Bilal Hallak Second Skin Virtual Environments 641720 Semester 2/2013 Group 11
Module 1: Ideation Perspective Drawings Based on the reading “300 years of industrial revolution” (Heath), I was able to attempt gathering my influence from the reading by annotating and evaluating my own inflatable floaty. Through this, I was able to note how it is important to understand in detail what system I would be working with for the rest of the semester and to get a brief sense of how this system came about.
Subject:
Kids floater for swimming purposes aged 3 to 6
Manufacturer: Materials:
Developed by Zoggs in Australia Made from durable Vylux,
Manufacturing Process:
Unknown of how they are manufactured
Dimensions: 20cm in Height 8 cm in Width 4 cm in Depth (When inflated) 13cm in Length Max weight it can carry is 25kg Evaluation: These float bands were developed in the early 1900s, as people began to be concerned for their child’s safety while swimming. It was designed to allow children to swim at early ages, ensuring their safety in the water. Different shapes and sizes were designed and developed to accommodate different swimmers. Different floaters have different holding capacities, as well as different dimensions, including volume. Two different chambers in each band enable safety for the user by applying air into two separate chambers, allowing for optimum safety.
How I measured my inflatable floaty. I measured my object by using a strip of paper which had already had measurements written onto it. This enabled me to measure the length and width of all sides of the objects. It gave a close estimate of what the dimensions were when the object was inflated. As for the depth, I marked a skewer with measurements and made a hole through it.
Exploration of Ideas Second Skin ideas Inflatable Garbage model: Process
The ideas that were developed during this stage of the semester revolved around the notion of having a skin that would be inflated with ongoing source of air flowing through it. My ideas seemed boundless and suitable for the task of approaching the personal space topic. And I also liked the idea of going large with my inflatable system, hence the purpose of the garbage bag model. I found that inflating to such extreme proportions would escalate emotional effects and allow for a wider and comfortable personal space. However, after being assigned into a group that would then have another material system added (panel & fold) it made it seem that my ideas first presented weren’t fitting the criteria of incorporating both systems.
By reshaping the plastic garbage through cutting and taping other attachments, I am able to create some kind of volume once I turn on the hair dryer. After capturing air inside the garbage which can hold a maximum amount before bursting, I am able to seal the hole with my hand, leaving me with an inflated object. Doing this model helped me get an understanding of how plastic materials will work and how it may affect my work in the coming weeks. As my system was inflatable, getting an idea of how to work with plastic material was crucial, as one of the final components for the project will involve a plastic material for inflation.
Left: Bubble suit that would be inflated according to the mood of the user. Right: Plastic material suit that would flare when in sign of danger
Module 2: Design
Exploration of Composite Materials
As a group, the beginning of the design process seemed to be the most challenging, as there were promonent ideas from each of us in the group. So it was key to explore each idea in terms of the materials that would best satisfy the needs for the second skin. Some influnce was sparked from one of Paul Lohs lecture when he presented Lucy McRaes design of the skin that had inflated parts attached to the skin. This led to our thinking of bubbles could perhaps be an aspect of our second skin and how it could potentially relate to the notion of personal space. The focus was then placed on how we could incorporate bubbles into our design, with several sketches depicting how inflated bubbles can interact with each other. Our precedent studies of animals, which included puffer fish, crocodiles and other reptiles. Influence was drawn from a combination of components from the crocodile and the puffer fish, with both having an impact on our work. These influences were seen to be the foundation of how design process, as further some of the design would include some influence discovered from the early stages of our development.
Cloud city, Tomas Saraceno 2013
Experimenting with a range of Shapes
Our collaborated ideas were put together in a Volumetric System Depiction to form the second skin intended. Going through this process of fabricating the skin on a small scale gave us an idea of how the outcome of the second skin may be, such as the weight of the final product and how it will be supported on a shoulder piece.
The thought of using a dodecahedron shape in our design would help create more of an effect, as the shape itself is a complex structure and would veer away from the typical circular shape that most people would intend on using. After developing these shapes, we noticed how the triangular based pyramid was perfect for our design as its sharp edges could portray the warning effect for the back component.
Our Design with Personal Space
Rhino Experimentation
Shown here is our portrayal of Personal Space with our design. Several sketches help show how the front and back component of our design can produce personal space.
Our Rhino experience was a formidable one, as experimenting with shapes using Rhino proved to be most challenging. Whilst using Rhino, most tasks involved using Panelling tools, which was used to help create a series of spiked panels on the back plate, as well as the development of the dodecahedron bubble. Other basics that became handy were tools such as the extrusion function, orienting, sweep 1/2 rails, which in all allowed us to shape our components at different angles and in the right positions.
The intended design to provide the following characteristics: - protection - boundaries - comfort - space - consent - warning system Each of these characteristics is what we propose for our design.
Module 3: Fabrication
Reading Influence - Digital Fabrications: Architecutre and Material Techniques
The reading by Chris Bosse influenced our thinking in terms of how we could incorporate our design into fabrication process. Chris looked at the idea of tessellation, which we realized could solve our issue of shaping the dodecahedron for the bubbles that would be placed on the front segment. With this at hand, we continued our research on how we could tessellate a dodecahedron through online sources and through experimenting on Rhino.
Cloud city, Tomas Saraceno 2013
Cut out Dodecahedron transformed into a prototype bubble
Lecture 8 and 9 responses
Developing bubbles with Rhino
It was during our week 8 lecture when the process of making tabs started to become much easier. We were introduced to the Grasshopper plugin for Rhino, which once we got our heads around how it works, we found that the process of drawing up tabs became more fast and efficient.
The process of developing tessellated bubbles took several hours to accomplish, and as shown are the tessellated bubbles for the front piece.
It is fascinating to see how the technology that has been provided for us has been such a great advantage for our work. Having the accessibility to card cutting machinery and design software allowed for several prototype developments with much more accuracy that would improve our design. I believe that technology has enabled our thinking to expand beyond what we once though we could achieve, hence allowing us to develop such fine models. The week 9 lecture involved several guest lectures, including our very own tutor Michelle. What mostly brought our attention to her talk was the idea of creating a functional design that comes together effectively. What we learned was that prototypes are key to realizing faults in our design, and this method of process certainly helped our design, as we encountered a few faults.
Prototype During our prototype stage, we undertook several steps further into our project. As a group, we started to digitally prototype our design and experiment with the shapes that we had decided on, such as the triangular pyramid and the dodecahedron. While using Rhino, we decided to exaggerate the triangular pyramid by having more subtle edges and points. We experimented with this in order to test whether it would have more of a warning effect on our work.
Several attempts were made at unrolling the spikes, as problems such as being able to connect each spike with fluidity. An extra face on the pyramid was needed in order to complete this phase, which then added an extra panel once unrolled.
Final Design
By the end of week 10, our design was finally completed presented in the studio for the end of module 3. However, there were a few additional components that were not added to this version of the suit, which were the inflatable bags that would protrude from the front of the suit. This was later exercised for the final photo shoot in week 12.
Module 4: Reflection One of the biggest yet complex subjects I have ever undergone.
From the first lecture I attended, I could see myself getting excited about being able to design and fabricate a suit that could be showed off. Little did I know that this would involve countless hours of thinking, drawing, modelling and fabricating, but it was a task that was willingly accepted. In the beginning, we were told that the subject would try something different this semester and give students the opportunity to explore other material systems, rather than focusing on panelling systems. I was more inclined to working with the inflatable system as part of the first module of ideation, as it posed more of a challenge in terms of designing a suit that would be unique. Initially I played around with the idea of having a suit that would inflate to extreme proportions, which would be able to consider the idea personal space. What was personal space? Robert Sommers reading on personal space influenced my thinking on how my inflatable suit could protect the invisible boundaries in which intruders could not enter (Sommer, 1969), hence making it the user’s personal space It was right after the first module that we were given the opportunity to work with other students who have the same material system. But was also sparked my interest was that two material systems could collaborate together to form a second skin of intriguing ideas. With my group consisting of inflatable and panel & fold systems, we began exploring through different composite materials in which could help represent both systems in the one skin. Throughout the second module, we bounced back and forth with ideas that we could consolidate into one design, and at first was difficult because each of us had our ideas and completely different to one another. What I also found from one of Paul Lohs lectures was the fact that our ideas are limitless and they had no boundaries (Loh, 2013), however, what I did come to agreement with the fact that what we draw will most likely not be the outcome we initially proposed. I believe once we as a group jotted down our ideas of personal space, we were able to list the key points of personal space, such as protection, comfort, and boundaries, which seemed to be the catalyst to our design process. From here on, we continued our research on how we could portray a warning system on the back of the user and a more comforting & welcoming front of the user. What inspired our design process was the precedent study of different animals. For instance, the crocodile was a major influence in our design process, as it stimulated our outtake on how we could develop a warning system on the back with its hard, bendable spikes.
In my opinion, I found the last module of fabrication most difficult, as there were challenges with digital prototypes on Rhino, which I found the most challenging task throughout the semester, as well as the physical prototypes. Using vast amounts of surfaces, orientating, exploding and control points which then needed to be modified to best fit the skin on Rhino was time consuming and difficult for most of it. We encountered several problems with each prototype we developed, such as the curved edges on the spiked panels that wouldn’t unfold for fabrication. I would say now that “Thinking through making” reading by Daniel Charny inspired me to think that making is the most powerful way in which we can solve problems that we encounter during our development (Charny, 2011) . It was only after several attempts and technical sessions that we were able to find solutions to the problems we faced. It was also great to know that our tutors had experience in Rhino and were able to guide us during our tutorial sessions. I can now see that Virtual Environments will be one of the subjects that will be the foundation to the architectural career I want to pursue. In the beginning I was unclear of how designing a second skin would prove to be beneficial to my studies, but I realize now that it isn’t the suit that will benefit me, it’s the skills I developed throughout the design process. The Rhino skills that were consistently developed each week have given me the opportunity to look at new geometries whilst designing projects. I can now reach a point where my imagination can meet my reality in terms of designing. Inspired by Rifkin in his reading of the “The Third Industrial Revolution”, technology has allowed designers to progress and create projects of fine complexities (Rifkin, 2011). I never saw myself in the beginning of the subject designing and fabricating a second skin of such complexity. The different geometries used in the skin has definitely given the project more of a profound effect for the audience, and I believe that it was only made possible to explore and fabricate such shapes with the advance technology of Rhino. Perhaps it is possible to say we have moved into the Third Industrial Revolution, and using Rhino in Virtual Environments was just a taste of what lies ahead of me. If there is one thing that I achieved or found most beneficial by undertaking Virtual Environments, it would have to be the skills that I developed in Rhino in such a short time. Straight from the beginning, each student was put to the task of learning how to use Rhino. Of course it was a difficult challenge, however, forcing myself to push through the stressful times of trying to create an inflatable floaty in week one to creating a six sided polygon, but I look back at what I went through and realize that it’s the extra push you need to give yourself in order to achieve something great. The same way my tutor Michelle did for her project “Hub Melbourne”, she was able to complete her project even after going through the rough times of the fabrication process (James, 2013). It was great to see that because even I went through hard times with the group, but like Michelle, we managed to pull through and accomplish our set goal. I can only say now that Virtual Environments as a whole inspired my design processes and the potential I as an individual have as a young designer. I believe I now have the opportunity to improve on what I have learned and as well as the opportunity to design something of my own.
References Charny, D “Thinking through making” In Power of Making, exhibition catalogue, 6 September 2011- 2 January 2012, V&A, South Kensington, London James, Michelle : Lecture Week 9 – Round Table Discussion Loh, Paul (2013) : Lecture Week 4 – Design Effects Loh, Paul (2013) : Lecture Week 8 – Fabrication Rifkin, J 2011 “Distributed Capitalism’ in The third Industrial Revolution Palgrave Macmillan, New York pp107-126 Sommer, R 1969, ‘ Spatial invasion’ in Sommer, R, Personal space : the behavioral basis of design, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J, pp. 26-38
Images Cloud city
http://inhabitat.com/nyc/wp-content/blogs.dir/2/files/2012/05/7-Cloud-City-Tomas-Saraceno.jpg