Ascension by James Bennett

Title 2

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Explore

Literature Review

Evolve

Generative

The Bike

3D Printing

Relationship

Effect

Narrative

Epilogue

Bibliography

Ascension has explored the use of science concepts in their design process. In constructing and remodelling their work they have played with one of the most significant building blocks prevalent in nature, that is, the hexagon - this motif having diverse roles from encoding information in the helical structure of DNA, to generating structure as a major component of a plant’s cell wall. Through their Recycle, Restore, Repurpose prompt, for me, Ascension breaks traditional thinking about how we perceive an object’s “life cycle”. With the conjecture that in 2040 a product will change structure over time depending on how it is used they bring the concept of nature versus nurture to inanimate objects. Or put another way, a new object has a pluripotency and with time the object will morph, differentiate, and crystallise. It is not a question of if the boundary between living organisms and the objects will blur into ambiguity, but a question of when this will happen. - Benjamin Matthewson

his book is a collection of thoughts, theories and a plan for the future of Wellington. It showcases the combined efforts of four Industrial Designers exploring and harnessing current research methods to predict an envisioned future of what could beâ&#x20AC;Ś

Special thanks toâ&#x20AC;Ś

Benjamin Matthewson The SOAD Workshop Technicians Maria & Student Hardship Tim Lovell & Parsonson Architects ltd Ross Stevens Szilard Ozorak Parrot Dog Kohen Judd Tim Miller Sam Stringleman Bernard Guy Arthur Mahon The MacDiarmid Institute Avid Kadam

Ascension looks forward to the year 2040 in Wellington City researching

bio-mimicry, nanotechnology, micro biology, generative computations, 3D printing technologies and environmental sustainability. Taking the key components of each area and relating it to the self-contained culture and environment of Wellington, we look at the relationship between nature and technology and explore the two phenomena. Through this exploration we attempt to bridge the gap and create a state of flux, where technology and nature take advantage of each using humans as a medium of transference. With these three forms (human, nature and technology) working in flux, equilibrium can occur. As a consequence humans, nature and technology will evolve and advance in a sustainable and effective system. Taking the precedent of recycling from the past, when people would return their bottles to be reused and repurposed for a small monetary gain, we attain an appreciation for the present.

We look to exercise and encompass this simple idea so that when people choose to recycle an item they will appreciate its holistic past, present and future. Everything can change and grow around us from the clothes we wear, the products we use, to the spaces that we inhabit. It evolves from the way we live and how we want things to be so you have the choice to give your old products to the city to enhance the lives of everyone. Current methods and research at present allow for a brief insight into how technology will help achieve this paradigm of equivalent exchange through matter. Using these predicted theories of nanotechnologies we can do more than exploit the environment around us but also to give back. Never again will the outdated cell phone become another piece of e-waste but rather reintegrated into some other object that benefits the next owner.

Experimenting through the premise that lots of small changes

create large outcomes, we began to see how the very details of Nano-structures could be used to make changes at human scale. We appropriated what nature already does well at present, to show what kind of effects we could use in order to harmonise and create a world where man and nature are one through the use of sustainable technologies that could potentially exist around the period of 2040.

hese precedents show a few of the structural, generative and natural aspects that are already in use within present day applications. The Venus Natural Crystal Chair explores how a substance can be given a canvas and grows to the parameters of an existing form. Matsal av Barkow Leibinger created a building that celebrated the structural elements that give it strength, using a smaller amount of material. The Crystal Comb by Yar Rassadin takes the honeycomb structure and uses the natural process of bees honey making to create the aesthetics for a pendant lamp series. Matsys generated a series of sculptures using the voronoi tessellation that form interesting spaces and give us the basis of how we generate our structures, spaces and products. Make Architectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 55 Baker Street uses a combination of polygons and layering to make an interesting faĂ§ade that is not only aesthetically pleasing but also structurally sound.

This article touches on the paradigm that nanotechnology is part

of a greater evolutionary process of how society has progressed technologicaly. Right now we are part of the booming communication era of being more connected to the world than ever before. It makes sense that the next step will be using nanotechnolgy in progression of society due to the vast amount potential it gives. Soon everyday problems will be solve due to the natural progression of technology in general. - Nanotechnology: An Approach to Mimic Natural Architectures and Concepts.

elative to real life application, biomimetic material processing (BMMP) will help the adaptaion of biological principles into in-organic life. This relates to how products, structures and industry functions may one day mimic biological nature and become, in a sense, technological nature. Using processes that nature does already and programming them into nanotechnolgy, we can one day expect selforganised molecular structures that are created by BMMP. - Biomimetic Nanotechnology.

ith new emerging technologies becoming apparent at present, nanotechnology in particular has a place within our future as synthetic natural designers and builders of life. This article in particular expands our understanding of how nanotechnology may one day fully mimic nature. The emphasis is that instead of using crude methods to manipulate DNA, nanostructure scaffolds can be positioned to encourage molecular change passively. Nano structures will boost molecular interactions and help build self-assembling nanomachines. - Molecular Biomimetics: Nanotechnology Through Biology.

his book looks at the validity of using the honeycomb concept in a tube form at large scales. It argues that honeycomb structures can be a sustainable system for architecture in the modern world. It explores this structure with concrete and steel systems. With both materials they experiment with its resistance to seismic activity. A number of different iterations for both materials are made to increase the strength of the honeycomb design to prevent too much flexing within the structure. The second half of this book explores the environmental impact this structure could have and its potential to create sustainable structures. This is all relevant to our assignment as it takes aspects out of nature and look to where they could be adapted into our society. - Honeycomb Tube Architecture Technology.

anotechnology is always evolving at a rapid rate and the applications it can provide have become smaller and smaller in size. This Article shows nanotubes and how they can be formed from thin solid films to almost any material into a number of varying positions. This feature can be designed and has many useful implications when you look towards nature and how it operates on a small scale, for example they have experimented with fluid transportation and capillarity on the nanometre scale. With the excitement of this new technology also comes the slow movement of progression where they outline two methods to creating the nanotubes that both produce a small amount of the material. - Nanotechnology: Thing Solid Films Roll Up Into Nanotubes

Wellington is a rich city. Rich in culture, rich in intellect and rich in material. Ascension takes advantage

of this. Creating a city that requires no external input. Through time the city and its inhabitants will evolve together in harmony using only the matter that currently exists, encouraging society to question the value of possessions and the evolution of their use.

understanding current Nanotechnology research methods of synthesising natural occurrences at present, we can begin to comprehend advanced application of these methods and how they have evolved to their optimum extent in the period of 2040. Within Wellington 2040 there will be no introduction of new materials but rather a mentality of reuse for everything we own as a currency of matter. By exchanging equivalent matter for another, change through small increments creates a greater ripple that manipulates matter at a bigger scale. Intern we can begin to realise that city wide evolution is dynamic and forever in flux. This means that products we own to the walls around us will grow generatively like nature through current nanotechnologies of 2040.

Through the current technologies of generative media and the present

understandings of how nature acts mathematically, we can program, predict and simulate how nanotechnologies may act dynamically with matter on two scales. One scale is the product level which is human scale. The other of a greater nature, involving mega structures like buildings to entire cities. This is where generative live predictive modelling comes into itsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; own. By using digital representations of buildings and of Wellington city we are currently able to take building spaces away and generate new ones in their place. Along with this there are growth algorithms that we can use to simulate what organic like buildings may do and how they dynamically change within an environment without bringing or taking matter out of the city.

Nature is constantly evolving to better suit its environment. What if

our possessions could do the same? The bike is an ideal example of how possessions can be altered based on how we use them. Imagine if, as winter approached a bike could grow mudguards and then reabsorbed back into the bike when they werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t needed, or could apply strengthening to certain areas on a frame. People change, the places we live change, the paths we take change. Our environment is constantly changing and so should our personal possessions.

Carrying on from the generative processes we used current up to

date technologies to create our digital models into physical forms. Starting with School of Designâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Objet printer we created models in high detail but with expensive costs it prompted a move to the new UP 3D printers where low cost printing was available for medium resolution prints. The lower quality did not hinder progress as the layering, material and unpredictability of the machine suited the aesthetic quality we wanted to focus on. The ABS plastic extruded through the machine leached and spread across models and some models had unstable supports which opened a new option for development. It was a learning experience pushing the 3D printer to do more than it was intended to. This allowed for an iterative process which refined models so that we could print again with the Objet printer to be completely accurate.

Wanting to exploit generative design in its extremes we decided

upon two scales for which this could apply to. Wellington city was used to cater for the masses while the individuality of a bike and its relationship to our city was used to interpret dynamic flux on a smaller scale. The city would change and evolve over time through the environment and the people around it and the bicycle would be used to circumnavigate and actively change through the seasons.

By implementing what was learnt in the last phase we could progress

and refine our mediums to a high quality, creating the bicycle to navigate our generated city being able to grow and evolve where it needs to. Crafting the two began to become a very similar process and enhanced the cooperation of the ideas. All our theories and studies into bio mimicry, nanotechnology, architecture and bicycles came together to compliment the narrative we have predicted. The aesthetics remained very scientific and expressed the quality of evolution in nature onto our daily lives. A series of detailed models made on the UP printer showed single buildings in their entirety, as a scale map of Wellington 2040 produced a vision on a much larger scope. The bicycle in its completion expressed growth, leaching, adaptation and a clear change in a 1:1 scale.

5 cent refund was looking for a chief sponsor to express the idea

of locality and recycling within the community. We came across ParrotDog, who are emerging brewers based on 29 Vivian Street Te Aro steadily rising in the world of craft beers. Starting from humble beginnings in a flat in Aro Valley they showed how a company can grow within a small capital. Throwing the occasional barbeque, personally selling their beer and also delivering drinks for after work shows the integration within the community and how people interact within Wellington. Using their brand alongside our project with regards to recycling showed that we are using local produce and returning to the environment around us reducing the need to import matter.

Overall

this project shows the collaboration of four Industrial Design students trying to shape the future with a positive outlook that encompasses the social and cultural dynamics of Wellington. We learnt a lot about the sciences and how design can intertwine with the discipline to better our future. The composition of city and bike together clearly outline our group aesthetic and the atmosphere that we created to compile the pieces. The narrative of recycling and mimicking nature suits well in the ever advancing world around us making our products, buildings, bicycles and more change the way we need them to. Ascension has looked to shape the way we immerse ourselves within Wellington moving us into the future and keeping what we hold dear in hand.