Student Portfolio
ARCH 473/3522 - DIGITAL DESIGN STUDIO AND WORKSHOP Rana Geith Spring 2020
The American University in Cairo (AUC) School of Sciences and Engineering - Department of Architecture ARCH 473/3522 - Digital Design Studio and Workshop (Spring 2019) 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: Rana Geith Student ID: 900160163
Š The American University in Cairo (AUC), May 2020
Rana Geith Architecture Student
This is Rana N. Geith. I am an undergraduate student in the American University in Cairo, who lives in Cairo, Egypt. I joined architecture school in Fall 2016, and, currently, I am a senior student who is expected to graduate Spring 2021. Architecture has been a rather challenging major since day one. During my experience in this course, I have witnessed in depth application of advanced CAD concepts. Real time computer graphics. Throughout the course, I was introduced to modeling, texture mapping, environments, in addition to generative design and Avatars. As a result, I could utilize these digital tools and methods of design with manual tools within my design process. Accordingly, these computational design methodologies, visualization, digital fabrication, cost estimation, scheduling and facility management could enhance my design process and overall outcome. In the process, I explored the field of Parametric design, for the first time, and Building Information Modeling (BIM). The course,
in a nutshell, provided an overview in state-of-the-art design software and their effective implementation to offer solutions for architects. Embedded in the course are software skills for 3D modeling, generative and parametric design, and visualization. The research conducted throughout the semester could encourage my designs to be derived from scientific research. Also, the course content developed and enhanced computational skills at the individual and group work level. The first project put forth in the portfolio is the “Homeless Shelter” in El-Minya illustrates the use of the computers as additional powerful tool, together with traditional tools, to enhance freedom in design and demonstrating the possibilities and application domains of digital fabrication. Afterwards, the second project included “The Blank Façade Canvas”, which was purely material exploration, and the “Parametric Double-skin Façade”, which included designing a double skin facade to retrofit an already existing building facade in New Cairo, Egypt. The two components of the second project could help me explore further the notion of model complex and innovative geometries in a 3D modeling software environment (Grasshopper), as well as, implement algorithmic thinking in the process of structuring architectural problems and solutions and translating sources of inspiration informed by nature and materiality. The several explorations conducted during this phase could help me utilize parametric modeling concepts and techniques for the continuous generation, analysis and evaluation of architectural alternatives in an iterative design process. Another important and helpful course outcome is the emphasis on applying visualization techniques to communicate designs to the highest quality and illustrating the digital design process using curated and elaborate graphical documentation.
The shelter in context with its open multi-gates that reaches out to the site children, being ready to receive them similar to the corn that reaches out with its silk to receive the pollen.
01 Project 1:The Homeless Shelter
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THE SITE
THE USERS
ENVIORNMENTAL ANALYSIS
THE INSPIRATION
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We started project 1 with group work to analyze the site, which is “El-Minya�, and choose the natural growth inspiration that we would continue with individually. The chosen inspiration was corn because it was one of the abundant plants in El-Minya, and it has an interesting, elaborate growth cycle. This phase was helpful in terms of analytically identifying the growth stages of corn and abstracting it into conceptual diagrams in order to deduce the variables interplaying and the relations of the different parts to each other. This phase was also helpful in highlighting the difference between the abstraction and mimicking when it comes to being inspired by a phenomenon. For example, I came across a tower that was inspired by the corn plant as well; however, the tower actually took the shape of the corn cob. As much as this undermines the creativity and innovation of architecture, this example served as a call to avoid such literal path when inspired by a phenomenon. Moreover, this stage greatly focused on analysis, analyzing the site, its environmental conditions, its users, and its problems, which aided with creating a brief that we should follow as a group. This brief included our shelter users, homeless children, making the shelter well shaded in order to aid with the hot arid conditions of the site, and the part each one of us would choose to elaborate on individually. At first, I chose the corn ear and tassel to focus on; however, each was multidimensional. So, I decided to focus only on the corn ear.
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4 DESIGN DRIVERS
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5 Corn ear analysis.
I chose to focus on the ear because I find its process interesting in terms of the breaking out, elongation, emergence, escalation, and reaching out nature it has. This abstraction phase was really challenging because I needed translate those keywords into design, where the mass should express the story of the corn ear emerging between the stem and the leaf. It is a quite delicate and interesting phenomenon that made me ask myself What strategies can be developed to use form-making as a catalyst for design innovation? How can corn be translated through these strategies to produce aesthetic and functional architecture? What strategies can be developed to extract data from digital models for fabrication? What visualization & representation techniques best communicate the resulting design ideas? For this stage I chose to focus on the first question, putting into consideration that the keywords deduced from the research are my goto in any of my design decisions in accordance with the environmental conditions of the site. In so doing, I started sketching my ideas and delved into the process of form-making, which required thinking about the interplay between the design shell system and core system internally and externally.
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6 ABSTRACTING BEHAVIOR
MATERIALITY
CONCEPTUAL APPROACH
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7 FORM-MAKING
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RHINO MODEL PROGRESS
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Rhino model development and concept.
While developing the model digitally, I was not experienced with using Rhino at first. So, my first attempt was just an attempt to portray the how I visualize the form, using the commands and instructions taken in the lab sessions. Accordingly, with the guide of the doctors and the TAs, I could develop more on the concept I have in the second attempt. The form that resulted from that concept was a core system the represents the corn cob, form which a shell system develops from within, representing the corn silk. These two systems should interplay together, fighting for dominance, with the shell being dominant at one end, contradicting the other solid end. The shell system should act as means to reach out to the street children, ready to receive them within. In the third, and final attempt, the layer of materiality was added to the project, where the reed bundles where accurately represented using Grasshopper. Grasshopper was used with the help of the TAs because I did not have any prior knowledge about it. However, it was a helpful and accurate tool to help portray the tube-like reed bundles. Also, I explored Rhino to add the core system material, which is limestone, which really helped with the presentation of the model and clarified its essence.
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FORM DEVELOPMENT
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Form-making stages and development.
Moving forward to how the model developed in detail, the several phases of this development served as important learning process, the first lesson was formmaking. In my previous design courses, form making was about cubical masses put together to form a whole. However, during this project I learned formmaking as an art of material interplay and coherence. the second lesson is coherence. coherence is about accuracy and attention to details. While designing the shelter, I had to give extra attention to the fluidity of the overall form and the details that help with achieving such sense of visual continuity. The third lesson is the back and forth adjustments. While designing using rhino and grasshopper, I had to adjust the design in one and adapt the other to such changes. Also, I had to decide, given my beginner skills, which components to design on Grasshopper and which to design on Rhino. For example, the reed bundles randomness, quantity, pipe diameter, and shape were all designed on grasshopper; however, the rings that hold the bundles together were designed on Rhino to easily control their diameter based on the complete bundle diameter. Based on that comes the forth lesson, which is to understand the digital tools used to reach the easiest and most efficient path to the design.
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FORM ANALYSIS
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13 Model analysis diagram and architectural sections.
From the feedback I have received during this phase, was that I needed to illustrate how the concept is shown in the form. Therefore, I used the form analysis diagram to show how the form changes and is manipulated by the corn ear growth stages abstractions. This exercise was helpful in terms of understanding the flow of the form and if the concept was not strongly portrayed in any of the transitions of the form. So, there was a backand-forth process to adjust the form based on any inconsistencies I spot when I got back to the conceptual approach. In the same sense, the architectural drawings were a representative tool of how the concept was applied internally and externally. In this phase, the sections were mainly used to portray the experience and tell the story of the form, which was a different approach than that of the other design studios. In the design studios, sections are used to show structural systems, floor heights, and technicalities that were not of much importance in this course. Of course, the other design studios gave attention to the experience within the design, but it was not with the magnitude of that of the digital design studio. I believe that this is helpful in terms of elaborating on an aspect that we were not exposed to, which is the importance of form-making and building enclosure story, in order to achieve a n overall balance between the art and the engineering.
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PROGRAM
FABRICATION
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The last stage of this project was the fabrication. It was my first time to encounter the 3D Printing process. I used Cura after I exported the model from Rhino to discover that by mistake, the core material thickness was 1 mm instead of 1 cm, which is too thin for the 3D printing. Then, I learned that the correct thickness is between 0.3 cm to 0.5 cm. Also, there was a problem with the reed material thickness, so it was changed from 0.01 cm to 0.3 cm to aid with the 3D Printing efficiency as one bundle before this modification was calculated to take 16 hours to be printed. In order to create a less complicated shape and save time, the bundle inner tubes are replaced by a hollow space that is capped only at the outer sides. Doing so brings back the lesson of using the digital tool to reach the easiest and most efficient solutions. Of course, when all those problems were discovered, I was very stressed and disappointed; however, finding solutions and implementing them to reach a successful outcome was rather rewarding. On the other hand, I really wanted to explore Lumion as a rendering tool, as we received tutorials on how to use it. However, due to the circumstances of the pandemic COVID’19, it was hard to be on campus to access the department computers to use Lumion, which I did not have on my laptop. So, I used photoshop instead to represent the project shots with the style I thought most fits the context and project essence, trying to portray the design responsiveness to the site. In the same sense, the shots show its materiality and contextuality.
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The model in the picture ddemonstrates the concept of surface subtractions unsing Fabric Formworks.
02 Project II-A:The Blank Facade Canvas
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This project starts with researching what fabric formworks are, analyzing the historical background as a start. It was illustrated that fabric formworks started by Lilienthal’s proficiency as a builder and inventor, combined with his interest in textiles, that led to his invention of a fabricformed suspended floor, patented in the USA in 1899. Then came James Waller, who noticed that cement dust blown onto a wet tent rendered the canvas amazingly strong. It was this incident that resulted in his patented “Nofrango� system. Waller had uncovered the versatility of fabric formwork, but in two dimensions, dealing only with linear or planar elements. He extrapolated this observation to build shells using parallel falsework arches and allowing the fabric to sag in between to form corrugations. The use of fabrics in formworks was purely utilitarian, seen as a simple and cost-effective strategy in construction, although Lilienthal had commented on the resulting texture of the concrete. The first person to acknowledge the architectural and aesthetic possibilities of fabric formwork was the Spanish architect Miguel Fisac. During the late 1980s , Mark West, and by Kenzo Unno, both working independently. Unno, in search of simple, alternative, low-cost construction methods, discovered the strength of plastic netting as a formwork material and subsequently developed a fabric formwork system for load-bearing walls. Mark West began with column forms, eventually included flexible formwork methods for panels walls, slabs, beams and thin shells, all using flat sheets of fabric, woven geotextiles, leading to new explorations in fabric-formed architecture.
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From the historical background research, I could point out the contradictory fact of th fabric formworks, being a fragile material that is originally used as structural solution! Moving forward to the techniques of fabric formworks I learned that the most relevant technique to our scope of work is smocking. The term comes from �smock�, a farmer’s work shirt, and the technique was popularized in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as it was possible to more easily tailor flat panels of fabric to the shape of the human body without labor-intensive cutting and sewing of numerous pattern pieces. Hand smocking typically involves making a regular grid onto the sheet of material to tailor and connecting the end points of pattern lines where excess material needs to be gathered. Another technique is the digital prototyping. Traditional casting methods promote repetition of forms. Any variation in the design requires a new form to be built, not to mention the difficulty of casting compound shapes without breakage when the mold is removed. Robotically positioned fabric formwork will make these barriers a thing of the past. The third technique that I find interesting and innovative is the integration between both techniques, the digital and the physical. Because it is possible to accurately simulate flexible formwork under the hydrostatic pressures of cast concrete, this tool opens the possibility for designers with no previous flexible formwork or casting experience to utilize these techniques, expanding upon the field by combining a centuries-old sewing technique with computational design.
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Furthermore, the domain of application of the fabric formworks, to find that it reaches a wide spectrum of industries due to its flexibility and efficiency. It was inspiring to check the students works by Fabric formworks. Outside of CAST, the architectural integration of structural and sculptural form provided by a flexible mould material can be found in student experiments and industrial design prototypes. Using nylon and plaster, students at the AA in London have mused on the potential of fabric formwork through the creation of models of complex long-span roofs that defy the definitions of columns, beams, slabs or shells. Another use is in the Furniture industry, where several industrial designers have used furniture as a method to demonstrate the potential of fabric formwork. These examples show interesting shapes with a clear structural function. At first, these examples suggest the use of polymers rather than concrete. Fabric formworks are used in structural system, such as trusses, beams, and columns. Also, they are used in walls, thin shells, and wall panels. In addition, they are used in Sculptures. The uncanny similarity between bodies and fabric-cast concrete forms, stems from a fundamental co-incidence: phenotypes from both realms are made of fluid-filled membranes. This heavy, wet, pressing meets a mirroring resistance in the tension membrane mould, invariably giving an otherwise “dead” material the strange appearance of life. Instead of thinking about these things strictly in terms of “form”, I tend to think about them primarily in terms of action, the result of a force or energy flow, held in space and solidified.
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To conclude the research phase, the acquired information had to be illustrated further with real implementations of using fabric formworks in the forming approach. The first precedent was KnitCandela by Zaha Hadid Architects. It is a thin, sinuous concrete shell built on an ultra-lightweight knitted formwork that was carried from Switzerland to Mexico in a suitcase. KnitCrete is a novel, material-saving, labor-reducing and cost-effective formwork system for the casting of doubly curved geometries in concrete. The second example is the Mars Pavilion form find design, where Industrial robot arms manipulate fabric sleeves, creating an adjustable formwork into which concrete is poured. No two components are the same in the structure, which is designed to be a catenary to keep every member in compression. Steel fiber is introduced in lieu of rebar, yielding a 25% increase of compressive, tensile and flexural strengths. The third precedent is the Facade Shading System by form find design. Through this technique, robots position the fabric which acts as a mold for a concrete pour. Reinforcing cables are then cast within the bone-like shapes of the faรงade to deliver tensile forces between members. The last precedent is one that is inspired by the fabric formworks. It is ICD-ITKE Research pavilion, which is a new research pavilion demonstrating robotic textile fabrication techniques for segmented timber shells. The pavilion is the first of its kind to employ industrial sewing of wood elements on an architectural scale. Introducing the textile connection methods, being lightweight and performative segmented timber shells.
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The reading of that week was very helpful in terms of understanding a general, yet precise idea about fabric formworks. The history reading helped me realize that the origins of the fabric formworks was structural, which I find contrading and interesting. It also helped me understand how the ways in which fabric formwork are sustainable, which made me think of taking this path as my focal point in this project. The concrete forming reading was an easy guide to understanding the practicality of fabric formwork, as after I researched for sometime, I felt overwhelmed with the complexity of the models I saw. However, the reading provided thorough examples and explanations about the fabric forming, specifically in the smocking technique section. Accordingly, I tried to apply my understanding to my physical model attempt because it supported the ideas I wanted to convey. The computational form finding reading was an eye opener to the pros and cons of the fabric formwork. However, what I found the most interesting was the spectrum of possibilities that Fabric forms offer, away from the traditional. In so doing, it doesn’t only contribute to the aeathics of the architecture, but the influence of the modern-day technology on the effectiveness and effeciany of the architecture produced. For that reason, I tried to test the different materials I was working with in different ways to experiment the flexibility of working with fabric formwork. Mainly, I wanted to experiment the fabric formworks in the forming approach using smocking technique.
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33 First experimentation with gypsum.
The physical model process was a tough one. From the research, I thought that the fabric formwork could be easily handled that I tried to change some of the technicalities and challenge its materials. However, when it came to practice, handling the gypsum was not as I have expected. The density of the material was not taken into consideration while creating the fabric formwork. Accordingly, the shape didn’t come out the way it was planned because the high density of the material took over the wire and the fabric, dominating them to its own shape. Also, securing the material tension wires with pins was not strong enough to hold it in place when the gypsum settled. The water leakage that happened was something that I didn not expect as well, but it seems that I increased the water in the mixture. The overall shape shrunk leading to a decreased volume and apparently the most challenging part in my point of view is how to make the formwork tensioned and strong enough to shape the paste, specifically in the vertical direction. In general, the experimentation failed, as there were material cracks and shrinkage that caused the overall shape to deform. The intended subtraction within the form was not achieved since the fabric got stuck within the gypsum and it would break if I tried to pull it out. ARCH 473/3522 - Spring 2020
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I chose to focus on the ear
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In experimentation 02, there was no water leakage, separate parts due to the post-shaping knitting, the paste hardened very quickly (5 mins), and cracks appeared immediately. It was removed from skeleton right away and cracks separated the gypsum mass into parts. The result was complete failure of the model due to insufficient water content and inefficient mixing. In experimentation 03, there was no water leakage, better consistency and the gypsum had better shape. The model dried in a very slow rate. No cracking appeared in the first hour and the model was kept hung to the skeleton for 2 hours. However, the surface of the mixture did not dry for 5 hours. The model failed due to the layering of pouring the paste. In experimentation 04, The mixture hardened very quickly with a middle crack that appeared directly after placement (approx. 5 minutes). The crack divided the mass. The mixture was not consistent, which led to the model failure due to water insufficiency. In experimentation 05, the mixture is added all at once, and aggregate is added to the mixture for strength. It dried in 5 minutes with no visible cracks. The mixture was handier and more consistent. There were few clusters in the paste, and the fabric is strong and flexible. This was the successful attempt; it as high strength and a definite shape. Yet, there was a crack due to the thin layer at that zone.
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After the five experimentations, I could deduce the parameters that helped me reach the successful attempt to further help with the facade design to find that the advantages are: - No water leakage - Mixture did not shrink therefore the volume stays the same. - The good gypsum to water ratio is 8:3 - The 3 mm cotton fabric with well secured fabric is the good fabric option. - The aggregate additive provides strength to the mixture. Then, I identified the weak points that were not achieved by the experimentation, which were: - The successful attempt was not to the correct scale. - The whole mixture should be poured all at once. - There should be greater emphasis on the subtractions of the model surface. The experimentation done helped support the research conducted in order to show the drivers, which are the material efficiency the fabric formwork offers, which makes it sustainable, and the contradiction between the rigidity of concrete and the flexibility of fabric. The experimentation helped me explore how to reach parameters that would help with creating solid, hollow, & freeform section to show the essence of the fabrication material. In so doing, the outcome should challenge the concrete solidity by subtracting from it to have a free form, and accordingly question perceiving concrete as cold and aggressive. I could also understand how to implement this concept digitally
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41 Parameters relations and behaviors illustration.
Based on the experimentations conducted, I could arrive at the variables that will monitor the changes of the form. Those variables are the control points of the box skeleton, the fabric, the wire mesh, and the casted material. This process was very helpful in terms of helping me convert a physical model into a digital, more accurate one. In so doing, I could reach the conclusion that I have to first define the box parameter points, then identify the control points on it. Afterwards, the fabric surface would be established, with the divisions, which act as the wire mesh on that surface to define the curve sharpness. Eventually, the curve expression that would relate those points would be a transforming sine curve, simulating the paste behavior in the physical model. To control the altitude of this curve, the control points on the parameter box would be used. The outcome of this process on grasshopper is expected to give similar results to that of the physical, however with more precise and flexible alterations offered. This exercise taught me how to understand and breakdown shapes and masses into formulas, parameters, and algorithms. I was not something that I thought I could do before going through this exercise. I also learned that material essence is very important to consider when dealing with shaping it and integrating it with other materials.
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Blom Bank building in context with the double skin facade.
02 Project II-B:The Parametric Facelift
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SOLAR ANALYSIS
WIND ANALYSIS u
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S using Revit
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using Flow Design
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In this project, the objective is to explore and parametrically generate a prototype for a building façade skin that takes into consideration issues of environmental comfort, spatial relations and human aspects using a passive approach. It was required to develop a parametrically driven building skin for the building shown in the diagram (Blom Bank Egypt SAE - Main Branch, South Teseen Rd, New Cairo). In order to do so, site and environmental analysis were conducted in order to develop design guidelines and responses that the double skin facade should account for. The building facade assigned is a corner facing South and South-West, which are areas with the highest sun exposure throughout the day. Therefore, the DSF type used is “corridor type” , due to pressure difference. The DSF is a responsive facade that vary according to Orientation, as it shifts from horizontal direction to vertical, from south to west respectively. The second factor is daytime, where it responds to the different sun angles throughout the day The third factor is the Season, shifting between the winter and summer angles. The forth is the Human interaction: behavior and its proximity to the screen. The fifth factor is the wind trapping as there is high potential of wind catching at the zone of the assigned facade. ARCH 473/3522 - Spring 2020
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PART I FINDINGS & SKIN BEHAVIOR
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This is the initial parametric design strategy that includes the derived parameters, rules and relationships from the experimentation in Part I. Put forth is the specific strategy that will be adopted in the parametric and generative exploration exercise, using iterations that include recursion, repetition, tiling, and subdivision. These conceptual goals are addressed with full knowledge of the site analysis to achieve variation and complexity through the selected strategies. Such parameters are used as an attempt to represent the initial design module/unit in Grasshopper. The design capitalizes on the ideas captured in the material exploration exercise and develop conceptual approaches based on the derived parameters, rules and relationships so that you can define extensive iterations for a variety of design alternatives. The approach devises a parametric logic for the design of the faรงade skin based on environmental, spatial, functional, and aesthetic considerations. So, part I parameters were used to develop the responsive mechanism of the skin. Also, the skin adapts the behavior that was achieved in the experimentation conducted in part 1. This was the first stage of translating physical experimentation into computational design, where I was able to relate the physical material exploration to the design problem assigned and start creating a track to follow in order to develop the screen mechanism.
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Here, Grasshopper represents the logic of the building faรงade skin and how it is utilized in the parametric strategy to propagate the initial design module/unit throughout the whole building faรงade. The Rhino model of the existing building is mapped to illustrate the intervention. The first grasshopper attempt utilizes the derived parameters and allows several iterations. This attempt was the begining of a series to continue on for the parametric modeling progress and how it aids with the spatial, environmental, and functional concepts to further develop and parametrically modify building faรงade skin design. Through multiple iterations and extractions of basic projections such as partial plans/sections, the building skin demonstrates how the building skin works passively to achieve the desired goal and how it creates a viable spatial skin component. Throughout the exploration with the algorithm, I could explore new ways of parametric design on grasshopper and how new designs for architectural elements can be both aesthetical and functional be produced. The lessons learned from this stage is that computational design acquire a hierarchy of tasks and organized throughout to reach the required outcome. ARCH 473/3522 - Spring 2020
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The diagram illustrates the grasshopper definition of the double screen facade. It is divided into the sun path, the surface divisions, the paneling, the sine curve, the smart structural pipes, the thickness of panels, and the translucent glass material that depends on the human interaction within the space. Working with grasshopper was not an easy path; however, it was worth long hours of practicing. Developing the script, I could learn how to utilize parametric modeling concepts and techniques for the continuous generation, analysis, and evaluation of architectural alternatives in an iterative design process. ARCH 473/3522 - Spring 2020
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As per my investigation in the group presentation that was conducted at the beginning of this stage, the corridor type is when the air space is divided into horizontal compartments, usually at the level of each storey. In some cases, vertical dividers are added for fire and sound protection. The corridor is accessible and is wide enough to be used as a service platform. In the design the DSF design is intended to create natural ventilation to the interior space by creating “stack effect�. This way, the DSF would the natural ventilation strategy to provide better internal thermal comfort condition for the office spaces. Therefore, Adding another skin to a conventional poorly insulated exterior wall can impressively reduce energy consumption and increase energy savings that is achieved by natural ventilation and minimizing solar loading. The diagram shows the screen as a wind catcher, in which the screen chosen iteration of the sine curve takes the shape of the wind distribution zones. The air cavity is set to a minimum of 0.5 m as per the research it shouldn’t be less .The overall geometry does not only contribute to the wind analysis but also as means of solar avoidance where the screen shifts from sharp horizontal configuration to a rather slanted one. ARCH 473/3522 - Spring 2020
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The diagram illustrates the motion of the double skin facade. Such motion starts in complete blockage in the horizontal direction (in the south facing part of the facade) then transfers to a slanted direction (when it reaches the southwest orientation). The screen opens as the sun moves throughout the day in the areas with less solar exposure. The screen mainly refracts the harsh sun rays and breaks them before entering to the interior space. ARCH 473/3522 - Spring 2020
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The conceptual approach of Part I Experimentation was driven by the following aspects: - Explore the material efficiency that the fabric formwork offers, which makes it sustainable. - The contradiction between the rigidity of concrete and the flexibility of fabric. - Create solid, hollow, & freeform section to show the essence of the fabrication material. - Reach an outcome that would challenge the concrete solidity by subtracting from it to have a free form mass, and accordingly question perceiving concrete as cold and aggressive. Using concrete as the screen material to flow with the futuristic building appeal- glass and steel- thus challenging the concrete perception as a “cold block”. Due to the exposure to high traffic area (90th road) and the accompanied increase in air pollution, the concrete used is an advanced material called “photocatalytic concrete”. It is a CO2 absorbing concrete that turns CO2 in the atmosphere into harmless salt that washes off. Therefore, the DSF is used for: - Solar avoidance - Ventilation - Absorbs pollution ARCH 473/3522 - Spring 2020
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To create interesting and dynamic spatial settings within the double skin faรงade and since the building is south facing, the sharp sun angles need horizontal shading device. Therefore, in addition to the doubleskin facade, the building slab will extend the 3 m at the top then gradually decrease till the minimum 0.4 m, creating balconies in each floor. Accordingly the building will a have a self-shading mechanism. To maintain a 3.0 m balcony, the wall on each floor is recessed 0.5 m while the air cavity decreases by 0.5 m as well. The various attempts conducted to generate interesting variations in slab edge and wall allocation profiles to serve specific aesthetically pleasing, functional, social, environmental and spatial purposes. In doing so, the process of continuous extraction of plan and section profiles from your interactively and dynamically generated models should act as a vehicle for design exploration and generation of different alternatives rather than just a mere extraction and documentation of drawings. ARCH 473/3522 - Spring 2020
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The final outcome of thei project, along with the other projects, were very helpful in terms of practicing model complex and innovative geometries in a 3D modeling software environment. I also learned how to implement algorithmic thinking in the process of structuring architectural problems and solutions and translating sources of inspiration informed by nature and materiality. Besides, there was great emphasis on applying visualization techniques to communicate designs to the highest quality. ARCH 473/3522 - Spring 2020
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Biblography
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Block.arch.ethz.ch. (2018). Retrieved 1 May 2020, from https://block.arch.ethz.ch/brg/files/suco_201100014.pdf. Formfounddesign.com. (2013). Retrieved 1 May 2020, from https://www.formfounddesign.com/fabric-forms. Fabric- Formed Concrete and Fabric Formwork Construction. Surviving Logic. (2020). Retrieved 5 May 2020, from http:// www.survivinglogic.ca/fabric-formwork-construction.html. Mele, T. (2020). Block Research Group. Block.arch.ethz.ch. Retrieved 2 May 2020, from https://block.arch.ethz.ch/brg/ project/knit-candela-muac-mexico-city. form found design explores robotics + fabric in façade construction. designboom | architecture & design magazine. (2017). Retrieved 22 May 2020, from https://www.designboom.com/technology/form-found-design-robot-cast-facade-01-05-2017/. Gallery of ICD-ITKE Research Pavilion 2015-16 / ICD-ITKE University of Stuttgart - 32. ArchDaily. (2015). Retrieved 22 May 2020, from https://www.archdaily.com/786874/icd-itke-research-pavilion-2015-16-icd-itke-university-of-stuttgart/572b5b 96e58ece4544000023-icd-itke-research-pavilion-2015-16-icd-itke-university-of-stuttgart-photo?next_project=no. In Beijing, This Sculptural Concrete Facade Hides A Portrait Of Chairman Mao. Contemporary Modern Architecture Furniture Lighting Interior Design. (2013). Retrieved 10 May 2020, from https://www.contemporist.com/concrete-facadehides-portrait/. Research paper: A Model for External Walls Selection in Hot and Humid Climates. Advanced Smart Glass, Wall Design in Modern Architecture. Lushome - Modern Interior Design and Decor. (2017). Retrieved 22 May 2020, from https://www.lushome.com/advanced-smart-glass-wall-design-modern-architecture/197942. Aranda, B. and Lasch, C. (2006). Tooling, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, USA. Balmond, C. (2007). Informal, Prestel. Dunn, N. (2012). Digital Fabrication in Architecture, Laurence King Publishing. Frederick, M. (2007). 101 Things I learned in architecture school, MIT Press. Freyer, C., Noel, S., Rucki, E. & Antonelli, P. (2011). Digital by Design: Crafting Technology for Products and Environments, Thames and Hudson. Hensel, M., Menges, A. & Weinstock, M. (2010). Emergent Technologies and Design: Towards a Biological Paradigm for Architecture, Routledge. Iwamoto, L. (2009). Digital Fabrications: Architectural and Material Techniques, Princeton Architectural Press. Jabi, W. (2013). Parametric Design for Architecture, Laurence King Publishing. Kolarevic, B. (2005). Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing, Taylor and Francis. Segaran, T. & Hammerbacher, J. (2009). Beautiful Data: The Stories Behind Elegant Data Solutions, O’Reilly Media. Spiller, N. (2009). Digital Architecture Now: A Global Survey of Emerging Talent, Thames and Hudson. Tedeschi, A. (2014). AAD – Algorithms-Aided Design, Le Penseur Publisher. Terzidis, K. (2006). Algorithmic Architecture, Routledge. Vysivoti, S. (2012). Folding Architecture: Spatial, Structural and Organizational Diagrams, Bis Publishers
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