came about when discussing the Beijing National Aquatics Centre, otherwise known colloquially as the Water Cube. The building was modeled after the Weaire Phelan foam and Plato’s geometry of soap bubbles. The framework or “bone” structure of the building is shaped similarly to the molecular geometry of water. What we liked about the water cube was that despite it being a solid structure, it is very transparent and looks visually “soft” like water. For the water cube design, we really wanted to show the interdependency of the skin and bone structure coexisting harmoniously. The skin, being elastic, pulls upon the individual bones and distorts the regular shaped polygons into irregular shops. When one polygonal shape is “squeezed” and its shape made smaller, the neighboring shapes “expand” creating more space. There are a multitude of possibilities when it comes to the arrangement of the skin within the bone structure. The skin can stretch in three dimension and can twist if necessary. The skin and wrap around the outer portion of the bone structure, within the polygon, within several polygons and a mixture of the three.
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2.1.2 Precedent applied to design We define ‘personal space’ as ‘a private space that can protect ourselves from the uncomfortable space or atmospheres around’. In order to emphasis this concept, we decide to design a soft space on physical and psychological aspects. Thus the ‘bubbles’ look of Beijing National Aquatics Center inspired us.
According to the bone structure, Beijing National Aquatics Center is formed by two kinds of cubes: 12 - sided cubes and 14 sided cubes, which is stable enough. c decide to build this kind of structure to generate ‘protection for person’
We explore the interactions between bones and skins. Bones are strong in compression but weak in tension. Meanwhile, skins (membranes) are strong at tension. Thus, membranes are stretched by the bones and bones are bent under the tensile force of membrane. By this way, we decide to add membrane structure on the vertexes of cubes.
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2.1.3 Design development
Phase 1:
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Phase 2:
Phase 3:
The Weaire–Phelan structure is the inspiration for the design of the Beijing National Aquatics Centre. The resulting structural support system is inherently strong and lightweight. Thus, it is extremely practical for us to choose the Weaire–Phelan structure as our inspiration to generate a personal space. In Phase 1, it is obvious that we use thus structure prototype to build a shape around the human body, where some parts are multi-layer to keep a good protect status and some parts look thinner for some place doesn’t need to protect. However, as we can see, those green bubbles are too concentrated and crowded so that we are afraid that it could not express the concept of “bubble” which is a soft and comfortable geometry. Therefore, by amplifying the basic shape and reducing some bubbles on the body surface, we could gain the result of Phase 2. However, we are not satisfied with the second skin shape. Obviously, in Phase 3, we concentrated on the shape of the second skin which makes people to experience a sense of soft, flexible and cozy space. Finally, after the some adjustments, we make sure the proper scale and the shape of the bubble structure. It is readily to make people to feel lightness and comfortable, while at the same time, it also provides a private space at some essential place.
Final Phase
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2.1.4 Prototype
In order to explore the various possibilities of skin and the interactions between skin and bone, the basic bone structure is divided into a group of eight which are formed by 6 fourteen sides cubes and 2 twelve sides cubes. Grasshopper is used in this phase for signing out the index of the vertices. We consider about stretching membranes on fourteen sides cubes only. Then, we divide them into three groups containing two symmetric cubes each. Finally, we found 3 different method of stretching membrane.
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1. Connecting all the short sticks and twist them. Thus, there are eight pairs (four pairs of grasshopper batteries) of membranes. Due to the short distance membranes are under high tensile force and cause severe bending of bones.
2. Connecting all the long sticks and twist them. Thus, there are four pairs (two pairs of grasshopper batteries) of membranes. Due to the short distance between vertexes, membranes are not under high tensile force. By the way, bones are slightly bent under the tensile force.
3. Different from the connecting method (horizontally) above, we consider connect sticks vertically and twist them. Thus, the cubes are twisted vertically. 31
2.1.5 Precedent of Membrane By exploring the of umbrella, we comprehend that both of the skin and bone of umbrella are significant, especially the connection style of them. Therefore in our design, we focus on generating several structure shapes weaved by the membrane, at the same time the membrane still have relationship with the bone structure, trying to make sure that the connection of skin and bone is essential and necessary. Thus, after gathering some information of the principle structure, we think that the tensegrity structure, a contraction of tensile and integrity, is the most appropriate method to combine them. While there still need more time to analysis such structure and put it into effect, maybe we could try to enhance the connection between the skin and the bone in the next module.
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2.1.6 Testing Effect
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2.2 Design Version #2 - ‘Honeycomb’
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2.2.1 Precedent Research - Honeycomb
Pittman’s Surfaces that can be built from paper (2007) introduced to “ruled surfaces� and how we can incorporate hexagonal shapes into a developable surface. The geometric shapes link together so as to support one another. Structures made in the likeness of honeycombs are beneficial for our model: minimizing materials needed for construction and minimizing overall weight of the model.
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2.2.2 Precedent applied to design The honeycomb structure flowing around body can create a protected space for people. Thus, we offset the contour lines of body and create our ‘second skin’.
Different densities of honeycomb show different levels of protections people need.
We explore the interactions between bones and skins. Bones are strong in compression but weak in tension. Meanwhile, skins (membranes) are strong at tension. Thus, membranes are stretched by the bones and bones are bent under the tensile force of membrane. By this way, we decide to add membrane structure on the vertexes of cubes. Furthermore, connecting both ends of bones to stretch the membrane to make skin flowing together with bones.
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2.2.3 Design development
In the first step of the design process, we make effort to generate several curves which keep different distance to the body surface due to distinct body parts. And then, using those closed curves, it is readily to use the Rhino command “loft” to build a surface around the human surface which is the “second skin”. At the same time, in order to ensure the second skin is flexible and comfortable enough, we try to split the surface elaborately so that we could get a trimmed surface which could be used as the base surface to generate the “honeycomb” shape. Although the trimmed surface seems complicated and the structure beyond it are twisted, those structure member bars still come from the same prototype. In the final step, we add some membrane connected to several points with some logic in grasshopper, which could enhance the equilibrium of the structure.
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Based on the hexagon geometry, we have been explored several basic prototype for the second skin. After some analysis and contrast, we finally decide that the hexagon could be extruded by three different level heights to provide different level of privacy and protection according to the human surface.
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2.2.4 Prototype
The attachment of skin on bone changed by rolling the skin to the bone. The skin, under tension, provides sufficient friction for it to hold itself in place. We noticed that the corners of the skin stuck out after being rolled. This led to cutting the corners of the the previously rectangle-shaped skin strips. The gloves came powered which made it difficult for it to stick. This meant we had to “de-powder� them before hand and salvage as much flat materials from a gloves shape every time. Based on the hexagon geometry, we have been explored several basic prototype for the second skin. After some analysis and contrast, we finally decide that the hexagon could be extruded by three different level heights to provide different level of privacy and protection according to the human surface.
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2.3 Design Version #3 - ‘Sea Snail’ This design idea is drawn from sea snails. They usually use their shells to insulate themselves with outside world. This design is mainly about using this shape to build the sense of alienation of emotion to create the personal space. Although the shape looks cury and soft, it also encircles towards the upper body which is the main part of human emotional expression, providing the sense of protection. In proxemics, personal space is an invisible boundary that allows people feeling comfortable. From recent research and our own measurements, the distance is usually from 1.5 to 4 feet distance around the body. The second skin developed gradually from the start, it is not only a paper or tissue layer as above, but also is the emotion indicator for the user.
Front elevation
SECTION
Actually texture in proposed rhino model 41
2.3.1 Precedent Research - Honeycomb Issey Miyake
transperancy texture, permiability, sculptural fashion, technological materials They are all transparency of fabrics and have loosing sense of shape, but they are actually firm in its structure, from this transparent structure and unusual pattern, people could really feel the boundary it created.
James Law Cybertecture, Architect
twisting shape, dynamic, fluidity
wadala tower
We found this building particularly interesting because the bone structure appears on the outside of the building and the skin (glass panels) are contained with the structure. The spiraling shape of the building also caught our attention. 42
2.3.2 Precedent applied to design
由 扫描全能王 扫描创建
Since the project focuses on a wearable second skin, we thought it would be beneficial to browse photos of various fashion designs that closely resembled a second skin and also looked like a shell. In the photos above, the fabric is used as the skin. The fabric also has translucent qualities that helps mask or lose the general shape of the human body when viewed by others.
The feature of spiral bone structure fits in with the idea of a sea snail’s shell, which inspired us for developing our bone structure in a similar way, adding variety of the curve of the bone structure. Also, the inside greenroom giving us an idea of putting skin beneath the bone, giving the model a sense of depth. If we put skin outside, the skin may weaken the existing of bones.
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2.3.3 Design development
The first stage is only a series of rudimentary curve vertical bones to support the whole personal space structure, and for the skin is just the soft texture paper. By this way, the skin would fit the curvy structure and also won’t put too much burden to the whole structure and also giving people the soft but also the insulating feeling. In this version we complicated the bone structure by panelling tool. The skin of this version we use is birds’ netting fabric, the purpose of that is trying to show the degree of different tightness to express emotion in different area by the changes of netting patterns but the tension and stretching action between skin and bone are not easy to observe clearly.
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This stage, the bone structure and the skin are mainly made from loft.
First, I drew some curves to made the first shape and open the points editing tool that I want.
By extracting the contour line and loft to build other structure.
By using panelling tools, the structure had been simplified and the horizontal bones could be also generated from the points grid.
And by using the pipe command to build the round bone structures.
initially change to straight lines, and used the curry bone finally
Using extract isocurve to build all the bones.
Mouth, ear, neck, mainly communication and sensitive area, so I decide covering the skin this way. 45
2.3.4 Prototype
We tested 3 types of electrical wires, two of the black wires are suitable for shaping.
stick easy to attach but lack of elasticity
Medium elastic but the nettings are too small to see the variation
Silky socks, stretchable and elastic
Pins used to attach the skin from inside the structure
Final materials( the two wires are actually different) The iron wires are convenient for bending, but after several times bending it just doesn’t look nice, and also became harder and harder to bend.
Testing the iron wire Tools for bending cutting wires 46
2.3.5 Testing Effects
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2.4 Reflection I generate the idea of ‘honeycomb ‘and ‘water cube’ because of the rich interplay of skin and bone structure and can give people the sense of protection. According to the reading, Seurer and Stehling (2011) points out digital is the only way of handling the complicated structure. However, it is impossible to calculate and combine the polyhedrons one by one in Rhino. I read through the readings and the mentioned method like Paneling tools, Nurbs cannot be used in our design ( they are useful in modeling ‘sea snail’ design version. Furthermore, Seurer and Stehling (2011) mentioned parametric modellers like McNeel’s Grasshopper generally produce largely normalized models. Alison recommended grasshopper in lecture. With the deep analysis of the complicated structure of ‘water cube’ and ‘honeycomb’, I determined grasshopper can help with digitally modeling the structure and parameterizing the logic. It is the beginning of the huge challenge to me. Fortunately, I solved the technic problems by asking friends and and learning from online tutorials. The difficult step of extracting from precedents and converting them into digital model established the foundations for fabrication in M3. During the testing process of some prototypes, the materiality has been partially decided. In order to sufficiently express the interplay of skin and bone structure, the deformation happens to the material of bone structure should be elastic, flexible but strong. Glue sticks are such a good choice which is also translucent to clearly show the skin. However, the material of the membrane is a big question we are facing. The common defect of our tested membrane material is that they are not good in tension. We need to keep on trying.
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3.0 Fabrication
Xinyue(Ann) WU 752748 & Xiang Li 766220 & Isaac Yong 778069
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3.1 Fabrication introduction From M2, we found that the structure made by hot melting glue sticks are really flexible, elastic but strong, the translucence of glue sticks not only add aesthetic value to the structure but also help the skin to be clearly shown. During the design process in M3, we have tested a variety of materials for each component of our model including the joints, bones and skin. We found silicon rubber is the best material for skin. We testd different kinds of joints and decide to use 3D printing method. We tested various ways of how to put and stretch the membrane, the different forms of connecting joints. The whole structure in Rhino is achieved by Grasshopper. We optimized our joint bone and skin to emphssis our difinition of personal space. The emphasized personal space part is mainly the part on the right shoulder and above, you could observe that the straightly standing intense bone structure and the skins nearly block the view into the body from the right—just like a barrier of insulating communication. Other parts are all around our upper body to shows a way of protection; a firm protection whose strength is easily been underestimated. .
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3.2 Design development & Fabrication of prototype v2 Different from the connecting method (horizontally) above, we consider connect sticks vertically and twist them. Thus, the cubes are twisted vertically.
Connecting all the long sticks and twist them. Thus, there are four pairs (two pairs of grasshopper batteries) of membranes. Due to the short distance between vertexes, membranes are not under high tensile force. By the way, bones are slightly bent under the tensile force.
Connecting all the short sticks and twist them. Thus, there are eight pairs (four pairs of grasshopper batteries) of membranes. Due to the short distance membranes are under high tensile force and cause severe bending of bones.
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3.3.1 3D Printed Prototype of Joint
The decision between 3 kinds of joins: round, triangular and tube like. Admittedly, the first two options are interesting in their shape, but they have the same fatal problem, the angle between glue sticks are all covered. In the assembling of our complicate bone structure. A clear view of each angle are really important, this could avoid the wrong ways of placing the joints. Otherwise we could not decide where is the one for this glue stick. One else thing is that this structure is actually made by 14 or 12 sided cubes, the tube like joints will give full play to the complexity of structure and also the round or triangular just make this complicated structure less interesting. We tested a great number of 3D printing options such as the type of printer and the type of material used for printing. There were two initial prototype joints, one spherical and one that conformed to the shape of the bones. Although the spherical joint took 2 minutes faster to print a single joint, we thought it was not as aesthetic as the conformed joint. After trying the conformed joint, we realized that we had to give leeway for the bones to slide in. We also shortened the length of the joint to speed up the printing process.
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3.3.2 Digital modeling detail of joints
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3.4 .1 Reference Readings apply to design and Response
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Architecture in the Digital Age - Design + Manufacturing/ Branko Kolarevic, Spon Press, London c2003
Digital age reconfigured relationship between conception and production, what can be conceived and then later constructed. Highly curvilinear surface forced architects to look for better methods to present them to others. Their search led them to 3D modelling software intended for the aerospace industry. Frank Gehry prefers physical models over designing on the the computer so he uses to technology as a means of translation. It seems for our project, we are following his style because we are making the physical model first and then modelling the model digitally on rhino which is the “inverse of computer-aided manufacturing” Additive fabrication – 3D printing is a form of additive fabrication where material is added layer by layer to form a 3d form. In our case, we use this technique to print out our joints which are abnormally shaped and also curved. From our experience it took very long to print a single joint so we had to “nest” our joints into group that could be printed in batches. Digital models can also aid in the assembly process. Previously, builders only had 2D references which can sometimes be difficult to read but now they can see in a 3D space where components are located and fixed. Kolarevic also mentions how architects are looking to merge the functions of both skin and structure (bone) into a single selfsupporting skin. In our project however, we clearly show that there are two interdependent parts. Unlike a regular structure however, our bones will conform to the stresses (tension) produced by the skin. As new materials are being discovered and test, new forms can be made depending on the properties of these materials. Free formed materials such as concrete and plastic are examples.
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3.4 .2 Prototype development V1 BONE
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We felt that it was hard to build such a big structure at the start of our fabrication. We decided to divide the work so that we could increase the efficiency of our fabrication. Instead of building from start point to end point, we world on the shapes that were repetitive and made a few of those before ultimately combining all of them.
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3.4 .3 Prototype development V2 SKIN We bought 2 packs of different thin rubber gloves and compared them. we selected gloves with transparent colour and more stretchable texture rather than the other only option, with an opaque white colour. Though the latter is actually more elastic we prioritized translucency. Another advantage of the transparent glove is that it could be coloured by watercolour. The skins of prototypes are all cut from the palm area of the gloves, therefore the size for the skin is pretty much the same and there are only a few limited deformation methods that could be used because of the limited size. =
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3.4 .3 Prototype development V3 Joints
In the whole structure, there are 9 kinds of different joints. I use grasshopper to divide them into different colors. By the way, it will be easy for assembly .
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3.4.4 Full Size Prototype
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3.4 .5 Prototype development - Material Using the non-latex gloves as our skin membrane, the connection between bone to bone were relatively short spanned and with limited twisting. This made the skin look to simple and just covered the surface. Although the gloves did offer some deformation, it was not enough to really illustrate our system. With the longer lengths of silicone strips, we could easily connect to more bone members at a single time and also display twisting and tension under abnormal angles. The thickness was ideal as well, it was thin enough for stretching under high tension and thick enough so that it would not snap. The silicone came in a 1m by 1m flat sheet which made the cutting of it into strips extremely easy. The elasticity of the material also meant that it retained it original length easily unlike the gloves which when stretched too much would remain slightly elongated demonstrating that its elastic properties and retention of elasticity were limited.
When the silicon is stretched, it turns slightly more opaque compared to its translucent self when at rest. We found this quality interesting and that it could be applied to our model. The higher the tension and the stretch, the more protection is offers because it reduces the visibility through it meaning visibility of the user is also reduced.
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3.4 .6 Prototype optimization - Skin
We applied color on th eskin by using marker pens, because the marker pen is oily. The colors we opted for were red, green and blue. The colors are more pastel-like compared to our prototype which were very saturated colors. We think that the lighter color really compliments our white joints well. We also, by coloring multiple colors on a single strip of silicon, show the transition between the safety levels.
We also used different widths of the skin membrane, 2, 4, and 6 centimeters. The thicker width (6 cm) provides more coverage when stretched around the bone. We used this thickest width in tandem with the red color to further emphasize its protection level. The larger width hides onlookers view of the wearer. For the blue region, we used the 4 centimeter width. The 2 centimeter width was used for the green region as it is slim and allows from more openness. Our second skin project in M3 aims to act as a buffer zone from one’s surroundings. We used our skin to deform the bone structure to shield from sensitive areas. The skin itself is also used to conceal certain parts of the structure, giving us two options of protection. The color of the skin is an indicator of the different levels of protection that the second skin offers. Red, signifies the more sensitive areas (facial region), blue indicates a neutral area, the front torso and lastly the green means that the area is more open. The skin was initially planned to be short, some of them had a twisted shape which means the emotion of feeling stressed by some distance. 65
3.4.6 Prototype optimisation--Joint
Joint 0
Joint 3
Joint 1 Joint 4
Joint 2
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Joint 5
In the whole structure, there are 9 kinds of different joint;
Joint 6
Joint 6
Joint 7
Joint 7
Joint 8
Joint 8
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3.5 Final Digital model
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With gradually increasing pulling force provided by membrance, the structure will be deformed and shrinked in order to protect the human body perfectly.
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3.6 Fabrication sequence We started our final model by prepping the skin and bones. For our model, we calculated that we needed 1174 sticks in total per model. The sticks that we ordered came in 100mm lengths so we ordered 1200 sticks that we could cut to length. There are a total of 4 different lengths used in our model to make 39 of 14 sided cubs and 6 of the 12 sided cubes. The lengths we used are 27mm, 41mm, 48mm and 63mm. We figured that we could get two sticks for every one stick that we bought. This allowed us to build both our final model and a full prototype. After we had broken the 9 types of joints from their bas and hollowed the inside, we start sliding the stick in the joints while using our rhino model as a guide. We had hoped that the glue sticks would fit in snuggly into the joints however that was not the case and we had to glue them in place which was very time consuming. We split the model into three parts so that we could work on the model separately and then joined our parts together to make up the overall bone structure. The glow in the dark sticks were slightly larger in diameter than the regular sticks so we had to chamfer the edges slightly in order for them to fit.
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The reasons of using 3D printing joints: 1. The neatness of the junctions of glue sticks, creating a pleasant bone system without any existing of hot-melted glue 2. mm3D printing joints could also make our angles between glue sticks becoming more accurate and precise; in prototype we only could simply glue it in an approximate angle, which is actually not recommended. 3. The joints also offer more rigidity to the overall structure that allows us to deform the model more than before without fear of the bones break away from one another because the bone structure is stronger. 4. The fixed shapes of the joints make our final model finished in high quality for protection. The joints we wanted were transparent but unfortunately our transparent material was declined and we had to opt for the white material that they had. When the joints were complete, we realized that they were not clean (left over plastic residue) and we had to scrape all 600+ joints by hand which was very time consuming. Having used joints in the final model, the overall structure of our model came out slightly bigger due to the gaps left in the joints when the bones were placed in. To counter this however, we used the skin to tighten the front and back elevation in order to fit on the wearer snuggly.
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3.7 Assembly Drawing
Skin
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Bone
Joint
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3.8 Completed 2nd Skin
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Insert a full bleed image of your project This can spread over the double spread page
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3.8 Completed 2nd Ski.Test Effectn
1. We tested our “Water Cube� model in a crowded elevator where it is inevitable that the people surrounding would be closer to you and may invade your personal space. For the simulation, the figurants will push our user who is wearing the Water Cube intentionally in the elevator. The higher density of the Water Cube indicates the stronger protection it provides because a denser and rigid structure would also produce stronger retaliating force back when others pushing you. In conclusion, the subject could not really reach our user because the Water Cube is protecting her by keeping the invaders within a buffer range.
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2. In the situation of walking up and down the stairs, almost all the pedestrians would subconsciously keep their distance from our user because the shape not only signals a feeling of the user wanting personal space but also physically does so.
3. When our user is sitting on the bench, the horizontal shape of water cube would form a buffering zone to her left and right hand side in order to protect her personal space. If someone near her were to fall asleep on her, they would only do so on the water cube and not on her shoulder.
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4.When some radical invaders are trying to get closer to our testee, the ‘water cube’ will push them away.-
5. The user sitting or walking alone with ‘water cube ‘ on can be well protected by others and they can enjoy their personal space even have mediation. 86
We wanted our model to be functional at all time of the day. To do this, we want people to be aware of our model during the night when it is dark. Glow in the dark paint and tried painting our bone structure however the regular color of the glow in the dark paint was green which we thought did not look so interesting. Luckily, we managed to get ourselves blue colored glow in the dark stick to replace our existing sticks. The advantage of glow in the dark compared to the previous methods is that it is rechargeable. If the wearer were to use the second skin during the day time, the sunlight would be enough to charge the model for it to glow during the night time. We arranged the glow sticks in a strategic manner, placing the bulk of the glow in the dark sticks in the more sensitive areas of the body (red section). The glow in the dark will allow onlookers to see our user from far away and can even be a means of protection from vehicles (high visibility) when walking on the streets.
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3.9 Reflection First of all, after testing silicon sealant, strong gloves and rubber. We found silicon rubber sheet is the best material for our skin. And the thickness of silicon rubber is relevant to its elastic deformation. The 0.1 mm silicon rubber is the best choice. In the lecture of week 5, the importance of making full scale prototype prior to final model is mentioned. By finishing it, I have the visualized feeling of our design, it does work! Furthermore, I am getting familiar with our structure during the process of making prototype. Finally, we decided to using 3D print joints instead of using hot-melt glue for joints bone structure. In module 3, We 3D printed all of our joints. it is our first time of trying 3D printing. 3D printing is detailed in the readings. It is a kind of additive fabrication which is a developing 2 dimensional method of making subtle and actuate models. The information is transferred to the printer layer by layer and the physical product is generated incrementally. The data of two-dimensional layer should be much more accurate than our hand-made model. In design, 3D print (additive fabrication) is used to produce components with complex, curvilinear geometric (Kolarevic- Architecture in the Digital Age- Design and Manufacturing.2003). By using 3D printed joints, we can avoid the existing of hot-melted glue, make accurate angles and have rigidity joints. Beside learning from readings and lectures. I learnt a lot from the process of improving digital models, testing materials, testing printing and having communications with staffs in fab lab. It is a brand new method of making model and I have to learn from trying and testing. I made some mistakes and I need to fix the digital model again and again to avoided error in 3D printing. For instance, I have to scale up the joints to make sure it can fit glue sticks in. I have to calculate the number of joints on one pack to print out the 600+ joints in 9 types more efficiently. Fortunately, we have finished 3D printing work on time. Another unforgettable experience is assembling. It is quite different from making prototype by gluing glue sticks in approximate angles. It is mentioned in lecture that we need assembly drawing for fabricating. This is the most accurate and complex model I have ever made. I calculate the length of glue sticks by grasshopper (although we cut them by hand) and locate the different types of joints. After these work, fabrication become efficiently and it reflect Lwamoto (2009) ‘s main emphasis. The lecture (week 7) also describes the process of transition of digital file to physical as streamline. Hover, during the assembling process, we also faced with many problems. The biggest one is that we are not transiting digital file to physical model directly, thus, errors happened in hand cutting glue sticks, dimension of glue sticks and even the misplacement of the 3D printed joints. However, it is almost impossible to avoid these errors and we need to debug our model gradually. It is another import lesson of ‘accepting errors in digital fabrication but trying best to fix them). The final step is using our skin to deform and strengthen the finished bone. It applies to our understanding of personal space and design brief. Due to the deep analysis and complete design, skin is quite easy for manufacturing. Finally, we got the strong ‘Deformed Water Cube. It is such a difficult but valuable experience of digital design and digital fabrication. 88
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4.0 Reflection This subject provides brand new experience to me to get so close to digital design and fabrication. Digital design expanded the breadth of opportunities for me as a student of architecture design. Besides the understanding of system and the presentation of the idea of personal space, another most important part I learnt from this subject is to realize all the ideas into high quality model in human scale. Digital design can help with complex, curvilinear geometric (Kolarevic- Architecture in the Digital Age- Design and Manufacturing.2003). I realize the possibilities of achieving our design is unlimited. During the design, I clearly understand that the demerits of the traditional drawings and the merits of the digital design workflow. With the experience in DDF studio and the knowledge of digital design method, I would explore more possibility and variety in design. Besides 3D printing we used this time, there are so many other methods mentioned in the lecture like mechanical arm, laser cut, CNC and so on. I am so excited to explore and use them to provide more design opportunities in my future design studios. Skin and Bone structure Our tutor’s feedback and lecture in week 1 and 2 point out my misunderstanding of ‘skin and bone’ structural system. Thus, I redirected my design immediately. Different form the other two kinds of structure system (panel and folding, section and profile) ‘Skin and bone ‘structure system contains two kinds of structure. However, I cannot isolate or even ignore any of them ‘skin and bone should support each other (mentioned in lecture, week 1) Ideation ‘Artificial Ecologic’ mentioned by Stan Allen and our lecturer is one key aspect relevant to our ideation. We analysis and extract the idea of molecular structure of water cube, the functional structure of sea snail and honeycomb. Finally, Water Bubble is the most crucial keyword in our design. Not only in the innovation phase I use water cube as my concept, but also in the fabrication phase I use the same logic to finish the final physical model. To present the topic of second skin, undoubtedly surrounding by bubbles would express a kind of safety and security, which could cut down the disturb of outside space, provide an individual space and keep the crash from other pedestrians. Deep understanding of Precedents The construction of the structure of Water Cube perfectly explained this conotation. Using the digital fabrication technology, it is possible for people to design and construct this Weaire–Phelan structure, at the same time, it also presents the concept of the bubble. In geometry, the Weaire–Phelan structure is a complex 3 -dimensional structure representing an idealized foam of equal-sized bubbles. The Weaire–Phelan structure only concludes two kinds of cells. Prototypes and Testing When it comes to the virtual fabrication, due to the quite simply prototype which only include two kinds of cube, it is extremely time-saving for us to prepare the components of the model. 90
After picking up glue sticks as our material of bone structure, it is time to combine the membrane to our physical model, which will present the concept of skin. Also, we experienced several materials, obviously most of them are not suitable such as fabric, cloth, thread, plastic glove, rubber glove etc. After lots of attempts, 0.1 mm silicon rubber is the best choice. Furthermore, by finishing the full scale prototype (recommended in the lecture of week 5 ), I realized what works and what does work in our design like more deformation is required to fit our model on user. Digital Modeling To present the process of digital design, I decided to use Grasshopper and Rhino, which is extremely convenient for me to control the size and number of the bubbles. By controlling the slider in grasshopper definition under same logic, we could gain several schemes in a short time. After our dedicated discussion and analysis about the function of the shape, the cost of fabrication, the level of complexity, the parts of the protection, we determined our design finally. That is, the parts near the head could help user to block the surrounding scene; the parts near the shoulder could protect the user from impact; the parts in front of the chest could enclose a safety space for user. 3D Print Joint and Assemble of final model with the help of Rhino and Grasshopper Absolutely the final physical model may look like very complex, but it is not as complicated as you see, because most of the components in it are duplicated, which allows me to quantity production each part. According to our calculation in grasshopper, we could readily count that it only has 4 kinds of length of sticks and 9 kinds of joints. It is significant which material is the most suitable for our project. We really took a lot time to communicate and tried several sort of material for our connection sticks. For instance, the wood sticks are too hard to present the elastic force; the plastic pipes are too fragile to resist the outer force, etc. Fortunately, we found that the glue sticks maybe the best material for our concept. At the same time, it is no doubt that using 3d print is the best choice for us to produce our joints due to the fact that we have a mount of joints need to print which have elaborate angle between each groove for the connection pipes. Work as a group Absolutely it is a pleasure experience to cooperate with Yennefer and Isaac who also contribute to our group project, and is also an unforgettable experience. Beside my group members, I cannot finish such an amazing project. Design and Fabrication in the future Furthermore, In the readings of week 11 (Refkin, the Third Industrial Revolution, 2011), there is an enlightenment that digital design is a tendency in the future which is an efficient way in design and fabrication. Architects always drawn before building. Drawings have been the medium to organize ideas, resources, space, etc. and represent the architects’ faculty to predict design outcomes. However, with the development of the society, the design style becomes more and more complicated and free form in recent years. When it comes to some landmark project covered with numerous double-curved panels, it is obvious that the traditional drawings could not be modify efficiently during the design process. Nevertheless, as variety of design evolved, new tools have emerged, such as Pro/E, Digital Project and grasshopper, which are extremely useful tools for architect to pursue more possibilities of architecture design. I consider that the core purpose of this studio is to broaden my horizon of fabrication and to understand the limitations of traditional drawing. 91
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5.2 Bibliography
Rifkin J (2011). The third Industrial Revolution /. Palgrave Macmillan.pp107-126 Press,S (2003) Architecture in the Digital Age - Design and Manufacturing /Branko Kolarevic., London c Iwamoto L. (2009) Digital fabrications: architectural and material techniques /. New York : Princeton Architectural Press, c. Scheurer, F. and Stehling, H. (2011): Lost in Parameter Space? IAD: Architectural Design, Wiley, pp. 70-79 Kolarevic , B .(2003). Architecture in the Digital Age-Design and Manufacturing , England, London: Spoon Press Sommer,R.(1969). Personal Space: the behavioural basis of design. Englewood Cliffs, N.J : Prentice-Hall
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