The American University in Cairo (AUC) School of Sciences and Engineering - Department of Architecture ARCH 473/3522 - Digital Design Studio and Workshop (Fall 2018) Student portfolio documenting samples of work submitted along the course, including research, experimentation, 3D modeling, digital fabrication, parametric design and modeling, physical model realisation and analysis. Student name: Antonios Younan Student ID: 900151576
Š The American University in Cairo (AUC), December 2018
Antonios Younan Architecture Student
Having been always obsessed with art, design, and innovation, studying architecture to me was the right decision. Architecture, in my opinion, is a complex combination of all human sciences and technologies. Art and design is my way of expressing myself. Learning a new tool that would help me express my extravagant and avant garde ideas, definitely was a great experience. I believe that I learnt a lot from that course not only a tool but a new way of thinking., how to think parametrically and how to design in such way.
Randomly perforated foam due to the application of thinner.
01 Material Experimentation
2 The choice of material was based on the presumed result of applying thinner to foam; the result would be random eating-up of foam. What was added to that experiment is the trial of injecting the thinner into the styrofoam and the trial of diluting the thinner by adding water colors to it. It was found that injecting the thinner into the foam makes the perforations more controllable fyet the formed holes were of different sizes. These holes resembled in pattern the Voronoi pattern. It is noticed that as the concentration of the thinner decreases, the size of the perforation decreases and vice versa.
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Material Experimentation
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The court of the Performing and Visual Arts Department (PVA).
02 Site
6 Why the Performing and the Visual Arts Court? The court of the Performing and Visual Arts Department does not show any signs of art. It does not reflect the PVA student artistic identity. It is very dull and empty. The steps in front of the PVA lounge is where the PVA students socialize; they use them instead of the lounge for the fact that it is very dull as well and mismatching the artistic spirit that should be found in such place. Facing the steps, there is a quiet space where a few students sit to relax. A tree in that place is what characterizes it and seperates it from the noisy socializing area facing it.
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Site
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Rhino
9 The end result of phase I that shows the pavillion in the PVA court.
Concept The organic holes created by applying the thinner to the foam could be used as seatings for the PVA students. Taking into consideration both the quiet area for relaxation and the active area for socializing, the form would be used to serve both areas. Inspired by how the concentration of the thinner affects the size of the perforation.
ARCH 473/3522 - Fall 2018
Antonios Younan
A
03 Rhino
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Material Experimentation
13 The end result of phase I that shows the pavillion in the PVA court.
That stage was to reflect the materiality and the observations concluded in the experimentation phase in a design on Rhino using the tools we learnt in the tutorials.
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Antonios Younan
14 The approach for that design was based on the manipulation of the cross sections of the pavilion. Four curves of different sizes and shapes were drawn on Rhino as shown. These curves were inspired from the natural Voronoi pattern that reflects the randomness of the perforations in the foam.
Secondly, using the loft tool, these curves were connected forming a surface mesh. Along that surface, the created folds from both sides were functioned as seating areas. Back to back, these seats were some facing the tree with its quiet mood and others facing the lounge with its vibrance.
The problem with that design was its non-originality . In addition, the materiality was not reflected enough in it.
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Material Experimentation
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16 The approach for that design was based on the manipulation of the cross sections of the pavilion. Four curves of different sizes and shapes were drawn on Rhino as shown. These curves were inspired from the natural Voronoi pattern that reflects the randomness of the perforations in the foam.
Secondly, using the loft tool, these curves were connected forming a surface mesh. Along that surface, the created folds from both sides were functioned as seating areas. Back to back, these seats were some facing the tree with its quiet mood and others facing the lounge with its vibrance.
The problem with that design was its non-originality. In addition, the materiality was not reflected enough in it.
Portfolio
Material Experimentation
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A shot of the final physical model after the fabrication phase.
04 Fabrication
20 The fabrication is done using Slicer. Slicer generates the profiles of the contours as plans that can be laser cut later. In addition, slicer adds a dowel to simplify the assembly of the model. In that fashion, the mass was contoured and the plans were produced to a scale of 1:20. These profiles were laser cut on foamboard.
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Fabrication
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Fabrication
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A shot of the final parametric model.
05 Parametric
26 At the beginning of this stage, the parameters that control the design were well-thought of and considered. Among these parameters were, the cost, ergonomics, functionality, site constraints, stability. Cost was considered in the sense of reducing the amount of wood and materiality used in the pavilion in comparison to the final result of stage I. Functionality was considered by adding a passageway through the pavilion in addition to the seatings already created. Ergonomics are considered through the consideration of human proportions while sitting in the seatings and while walking through the pavilion. The site constraints were taken into consideration in that phase, for instance, the tree was planned to be integrated in the pavilon and comlement it. Also, it was designed in a way that it welcomes people from the entrance of the PVA and leads them through the passageway and at its end they would be guided to the rest of the PVA, the theater. An approach needed to be specified before starting working on Grasshopper. So, a plan was set. The two major approaches that were thought of to realize the defined parameters were either working with profiles (contours) and manipulating it or working with mass and subtracting from it. Some trials were made in the first approach, however, working with masses was more successful and controllable than working with profiles.
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Parametric
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28 To reach the mass that would be subtracted from, a few curves were created similar to what was done at the beginning of the Rhino phase. These curves started with primitive rectangular shapes. These rectangles were used to primarily set the dimensions of the pavilion and to ensure that it does not exceed these set dimensions. Then, these rectangles were manipulated using Graph Mapper to generate the cross sections of the pavilion. In parallel, the subtractive masses were created. These masses were mainly the tree to be integrated in the project and to create a seating area around it. The second mass was a pipe that was to create the seating facing the lounge. The third mass was the pipe that would create the passageway. These variable pipes were parametrized to different cross sections with according radii. These parameters were controllable and when set to different values, they affect the height and the width of the seating or the passageway. After splitting these masses from the mass of the pavilion, the remainder mass was contoured. The contours used were controlled by Graph Mapper to control the spacing between the contours. The spacing was intentionally left small between the profiles that were functioned as seating and it was left wider between profiles that were only defining the passageway. After reaching the optimum spacing and design, profiles were extruded to a thickness of 5 cm similar to the thickness of wood.
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Parametric
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Parametric
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Parametric
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