Module 4 yuanyuan ye 613901

Module 4 Reflection

YuanYuan Ye Student No: 613901. Semester 1/2013. Group 2

Ideation – my natural pattern

My pattern is a natural pattern of a spiral. How the shape of spiral formed is that there are countlessly different size but same type of elements aggregate continually.

My pattern reveals transformation of scaling and movement of the elements. Through the observation of the different elements, we could find them move and scale up to a same direction but different position. It's a kind of continuum equations or a mathematical analogies.

Balance: 1. Use the dots to sketch an overall shape along the spiral 2. Connect those dots in solid lines 3. Along with the track inside the spi ral , use do tte d li nes to connect dots.

Symmetry:

1. Find the centroid 2. Draw the line along with the track of spiral

Movement: 1. Find the centroid of the spiral 2. Find the base element 3. Analyze the scale and rotate direction of base elements, then sketch the base elements along the spiral track.

Ideation Model 1:

Top View

Front Side

This model totally different from my other paper model, my idea is to think about how the model could fit in the body. It could be hung on the shoulder like a collar. It could be divided in two parts (left and right). To make the plasticine like a shape of circular arc and then use nicking tool to carve the lines on the surface. After making both of two parts, I connect their small side together to make a shape like bow tie.

Left Side

Right Side

Ideation Model 2: In this model, the random size of water drops can be stick higher or lower progressively.

1.Cut different size of strips of paper 2.Fold all the paper into a water drops shape 3.Stick them together by following the whole shape of spiral

I followed my second paper model to make random size of pieces of water drops. Then I tried to connect those pieces together. The small side of those pieces should be gathered in one point. This model is similar to the shape of my first paper model but it doesn't follow the spiral shape. It could be hung on the arm or carried on the hand as well. It's a 1:1 scale model. I want to make it like a circular arc shape which consist of random sizes of separate pieces.

Ideation Model 3:

It is a kind of movement that the small pieces move to different position to create a spiral.

1. Cut several strips of paper and fold them into the shape of semicircle.

2. Prepare an A4 size of paper as the base.

3. Stick all the pieces together from small to big and then make a shape of spiral on the base paper.

This is the clay model I get the idea from my paper model. But I don’t want to create the clay model by separate pieces of semicircle because the clay is not as easy as the paper to stick them together.

Then I tried to make the overall shape of a rise spiral which get smaller progressively and I used nicking tool to carve lines lightly on the surface of spiral. The space between lines is equal. These space looks like the semicircle.

Ideation - light effect

Light could influence the ambience and feeling, diverse use of light could make different appearance of object. If the light is bright, the lantern will be looked more tridimensional because the contrast between shadow and brightness is more obvious. And we could see the light gradual change of the lantern. The dark light will make lantern seem blurring and gentle.

The light use of this architecture is interesting. It used many small lamp bulbs to decorate the house and pool. I like the effects made by those kind of bulbs which build a gentle ambience and warm feeling. In addition, the bulbs are regulated in a moderate light level which makes people feel relax and comfortable as well.

Design – response of reading

TED talks by Thomas Heatherwick:

One of the projects is the openning bridge which made of steel and timber.Instead of pay much attention on its design, it focuses on the way of function. The two sides of this bridge would kiss each other in a normal speed to create a spatial effect.

The most influencing project is seed cathedral, the UK pavilion in Shanghai Expo in 2010. Its amazing conception comes from the landscape of nature in city: trees and flower and then seeds. Heatherwick thought these tiny things could be made delicate through the idea that take 66000 seeds to cross precious optical hair to get through a box. In addition, there is nothing inside but just slience and cool temperature.

How Thomas Heatherwick uses design to create spatial effect is to combine the idea of fabrication, structure and aesthetics which in order to create a new system of construction.

Difference between Abstraction & Reduction: Scheurer, F. and Stehling, H. (2011): Lost in Parameter Space? IAD: Architectural Design, Wiley, 81 (4), July.

Abstraction is to simplify the complexity of a model from reality and then create it as less information as possible. A model is an abstraction of reality. However, reduction is in contrast to abstraction which means to find the opitimal way to transport the information of things rather than reduce the amount of information.

Relating to the article of Analytical Drawing written by Poling, its idea of creating the analytical drawing is similar to abstraction and reduction: the stages need to simplify, analyze and transform the actual structure of the object. Then use neat lines to contour the analytical drawing of the object.

Design - Orthographic images of model

Front view

Top view Followed by the first method in Appendix, I made the contour in respect to front view and top view of my clay model. After I finished the digitized model in rhino, I found that there are gaps between each part(the digitized model is separated by the contour lines), it means it's not a whole. And the grid are inside the model as well which is difficult to be developed with paneling tool. Then I found that I should loft the surface of the model in perspective view and swap the inside the surface to outside to set the grids outside the model.

Design – paneling tool

These are my design using panel tool. I have tried different effects that to gain the best one so I consider what the light effect I want to achieve.

Precedents of light effects

On the left is Times Eureka Pavilion which designed with benchmark as the main elements. We could see the light effect gets through the benchmark, the shadow of the irregular shape projects on the ground which is quite beautiful! I want to design my final lantern similarly with this light effect, the light which gets through the pattern of my lantern could make a beautiful shadow.

On the left and right are Campus event space in Stuttgart. The light effect is different from Times Eureka Pavilion. The light is inside the pattern and also the lightness is different as well. I like this effect which seems quite comfortable!

Design – with prototypes and light Offset Border

In this case, I considered that what if change the overall shape of my clay model. By using the Panel 3D Grid Pyramid command in paneling tool, the digitized model is formed by many pyramids. Then using offset border command the pyramid became empty. It is different from the clay model, I think the light effect will be good while getting through the hollow pyramids.

The underneath are my prototypes. I like the effect set by light which get through the hole inside the pyramids. If I change the stand position of the prototype or control the light in different distance, we could see the shadow it's different which is quite interesting!

3D Partition

This digitized model consists of many different size of rectangles which are empty inside by using Panel 3D Grid command in paneling tool. We could see there are many slight strips on the surface of my clay model and the space between them is like the shape of rectangle, thus how I get this idea is that I follow the surface of my clay model.

On the bottom are the prototypes, it contains 6 rectangle joined panels. The rectangle could be lapped. But in this case, the hole which inside the rectangles are too big and the contour lines are very thin, thus the final lantern might seemed very ‘empty’.

Design - my final design Custom 3D Pattern

This is my original clay model.

We could see there are some strips on its surface and the space between each strip is like a shape of rectangle, so I just think of my final lantern what if change the rectangle into another more tridimensional shapes.

I tried pentagon, octagon and finally I decided to use trapezoid because it's easier and more suitable to create a interconnected surface on the model. Thus I developed the model with many same size of tridimensional trapezoids. Then I consider how to achieve a good light effect, I decided to make each surface of the trapezoid get a hole on it so I think when the light get through the hole model which might l o o k s v e ry b e a u ti f ul . T he und e r ne a t h i s the t e s t o f p ro to ty p e s o f p a r t o f t he l a n t e rn .

I want to test the light effect so I made just three layers of my lantern. The light effect looks good but it seems quite uniformed because of the same size of trapezoid. Thus I consider how to make it look more interesting like what if the hole of each trapezoid is different size. However, it is still interesting.

Fabrication - my final design

I modified the model with the same shape of trapezoid again but it's different from the size and shape of the hole. We could see the hole on the surface are not square shape like the before one.

The new hole consist of different size of triangle so I think the light effect might be looked very interesting which is what I expected.

I have made a few layers of my final digitized model to test the light effects. Because of the different size of the hole on the surface of each trapezoid, the light effect seems quite interesting and the shadow of looks quite different from the first model which has a uniformed light effect.

Fabrication - unfold the model

At the first time I tried to unfold my model into a set of flat shapes.

However, after I unroll the surface the pieces are overlapped with each other. Then I check it whether I put the overlapped command when unrolling the surface. I found that I didn’t, so I tried another way to unroll the surface by using the command of unroll surface.

Then I succeed!

I unrolled each layer separately. Firstly, copying each layer into a new layer and then unroll them individually. Next I labelled all of the prototypes and nested them into the rectangle which required.

After I finish unrolled all the layers of my model, I subdivided the unrolled prototypes into units of triangle and delete the surface by using DupEdges command. The right picture is my final 1;1 scale of prototype. Then I nested all the prototypes to put all of them into the rectangle as required and t h e n p r i n t e d o u t .

Fabrication - testing tab dimension and different way to stick together

After I creating the tab, I found there are some intersection between them. I tried to use Grasshopper to make a smaller size but my prototypes are quite dense so if I want to get rid of the intersection, the tab might be very small and difficult to be stick together.

What I did to get rid of the intersection is that I delete one side of tab if there is an intersection. Because I found that actually I could still stick the prototypes together if there is just one side of tab. So I tried to delete and change the size to take off the intersection.

I tried the way that just create one side of tab between two pieces of trapezoid. I found that it is much more easier to stick them together!

Because if there are two side of tabs, the separate pieces can not be stick together.

Then I considered to put the light inside my model which is easy because my model is like an empty cylinder so just put the light inside without dismantling the lantern.

Fabrication - material usage

This is the ivory white paper card I used for cutting cuter. I have used two ivory paper cards because I have two templates of prototypes.

The right pictures are the material I used for fabricating my lantern include scissors, scalper, solid glue stick and ruler. I don’t use liquid glue stick because it is difficult to control how much I need to use and it might makes the paper very dirty.

As well as the tape and cutting mat. As my lantern is formed by tridimensional shapes so when I use glue stick to stick them, the paper will explode. Then I used tape to stick them. Though it doesn’t look very neat, it is the only way to stick the lantern.

On the left are two 9V batteries, switch, cable and six LED lights. These material are necessary for setting the lights inside my model.

Fabrication - preparation for FabLab

Then I started to prepare for FabLab and using paper cutter. Before I put the files into paper cutter, I need to set different layers for tabs, fold, cut, page and pen and make different lines of the prototypes into different color as required. Then stick the paper on the paper cutter to start cutting.

Fabrication – my final lantern

Fabrication - response to the reading

Architecture in the Digital Age - Design and Manufacturing /Branko Kolarevic. Spon Press, London, c2003.

The digital fabrication processes start with the translation from physical to digital. Through scanning the ‘point cloud’ in the conversion software to produce the structure of the model, then setting the NURBS curves to create the surface by using lofting. Recalling the process of the fabrication of my lantern, it is quite similar that creating the surface by tracing the contour lines and then using the command loft.

CNC cutting means Two-dimensional fabrication which is a very common fabrication technique. By using the water jet to cut.

Laser-cutters use beam of infrared light to melt or burned the material. However, Laser-cutters could only cut the material which absorb light energy.

The subtractive fabrication is to remove the specific volume of solids by using milling process.

The additive fabrication is to add material through the process of converse of milling. The process is like layer manufacturing which is generated in a layer-by-layer fashion.

Formative fabrication uses heat or steam to reshape and deform the shape which desired.

Finally, the model could be assembled with digital technology.

The cut cutter requires accuracy in my prototype in rhino, but it saves lots of time to make the model by hand and it is precise.

Digital fabrications: architectural and material techniques / Lisa Iwamoto. New York : Princeton Architectural Press, c2009.

One aspect of the recent shift in the use of digital technology from design to fabrication is folding which converse a surface into tridimensional one. Folding fulfills that to create a structure and new space. The way of folding is simple and direct to be used in design that could always make new shapes and without repetition.

The way of folding helps me to create the tridimensional shape of my lantern. Through folding different surface, the lantern could be formed and looks more interesting.

Reflection

Reflection The lecture of power of making outlined the ideas of scaling, making the prototypes and consider the design ways in using of architectures and the material usage.

This lecture helps me to gain some information of how to create the prototypes within my model and form the ideas that what the effect I want to achieve.

The lecture of digital fabrication outlines various ways and machine to fabricate our final models. It helps me choose the way which I used to fabricate my model. I used paper cutter to cut my prototypes, it is quite precise and convenient.

I like the presentation of Augmented Space which presented by Roudavski. It displays some new and interesting skills which used in the computer and other technologies to create an innovative structure and models. Roudavsk also considered the problem of how to design these architectures and use the material with reference to sustainability. The idea of the design is quite interesting which opens my horizon a lot and makes me re-think the way of designing my lantern. The lecture contain the skills of using Grasshopper which is quite useful to edit the model. It helps me become more familiar with Grasshopper and gain much knowledge of how to use this tool.

The reading also cover the detailed process of digital fabrication and the ideas of design by using the computer and technology. The way outlined the in the reading of Architecture in the Digital Age is also similar with the way I created my model in Rhino. A further analysis in the reading helps me deeply understand the whole process and its function.

Reflection of the whole semester

Virtual Environments is such a tough subject I have ever learned, however, I feel much achievable in the end of the semester. The process of making the lantern is very hard that I need to build paper and clay models first, then used Rhino to digitized them and finally I would fabricate it by hands. Not only much helpful on developing the knowledge of design, but also makes me learn much skills of using Rhino, paneling tool and other stuffs. In general, Virtual Environments gives me a chance to build my own and first work which is amazing!

Review all the stages of the whole semester, I think the fourth stage fabrication is the most difficult part for me that I met many problems then, like how to unroll the prototypes and set them into paper cutter, or the light effect is not I expected after I test the part of prototypes so I have to redo it. The process of trying, thinking and fabricating is very tough, however, I was quite enjoying the process because I feel really happy when I solve the problem and it is exciting to test the light effect every time.

When I saw my final lantern I could not describe how excited I was! I just feel it's very worthy to learn this subject, the one lets me gain quite a lot!

Reference: Ideation: Poling, Clark (1987): Analytical Drawing In Kandisky’s Teaching at the Bauhaus Rizzoli, New York, pp. 107-122 Tooling / Aranda, Lasch. New York : Princeton Architectural Press, 2006 Ball, Philip (2012): Pattern Formation in Nature, AD: Architectural Design, Wiley, 82 (2), March, pp. 22-27

Design: Scheurer, F. and Stehling, H. (2011): Lost in Parameter Space? IAD: Architectural Design, Wiley, 81 (4), July, pp. 70-79 TED talks - Thomas Heatherwick: http://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_heatherwick.html

Fabrication: Architecture in the Digital Age - Design and Manufacturing /Branko Kolarevic. Spon Press, London, c2003.

Digital fabrications: architectural and material techniques / Lisa Iwamoto. New York : Princeton Architectural Press, c2009.

Reflection The third Industrial Revolution / Jeremy Rifkin. Palgrave Macmillan, C2011.pp107-126 Building the Future: Recasting Labor in Architecture/ Philip Bernstein, Peggy Deamer. Princeton Architectural Press. c2008. pp 38-42