STUDIO AIR
PART B LAURA BRENNAN
B1 RESEARCH FIELD - BIOMIMCRY
Biomimicry is the technique of using structure, materials or ideas from nature to influence the way humans design. The sophisticated relationship that nature has within its environment can be applied to complex human dilemmas to help find an effective way of solving problems. Nature is where we draw not only logical inspiration from but also aesthetic, the golden ratio is one of many ‘rules’ of beauty that can be recognised nature. [4]
Figure 1
Some elements can be difficult to replicate by hand such as the precise hexagon structure that bees make within their hive. The ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion at the University of Stuttgart is a good example of using parametric design to help unravel and understand the complex shapes and forms of this structure. [5]
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
B2 CASE STUDY 1.0
The Morning Line was designed as a ruin from the future. It is constantly moving with no defined entrance or space only continuity. Made out of recycled materials, it can be taken apart and reassembled, adapting each time to its new environment. [2]
Figure 5
The five iterations shown to the right are my favorite series; they were achieved by changing the parameters of the base geometry to give a different amount of sides and radius. They clearly represent the impact of the base geometry and the changes that can make with only a few simple tweaks. Because many of the iterations are based on intricate line work, they don’t seem to look like they differ unless you look closely but these ones each have a unique and beautiful geometry. I then applied the line work to the base geometry supplied in the rhino file and started to play around with recreating the form that Aranda Lasch used in the morning line.
Figure 6
B2 ITERATIONS
LYTHRUM SALICARIA Purple Loosestrife
We were assigned this plant to study its behaviors and try and represent them through an abstract drawing and an algorithm. Lythrum Salicaria or Purple loosestrife, has a strong relationship with water and when researching it further we found that the plant dehydrates in autumn and turns completely red, causing it to drop all of its seeds into the water. The water then carries the seeds downstream and disperses them along the river bed. [8] To express this as an abstract image we ended up mixing acrylic paint with water and then letting the water take control of the outcome by dropping red paint (representing the dehydrated plant) on a watery surface of white (representing the rivers and creeks). This watery technique ended up warping the cardboard and creating an uneven surface which influenced the movement of the paint, similar to the way that land would influence the rivers.
COLUMNS INSPIRED BY LOOSESTRIFE
B3 REVERSE ENGINEERING Voltadom by Skylar Tibbits
This project is an interesting combination of the present and past, it experiments with different types of materials and fabrication techniques. The vaulted form has an essence of vaulted ceilings in a cathedral, drawing inspiration from the old and transforming it into a completely new and futurist take. [12] Fabricated out of surface panels, the whole project can be broken down into developable strips that allows easy fabrication of the complex curved geometry. [12] Reverse engineering this project was a massive challenge for me, if I was to continue working on this design, I would really like to learn how to seam my project properly to stop some of the circles from twisting and also to add an attractor curve to create the randomized effect in the built project.
Figure 7 & 8
B3 REVERSE ENGINEERING
11
B3 REVERSE ENGINEERING PROCESS
STEP 1 Create square surface
STEP 2 Divide surface into points
STEP 3 Cull every second point to create points for a diamond shaped
STEP 11 Use graft tree to loft the mapped curves to the circles
STEP 4 Run voronoi over the to create diamond g
STEP 10 Amplify then move the them from the base sur **Graft the move comp
e point system grid
circles to lift rface ponent
STEP 4 Loft base surface curves together
STEP 9 Plug evaluate surface into the circle component to orientate the circles to the base surface
STEP 5 Map to surface the diamond grid to the base surface **Reparameterize both surfaces
STEP 8 Evaluate surface the base surface, turn off preview
STEP 6 Find center point of each diamond within grid, create circle around each point
STEP 7 Find surface closest point of base surface
B4 TECHNIQUE DEVELOPMENT
I was really happy with the way that the iterations of this project, each little change created something pretty interesting and unique. Even the smallest changes started to move away from the original design and take its own form. This process was really interesting to me and helped me gain a deeper understanding of not only the components but also the design itself. I spent too much time trying to reverse the original structure properly that I didn’t get to develop this stage as much as I would have liked too but these four were my favorites from the 50 iterations.
SHORT FINNED EEL After hearing that our site was the Northcote town hall, we decided to look into the history of Northcote. We found that the place where Merri creek and the Yarra river meet was an important meeting group for the indigenous Wurundjeri tribe and that crucial reason for that is because of the abundance of eels that migrate through that part every year providing enough food for the clans to meet. [9] After researching the short finned eel we leant that the eel actually starts off translucent and is referred to as a ‘glass eel’ before gaining colour as is matures into an adult. We thought that this would be a really interesting behavior to experiment with. [13] Our abstract image just looks like a plain piece of paper until you hold it up to light and then the silhouette of an eel can vaguely be seen. These were my four favorite algorithms; using density and amount of points they show the way that an eel would change in translucency throughout out its life time.
B5 TECHNIQUE PROTOTYPES TRIAL ONE: SPAGHETTI FABRICATION When looking at different ways of fabricating we wanted to try a technique that would draw inspiration from the loosestrife’s seed dispersal by using water to take away the control of the design. For this we used spaghetti to look at the different forms we could get and the way that they would dry and merge together.
TRIAL TWO: STRING FABRICATION After experimenting with the spaghetti we decided to fabricate in a more controlled setting. Using the pins as control points and the rope and connections. This translated into our wire prototype to test the effects of shadows and lighting.
TRIAL THREE: WIRE FABRICATION
METHOD:
After trialing a few different prototypes to get the form we wanted, we started to experiment with a material a little bit closer to what we were planning on using. We thought that a really interesting effect could be bending the metal rods around each other to create the structure and form of the L-system algorithm. This was pretty effective way to experiment with the lighting and shadowing but it wasn’t as clean as we were hoping. We’re planning on experimenting with the hollow lens and other forms of digital fabrication in the next stages of design.
B6 DESIGN PROPOSAL
We started translating our ideas into our building by breaking down the key elements. We based the weave-like pattern off the fishing baskets used by the Wurundjeri tribe. Figure 9 Figure 10
The translucent nature of the eel was then represented by a series of four columns. They start at one side with a small sparse structure that is easy to see through, this represents the eel at its earliest stages. As you move along the building, the columns become denser, stronger and less translucent.
Figure 11
COLUMNS
FACADE PATTERN
Figure 12
Figure 13
To translate the form of the plant into the facace we thought that mapping the paths that a seed travels downstream would be a really interesting structure for our facade. To do this we used the L-system algorithm, we thought this would be fitting because it has a similar form to what we wanted and it also was based off the growth of a tree.
FACADE ITERATIONS
FACADE ITERATIONS AND TESTING
FINAL PROPOSAL
Facade Elevation Scale 1:100
Facade Perspective
Facade Chunk Scale 1:20
B7 LEARNING OBJECTIVE AND OUTCOMES Through research I learnt how computation is able to take something quite complex in nature and unroll it into something that’s easily managed and fabricated. In saying that, it all depends on skill level, time and the limits of your technology. During this stage I also explored a large range of techniques and algorithms. This is a slow process for me, I find it difficult to work out where certain parts of the algorithm have failed and how to fix it. It’s hard for me to visualize something and be able to build it, grasshopper is still very much in control of how my designs end. That in itself can be quiet interesting though, even with the façade we had no idea that it would turn out the way it did but it was satisfying to work with the outcomes and create something from it. I do however feel like the foundations of my knowledge is growing and hopefully soon I’ll feel a bit more confident in my approach. *APPENDIX is included throughout journal to help explain the project
REFERENCES 1. Aboriginal Fishing Basket, 2018 <https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/360499145153595791/> [Accessed 8 April 2018] 2. Aranda\Lasch, “- Work - The Morning Line”, 2018 <http://arandalasch.com/works/the-morning-line/> [Accessed 1 April 2018] 3. Australian Water Ways, 2018 <https://imgur.com/gallery/mNlZx> [Accessed 6 April 2018] 4. Biomimicry Institute. (2018). What Is Biomimicry? – Biomimicry Institute. [online] Available at: https://biomimicry.org/ what-is-biomimicry/ [Accessed 11 Apr. 2018]. 5. DeZeen, ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2011, 2018 <https://www.dezeen.com/2011/10/31/icditke-research-pavilion-at-the-university-of-stuttgart/> [Accessed 3 April 2018] 6. Foreign Office Architects, The Spanish Pavilion 2005, 2018 <https://www.farshidmoussavi.com/node/27> [Accessed 11 April 2018] 7. i09, Golden Ratio In Nature, 2018 <https://io9.gizmodo.com/5985588/15-uncanny-examples-of-the-golden-ratio-innature> [Accessed 14 April 2018] 8. “Lythrum Salicaria | Wikiwand”, Wikwand, 2018 <http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Lythrum_salicaria> [Accessed 1 April 2018] 9. Mcmc.org.au. (2018). Merri Creek Management Committee. [online] Available at: http://www.mcmc.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31:wurundjeri&Itemid=216 [Accessed 11 Apr. 2018]. 10. NPR, Bees And Hexagons, 2018 <https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2013/05/13/183704091/what-is-it-aboutbees-and-hexagons> [Accessed 10 April 2018] 11. Pitt Water Online News, Eeling, 2018 <http://www.pittwateronlinenews.com/eeling-in-warriewoods-creeks-history. php> [Accessed 6 April 2018] 12. Skylar Tibbits, Voltadom, 2018 <https://www.arch2o.com/voltadom-by-skylar-tibbits-skylar-tibbits/> [Accessed 30 March 2018] 13. VFA, Short Finned Eel, 2018 <https://vfa.vic.gov.au/education/fish-species/short-finned-eel> [Accessed 5 April 2018]
IMAGES FIGURE 1 DeZeen, ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2011, 2018 <https://www.dezeen.com/2011/10/31/icditke-research-pavilion-at-the-university-of-stuttgart/> [Accessed 3 April 2018] FIGURE 2 NPR, Bees And Hexagons, 2018 <https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2013/05/13/183704091/what-is-it-about-bees-and-hexagons> [Accessed 10 April 2018] FIGURE 3 i09, Golden Ratio In Nature, 2018 <https://io9.gizmodo.com/5985588/15-uncanny-examples-of-the-golden-ratio-in-nature> [Accessed 14 April 2018] FIGURE 4 Foreign Office Architects, The Spanish Pavilion 2005, 2018 <https://www.farshidmoussavi.com/node/27> [Accessed 11 April 2018] FIGURE 5 & 6 Aranda\Lasch, “- Work - The Morning Line”, 2018 <http://arandalasch.com/works/the-morning-line/> [Accessed 1 April 2018] FIGURE 10 Aboriginal Fishing Basket, 2018 <https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/360499145153595791/> [Accessed 8 April 2018] FIGURE 13 Australian Water Ways, 2018 <https://imgur.com/gallery/mNlZx> [Accessed 6 April 2018] FIGURE 7 & 8 Skylar Tibbits, Voltadom, 2018 <https://www.arch2o.com/voltadom-by-skylar-tibbits-skylar-tibbits/> [Accessed 30 March 2018] FIGURE 9 & 10 Pitt Water Online News, Eeling, 2018 <http://www.pittwateronlinenews.com/eeling-in-warriewoods-creeks-history.php> [Accessed 6 April 2018] FIGURE 11 VFA, Short Finned Eel, 2018 <https://vfa.vic.gov.au/education/fish-species/short-finned-eel> [Accessed 5 April 2018] FIGURE 12 “Lythrum Salicaria | Wikiwand”, Wikwand, 2018 <http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Lythrum_salicaria> [Accessed 1 April 2018]