SLINKY(BOT) - PHASE 1 - SPYROPOLOUS STUDIO - AADRL by Aya Riad

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NOTE FROM TEAM:

We live in a busy, fast pace, ever-changing world nowadays. Human to human interactions are

getting more virtual and less tangible. Hence, contemporary communication networks encourage fast interactivity. Our smart devices replace many of our physical possessions making our lives easier, more efficient, more interesting, and faster. Autonomous cars are developed and robots are designed to make our lives easier and to assist us to perform tasks with high precision. Generally, artificial intelligence and machine learning are very trending in the technology of our time; they are also being tested and implemented in various fields. However, architecture remains fixed, finite, and static. The construction process remains very slow compared to the fast pace that we live in, and the outcomes are limited and permanent. Therefore, this makes us question how architecture could be situated in contemporary times. Our role is to explore and experiment technological advancements in the field of architecture to be able to design infinite, mobile, smart architecture. This architecture provides a more personalized space, variable and mobile in behaviour, and configures and reconfigures infinitely.

Our team proposal within the agenda of the Spyropoulos Design Lab is to try and break the norm

of the static finite architecture, and enhance the communication between the human and their surrounding space. We aspire to create playful and interactive architecture that could communicate, express emotion, to become part of the human’s life. It is a self-autonomous prototypical system, which could configure and reconfigure according to the surroundings. It is specifically important for us as a team to be able to create this dialogue between our architecture and the human, because the studio’s agenda is to design habitable homes, which we believe are the most personal and sincere spaces, which should be able to comfort you, excite you, alert you, and generally help enhance your health and quality of life. This book describes the work carried out in phase 1 of the AADRL to achieve our goal within the “Behavioural Complexity” Agenda of the Spyropoulos Design Lab.

TABLE OF CONTENT

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TABLE OF CONTENT:

INTRODUCTION & STUDIO BRIEF

CASE STUDY HOUSE ANALYSIS

THESIS STATEMENT

THE SLINKYBOT

SLINKYBOT TO SLINKYBOT COMMUNICATION BEHAVIOUR & SPACE-MAKING

121 128

SIMPLE BEHAVIOUR SELF-STRUCTURING OVERALL COMMUNICATION & ORGANIZATION(HIGH POPULATION)

178

SLINKYBOT FAMILIES (SPECIALIZATION)

261

SLINKYBOT & THE HUMAN

267

CONCLUSION

273

STUDIO BRIEF

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The Spyropoulos Studio framework for the concluding year of the Behavioural Complexity agenda is to design a behavioural system which aims to achieve the goals of self-assembly, self-structuring, configuration and reconfiguration. The system should potentially create 36 variations to and within one of the case study houses designed in the 1950s. The case study house initiative was a program that encouraged young architects of the time to design residential homes with new ideas, provided the restrictions they had due to war. The announcement stated that the “house must be capable of duplication and in no sense be an individual performance”. (arts & architecture). The houses were to be conceived as “the spirit of the time.” Hence, the 36 case study houses initiative delt with those specific requirements and challenges. However, it is still interesting because they required “best suited material of the time” and they had a vision of creating a house that is capable of duplication optimizing the technologies provided. The case study houses are important and relevant to our research because we share the same goals of the initiative. We are experimenting with technology, computational design, bottom-up behavioural proto-systems to capture and achieve the essence and spirit of contemporary times in architecture. We initially analyzed all the case study houses we found some interesting concepts of interior flexibilty, consideration of the human user, mobility and the multiuse of space. The case study houses are a successful demonstration and guideline that utilized technology of that time to create the best prototype of a home.

CASE STUDY HOUSES

50’S

CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGIES

INNOVATIVE MATERIAL

OPTIMUM CONFIGURATION

REDUCED COST

Beyond the unique goals and design of the case study houses, we analyzed their spatial configurations, roof treatments, materials used, construction techniques, their solid to void ratio, overall massing, and surrounding landscape and context. The 36 houses were analyzed with the aim to identify the house that could be extended with our architectural system. The next section describes the 36 case study houses

Hence, our proposed architectural system will also utilize current technology to create the house of the future. This is why the self-assembly system is explored. The main goal is to create an artificially intelligent prototypical system. The units that make up this system are autonomous, and could make decisions and communicate with other units and their surrounding context. The aim is to create architecture which is not finite, and that could configure and reconfigure according to its surroundings.

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CASE STUDY HOUSES 9

CASE STUDY HOUSES ANALYSIS HOUSE SIZE

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The Case Study Houses

were analysed according to their floor areas to set out the size range that will be used for our house design. They ranged from the smallest of 70m to the largest 2

of 1700m2. The average area of the case study houses is 280m2. These values will be used as guidelines for the size of the bounding box of our system of units.

CASE STUDY HOUSES ANALYSIS TRANSPARENCY

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The Case Study Houses were analysed according to the transparency of their materials and opennes of the houses. The range of transparency ranges from 20% to 100% which allows us different

options for manipulating transparency in our house. Transparency of our system could vary from the density of the units or their material.

CASE STUDY HOUSES ANALYSIS

MATERIALS

The materials of the houses were broken down into categories to identify the constituents of the house and its rigidity and flexibility. Those aspects are crucial when its comes to the unit prototype design which overall affects how the system would behave.

#1-1

No Name J.R. DAVIDSON 1945(unbuilt) 167

No Name J.R. DAVIDSON 1948 239

1946 Sumner Spaukding 120 and John Rex 1947 185

Lath House A. Quicy Jones Frederick E. Emmons 1961 200

#25

The Frank House Killingsworth, Brady 1961 230

#27

CSH 27 Campbell and Wong 1963 200

West House Rodney Walker 1948 120

#18A #3

#24

CHS 21B Pierre Koenig

#21B #2

Stuart Bailey House Richard Neutra 1948 70

Charles & Ray Eames 1949 286

#8 #1-2

#20.A

No Name Wurster, Bernardi and Emmon 1949 105

Killingsworth

#23A No Name Brady Smith Thornton M. Abell 1960 1948 120 180

Killingsworth Brady Smith 1960 No Name 120

#23B #11

Materials Not Specified Not Built #12

#13

#17B

J. R. Davidson 1946 255

No Name R. Neutra

#21.A Lath House

Whitney R. Smith 1946 1946 900 100

Alpha HouseNo Name

Alfred N.Beale APT1 Richard Neutra Unbuilt 345

Alan A.Dailey 1964 250

No Name

Killingsworth Brady, APT2Craig Ellwood 1956 Smith &A-Assoc. 1200 1964

1700

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No Name Whitney R. Smith 1946 315

No Name Richard Neutra 1945 320

#10

No Name Kemper Nomland Nemper Nomland Jr. 1945-1947 176

#16

No Name Rodney Walker 1947 440

#20.B

Bass House C. Buff, C. Straub, D. Hensman 1958 465

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MATERIALS

t Bailey House rd Neutra

House uicy Jones erick E. Emmons

#18B

rank House gsworth, Brady

#22

27 pbell and Wong

#23B

me ey R. Smith

#26

e Neutra

e Nomland Nomland Jr. 47

#28

#1950

ame ey Walker

#1953

s House uff, C. Straub, D. Hensman 8

Entenza House Charles Eames Ero Saarinen 1949 223

#1-1

#1-2

Fields House Craig Ellwood 1958 150

No Name Pierre Koenig 1960 213

Killingsworth Brady Smith 1960 240

1962 200

No Name Buff Hansman

No Name J.R. DAVIDSON 1948 #21B 239

Sumner Spaukding #18A and John Rex 1947 185

Charles & Ray Eames 1949 286

CHS 21B Pierre Koenig 1946 120

West House Rodney Walker 1948 120

Killingsworth No#23A Name Brady Smith Wurster, Bernardi 1960 and Emmon 120 1949 105

Killingsworth No Name Brady Smith #23B Thornton M. Abell1960 1948 120 180

Materials Not Specified #21.A Not Built No Name

1966 465

#11

CSH 1950/ Raphael Soriano 1950 100

No Name Craig Ellwood 1953 220

Greenbelt House Ralph Rapson 1949 221

Wood

No Name J.R. DAVIDSON 1945(unbuilt) #8 167

Concrete

Steel

Glass

No Name R. Neutra 1946 900

#12

No Name Alfred N.Beale LathAPT1 House Alan A.Dailey Whitney R. Smith 1964 1946 250 100

#13

Killingsworth Bra APT2 Smith &A-Assoc. Alpha House Richard Neutra 1964 1700 Unbuilt 345

#17B

Brick

J. R. Davidson 1946 255

Gypsum

No Name Craig Ellwood 1956 1200

Plastic

CASE STUDY HOUSES ANALYSIS FLAT

ROOF TREATMENT

The Case Study Houses were analysed according to their roof treatment and type. This gives insight to the areas closed up or shaded which would be important in setting up the system for our house.

SLANTED

FLAT

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SKYLIGHT

OVERHANGING

CASE STUDY HOUSES ANALYSIS ANOMOLIES

Some of the Case Study

Houses had distinctive features that made them stand out from the rest of the houses. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to shed light on these differences and understand how they were concieved and why. Some of the houses were actually several different entities while others were attached modules. These features would help us articulate our system design.

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CASE STUDY HOUSES ANALYSIS

MODULARITY AND ORGANIZATION IN THE CSH:

The following case study

houses in specific are unique

in modularity, organization and adaptability. The first one, for instance, by Campbell and Wong shows the housing unit as a module which replicates to create a cluster. The house by raphael SoriCampbell and Wong, 1963

ano on the other hand shows a very distinctive modular grid of column which emphasizes the shape of the house. Finally, Ellwoodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house,

displays modularity of the steel structure which in turn creates lightness. This creates adaptation in terms of structure.

Raphael Soriano, 1950

Craig Ellwood, 1956

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CONTEXT ADAPTIBILITY:

Another kind of adapta-

tion is one through surrounding.

The following set of case study houses each respond to a particular contextual issue. For instance, Nomland’s is embedded in the ground, walker’s is multi-storey, and Koenig’s has a buffer of water around the house. Those examples inspire the ideas of architecture that is adaptable to users needs. If the adaptability was to be ever

Kemper Nomland, 1945-1947 Embedded in ground

evolving and ever changing according to the user at different times then the house could become a more efficient and successful model. Pierre Koenig, 1946 Water surrounding

Rodney Walker, 1947 Multi-storey

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THE EAMES HOUSE 23

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THE EAMES HOUSE, RAY & CHARLES EAMES

The Eames house , designed by famous couple Charles and Ray Eames is one of the most influ-

ential and unique buildings of the 20th centuries. This house is of interest due to the different values that it portrays in its concept and design. The Eames couple wanted the house to trigger the elements of playfulness and surprise. We as a team believe that these two elements are crucial in the design of a house. The couple believed that design is an “iterative process” and that it was constant rethinking and redesigning is what improves the project over time. “The house represents an attempt to state an idea rather than a fixed architectural pattern, and it is an attitude towards living.” (artandarchitecture.com) Hence, this is where the innovation of the project lies. They were able to portray the essence of playfulness and ideas of healthy living through their use of color, translucent, opaque and solid planes, and adaptable living spaces. The house is described as a one of a kind experience. Beyond the unique idea of the house, the couple had values that were important for them when designing the house. The original site of the house was on a natural meadow and hence they shift their location, and use the earth from the site to create a barrier with a retaining wall to maintain the natural reserve. They believed that this is a way to adapt to the environment and its needs. Therefore, the clear attention to the design, not only of the interior but also of the landscape makes the Eames house’s purpose not only to comfort the user but also to respond to and respect nature and context. “The Eames House is the only place in LA where you can experience the seasons.” All those values in the making of the Eames house is of interest to further explore. We aim that our architectural system would continue to portray and extend the novel values of the house, which is about happiness, adaptability, playfulness, experience, and iteration. We also believe that our role as architects is not only to respect context and nature, but also to encourage a sustainable and healthy environment. However, our system will portray these ideas in its own ways, to achieve the goals of the Eames house in contemporary times.

On the Eames House: “when Ray would arrive home from the Office, she would step out of her car, pause, inhale deeply and smile.” (Newman) We hope that our system could have the capability to understand its user (no matter who they are), communicate with them and provide them with the constant satisfaction and inner peace.

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PLAN

Ground Floor Plan

First Floor Plan

TRANSPARENCY

STRUCTURE

2:3 / 60% Transparent

MAIN MATERIALS ROOF TYPOLOGY

MASSING Glass Cemestos Stucco Aluminium Gold-leafed panels

Flat Roof Typology

Photographic panels Wood finishes

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LOOKING INTO

EXPERIMENTAL ADD-ON ARCHITECTURE 29

Since our self-assembly system is a design experimentation on the intervention of the prototypes within the Eames House, a research of experimental architectural add-ons to existing houses is compiled and each precedent is analyzed. The precedents are shown chronologically.

PNEUMATIC AIR-STRUCTURES HAUS RUCKER, 1967 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Edible,playable, and Wearable Architectureâ&#x20AC;?

Haus Rucker were a

group of radical architects in the 60s had inspiring add-on and parasitic concepts of architecture. With the rising concerns on the environments and pollution, they developed a new concept of architecture. They experimented with pneumatic structures, to create add-on floating and light balloon like spaces which will expand from existing buildings. Their concepts were playful, new and different. Even though this project is from the 60s and early 70s, their ideas are still considered radical in contemporary times. Their ideas are very simple, yet very meaningful and unique. The pneumatic air-structures create an interesting dialogue and portray a different idea of architecture than the buildings they occupy.

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LA BULLE PIRATE,JEAN LOUIS CHANEAC,1971

Jean-Louis Chanéac

installed a parasitic cell on the façade of a modern residential building in 1971, with the purpose of extending the existing space. He was one of the first architects to experiment with adaptable, mobile, and temporary architecture. He wanted to create “a new architectural language” which contrasts concrete. He used very lightweight materials to construct the cell, and it was detachable. Hence, you can detach the unit and take it to add it to another house. His philosophy similar to Haus Rucker, was very unique, radical, and experimental.

According to the team,

those two approaches are very relevant because they are adaptable, light, and playful. They also make a statement, but they don’t overpower the buildings they occupy. The two projects convey a very light and fun spirit to architecture. Moreover, people relate and love such installations.

GEHRY RESIDENCE,FRANK GEHRY, 1970

Frank Gehry transformed his own residence in the 70s quite radically. However, he didn’t demol-

ish the old house. Instead the old house was engulfed by Gehry’s deconstructed design. Gehry believed that it was a “balance of fragment and whole, raw and refined, new and old.” His additions definitely stood out amongst the neighborhood and were a statement.

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NATIONAL GALLERY LONDON, VENTURI & SCOTT BROWN, 1984

Moving from Frank Gehry to the National Gallery London Sainsbury wing, designed by Venturi

and Scott Brown; the approach had to be extremely contextual with the existing design. However, it also had to be modern and creative. The designers believed that this post modern design was the right balance between contextual and modern. The design blends in with the context, it continues the same architectural language, yet it is interpreted with modern materials and proportions.

Venturi and Scott Brown’s approach completely contrasts Gehry’s approach. This approach is

rather harmonizing with the surrounding vs Gehry which contrasts and deconstructs. It is important to compare both approaches because when it comes to intervening within the Eames House, it is vital to keep it’s architectural character and harmonize with it.

PONT-NEUF WRAPPED,CHRISTO AND JEANNE CLAUDE, 1985

The Pont-Neuf one of the

oldest bridges in Paris, underwent continual changes over its lifetime. “Wrapping the PontNeuf continued this tradition of successive metamorphoses by a new sculptural dimension”. It was a lightweight addition of fabric covering the bridge. Even-though temporary the fabric is a modern statement, which transforms the bridge, without overpowering it.

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ROOFTOP REMODELING FALKESTRASSE, COOP HIMMELBLAU, 1988

Inspired to create wings

and floating space, Coop Himmelblau designed this roof on top of a very classic looking building. The design creates a contrasting effect and stands out, without changing or altering the existing building.

ENERGY ROOF PERUGIA, COOP HIMMEL BLAU, 2009

Another project by Coop

HimmelBlau, an energy roof, also stands out as an architectural add-on. Not only is the architecture unique, the top layer includes transparent photovoltaic cells to generate electricity and shade the sun. Wind turbines are also added to generate energy. Hence, the roof is energy self- sufficient.

KING’S CROSS STATION, JOHN MCASLAN+PARTNERS, 2013

King’s Cross Station is

also one of the statement architectural add-ons. It creates a dialogue between the original historical 19th century station and the 21st “iconic gateway to the capital.”

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ANALYSIS AND COMPARISON:

After analyzing the previous experimental architectural add-ons that were most relevant to our system, the different projects were categorized into 3 main categories.

The first category, which includes La Bulle Pirate, Pneumatic Air membranes, and

Pont- Neuf wrapped represent the light, mobile, and playful experimental add-ons to architecture. They’re completely contrasting to the materials of the architecture they occupy, and are generally temporary, and adaptive to different contexts. They are subtle and simple, yet carry a very strong architectural expression.

The second category includes The Gehry Residence, The Himmelblau Rooftop

remodeling and Energy Roof, and King’s Cross station. These examples definitely make a statement and stand out. They completely contrast the architecture they occupy. They are contemporary to the buildings they occupy.

The third category, which contains the National Gallery London is what we called the

“Harmonizing”. The design blends with the building and doesn’t create a statement or standout. On the Contrary, it reads like it is the modern continuation of the existing building. It still has its own proportions and design elements, yet it doesn’t contrast the existing building.

TIMELINE OF EXPERIMENTAL ADD-ON ARCHITECTURE: Placing our system “Slinkybot” in the timeline below, it was important to identify the main characteristics/features that are relevant to slinkybot. The team wishes to apply many of those features in the design of the system, in the contemporary manner. “Slinkybot” is inspired by lightness, playfulness, and adaptability of the projects in the 60s, which also had an environmental value. It is also important to standout without losing the essence of the existing building. Moreover, it is crucial to use technological advancements to be able to create a sustainable and self-sufficient and energy efficient system. The diagram below, situates the projects with the different categories in relation to each other, and to slinkybot.

Chaneac, La Bulle Pirate.

Christo & Jeanne Claude, Pont- Neuf.

Frank Gehry, Gehry Residence

1967

1984 1970

Haus Rucker, Pneumatic Air Structures.

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1985

Venturi & Scott Brown, National Gallery London.

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Coop Himmelblau, Energy Roof Perugia.

1988

2013

SLINKYBOT

2009

John McAslan +Partners, Kingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cross Station.

Coop Himmelblau, Rooftop Remodelling

Energy Efficient

Adaptable

Renewable/ Recycable

Light & Playful

Stands Out Blends

DESIGN THESIS

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THESIS STATEMENT

This is a research project that is positioned as a way to investigate a new model of behavioural

assembly systems and strategies of adaptability that is based on real-time decision-making to generate different, reconfigurable houses that deploy an architecture, within the Eames House, that is highly sensitive to the ever changing environments and user needs.

Our system aims to extend on the idea of The Eames house and represent the original values

of playfulness, surprise, iteration, adaptability, and sustainability. The system consists of poly-scalar relationships, initiating from the lowest level of organization and communication, the unit scale. Within this scale, concepts of singular entity morphology were researched resulting in a dual-state unit, a compact state and an extended one, each providing necessary qualities for the overall house. The compact state explores mobility and structuring mechanisms, while the extended state introduced concepts of spanning, transparency and energy efficient assembly.The units are designed to sense their surrounding environment and respond at the level of an individual unit and a collective one. At the aggregation scale, the units collectively work together through different modes of communication to achieve certain goals. A hybrid aggregation system that combined units in their compact and extended states was deployed as a strategy for energy and time efficiency and its capability of being more sensitive to interior - human aspects. The human is recognized as more than just a physical boundary, but his/her level of activity, concentration and emotions are constantly monitored for spacial responses that are fit to the userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needs and desires at all times. Also at this scale, there is an effort to develop learning capabilities among the units and with its interactions with humans manifesting in a highly sophisticated, autonomous system creating personalised spaces within and around the Eames House.

At the scale of high population, the system addresses space making strategies and reconfig-

urable frameworks inspired to create a dialogue with the Eames House, by concepts of continuity and endlessness manifesting in dynamic and ever-evolving house ecologies that are highly adaptive to the environment and the human. Those ecological bodies are interactive and playful, living in parallel with the human.

BOTTOM-UP/BEHAVIOURAL DESIGN APPROACH:

In the design of the

slinkybot prototypical architectural system, we use the concept of behavioural, bottom-up processes. This bottom-up design approach uses a system of artificial intelligence. John Johnston explains the basics of artificial intelligence in his book “The Allure of the Machinic Life: Cybernetics, Artificial Life, and New Ai.” He simplifies the concept of behavior based process through describing Douglas Hofstader’s theory. Hofstader looked into a colony of ants to explain the idea of a bottom-up system.

The colony of ants convey

how teams of ants cooperate to perform a specific task, where information is passed from ant to ant or team to team, but there is no one central program or processing unit. (342) Cognition is described as collective and distributive among multi-agent system where there is no central control. He also adds that the ants’ collective activities result in a higher level of complexity, which is described as emergence. Hence, our design is approached similarily, where a unit should behave autonomously and communicate according to the surrounding with no central control.

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PRECEDENTS OF SELF-ASSEMBLY SYSTEMS: ROBOTIC CHAIR, MAX DEAN & RAFFAELLO Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ANDREA

The robotic chair is an

example of a behavioural system which learns with time from its environment. When the chair is not assembled, it could gather itself, and learn from the environment, to form the chair again. The sequence of images below show the process in which the chair assembles.

HOD LIPSON, SELF- REPRPODUCING ROBOT

The self-replicating/

reproducing machine was designed by Hod lipson aiming to study the unquantifiable concept of selfreplication. It is interesting and relevant due to its unique choreographed movement & mobility. It is also a precedent of an autonomous unit, which could connect through various faces, and is capable of self-learning.

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PRECEDENTS FROM BEHAVIOURAL COMPLEXITY AGENDA: HYPER CELL

Hypercell, one of

the student projects in the Spyropoulos Design Lab, use the autonomous bottom-up approach described earlier. The unit is a “voxel” or a simple cube which on its own could perform certain behaviors of mobility and recognition. When joined with more than of the units, they can collectively create space.

RUB-A-DUB

Another project, Rub-A-

Dub, also uses the same proto-system design approach. The design starts with a simple unit, that could collectively configure and self-assemble to create space, and reconfigure based on the surroundings to create a different space.

This year, we are

following the same agenda of “Behavioural Complexity” and all the previous works of the studio are used as a reference to guide the process of slinkybot. We share the same goals of creating infinite space with autonomous units that could create the space itself.

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LOOKING INTO

BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS 47

LOOKING INTO BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS: EVO-DEVO: The idea of infinite configuration and behavioural systems is best demonstrated in natural and biological systems. Hence, the team looked into “Endless Forms Most Beautiful- EVO DEVO” by Sean B. Carroll. Biological form identifies the simple idea for mobility and movement. These simple functions and characters conveyed by the animal kingdom, as mentioned in the book, are simple. Yet, these result in the behavioural complexity. The criteria relevant to our research are outlined below:

I. MODULARITY ORGANIZATION & SEGMENTATION

II. SYMMETRY & POLARITY

Symmetry and polarity are the universal features of animal design. And they are important to help us understand how could a unit poten-

The first criterion of Modular architecture of a human hand/lobopodian helps understand organization and how these creatures perform and move.

tially move, climb, and stabilize.

III. REPITITION

IV. SPECIALIZATION Repitition as seen in the butterfly wing, what seems to be very complex is actually a very simple pattern of repitition. Hence, complexity arises from simple patterns of repitition.

“IT IS POSSIBLE, AS OUR HUMAN SKIN, ALL

OF THE CELLS ORGANIZE, SO THAT

SOME ARE PHOTO-SENSITVE AND

SOME ARE SOUND-SENSITIVE,AND

THEY’RE HEAT SENSITIVE ...

ONE COULD BE A SCREEN OTHERS

BREATHING AIR, OTHERS LETTING Specialization as described LIGHT IN, AND THE WHOLE THING above by fuller, through COULD ARTICULATE JUST AS skin cells is one of the most important criteria. It is im SENSITIVELY AS A HUMAN BEING’S portant for each unit to have a specific task and know SKIN.” how to communicate with BUCKMINSTER FULLER. different units.

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V. DIVERSITY

EVOLUTION

Diversity is concerned with different functions for dif-

Finally, as shown above, this leads to the

ferent animals, for example, as shown above, the limbs.

idea of evolution. A bat and a bird both have

It is important to show how each limb performs and is

wings, yet each evolved based on the func-

created differently in each animal.

tion of each and the conditions of each.

Finally, all those criteria, modularity, symmetry, specialization leads to diversity and finally all lead to evolution. Hence, all those criteria are interdependent. As part of the design research, the team is exploring if such criteria could be used in the design of the architectural unit to create this kind of evolving property? Because in theory, If diversity is achieved in the scale of the units then evolution could occur in the overall picture.

UNDERSTANDING COLONIAL ORGANISMS:

Colonial organisms are

seen as the first step of evolution starting from a single cell into multicells. A prominent example is the Portuguese man-of-war, which is part of a group related to jellyfish called siphonophores. What appears to be one organism is actually a colony of identical cells. All the individual cells can carry out all functions necessary for life, so they could all be seen as a single organism. The genetically identical individual cells tend to later specialise for different tasks for the better survival of the overall ecology. Some form tentacles (banded strands) while others form feeding bodies (brown speckled parts), floats, or reprodcutive structures. The colony is dependant on each other, however, can still survive alone and perhaps join another colony.

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SINGLE CELL

MULTICELLULAR MATRIX

DIFFERENTIATED CELLS

SPECIALIZED TISSUE

ORGANISATIONAL STRATEGY Our project’s organizational strategies would follow the main concepts of colonial organisms, which are the following:

BOTTOM-UP APPROACH

The project’s self assembly strategy will follow a bottom-up approach where intelligence is the product of the collective actions. Opposite to the top-down approach, there is no central controlling body ordering the individual units.

ENDLESS GROWTH AND RESTRUCTURING

ENDLESS GROWTH & RESTRUCTURING

DIFFERENTIATION & SPECIALIZATION

The organization of the project would be structured in a way that allows endless growth and addition to the ecology, while also allowing for separation and losing units that could form separate ecologies.

DIFFERENTIATION AND SPECIALIZATION Identical units would have the ability to differentiate itself from others in order to perform specialised tasks that lead to the overall survival of the ecology.

COLLECTIVE COORDINATION

The organisational system would be based on a collective coordination between its specialized cells performing different tasks cohesively.

OUR DEFINITION OF A HOUSE-GOAL Considering that a house, our end goal, is the place that you spend most of your time in, it should be tailored to understand you and your needs. It should also grow and evolve with you over time. The house should be playful and interactive when you want it to be. Moreover, if you want it to be calm and static it should respond to you. Hence, the house becomes not just a space you occupy but instead it becomes an extension to your body. You should be able to project your thoughts into it. The house should represent your thoughts and culture . Hence, we believe that the house is not just a shelter, but instead the house and the human are blending and merging to become one entity.

ELASTIC SPACE

CONTINUOUTY

EVOLUTION

ENDLESS HOUSE- KIESLER

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CONTINUITY AND EVOLUTION As mentioned earlier, as a team we are interested in extending the spirit and concept of the Eames House. Moreover, Kiesler’s endless house is an inspiration due to his very unique ideas of elastic space; and he was interested in creating continuous space. The spatial configuration is unique because of Kiesler’s elastic spatial concept and endlessly flowing continuous space. Kiesler redefines space in the endless house, where the line between a wall and a floor is blurred and they become one continuous entity. This house in particular, inspired the team’s concept to create ever-evolving elastic spaces. These spaces could have the capacity to create continuouty.

LIGHTNESS

PLAYFULNESS

Inspired by Tomas Saraceno’s work to build “lighter than air vehicles”; the team aims to design a system that breaks the notion of being a heavy and highly mechanical and functional system. But rather, the team wants to explore and experiment with the concept of creating light weight, spider-web like architecture through light-weight and elastic units.

Tomas Saraceno

Moreover, inspired by minimaforms’ “Petting Zoo” installation of artificially intelligent flexible and playful robotic arms that display different emotions and interact with the users; we are inspired to create playful, highly elastic autonomous units that interact with the users.

Minimaforms

Eames House + Endless House

Eames House

The goal is to re-interpret

the original ideas and values of the Eames house using our system, which is inspired by the endless house. Hence, the result will be a dialogue between the very straight

DIALOGUE

crisp and clean lines of the Eames house and the very free form continuous lines of the Endless House.

Endless House

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Hence,

OUR APPROACH TO REACH THE GOAL ON SELF-ASSEMBLY, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, & BEHAVIOUR

The goal is to re-interpret the original ideas and values of the Eames house using our system,

which is inspired by the endless house. Hence, the result will be a dialogue between the very straight crisp HIGH and clean lines of the Eames house and the very free form continuous lines of the Endless House. POPULATION

In summary and as shown in the diagram above, the Eames house was chosen and analyzed due to its unique concepts and values that we as a team aim to maintain. Hence, to maintain those goals we split our research into system goals and design goals. Our system goals were inspired by the biological systems of

HIGH self-assembly and self-organization. Hence, we looked into colonial organisms and ants behavior to underAUTONOMOUS POPULATION

stand intelligent and autonomous self-assembly systems. Evo-devo helped us clarify the idea that to create

HIGH POPULATION

AUTONOMOUS

TIME BASED

AUTONOMOUS

TIME BASED

UNIT BASED

TIME BASED

UNIT BASED

D NAMI MOBILE

SYSTEM FEATURES HIGH POPULATION

AUTONOMOUS

TIME BASED

UNIT BASED

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DESIGN GOALS UNIT BASED

D NAMI MOBILE

BOTTOM UP

D NAMI MOBILE

BOTTOM UP

SEL O GANI ING

BOTTOM UP

SEL O GANI ING

SEL ASSEMBL

SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

HIGH POPULATION

AUTONOMOUS

TIME BASED

UNIT BASED

a self-assembly reconfigurable system we need to use the criteria to develop an ever-evolving model. When

D team NAMIas a very successful example TIME the Endless house considering ever-evolving architecture, UNITstood out to the MOBILE AUTONOMOUS BASED one of the mainBASED of continuous space. Hence, it became design goals to be able to create a harmony between

the existing eames house and our system. The intelligent, interactive, and playful petting zoo project and the lightweight, air-floating ideas of Tomas Saraceno inspire the design goals, as well. In conclusion, all those factors help shape up our Slinkybot system within the Eames House.

TIME

UNIT

D NAMI

BOTTOM The diagram below summarizesBASED the general system MOBILE features and the general goals that we aim to produce BASED UP

from this system.

UNIT BASED

D NAMI MOBILE

BOTTOM UP

SEL O GANI ING

D NAMI MOBILE

BOTTOM UP

SEL O GANI ING

BOTTOM UP

SEL O GANI ING

SEL ASSEMBL

THE UNIT SCALE

WHY DUAL STATES?

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LIGHTNESS

SOFTNESS

The unit is designed with very light material to allow easier mobility, assembly, and unique space making.

The elongated state allows for softness and transparency, and the compact state allows for rigidity, strength and structure.

EFFICIENCY Dual states arised in order to maximize the potential for an assembly system that is efficient in time, energy and number of units needed.

FORM FLEXIBILITY The elongated state allows the unit to embody various free forms with and against different forces such as gravity and to rotate around multiple axis.

THE MULTI-UNIT TO HUMAN SCALE: WHAT ARE THE COLLECTIVE HYBRID UNIT BEHAVIOUR OUTCOME POSSIBILITIES? ASSEMBLY

DIS-ASSEMBLY

The capabilities of the

assembly techniques against

system should be experimented

gravity and with gravity. We

with to the fullest to yield the

also experiment with dif-

best outcome. The unit is not only autonomous on its own, it also conveys collective behavioural capabilities. Hence, in unit-to-unit communication, self-assembly plays a crucial role via self-awareness. At the same time, the results of self-assembly are not finite, it is possible to infinitely reconfigure the space via assembly, dis-assembly, and re-assembly.

ferenet variations of compact

When units start to communicate and assemble, different behavioural patterns start to appear. Hence, we explore

and elongated units. There is a variaty of stability and softness we aim to achieve through collective behaviour. This variety will help in making interior spaces that could be used as furniture and other spaces that could be structural elements or walls for instance. The capability of the units to change states by elongating, gives the system an advantage for faster response to the human or to the environment.

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THE OVERALL HOUSE SCALE: WHEN THERE ARE OVER 1,000 UNITS AT THE SAME TIME, HOW WILL THEY COMMUNICATE, CONNECT, AND ASSEMBLE?

Our system is a

time-based, bottom up system defined by various rules and behaviours. The system defines the way the units will communicate and assemble and the order and time. We are exploring the overall space making strategies through the the computational particle spring system. By developing different rules and controlling different variables in the system, different configurations are obtained.

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

MATERIAL EXPLORATION

MATERIAL CONCEPTS The analysis of the 36 Case Study Houses emerged several design critria that was vital for their time. Those that emerged during our in-depth analysis of the houses were the following: the idea of an adaptable space, the importance between the transition from one space to the other and the freedom of mobility within that place. The criteria that was most interesting to put in context of our current time and explore was the concept of adaptibility. This concept inspired the reserch into materials of morphing qualities as in phase-changing material. Phase-changing material have the capability of state changing offering different qualities that could be useful for various puposes. Those unique properties of phase-changing material meant that a system could be adaptable under different conditions and environments.

ADAPTABILITY

TRANSITION

MOBILITY

PHASE CHANGING MATERIAL

MAGNETIC

HYDROPHOBIC

FERROFLUID

LIQUID MOBILITY

HYDROPHOBIC SAND

PHASE-CHANGING

SOFTNESS/RIGIDITY

WATER ABSORPTION

HYDROGEL

EXPANSION PHASE-CHANGING

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HEAT REACTANT SELF-HEALING

WAX FILLED

SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

WATER AS A STIMULI Water is an integral important part of any house. Water networks supplying the house and being used for cooling and heating is a necessity. Also, concepts of rainwater harvesting and water recycling should be taken into account. Since water is a major aspect of living, we were interested in studying it closer and exploring possibilities were water could act as an actuator to our system. Furthermore, conductive fluids and water based materials were looked at as possible scenarios were water is the main key. Water properties such as condensation and its ability to be absorbed by other materials and expand opened up ideas for our endless, growing system.

SILICONE AND WATER EXPERIMENT SILICONE CASTING PROCESS

DIGITAL CAST-WATER SIMULATION

I. CAST TOP

II. CAST BOTTOM

III. COMBINE

IV. REMOVE MOULD

V. ACTUATE WITH WATER

3D PRINTED MOULD

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THE

SLINKYBOT

DUAL-STATE UNIT Our exploration of phase-changing materials lead us to start thinking of a unit that would be capable of morphing between states.A dual-state unit would offer a variety of qualities that would be useful in creating different parts of our system. In addition to that, studying previous precedents that tackled the idea of self-assembly, the qualities and advantages of having a compact unit were apparent as it offered uniformity that was useful in assembling the system together. However, other more exteded types of units had unique added qualities to them that gave the system new possibilities of assembly and structuring. Therefore, the idea of a unit that combines both of those states arised in order to maximize the potential for an assembly system that is efficient in time, energy and number of units needed, in addition to that, adding an element of playfulness and responsiveness to the overall house.

INITIAL IDEAS RIGID ELASTIC POINT TO POINT

RIGID ELASTIC POINT TO POINT

Initial prototyping tests were focused on using rigid and elastic elements that allowed for extension. A rigid core sphere had several extendible rods attached to it and was capable of growing in all directions while the rubber bands tied to those rods helped give a more flexible dimension to the overall unit. The unit only allowed for point to point connections with other similar units.

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UNITS STACKED WITH POINT TO POINT CONNECTIONS

SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

COMPACT/EXTENDED UNIT The unit should be capable of taking the decision whether according to the conditions its under, if its best to remain compact or open up and extend.

MOBILITY

STRUCTURAL

COMPACT STATE ACTIVE

UNIFORMITY

CHOREOGRAPHED ASSEMBLY

INTERACTIVE /

EXTENDED STATE FLEXIBILITY

TRANSPARENCY

COMPACT

1.0 PNEUMATICS

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2.0 MECHANICAL

SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

MORPHOLOGY

3.0 MONOWHEELER

4.0 CLIMBER

COMPACT STATE

1.0

UNIT SCALE

SOFTNESS & RIGIDITY

PNEUMATIC MOBILITY

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

UNIT SCALE Scale is an important factor within our system nd how it functions. On a singulr unit scale, the prototype acts as a brick that assembles itself to create spaces of various different scales. It was crucial that our unit was relative to the human body since it would make up house. Hence, a unit that had the dimensions governed by steps guidelines was followed and a unit within the range of 15 to 20cm in all directions was to be followed.

COMPACT STATE

150 mm

EXTENDED STATE

The extended state also has a relative dimension to the compact state. One elongted unit cn reach as far s 5 compact units connected to eaach other. This meant that an elongated unit cn replace the spce taken up by 5 units making space making more efficient in terms of units needed. Also, this spanning helps us create design rules and assembly sequence that is tiime efficient.

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RIGID/SOFT STATES

Driven by the concept of phase changing, ideas of a unit that can transform from rigid to soft and back again was explored. Different materiality of the unit were experimented and the design of the unit optimized. A proposal of 3d printed rigid frame and soft silicone inflatable pockets achieved the dual rigid and soft state for the unit. The rigit state is needd for supports and structure within the system while the inflatables are useful for more interior application where softness is a requirement.

RIGID TO SOFT

STRENGTH

FLEXIBILITY

RIGID FRAME PATTERN STUDY

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PNEUMATIC MOBILITY A mobility approach we experimented with is the use of inflateable, soft pockets that are air pumped to push the unit forward into a rolling motion. Each half unit has 4 pockets between the rigid cross frame. The pockets were designed to be attached to silicone tubes that would supply them with air.

The pneumatically actuated unit is inflated using several air compressors to pump air into the soft chambers one after the other in a choreographed manner to get the unit rolling. However, it was noticed that 4 chambers were not enough to smoothen the rolling of the unit and more divided chambers were needed to give the push the prototype required to have mobility. Furthermore, the unit had to be tethered to the heavy air compressors for inflation which was an issue. Our systemâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s concept revolved around lightness which would be difficult to achieve with those heavy machinery.

ROLLING DIGITAL SIMULATION

COMPACT STATE

2.0

CONNECTION POSIBILITIES

MECHANICAL MOBILITY

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HALF-UNIT 2.0 DISSECTION

RIGID CORE Structural element of the unit. It contains the brain of the unit and holds its actuators.

PROXIMITY SENSOR Allows the unit to sense its environment and other units. When another unit is close enough, the motor stops and the electromagnet is activated.

ELECTROMAGNET Helps the unit to attach to another face to face.

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WHEEL Teeth for friction Connection to motor disc

SERVO MOTOR Continuous rotation motor

FLEXIBLE FRAME 3D printed flexible filament

Pattern studies

Chosen pattern

MECHANICAL MOBILITY

With heavy, pneumatic machines being tethered to the unit, it would be difficult to create a self-mobile prototype that is capable of self-assembling. Another approach was looked into where an inbuilt motor revolves a wheel to actuate the entire prototype. This prototype was designed to have a monowheel in the center that is made of 2 wheels; each hald unit had its own wheel, in-built motor and controlling system. This was to achieve the concept of slinkybot where the unit could split into halves and extend.

Mono-wheel in compact state

Half a unit rigid core with in-built motor

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

UNIT-UNIT CONNECTION

Due to the presence of a monowheel splitting the unit in half, the attachment options on the unit becomes limited to 2 sides only. This means assembly could only be made possible in a singular linear fashion. A wheel treatment would need to be figured out to allow for more connection options to allow for an assembly system. Connections between units was made possible by an electromagnet that is activated when the unit senses another close by using its proximity sensor.

Connection points

COMPACT STATE

3.0 MONOWHEEL DEVELOPMENT

ALL FACES CONNECTION

LOCKING/ UNLOCKING

EXTENDIBLE ENGULFMENT

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

HALF-UNIT 3.0 DISSECTION

FACE MAGNETS FOR UNIT-UNIT CONNECTION Allows unit to connect to any other unit from all directions making it a uniform compact shape.

Connection possibilities

RIGID FRAME The flexible frame unit lacked stability therefore a 3d printed rigid one was used.

PROXIMITY SENSOR

ELECTROMAGNET

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MODIFIED WHEEL

The wheel is designed to be curved inwards to engulf the extendable slinky inside of it.

UNITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S LOCKING MAGNETS

Attracting magnets Repelling magnets When half of the unit rotates 90 degrees, the magnets are aligned to repel each other pushing the unit apart.

CONNECTOR DISC

SERVO MOTOR

COMPACT MOBILITY- THE MONOWHEEL MOVING FORWARD

Slinkybotâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s monowheel is composed of 2 wheels, one attached to every half of the unit. When both parts of this whel move at the same speed in the same direction, the slinkybot moves either forward or backward in a straight line in a balanced way.

CHANGING DIRECTION

However, when one part of the wheel is inactive while the other one moves in any direction, this leads to slinkybot rotating in place either clockwise or anti-clockwise. This is the way the unit is capable of changing directions.

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

EXTENDED MOBILITY

In this prototype of the slinkybot, mobility in the extended form result in a more swerving action. Similar rules apply as in the compact state, hoever, a new type of motion is achieved when wheels alternate in motion and direction, and the slinkybot swerves like a living organism that sways for mobility.

LOCKING/UNLOCKING MECHANISM

UNITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S LOCKING MAGNETS Attracting magnets Repelling magnets

A mechanism of transforming the unit from compact to extended was studied. A series of magnets are placed according to a certain pattern of polarity. In attachment, the patterns of the magnets on the 2 wheels are in opposite polarity hence attract. When different parts of the wheel rotaate in opposite direction, this leads to the magnets being aligned in a repelling state forcing the unit to split up.

ALL FACES CONNECTION

Connection possibilities

Connections from all faces was crucial in our self-assembly system, hence the slinkybot had to be re-designed to allow for attachment to the faces that is compromised of the rotating wheel. The rigid frames were taken advantage of and chamfered to create faces of connections on both sides of the wheel with magnets.

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

SPRING ENGULFMENT

The ability of engulfing the slinky-like form in compact state

Having 2 states, the unit should be capable of collapsing its extendible part when in compact state and its no longer needed. Therefore, the compact state should be designed in a way where it could engulf the extendible part collapsed within its uniform shape.

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COMPACT STATE

4.0

EXPLORING CLIMBING

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

HALF-UNIT 4.0 DISSECTION VERSION 1

CLIMBING MECHANISM Mobility by the rotational movement of a wheel could be utilized to develop the climbing mechanism as well. The wheels would be designed in a way to attach and hold on to each other while one unit pulls itself and rolls on another unit. SERVO MOTOR

RIGID CORE

PROXIMITY SENSOR

Wheel rolling on another

In order to achieve that a multi faceted geometry was designed to give the units small faces to hold on to and try to pull themselves on one another using magnets that attract.

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ELECTROMAGNET

SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

CLIMBING UP MAGNETS Those magnets help units in going up by its multi faceted design that give units a face to lock on to.

UNITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S LOCKING MAGNETS MODIFIED WHEEL - BETTER STABILITY - MORE SPACE FOR ENGULFING SLINKY - CAPACITY TO CLIMB

HALF-UNIT 4.0 DISSECTION VERSION 2

The faces on the first version of the wheel were too small for climbing attachment. The design was developed to have more emphasized faces for both unit to unit connections and climbing. Stronger magnets were used to pull up the unit on top of the other while rolling. However, this mechanism wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t successful as the unit was too heavy to be pulled up this way. A lighter unit design shuld be made.

CLIMBING FACE

EXTENDIBLE ATTACHMENT UNIT TO UNIT CONNECTION FACE

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EXTENDIBLE

1.0 PNEUMATICS

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2.0 MECHANICAL

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MORPHOLOGY

3.0 HINGED

4.0 SEGMENTED

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EXTENDIBLE

1.0

PNEUMATIC EXTENSION

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PNEUMATIC EXTENSION EXTENDING/COLLAPSING

A mechanism to control the contraction and extension of the slinkybot pneumatically was experimented. The use of air to carry out this process would mean that pur extendibles are light and flexible following our concept of lightness and endlessness.

PARTITION DETAIL HOLES FOR ATTACHMENT WITH SLINKY

The pneumatic mechanism consists of partitions along the slinky and inflatable pockets inbetween those partitions. As the pockets inflated, the air pressure in them pushed against the partitions to result in a linear extension. The deflation of the pockets result in the slinky compressing back together to its initial state.

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EXTENDIBLE

2.0

MECHANICAL EXTENSION

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MECHANICAL EXTENSION MECHANISED-CHOREOGRAPHED MOVEMENT Inspired by the Petting Zoo by Minimaforms, it was realized that the unit’s extendible form’s strength is in its capability of moving and bending in a choreographed manner to perform tasks of assembly and other. This behaviour would cut down in the time needed for assembly, as well as in energy and the number of units needed.

SLINKY BENDING EXPERIMENT In order to achieve this controlled choreography a more mechanised system was explored. WIth the use of fishing wires and servos, some controlled bending of a mini slinky was achieved. The tensioned wires work by pulling the top ring of the slinky to cause it to bend.

SETUP WITH MOTORS TO SHOW SIDEWAY MOVEMENT OF SLINKY UNDER TENSIONED WIRES

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

PARTITION DETAILS Three points of control

HALF-UNIT DESIGN

The slinky has several partitions placed designed with 3 control points where the wires pull using a servo motor. However, our design of 3 control points did not work as expected in bending. But it did achieve contracting and extending the slinky.

UNIT EXTENDING WITH MOTORS TO LIFT ANOTHER AS AN ASSEMBLY MEHANISM

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EXTENDIBLE

3.0

HINGED EXTENDIBLE

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HINGED EXTENDIBLE

There was limited control over the slinky in previous tests especially when a choreographed movement was required. A new extendible was designed as a mesh of silicone tubing and 3d printed PLA hinges. This new design has more control and structure to it, while remaining flexible and capable of contracting to fit inside the unit when its in compact state.

EXTENDED STATE

COMPACT STATE

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AGAINST GRAVITY

SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

EXTENDIBLEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S REQUIRED FUNCTIONALITY

WITH GRAVITY

AGAINST GRAVITY

COMPRESSING

EXTENDING

CHOREOGRAPHED MOTION

ACTIVE UNT PULLING BY MOTORS

PUSHING MECHANISM

ACTING BY GRAVITY

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FURTHER STEPS MECHANISED GEOMETRY TRANSFOMATION

There are several concepts tht need to be further applied in our design of the slinkybot. This includes the concept of a mechanised way to transform the unit from a rigid more circular body to a soft cuboid that gives our system a soft interior aspect to it.

This mechanism would also make the slinkybots more stable when packing together. But most importantly can be a way to help the unit climb on top of one another. Those soft pockets would expand when needed and connect with each other to form more attachment faces between the unit to pull them up.

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

FURTHER STEPS SEGMENTED EXTENDIBLE

Another concept for the extendible that we plan to test out further is the idea of a segmented extendible. This new approach hopes to gain more control over each segment of the extendible to achieve the desired choreography and motion.

The extendible is made of sections of plastic sheets designed in a way to mimic a spring. At the ends of every section are 2 acrylic rings that will have electromagnets that are controlled to open or compress every section in the new extendible.

ACRYLIC RINGS WITH MAGNETS

PLASTIC SHEET

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COMMUNICATION Communication and interaction is key when it comes to a system of multiple elements working cohesively. Behaviour of our units is adaptable when it is responsive to inputs from the surrounding and the elements within this environment. The slinkybot should not only be self-aware but aware of other neighbouring slinkybots and capable of having a 2-way dialogue with them. Communication should also be carried out on the scale of clusters and their responsiveness to humans, environmental factors and structuring sequences. From unit to unit interactions to global relationships we have generated concepts of assembly and collective scenarios.

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THE NERD HERD

â&#x20AC;?Nerd Herd by Maja Mataric. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Designing and Understanding Adaptive Group Behaviour

The Nerd Herd was an experiment by Maja Mataric where strategies by which robots can learn adaptive group behaviour from one another and thus learn to behave socially are studied. It looks at how simple local interactions among a collection of artificial autonomous agents produce complex and beneficial group behaviour by the observation of the direct reinforcements for desired behavior and mimicking it.

They are a group of 20 identical, mobile robots and did not possess a great deal of intelligence. The robots are equipped with IRs, contact sensors, grippers, position sensors, and radio communication. The main concept behind the Nerd Herd is that they used a specific definition of behaviour: a control law that satisfies a set of constrints to achieve and maintain a particular goal.

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

The interaction primitives used in Mataricâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experiments were:

COLLISION AVOIDANCE

DISPERSION

HOMING

FOLLOWING

AGGREGATION

FLOCKING COMPOSITE GROUP BEHAVIOUR

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UNIT TO UNIT COMMUNICATION SENSING MECHANISM

Rigid core

Proximity sensor

The units in the system should not only be self-aware but should also be aware of other units in the system and be capable of communicating with them. So far weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve used the proximity sensor to recognize when a unit is close enough for attachment this then sends a signal to the electromagnet to be activated and attract the other unit.

Proximity sensor

Electromagnet

The aspect of two way communication between the slinkybots is of importance since it enables collective behaviour in terms of movement and energy sharing. Through arduino prototypes, the use of RGB sensors and different LED colors could be used to articulate the state of the slinkybot. In addition, the use of radio transmitters and recievers allows data exchange between units which would be useful in cases of leaders and followers. RGB sensor and LEDs

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Radio transmitter and receiver

SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

UNIT TO UNIT COMMUNICATION GOALS

RECOGNIZING ANOTHER SLINKYBOT

COLLECTIVE MOBILITY

ENERGY SHARING

CONNECTING STATE

CLIMBING STATE

LEADER AND FOLLOWERS

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MULTIPLE UNIT BEHAVIOUR

SPACE-MAKING & SELF-ASSEMBLY

ADAPTABILITY & RECONFIGURATION

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BEHAVIOUR & SPACE-MAKING

129

UNIT-TO-UNIT COMMUNICATION COMPACT STATE _ COLLECTIVE MOBILITY

Simple collective mobility is explored, where units will sense each other and when connected, the minimum number of units needed to move te group will be used. The advantages and disadvantages are outlined below.

INITIAL STATE

SENSE OTHER UNITS

ROLLING TOGETHER

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COLLECTIVE MOBILITY

INABILITY TO GO UPWARDS

SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

COMPACT STATE _ COLLECTIVE UPWARD MOTION Upward mobility is explored using the compact units in different possible ways.

INITIAL STATE

SENSE OTHER UNITS

+ -

UPWARD MOVEMENT

INSTABILITY

ROLLING TOGETHER

KEY ACTIVE

SIGNAL

PASSIVE

MOBILITY

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COMPACT STATE _ COLLECTIVE MOBILITY

The units are driven by one unit to collectively move forward to save energy.

INITIAL STATE

SENSE EACH OTHER

+ -

ENERGY EFFICIENT

LIMITED COLLECTIVE MOBILITY

FOLLOWING

KEY

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ACTIVE

SIGNAL

PASSIVE

MOBILITY

SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

COMPACT TO ELONGATED

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UNIT-TO-UNIT COMMUNICATION ELONGATED STATE _ COLLECTIVE MOBILITY

When in the elongated state, the units also use their wheels to move forward as seen in the images.

INITIAL STATE

SENSE EACH OTHER, CONNECT & MOVE TOGETHER

COLLECTIVE MOBILITY

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INSTABILITY& INABILITY TO GO UPWARDS

SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

ELONGATED STATE _ UPWARD MOVEMENT

Bending of the elongation could lend to upward mobility to the units. However, there is a height constraint and high energy level required to reach a stable state. INITIAL STATE

BENDING

UPWARD MOVEMENT

KEY LIMITED HEIGHT

ACTIVE

SIGNAL

PASSIVE

MOBILITY

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ELONGATED STATE _ HORIZONTAL MOBILITY

INITIAL STATE

BENDING TO A LOOP

HORIZONTAL MOBILITY

COLLECTIVE MOBILITY

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NO UPWARD EXPANSION

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UNIT-TO-UNIT COMMUNICATION

COMPARISON OF BOTH STATES

NUMBER OF UNITS

TIME TO REACH TARGET

STABILITY

LIGHTNESS+ TRANSPARENCY

By identifying different behaviours of compact units and elongated

ones, we analyse and compare both based on different criteria. Firstly, when it comes to stability, compact units are more stable. The compact state of the unit generally is more efficient in terms of mobility, and reaching the target. On the other hand, the elongated state serves the purpose of lightness, playfulness, and choreography. Hence, it is important to create a hybrid of both the compact and the elongated state. The compact state provides efficiency of movement and the elongated serves the concept of space making. Together, they could both produce new possibilities; which are identified below.

EFFICIENCY

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CHOREOGRAPHY

HYBRID STATE

SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

THE HYBRID STATE SELF-CLIMB

The unit could use the

elongation to climb on other units instead of having to climb step by step in compact mode. This allows less unit for going up and hence a lighter overall space. The unit could also use the elongated part to grab other units and place it in the appropriate location. The unit could also create enclosures by hanging from a group of units.

4 139

COLLECTIVE UPWARD MOVEMENT

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FREE-FALLING:

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After identifying various

different behaviours of the hybrid system, it was important to realize that there are limitations on the movement of the extendable part. Therefore, the following section compiles the angle and height limitations of the extendable part of the unit.

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LIMITATIONS

SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

BENDING LIMITATION OF A UNIT

TOP VIEW_1 elongation length = 30 units curvature = 0;

elongation length = 30 units curvature = 35;

TOP VIEW_2 elongation length = 30 units curvature = 0;

elongation length = 30 units curvature = 24;

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SECTION VIEW_1

elongation length = 40 units curvature = 27;

SECTION VIEW_2

elongation length = 35 units curvature = 27;

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

SECTION VIEW_3

elongation length = 30 units curvature = 24;

After setting

the limitations, a comparison of the most efficient hybrid method for climbing and going upwards was identified. It is always important to maintain an efficient system which is capable of rapid re-configuration

SECTION VIEW_4

as well as being true to the concept of playfulness and lightness and elongation length = 30 units curvature = 24;

endlessness. Hence,not only the end goal should comply to these concepts, the assembly process should also be unique and interactive.

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COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT WAYS TO GO UP

CLIMBING 1

CLIMBING 2

GRABBING 1

GRABBING 2

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The diagram shows

the different behaviours explored and the time it takes for each unit to reach the target.

â&#x2C6;&#x17E; TIME

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TWO-UNITS BEHAVIOUR

INITIAL STATE

TARGET

The next set of explorations tackle the mobility and self-structuring of 2 units rather than just one unit. The ability to achieve more than a single unit mobility at a time isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t only more efficient, but also creates different spatial configurations. The first example shows a set of images where the units are performing the simple climbing technique collectively.

TYPE 1_CLIMBING

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TWO-UNITS BEHAVIOUR

INITIAL STATE

TARGET

In this example, 2 elon-

gated units pick up one unit and help it reach the target. Hence, the compact unit remains in the inactive state, losing less energy. Moreover, the different technique of assembly create different interesting spatial configurations.

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TWO-UNITS BEHAVIOUR

INITIAL STATE

TARGET

In this experiment, the

asembly is reversed, it is rather an approach from the top working with gravity rather than against gravity to attach or pick up different units.

TYPE 3_HANGING UP

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SELF-STRUCTURING (SPACE MAKING)

Four Connections BASIC RULES_CONNECTION NUMBER & GROWTH MET After looking into different self-structuring techniques, a basic study of 2D connections was made to identify growth patterns. The main growth patterns from various connection numbers and types are radial, linear, and grid like.

CONNECTION NUMBER & GROWTH METHOD CONNECTION #

CONNECTION TYPOLOGY

2 connections

3 connections

4 connections

6 connections

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POSSIBLE GROWTH

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POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS In plan, there are 4 face-to-face connections, while in an elongated one, there are 6 connections. According to multiple connections, a unit could have different connection options.

Plan

Plan If a unit has maximum 2 connections, the collective pattern could be linear. Plan How-

ever, this will not yield a stong and stable connection. When this problem is faced, the loop connection yields a stronger and more stable result.

RADIAL GROWTH

compact state

elongatd state

hybird state

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Linear growth is quite common when the connection number is 2, 3, 4 or 6.

compact state

hybird state

compact state

elongatd state

hybird state

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LINER GROWTH

compact state

elongatd state

hybird state

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The Grid like connections

compact state

hybird state

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SQUARE GROWTH

elongated state

elongatd state

hybird state

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SELF-STRUCTURING (SPACE MAKING) BASIC RULES_ LEADER & FOLLOWERS

ACTIVE UNIT INACTIVE UNIT

LEADER UNIT

FOLLOWER UNIT

The slinkybot, identified

by a different colour, which we call the leader acts as an attractor for the other slinkybots to follow. Afterwards, the aim of the leader is to guide the other followers to copy the same exact behaviour.

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SELF-STRUCTURING (SPACE MAKING) BASIC RULES_ LEADER & FOLLOWERS

ACTIVE UNIT INACTIVE UNIT

LEADER UNIT

FOLLOWER UNIT

In this example, the leader just acts as an allocator

or an attractor for the units to connect to. However, the units then also have the capacity to perform their own behaviour without copying the main leader. The leader in this case just acts like an anchor and is inactive in the assembly process.

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SELF-STRUCTURING (SPACE MAKING) BASIC RULES_ LEADER & FOLLOWERS

ACTIVE UNIT INACTIVE UNIT

LEADER UNIT

FOLLOWER UNIT

In this example the leader is not just an attractor and a guide

for the followers to copy. The followers only role is to stay within range of the leader and the leader does all the rest of the work, by shuffling all the units around and creating the configuration.

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SELF-STRUCTURING (SPACE MAKING)

REACHING A SPATIAL TARGET

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SELF-STRUCTURING (SPACE MAKING) Self-structuring GOING UP_TWO-DIRECTION CLIMBING Column Goal Strategy

New units Main column

3000

Support column Stairs Climbing start

TARGET

Main column

Support column

3000 New units

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STEP-CLIMBING

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OVERALL CONFIGURATION WITH PREVIOUS BEHAVIOUR SLINKYBOT @ AA DRL

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Self-structuring Column SELF-STRUCTURING (SPACE MAKING)

GOING UP_GRABBING & TEMPORARY SCAFFOLDING Goal Strategy

Sometimes to be able to create cantilevered spaces a temporary scaffold of

units could be added to ensure stability and then removed when the system is stable. 3000

New units Main column Support column Stairs Climbing start

GRABBING

Main column

Support column

3000 New units

TARGET

TEMPORARY SCAFFOLDING

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OVERALL CONFIGURATION WITH PREVIOUS BEHAVIOUR

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SELF-STRUCTURING (SPACE MAKING) RECONFIGURATION_EXTERIOR/INTERIOR

EXTERIOR

LIGHT

NATURAL CONTEXT

URBAN CONTEXT

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Reconfiguration is the main key element to adaptability in our system. The system should be adaptive to the exterior environment. When speaking of the environment, we mean the natural surroundings, such as light or context;or urban environment, That means that the system could respond and occupy an infill site. As to the human part, space should be transformable according to peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s behaviour.

INTERIOR

THE HUMAN

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OVERALL HOUSE CONFIGURATION

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OVERALL CONFIGURATION

CONTINUITY Our inspiration, the Endless House, gives us the concepts of a house with the quality of continuity and elasticity, which means the continuous space, the continuous structure as well as the continuous building and changing process over time. Extending on the concept of the endless house, continuity and elastic space, we want to create continuous configurations that infinitely reconfigure based on local rules.

REAL-TIME SELF-ASSEMBLING SELF-ORGANIZATION POPULATION-BASED

In our design system, the house is built by those intelligent prototypes autonomously, which means a real-time, bottom-up, population-based self-assembling and self-organization system. The local behavior of prototypes which influence by the contexts and human define the overall shape and interior space of the house over time. As a population-based system. Therefore, we choose the Particle-Spring system to simulate this house design system, through defining a set of local rules.

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PARTICLE & SPRING SYSTEM

The Spring-Particle system is constituted of two elements, the particles and the springs which particles are connected by. The particles negotiate with a spring in between to reach a stable state. Since particles are linked with springs, the spring and its force make it possible to simulate an elastic system.

GLOSSARY

PARTICLE

A particle is an agent with massing and various behaviors

SPRING A spring is the connection of two particles and acts like a physical spring.

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PARTICLE & SPRING SYSTEM

SPRING NUMBER PER PARTICLE The first aspect we can explore is how many springs can each particle have. This decides the pattern of the overall configuration.

SPRING LENGTH The second aspect we can explore is how long can each spring be. The spring length decides the degree of density of the overall configuration.

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SPRING NUMBER In order to systematically explore what kinds of configurations can be drawn when different spring numbers are applied, we devide the system into two parts, the hierarchical system and the non-hierarchical system.

NON-HIERARCHICAL SYSTEM The other approach is the non-hierarchical. This is where all the particles are given the same importance, and all of them have the same spring number.

HIERARCHICAL SYSTEM This means that in a number of particles, one particle is given importance and compare to others, this one can have more springs connected than other particles.

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COLORS: LIGHT GRAY: R:200 G:200 B:200

NON- HIERARCHICAL SYSTEM DARK GRAY: R:66 G:66 B:66 PINK: R:247 G:0 B:100

Each particle has two springs to create a line

Each particle has two springs to create a loop

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COLORS: LIGHT GRAY: R:200 G:200 B:200

SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

HIERARCHICAL SYSTEM

DARK GRAY: R:66 G:66 B:66

PINK: R:247 G:0 B:100

Particle on edge has one spring

Particle in center has 18 springs

This create a star / radial configuration

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INITIAL 2D CONFIGURATIONS OF THE HYBRID COMPUTATIONAL SYSTEM The hybrid system create a richer configuration, like line with stars and treeshaped topology.

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Particles on the edge have only one spring

This particle has four springs which makes it a small core

Particles on the edge have only one spring Middle particle has twenty-four springs

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CHANGING SPRING NUMBER - CHANGING LOCATION

Here by changing the spring number of each particle the core of the configuration can be changed.

Color of center particle: blue

Color of center particle: green

Color of center particle: yellow

Color of center particle: purple

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CHANGE SPRING NUMBER- RECONFIGURATION

Here by killing spring and reconnect particles with different spring numbers, it is clear that with the same amount of particles different configurations can be created.

191

CHANGE SPRING NUMBER- SWALLOW By transferring the springs of a core to another the size of the stars will change. The one with more springs will be bigger than the others.

stage 1 This particle has eight springs which makes it a core

This particle has one springs which makes it at the edge

This particle has eight springs which makes it a core

stage 2 This particle loses one spring which makes it a smaller core This particle has no springs which makes it free

This particle has eight springs which makes it a core

stage 3 This particle loses one spring which makes it a smaller core This particle has one springs which makes it at the edge of another core This particle has one more spring which makes it a bigger core

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CHANGE SPRING NUMBER- CHASE

stage 1 This particle has one spring which makes it at the edge

This particle has four springs which makes it a core

stage 2 This particle has one more spring which makes it connected to the other core

This particle has five more springs which makes it a bigger core and connected to the other core

stage 3 More springs are made between cores and edged particles and this created a linear structure

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

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CHANGE SPRING NUMBER- CHECK In this coding sketch, the springs a particle can make is under the control of a distance checking and spring number checking.

DISTANCE CHECK A particle can only make spring with another particle within a certain distance.

before

SPRING NUMBER CHECK If a particle’s spring number is more than three, than all the spring will be killed. If a particle’s spring number is less than two, than one more spring will be made. Therefore, all particles’ spring number will be controlled within a certain number. after

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Making springs without control, randomly

Making springs under distance check

Making springs under distance check and spring number check

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CHANGE SPRING NUMBER- WEAVE

Each particle makes two spring with the ones before and after it

Each particle makes two more spring with the ones above and under it so that each particle has four springs

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CONCLUSION BASIC CONFIGURATION From the study we develop three basic configurations.

Non-hierarchical system with each particle having two springs, creating a linear configuration.

Hierarchical system with a radial shape

Hybrid system with a tree shape

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

NEXT STAGE We have already explored the different configurations brought by different spring numbers. In the next stage, we will focus on using the system to simulate housing space.

BOUNDARY We will set boundaries to explore how particles and springs occupy a certain space

SEEDING POINTS We will set starting points as the beginning of the growing

SPRING LENGTH We will explore different spring lengths in the next stage

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HOUSE

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SIMULATIONS

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HOUSE SIMULATION

1.0 UNIT INTRODUCTION

BOUNDARY & STARTING POINTS

SPRING NUMBER & LENGTH

GOING VERTICAL

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PARTICLE & SPRING SYSTEM --- UNIT After defining the three basic configurations, it is important to define the physical interpretation of the particle and spring.

ONE PARTICLE As for our first stage simulation, each particle represents a unit.

One SPRING

The spring represents the communication of units.

unit - compact state

end

TWO STATE The length of the spring represents which state the unit is in.

unit - extend state

end

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SPRING NUMBER After the exploration we choose three ways of connection, the line, the tree and the star rule as our basic typologies,

LINE

TREE

STAR

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BOUNDARY We chose three case study house as boundaries, seeding points and gradients to explore the configuration of the units and the simulation of different elements of a house, like structure, circulation and transparency.

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STARTING POINTS We chose three kinds of starting points for each house

Starting points on the boundaries

Starting points on the corner

Starting points in the middle

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CATALOGUE OF DIFFERENT TOPOLOGIES LINE #8

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#17

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CATALOGUE OF DIFFERENT TOPOLOGIES TREE

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#17

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SPRING LENGTH The gradient is used to control spring length to potentially control different densities.

COMPACT

Area that a particle avoid

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Smaller spring length

EXTEND

Larger spring length

SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

EXAMPLE OF LINEAR SPRING LENGTH CONTROL

Smallest spring length Icon of structure

Medium spring length Icon of wall

Largest spring length Icon of windows or openings

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CIRCULATION

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CIRCULATION

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STRUCTURE

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STRUCTURE

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TRANSPARENCY EAMES HOUSE ELEVATION

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GROWTH STRATEGY The physical connection is a face to face connection. Therefore, the initial growth strategy is a stacking technique in the particle spring system.

Initial starting units

Each unit checks its neighbour number which represent its density

If the density reaches a specific number, the unit will be regarded as the stable particle and will become the new starting point for the next layer of growth

18=density

10=density

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Face to face connection

When the amount of stable particles of all the particles reach a certain percentage,

New starting points

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VERTICAL-SINGLE START POINT

density=10 stable percentage =1% When a particleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s neighbour number reaches 10 and the amount of stable particles reaches 1% of all particles, the existing layer will stop growing and starts to climb up a layer vertically and grow on the new layer

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With a higher densityďź&#x152;less particle can be the starting points for the next layer, which leads to a less dense column.

5=density %1= stable percentage

10=density %1= stable percentage

15=density %1= stable percentage

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When the stable percentage become higher, more particles can become new starting points and the radius of the column will grow in size

%10=stable percentage %1=stable percentage

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB With a higher densityďź&#x152;less particle can be the starting points for the next layer, which leads to a less dense column.

5=density %1= stable percentage borttom %10= stable percentage top

10=density %1= stable percentage borttom %10= stable percentage top

15=density %1= stable percentage borttom %10= stable percentage top

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VERTICAL-AN ARRAY OF START POINT When all the particles become starting points of the next layer but climb to different height according to density, the particles will create a surface

18=density

18=height

10=height

10=density

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VERTICAL-A ROW OF START POINT

density=average stable percentage =4% When changing the start point from a single particle to a line of particles, the system will build a wall

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

With larger stable percentage, the wall becomes thicker

density=average %1= stable percentage

density=average %4= stable percentage

density=average %17= stable percentage

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HOUSE By applying the column, surface and wall into the boundary of the three case study house, we generate our 36 houses. Initially, we started creating a variation of 36 houses to test the system.

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HOUSE-SINGLE START POINT

Initial start point

The initial start points are three single units and they grow up into columns

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

When the first three columns grow to a certain height, two other columns will grow up

new start point 4

new column

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HOUSE-AN ARRAY OF START POINTS

Initial start point

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB 2

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HOUSE-AN ARRAY OF START POINTS

Initial start point

step5

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB 2

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HOUSE-AN ARRAY OF START POINTS

Initial start point

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB 2

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WHAT MEANING RULE SLINKYBOT @ AA DRL

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CONCLUSION

UNIT

The second stage of study mainly focuses on the various distributions brought by different spring numbers for particle and different spring length for springs. But there is still gap between the processing simulation and our physical unit, especially when we decided to inherit the qualities and concepts of Eames House in our system. Therefore, .several strategies should be carried out to fill this gap

A PARTICLE

A SPRING

WHAT IS THE UNIT

A SPRING & A PARTICLE

COMMUNICATION

TWO PARTICLES & A SPRING

UNIT STATE

UNITSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; DISTANCE

DENSITY

CONNECTED FACES

ENVIRONMENT ELEMENTS

HUMAN BEHAVIOR

WHAT DOES SPRING NUMBERS AND SPRING LENGTH MEAN

BEHAVIOR WHAT ARE THE RULES FOR APPLYING DIFFERENT SPRING NUMBER AND DIFFERENT SPRING LENGTH

UNIT BEHAVIOR

Eames House

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HOUSE SIMULATION

2.0 UNIT DEFINITION

PHYSICAL MODEL CONFIGURATIONS

UNIT BEHAVIOUR RULES

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

PARTICLE & SPRING SYSTEM --- UNIT

TWO PARTICLES WITH A SPRING We used to treat a particle as a unit and spring as communication. The first reason is that this makes the simulation simple and clear for us since springs only represent which unit is connecting to which. The second reason is that in such scale the unit is so small that the deformation of the unit itself could be hardly seen. However, most of the feedback shows that a single particle doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t match our prototype since it is not capable of doing what our prototype could do. And with the development of the prototype, it becomes clear that the way the prototype moves and the states of the prototype are controlled by its two ends with their own servos and sensors. Therefore, there is no reason for us to continue using one particle to represent the unit.

TWO KINDS OF SPRINGS There will be two kinds of springs, one is in the unit, representing the spring in the prototype. The other kind of springs represents the communication between two ends of different units, which means how one end is connected to an end of another unit and eventually visually show how the units are assembled and negotiate with each other.

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PARTICLE & SPRING SYSTEM --- SPRING NUMBER

FACE TO FACE CONNECTION

As for the two states, they have different numbers of connections. However, no matter what state the unit is in the stable connection is a face to face connection in 90 degrees.

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COMPACT

The compact state has 4 at most.

EXTEND

The extend state has 6 at most.

253

STABLE CONFIGURATION

From the study before, we learn the most stable pattern is four units are connected together. Therefore, we decide to develop our basic communication rule, the linear, tree and star to create the stable topology. As for this topology, it is clear that within the loop, every unit has two springs connected to the other units..

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BASIC COMMUNICATION

GOAL TOPOLOGY

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PARTICLE & SPRING SYSTEM --- SPRING LENGTH

TWO STATE The length of the spring represents which state the unit is in.

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COMPACT

The compact state has short spring length

EXTEND

The extend state has long spring length

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PARTICLE & SPRING SYSTEM --- BEHAVIOR

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SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

The behavior here refers to the behavior of the two ends of the unit. The behavior of the two ends decides which state will the unit be in, where it should go, and which unit should it connect to. Therefore, for different areas there will be different topology, different density as well as different distribution.

goal for light, water and air sunlight air

water

ENVIRONMENT ELEMENTS The unit should have the ability to convert the wind, water and air condition into numbers and adopt certain behavior according to a certain number. For example, as for water resources, when it learns where the most water is, it will go to that direction. In addition, human landscape is also included in the context.

overall direction

HUMAN BEHAVIOR

Minimum distance

Maximum distance

Human context here is more related to the space of the house. From the perspective of simulation, the distance between human and units decides the size and shape of a room. The unit should have the capability of understanding human needs so that it can adjust its distance from human being. Additionally, there should be a maximum distance to control the size of a room and a minimum distance which is for a person to pass by. What's more, when the unit senses the human is settled, which means human is not moving, it could reconfigure and starts making furniture like platforms as chairs and beds.

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LEADER & FOLLOWER

ACTIVE & INACTIVE

SLINKYBOT SPECIALISED FAMILIES

WATER COLLECTORS

SOLAR ENERGY COLLECTORS

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ACTIVE & INACTIVE ACTIVE

ENERGY BAR WEIGHT

In our system, the units can be active or inactive. The active unit could be mobile. In the compact state, it could roll; and in the elongated state it could bend. As a result, the active units will consume more energy and contain more components.

INACTIVE

ENERGY BAR WEIGHT

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The inactive unit is sometimes fixed to a specific position, or it is easy to be picked up by the active units. The inactive units include less elements and use less energy. They are light in weight and can be transported around and extended.

SPYROPOULOS DESIGN LAB

LEADER & FOLLOWER Leaders or followers can be both active or inactive. But the difference between the leaders and the followers is that the leader has a ‘brain’, it can think about what behaviour it is going to do. The followers have no cognitive capacity except to mimic what the leader tells them.

ACTIVE LEADER

ACTIVE FOLLOWER

INACTIVE LEADER

ACTIVE FOLLOWER

ACTIVE LEADER

INACTIVE FOLLOWER

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EAMES HOUSE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

The appreciation of nature is an essential part of life in a house according to Charles and Ray Eames. The Eames house was designed in close proximity to a vast abundance of greenery as a result of Eameses’ decision to preserve the meadow and rows of eucalyptus trees in the original site. In their point of view, nature acts a re-orienter and shock absorber providing needed relaxation to the inhbitants of the house away from daily complications and problems. It’s this sense of design adaptability to the surrounding environment and sustainable conscious and nature reservation that we would like to carry forward in our slinkybot system. “The Eames House is the only place in LA where you can experience the seasons.”

-LIGHT -HUMIDITY -TEMPERATURE -SURROUNDING/TERRAIN

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SLINKYBOT AND THE ENVIRONMENT CHARGING UNIT ENERGY BAR

ENERGY BAR

In attempt to making the system sustainable, we aim to make the slinkybot responsive to sunlight possessing the capability of storing solar energy. The compact unit could have a phase-changing skin, which works as a solar panel. The adaptive skin would charge the unit and store extra energy within it for sharing and distribution

WATER COLLECTORS

Water is a key element in any house system. Rain water collection is another sustainable approach to providing water to the inhabitants.A mechanism to capture rainfall would need to be developed. The water would be stored withing tubes in the slinkybotâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s extendible where it would be easy to transport from one unit to the other.

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HUMAN-HOUSE RELATIONS

STELARC ON HUMAN AND NON-HUMAN AGENTS

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In the information rich environment we currently live in, it is difficult for humans to absorb and process all of this information at once and emit data that would push for a symbiotic relationship between man and his machine. Stelarc mentions how the body should be considered as being plugged into a new technological terrain. Technology should not be looked at as an alien to being humane, where to Stelarc it is the essence and meaning of being human especially living in the technological data age we are currently living in. Defining what it is to be human is arguable. Whereas, some might frown upon the integration of chips and mechanical or silicon parts with the natural biological aspects of the body, it should be noted that such connectivity between those 2 material worlds, the organic and the synthetic is already widely spread and acceptable in our world. Given the example of a hip replacement, or a pacemaker regulating the heart, these individuals that undergo these transformations are still naturally regarded as humans. According to Stelarc, our philosophies are bounded by the human physiology and his limited sensory organs processing the world. A new compound species might not have the same notions about the world as humans which would then open up opportunities that were before shut down due to our inadequacy or incompleteness specifically in our physiology. Architects and designers continue to design our spaces around the current human body and capabilities, whereas design thinking should put more focus on modifying the human for a new kind of ‘nature’ where the built environment alongside its users are in a composition of complex behavioral relations. Nature is re-evaluated by the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), a body of research initiated in 1970s by Latour, Hayles, and others. STS positions scientific activity in a social and cultural context granting agency to nonhumans; “the formerly neutral environment becomes a space crowded by human and non-human actors.” This co-existence of organic matter and synthetic one, human intelligence with artificial one in a dependent, cohesive, close relationship open up new channels of communications. These new channels would change the way humans live and inhabit their surroundings. New wavelengths will not only be produced by our architecture but humans will have the capability of picking up these wave lengths and emitting other ones which would send the conversation between humans and their world to another spectrum. Much more intimate, intertwined interactions and activities would be possible with the homogenous, malleable, new nature. This raises questions about the role of the designer and the state of designed spaces in such a fluid existence. The complexity of such a nature would be growing by the perpetual development of the human and the space together by enhancing, learning from and affecting one another. The static state of architectural physical boundaries are shattered in this field of continuous dynamism that is highly sensitive to thoughts and emotions of both the human and non-human agents.

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SLINKYBOT AND HUMAN The architecture we propose therefore is one that recognizes the human as more than just a physical boundary, but as emotions, moods and activities. The slinkybots would be capable of sending and receiving various data about the human and processing them to achieve a response to the situation it is in. There are various special kind of sensors such as muscle activity sensors, heart rate sensors and sensors measuring mental concentration that give a lot of information about the human’s state. These sensors would send their data to our system which would be able to adapt to the human’s current needs and desires developing a sophisticated relationship between the human and our the house.

THE SMART SLINKYBOT Instead of attempting of creating wearables for humans with the sensors needed to transmit data to our system, another approach was explored. The idea of using the smart phone, a device which has become inseparable from us on a daily basis, as a communicative link between the human agent and the non human one. Our smart phones carry many sensors withing their fairly small hardware that could be utilized for human data collection. Our slinkybots would be equipped to recieve direct signals from the human’s phone and would be able to have a two way channel of communication with it.

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PHONE APPLICATION FEATURES

NEAR FIELD COMMUNICATION

LCD

VOICE RECOGNITION

GRAVITY

MAGNETOMETER

LED

ORIENTATION

GPS

LIGHT SENSOR

COLOR RECOGNITION

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SLINKYBOT AND INTERIORITY It was crucial for our slinkybot system to consider the human on every scale. While the unit could be developed to be responsive to human needs and presence, the slinkybot collective behaviour plays a very important role in the way the human interacts with the space. The units should be able to cater the humans desires and collectively transform. Softness in the unit and the assembly of the slinkybots plays a very important aspect to create usable and comfortable furniture. Moreover, the units should be able to communicate with the users in an exciting, playful way supporting Mr. Eames concepts of the house interiority as being an escape from daily problems.

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CONCLUSION In phase II, we will aim to develop the slinkybot in all aspects and scales within the Eames House. We will aim to extend on the original ideas and values of the Eames House in relation to the human,the environment, and the surrounding urban context. We will be keen to specifically be sensitive to the environment and have our slinkybots act as a â&#x20AC;&#x153;reorientorâ&#x20AC;?, and not only protect the surrounding landscape but also enhance it and generate energy for the Eames House to be self-sufficient. When it comes to relationship with the human, we aim to create the most playful and surprising experience for the users whethere in the interior or in the surrounding space of the Eames House.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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