The American University in Cairo (AUC) School of Sciences and Engineering - Department of Architecture ARCH 473/3522 - Digital Design Studio and Workshop (Fall 2020) 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: Aseel Elashry Student ID: 900171191
Š The American University in Cairo (AUC), September 2020
Aseel Elashry Architecture Student
Throughout this course, I found it quite as a challenge to work with form before working with inside details of a building. Understanding form manipulation and playing with the facad skin, especially through both digital and manual approaches was extremely eye-opening to me. It taught me new ways of expression, and forced me to look through new lenses of outside before the inside. The large dependence on use of parametric softwares however was the challenge for me. I personally like to work with manual drawings and sketches, so shifting my mind to rely on digital expression took me some time to adjust to, but overall I believe is very important to work with both skills, especially in this modern age. I got into Architecture with a certain vision, wanting to use the world as my canvas that I can paint on, express my ideas and humanistic and environmental ideologies. I found that Architecture was my best way to achieve that, to impact people and affect how they perceive spaces around them, hence how they feel and experience. I, for one, appreciate nature and my surroundings in a very mindful way, picturing every scene and thinking what its story could have been. Taking part in this world, narrating other stories, is what I aim to do.
Table of Contents:
01 A Homeless Shelter
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Characteristics Concept Development Modeling Experimentations Form Generation Developed Model Modeling Strategies Zoning How is Breathability Achieved? Reflection
02 03 04 05 06 11 14 16 19
02 A Blank Canvas
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What is Casting? Types of Casting Examples of Casting in Architecture Material Experimentation Pre-casting Process Model I Model II Model III Reflections
22 23 24 25 26 27 30 32 34
03 A Parametric Skin Facade
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Transition Experimentation Process Concept Interior Spatial Configuration Spatialized Skin Concept Plans & Sections Grasshopper Definition
22 23 24 25 26 27 30 32 34
Coral reefs were taken as a natural inspiration given their colors and variety, and they act as a shelter to underwater living organisms, an ecosystem.
Coral Reefs used as a naural inspiration for the project, fitting in the chosen context of the Suez Governorate by the Red Sea.
01 A Homeless Shelter
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Coral Reef Characteristics: Coral reefs are like the ‘rainforests of the sea’, forming 25% of all ocean life. Each individual coral is referred to as a polyp: Coral polyps live on the calcium carbonate exoskeletons of their ancestors, adding their own exoskeleton to the existing coral structure, hence growing with time. Coral have a dazzling array of shapes and colors, from round, folded brain corals to tall, elegant sea whips and sea fans that look like intricate, vibrantly colored trees or plants.
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Concept Development The coral reef is a natural inspiration of high variety in shape, size, color, with interesting loops of living processes. However, these various characteristics bring a challenge in translation into form, especially in avoiding a literal translation. So I merged two concepts into one form. The first being the structure of a polyp that changes in form as it moves upwards, in terms of form, texture, shape and size, to become softer, and the second concept being the breathable surface and how a colony creates a shelter to bring all living organisms that live in this environment together. In order to achieve this concept, I abstracted the structure of the polyp while shifting levels to create breathable gaps and adding certain elements, such as the atrium to connect the levels together through environmental factors acting as a lung or a breathable core.
ARCH 473/3522 - Spring 2019
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Modeling Experimentations
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Form Generation
Highlighting roughly places and shifts of levels
Extruding curves according to heights of levels
Extruding an atrium and placing supports
Playing with final form to satisfy concept ARCH 473/3522 - Spring 2019
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Developed Model Exterior showing play of form, structure, space and materials.
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Shot showing rooftop seating area by the single unit residential zone Portfolio
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Shot showing outdoor social spaces by the entrance, under shade ARCH 473/3522 - Spring 2019
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Modeling Strategies: Linework
Rebuild
Contour
Sweep 2 Rails
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North Elevation
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East Elevation
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Zoning The commercial spaces are arranged in a circular form around the central atrium, with social spaces under the shaded area below the structures. The residential units are categorized into multi-family units, shown on the first level, and single units on the last level. Multi-Family Units (Residential) Single Units (Residential) Commercial Social
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A decomposition of the form, showing the different levels in abstracted manner
ARCH 473/3522 - Spring 2019
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16 Diagrams showing wind directions, humidity and dry temperature. The atrium opening is based on the prevailing wind diections of Suez area.
How is this Breathability Achieved?
The building includes an atrium as an environmental feature that captures sun into indirect rays to light up the upper floors, as well as wind, ventilating the building in a vertical manner. This creates a breathable core to the design, in addition to the shifting levels of seperated heights as gaps allowing for breathability in between and all around the structure; also giving it a lighter form. Portfolio
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Layout View, showing greenery on rooftops, and outdoor spaces
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Fabrication I chose to use slicer for my fabrication process, as it helped me better show my concept. I used horizontal slices as this direction would be perpendicular to which the form rises and varies, and given the complex and large size of the form, this was suitable as it broke down and simplified the height differences making them clearer. These shots show the process of building up through the slices, from the ground level to the upper levels, the atrium and pillars.
Breathability Through Fabrication
Slicer used to create horizontal slices to emphasize the play of levels and breathability through the gaps ARCH 473/3522 - Spring 2019
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Reflection
This project was quite challenging, as it forced me to change my thought process, where instead of starting with a rough form and creating plans, I was made to play with the form and then find a way to make it architectural and split the zones, with consideration to height and area. Adjusting to think this way removed the restrictions I normally place when desigining, to think more freely and think way outside the box. ARCH 473/3522 - Spring 2019
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ŠAll rights reserved, American University in Cairo (AUC) May 2019
Use o
of Casting Method on Plaster
02 The Blank Facade Canvas
WHAT IS CASTING?
Cast concrete has been in use for centuries. Throughout history, metal casting has been used to make tools, weapons, and religious objects. Ancient Romans and Etruscans used lime and other minerals to make concrete that was then formed or cast into various shapes, including decorative sculptures for buildings. Even the ancient Egyptians used a similar process to cast some of their sculptures.
TYPES OF CASTING Metal:
In metalworking, metal is heated until it becomes liquid and is then poured into a mold. The mold is a hollow cavity that includes the desired shape, but the mold also includes runners and risers that enable the metal to fill the mold. The mold and the metal are then cooled until the metal solidifies. The solidified part (the casting) is then recovered from the mold.
Plaster, concrete, or plastic resin:
Plaster and other chemical curing materials such as concrete and plastic resin may be cast using single-use waste molds as noted above, multipleuse ‘piece’ molds, or molds made of small rigid pieces or of flexible material such as latex rubber (which is in turn supported by an exterior mold). When casting plaster or concrete, the material surface is flat and lacks transparency. By casting concrete, rather than plaster, it is possible to create sculptures, fountains, or seating for outdoor use.
EXAMPLES OF CASTING IN ARCHITECTURE
Designers Ron Culver and Joseph Sarafian progressed concrete casting techniques by adding robots.
Japanese studio Schemata Architecture Office cast concrete in a fabric bag to create this chunky counter for a confectionary kiosk, Tokyo
‘Habitat’ is one of the most acclaimed works in architecture due to its grey aesthetics and messy arrangement, based on concrete modularity.
Zumthor is a genius in his uses exposed concrete. The material is a fluid mixture of cement, sand, gravel and water.
Material Experimentation
PRE-CASTING PROCESS 1
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Use of wire mesh & plastic bag to create plaster mold.
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Wrapping the plastic bag around the mesh form created to prevent leakage from other end.
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Adding water to gypsum and mixing to an appropriate ratio.
Pouring the mixture into the mold.
MODEL-MAKING PROCESS
Surface manipulation from edges to center Punching holes into wire mesh
MODEL I In the first model, I manipuled a thinner surface creating indents and slight curves, and punched in three openings with an appropriate distance between them and an appropriate size to prevent cracking, which was successful this time.
Scrunshing plastic to create a smooth mold surface, and to separate gypsum from direct contact with wire mesh so it does not stick
Pouring of gypsum carefully so it does not overlap any indents missing the gaps for surface manipulation
Shows surface indents, where they are of highest intensity and most gentle. Perforations are shown with their raw remains around the inside of each hole. Shows a small thickness, yet strength to prevents breaking.
Wax Candle Stick Engravements
MODEL II
In this instance, I used the concept of creating a mold shaped by external objects other than the wire mesh, through removing/extracting from the surface. I shaped the wire mesh into a deep cylindrical form with twisted and curved indents, followed by placing of long cylindrical candle sticks around the circumference. Then I placed the layer of plastic and poured the gypsum into the mold, which resulted in a heavy form. Placing plastic sheet into engravings carefully to cover the full inner surface area
Pouring gypsum carefully, as it was heavy given the depth of mold
Wire Mesh Texture Remains from second layer below plastic
MODEL III
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Ss c r u n c h i n g
In the final model I played with surface manipulatin methods, creating evident indents and a central drop in the surface to see how it will mold after pouring. A layer of plastic was placed in between the curved and indents to pur over, as pouring directly over the mesh had failed in a previous trial as it was unable to be separated from the gypsum.
Pit drop at center of mesh, creating a twirl-like form
Reflections The physical interplay of materials helped me in gaining a sense in not only form-making by hand, but also in terms of scale, durability, and resources. This built in me a more realistic mindset, opening my eyes to what in reality is possible to construct and what is not, as well as to have a sense in every small aspect, which is something that a purely digital exercise would not have helped me visualize and feel. During the process of experimentation, I learned many ways in which casting could be made, however only a few were efficient. From molding directly on a smooth surface, to forming molds with wire mesh in direct or indirect (use of plastic bag as separator) contact with the gypsum, and playing with thicknesses to see how it can withstand weight or pressure. The casting method I found to be most efficient while aesthetically pleasing was the shaping of wire mesh in appropriate thicknesses and surface manipulation to produce a facade-like form while being more durable. There were many constraining aspects, from mold material to the gypsum consitituents themselves, which in my first few trials I realized was not pure gypsum, resulting in an easily cracked/breaking form. The relationship between area and thickness I found to be the most evident in significance as it determined the strength and durability of the form/surface created. In addition to surfaces where I had created openings/holes within, the distances between the holes were important and had to be well considered to prevent any breaking between the one hole and the other. Moreover, variables such as the gypsum to water ratio highly determined the strength of the model, as if the gypsum was too little, the pouring was quite messy and watery and the outcome was relatively weaker, although it dried very quickly. Whereas if the gypsum was too much the mixture formed a heavy paste that made it difficult to mold especially onto more detailed surfaces.
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