Student Portfolio
ARCH 473/3522 - DIGITAL DESIGN STUDIO AND WORKSHOP Mohanad Hamdoun Fall 2018
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: Mohanad Hamdoun Student ID: 900140119
Š The American University in Cairo (AUC), December 2018
Mohanad Hamdoun Architecture Student
I am an architecture student entering my last year of architecture. Throughout this long journey I have learned a lot about architecture and the design of space that has prepared me for this course. Here lies my storybook for the Digital Design Studio and Workshop displaying the highlights of my achievements as well as the progress done in order to create my final design. This course aims to explore various aspects of architecture including parametric design, digital fabrication,as well as kinetic and responsive systems. The project portrayed will look to explore three stages: learning from materiality, capturing mobility and patterns of mobility. These stages are exhibited reflecting on all the hard work done this semester.
Sample of fiber glass material after experimentation
01 Learning from Materiality
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Exploring different types of materials and their behaviour. This includes examples like wax and candy. Each of these materials was put under different conditions and underwent various stimulus that affected its form and materiality. This includes stimulus such as direct heat, hand-force deformations and water. For instance, pouring melted wax in water dictated its form, being affected by its confinement & the pressure of water. In my opinion this was a very restricted and uncontrolled. However, it did, allow the wax to create interesting forms. In terms of candy, 1) leaving in room temperature (25 degrees) 2) manual deformation The outcome for this experiment showed that wax in general was easy to deform into complex forms The plastic showed easy deformation into Unpredictable forms. However the form itself was not easily manipulated.
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Capturing Mobility
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Learning From Materiality
Sample showing various pictures
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Learning from the stiffness (lack of mobility) of the fiberglass and reflecting it in similar manner using a waffle structure. As soon as fiber glass is exposed to air it maintains its form and stiffness. Taking this structure as an inspiration for the pavilion design, cardboard is a suggested material. It reflects the same identity as the fiber glass. As soon as the cardboard units are interlocked (tongue and groove), it maintains its form and stiffness. In the materiality testing of fiber glass we applied multiple forms of stimulus including: 1) Manual Stretching 2) Immersing in heated water (80 degrees) The outcome for these experiments showed expansion of mesh openings. The mesh Turns into a hard intangible state with easy deformation into complex forms
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Learning From Materiality
7 Rendered shot from one of the digital models created on rhino
02 Capturing Mobility ARCH 473/3522 - Fall 2018
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The chosen site for the installation was the plaza, due to the fact that its a central zone within the campus and main spine. This location joins all users of the university whether they are faculty or students. The idea behind my design is to create a platform for students to express their ideas, through notes, artwork and word of mouth, to faculty members. Following the concept that my pavilion will be the connector between all members of this community, this site proves to be ideal. It will be exposing students to faculty in a way like never before. Allowing them to speak their mind and argue their rights to these faculty members that may be in power, or able to relieve student needs. My pavilion will be oriented in such a way so that it’s directed towards the flow of people within the plaza, where the two main entrances, bus gate and the gardens entrance are aligned to the pavilion entrance. There is a second entrance at the centre of the pavilion creating a vista along the spine.
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Capturing Mobility
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10 Following the materiality lessons it was essential for me to find links between the properties of the materials and the application of the pavilion design, whether conceptually, figuratively or physically. I started thinking about how the fiber glass is abiding by a grid increasing the strength of the material: The layers of the fiber glass intersect together give it its strength. Consequently the intersections of a waffle structure that could be used for the pavilion would be the secret behind its Strength also. In addition to that I thought about how the pavilion will present the idea of small particles or units on their own are portrayed as weak but When combined together show great strength: A layer of a fiber glass on its own is weak however using multiples contribute to its stiffness. In correspondance. A unit of cardboard on its own is weak however using many in a certain arrangement contribute to its stiffness. In addition to that I though bout using the idea of need for air to inspire formation of installation As there is a need of fiber glass for air I will use the idea of use of air flow in the execution of the pavilion with large openings. This will also be reflecting the idea of exposure (Stimulus). This links the idea of multiple components used to produce a powerful Structure such as in the case of both fiber glass and cardboard to reflect the purpose of the pavilion which is how the power of students coming together can make a huge difference.
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Capturing Mobility
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My initial trial in digitally designing my pavilion was using the T-Spline plug in rhino. However, this created a much more curvilinear form than intended. In addition to that, I wanted to interpret the waffling structure that spoke about the concept and function of pavilion, as well as linking it to the materiality exploration. Therefore it was a huge aspect of my design that was essential to achieve. Using T-spline in general was a good tool for experimentation. However, I cannot say that it was ideal. Apart from not following my concept it was difficult to be entirely in control of the design. In this initial design I explored the idea of seating for individuals as well as seating for a group of people. This would be the place where users would sit and write notes to faculty members. I wanted to create this on two opposite sides that would represent the two groups in discussion, faculty and students. I also schematically created an idea of a bridge that would physically create the connection between the two side of seating, showing the unity of the community and the exposure of the students
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Capturing Mobility
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In terms of form, I had developed a general idea of two sides of a story that are on opposing sides, yet amusingly enough, in union and not on opposing sides. After the failed attempt to create the model I had in mind using T-spline, I started attempting digital modeling on rhino. I started to do that by slowly creating each curve in the plan view. However, in the perspective view, many of the curves I created were distorted. So, I started manually playing around with each curve again, in the perspective view, until they formed arches. The idea was that these arches would carry the pavilion structurally, as well as provide space, under each one, for activities of selfexpression. Unfortunately, a great amount of human error was visible in the model, not showing the smooth transition of curves that I wanted to accomplish. Although rhino was much more successful at helping me generate the form I wanted to create, it was still not satisfying enough in my opinion.
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Capturing Mobility
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After various trials back and forth on rhino with the general form of the pavilion, I joined the arches using the loft tool, to create one surface for the whole model. However, it was a necessity to show the waffling structure in order for my concept to show. The form itself in my opinion was very successful and reflecting of my concept and the functionality of the pavilion, however, the structure itself also spoke of my concept. Therefore, using help from the TAs, I used grasshopper to add the waffling technique to the model. Despite the few human errors visible, I believe that this was a successful attempt at designing a pavilion in the allocated site, given the concept and conditions .
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Capturing Mobility
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I started dissecting the form I modelled in terms of functionality to show how the pavilion would be used. I decided that the two cores created by the “yin yang� generation of the form, would be the centres for exposure within the pavilion. These would be the points of high traffic, discussion and announcements. Due to the way in which the structure is carried up, the two cores are based on the floor with high rise arches creating large expression walls. I decided that the pavilion itself could be used as a method of self-expression to the
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Using fusion was interesting in the way it opened my eyes to the various waffling systems available. This includes contouring, radial slicing, linear slicing and so forth. I was able to control the number of slices in the x-direction and z-direction. In addition to that I was able to visualize the different materials that could be used with their varying thicknesses. I was surprised that the material itself used, affected the general outcome of the product. The thinner the material the more slick and refined the model looked. I therefore decided to used nasibyan for the fabrication material of my model. For the digital fabrication itself, I wanted to create radial waffling due to the fact that it is most in sync with the form of my model. However, fusion automatically created the centre of slicing for the waffling from the centre of the model. This was not to my liking because it made more sense for the centre of the slicing to be from the two cores. In order to correspond to this issue, I split my model in half and imported it into slicer, each half on its own. This created two halves of the model that were later glue together after the model making phase.
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Capturing Mobility
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The process of model making was very hectic due to fact that the individual pieces were very small and hard to hold together. However this was only at the beginning of the process. This is due to the fact that there was no stability to hold the model in place. It was also a difficult process in finding the individual pieces on the nasibyan boards. However, once I reached half of the model making process, it gained stability and the process became much quicker. I had also strated understanding the numbering of the pieces so I no longer needed to look at the fabrication instructon video on fusion
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Capturing Mobility
Rendered shot of one of the parameter alternatives
03 Patterns of Mobility
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The Parameters I chose to adopt are: 1) The Main Geometry (Yin Yan) 2) Cross section variation 3) Height of arches = Accessibility Shading 4) Spacing between arches = Lighting and Seating 5) Arch span= Circulation and Function The flow of the people is directed by the offset created by the two curves of the form of the pavilion. In terms of the spacing, the spacing is increased as arches move further away from the cores of the pavilion. Finally the arches of the pavilion vary in size and span. The small arches creating seating areas for the two user-groups, at the far ends of the pavilion. On the other hand the large arches have a much greater span that allows users to move under it and carry out activities such as discussion, drawing, writing notes and so forth.
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Patterns of Mobility
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This alternative is a more static alternative with a two sided seating arrangement, one for the faculty and one for the students. It has an exposure zone in the centre where the two dimensions collide and interact. At this zone they start getting exposed to each other. In this zone the radial slicing maximizes the difference between the spacing of the arches. This allows more lighting to enter in this zone. This also creates a passage for the two the user-groups to transition between the zones of the pavilion. The model is divided into two where the arches on one side are concave and the other side is convex, symbolising the difference between the two dimensions.
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This represents the walk-through alternative where the interior of the pavilion itself will be used as an exhibition space. This will be a more active form of the pavilion where physical demonstrations of artwork as expressions to the faculty will be carried out. This was created with simple tweeking in the “Richard Graphmappper� in grasshopper which is a simple 5-interpolate-point graph. This creates drastic changes in the z-direction. There were also changes in the x-direction using the sine-curve which varies the cross-section along the curve. Since this alternative is an experiential one, shading is an important aspect of the design.
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This alternative is also a static alternative with a two sided seating arrangement, one for the faculty and one for the students. It has an exposure zone in the centre where the two dimensions interact. The curves raised in the z-direction creating a walkthrough entrance from underneath.
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ŠAll rights reserved, American University in Cairo (AUC) December 2018